What does it mean when a child with ADHD goofs off?

Let’s examine this idea of goofing off. Creativity requires goofing off. Goofing off is play, experimentation, and trying out new ideas -- then adjusting them to see what fits, what works, and what is more fun.

As a parent of a child diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you may have observed your child engaging in an activity for a small amount of time and then starting to goof off. For example, one parent complained that her daughter asked to take lessons to learn to play the clarinet. She would practice her lessons at home for only fifteen minutes, and then she would put her clarinet down and dance wildly, running around the house like a Tasmanian devil. Her mother considered this giving up, feeling frustrated at how much it cost to buy the clarinet and pay for lessons and thinking that the money was being wasted. But it can also be viewed as another form of creativity, or a strategy for discharging all of her excitement about playing music. It might be her boredom with practicing lessons, which contrasts with her desire to add her own daring and impulsive energy to the practice of the clarinet. So goofing off is not giving up. In reframing this behavior as a form of creativity, we can help the child’s wild energy to be channeled into creative musical abilities.