How can a focus on procedural learning help my child with ADHD?

Procedural learning (learning a skill that requires practice, like riding a bike) means that I assume that you don't know how to accomplish a certain task, so I provide you with the resources, training, information, and modeling that you will need to learn the new skill. If you were trying to teach your child to ride a bike, you wouldn't put him in time-out each time he fell. You would show him what he needed to do differently, while providing emotional support and motivation to keep going. This approach can be applied to teaching your child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) appropriate behaviors, emotional intelligence, and social skills. Instead of frustration for the parent and consequences for the child, the parent learns to implement the following elements of procedural learning:

• Give information
• Build skills
• Problem solve
• Use repetition
• Motivate and persist