Mikami’s ‘Friendship Clinic’ Helping ADHD Children and Their
Families
Nov. 29, 2006 -- Many children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder suffer through a range of problems, from poor grades to poor
relations with parents and teachers. But more than half of these
children also have serious problems making friends. Too often they live
lonely lives, never learning to develop the social skills they need to
make friends as children or as adults.
“Children with ADHD often
are peer-rejected, and their difficulties multiply as they grow to
adulthood,” said Amori Yee Mikami, assistant professor of psychology and
principal investigator for a new clinical study designed to help
children with ADHD become better at making friends.
“Children
with ADHD often grow up with depression and relationship problems, some
may develop criminal behavior and substance abuse problems,” Mikami
said. “There can be a spiral of failure that is partly the result of not
having learned to make and keep friends as children.”
About 5
percent of school-age children are affected by ADHD. Symptoms include a
short attention span, poor organization, excessive talking, disruptive
and aggressive behavior, restlessness and irritability. Children with
ADHD often are uncooperative and may make their own rules.
“These
symptoms get in the way of making and keeping friends,” Mikami said.
“The child with ADHD can become stigmatized, known as ‘the bad kid,’ and
this can lead to more inappropriate behavior. It can become a vicious
cycle resulting in more social isolation.”
Treatment for ADHD
usually involves medication and counseling designed to help the children
improve their attention spans and control impulses. But little
intervention is focused on helping children with ADHD to become better
at developing and maintaining good relationships with their
peers.
Mikami is working to change that. Through her new
“Friendship Clinic,” she is developing new methods to help parents help
their children with ADHD improve social skills and develop positive
behaviors. So far, the results are promising.
Parents and
teachers are reporting that the children with ADHD who have participated
in the intervention program are making friends more easily, are better
behaved and more willing to cooperate with peers.
“These skills
are not easily taught,” Mikami said. “Making friends is a proactive
process that does not come naturally to children with ADHD. We really
have to work closely with the parents and children to set the stage for
life-long social skills.”
Mikami’s clinic offers children with
ADHD and their parents an eight-week program involving weekly 90-minute
parent group training sessions, three one-hour supervised playgroups and
“homework” assignments designed to put into practice the techniques
learned for making friends. The parents learn new skills as a group
working with a therapist, helping each other in the process.
“We
teach the parents how to be friendship coaches,” Mikami
said.
Parents in the program learn ways to help their children
play cooperatively, how to settle social disputes, how to foster a
relationship than can last. They learn to help the child pick the right
playmate, they learn to structure time for positive activities and to
intervene in a positive way when problems develop. Several play dates
are arranged to allow Mikami and her colleagues to assess the
effectiveness of the training, to see the work in practice.
“We
help the parents build a relationship with their child,” Mikami said.
“We do some role-playing, where the parent steps into the role of the
child, to try to understand the world from the child’s point of
view.”
One parent who participated in the treatment group,
Stephanie Shelton, said her son Brandon and her entire family have
benefited from the program.
“I came to know other people who are
dealing with the same issues of having a child with ADHD,” she said. “It
meant we didn’t have to deal with this alone. We had a focus group that
positively helped us work through issues.”
The techniques Shelton
learned, such as “active listening,” have made her personal time with
her son a rich experience. “We look forward to our time together,” she
said. “And his teacher said she has seen a tenfold improvement in his
social skills.”
Mikami recently worked with two groups in her
study: the “treatment” group, which received training, and a control
group of children with ADHD who did not receive training. She is
comparing the outcomes of the two groups and is finding that the
treatment group children are exhibiting a marked improvement over the
ADHD group that did not receive treatment.
The families in the
study, from both groups, represent a range of income and education
levels and both genders. So far Mikami has worked with 20 families, 10
from each group. She is now planning another phase of the study and is
beginning to recruit new participants (see sidebar).
“The idea is to
help them when they’re young, so they may have a lifetime of successful
relationships, the kind of positive experiences that will carry over
into everything they do,” she said.
Mikami is now recruiting children for the next phase of her study.
She is looking for children ages 6-10 in grades 1-4 with suspected or
diagnosed ADHD who might benefit from help with social skills. Children
selected will receive intervention to help them make friends more
easily. Mikami also is looking for children of the same age without
behavior or emotional problems or ADHD. All selected participants will
receive a small stipend and a test of the child’s IQ/cognitive ability
and an emotional and behavior screening.
For more information,
call 243-2327 or e-mail Mikami@virginia.edu.
