How to assist language problems in ADHD children??

Published on Author JosephSunnyLeave a comment

mom-helping-daughter-study-horizChildren with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have trouble not only in behavior, but also in language skills. They are more likely to have language understanding difficulties than a simple language delay. There may be no early developmental history of speech and language problems – the language problems may only become apparent as the child grows. These children have language difficulties related to their impulsive and poor organizational skills such as,

  • Problems with classroom discourse
  • Poor writing skills
  • Narrations and conversations
  • Word-finding problems
  • Difficulties inferring meaning
  • Problems with generative language Social language problems.

Children may have confused story-telling skills in some or all of the following areas:

  • Keeping on the topic
  • Describing something clearly and precisely
  • Starting at the beginning of a story, then giving the middle and finishing off with the end!
  • They may focus on small details – but not give the ‘whole picture’ of the story.
  • If the story is about a problem, they may not really know what the problem is.
  • They may have difficulty remembering words – and use lots of ‘fillers’ like ‘thing, thingy, it, um, er, you know’.

Some strategies that can help them are:

• When your child is trying to tell you a story, relieve his/her stress by sitting with your child and maintaining eye contact and interest. Be an active and interested listener!

• Cue your child in to the sequence of the story e.g. ‘That sounds great! Now, tell me again, what happened first? Then what happened? What happened at the end?’

• If your child goes off, keep bringing her/him back to the topic e.g. ‘Hang on, what happened after you did…?’

• Ask your child specific questions e.g. ‘Tell me what happened when you first got to school?’ rather than ‘What happened at school today?’

• Lead your child’s story e.g. ‘And after Mrs Rani said hello to the new boy, she said…?’

• Use the first sound to help your child find the correct word if he/she is struggling e.g. ‘ass…’ for a word starting with ‘s’

• Correct your child by giving a choice of 2 words e.g. ‘Did you mean he threw

the ball, or he caught the ball?’

• Give your child the opportunity to retell their story to a new listener (e.g. Dad, then Grandma). This allows them to practice and improve their story-telling skills with familiar material.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *