The Importance of Play as a Vehicle to Teach Social Skills to Young Children with ADHD

When I was teaching my graduate students last night, one of my students who is a student teacher in a kindergarten class asked me “How can I teach social skills in our kindergarten class when there is no playtime?” It appears, arguably, that kindergarten is the new college, where only academics are taught with no time for play included into the schedule. Those kindergarten children do not even have recess!



Play is a powerful learning context that helps a child to become engaged in social interaction with their peers with no predetermined outcome. Additionally, play helps to build a child’s creativity because those outcomes are due to trial and error.


Kindergarten and preschool is a time that is typically rich in terms of opportunities to teach social skills to children with ADHD. However, if young children with ADHD do not have the opportunity to play with their peers in school, how will they learn the positive social skills that they need to experience positive social experiences? The answer is that if those children do not have the opportunity to play during school, it will very difficult for them to learn those positive social skills.


Children with ADHD arguably need assistance and support from their teachers in order to learn social skills. Therefore, if the opportunities for social interaction are not part of their school day, the child with ADHD’s teachers will not be able to teach them the necessary social skills.


I often suggest to teachers that even though they are teaching academics, there are ALWAYS opportunities to embed the teaching of social skills into their academic subjects. I know that in active preschool and kindergarten classrooms where the children are involved in collaborative projects, there have to be ample opportunities for teaching positive social skills. Additionally, lunchtime is a perfect time to teach positive social skills, in terms of learning good manners, listening to others without interrupting, being respectful, among other social skills.


If you are an early childhood teacher who has children in your classroom who either have a diagnosis of ADHD or those whom you suspect have ADHD, please teach social skills intentionally through any opportunities that you can design. Remember: Children with ADHD with social skills problems become adults with ADHD who have social skills problems.