Children with ADHD have all of
their thoughts spinning around in their minds. They just cannot wait to say
what is in their thoughts. Seemingly, they must say those thoughts immediately, which they
express as excessive talking and continuous verbiage.
What can a parent do to help
their child with ADHD to decrease the amount of verbiage that they are
expressing? This social skill is one
that requires children with ADHD to learn how to self-regulate their verbiage.
The first thing that must be done
is for the child to realize both the amount and the speed of his verbiage. In
consideration of the fact that children with ADHD are not typically
characterized by self-awareness, this is the pivotal part of helping him to
diminish his excessive talking.
A feasible way to help the child
to become aware of how much and how fast he is speaking is to have someone
videotape him speaking to you. I would video three or four segments at various
parts of the day, so that he can see that he speaks in this way on numerous
occasions throughout the day. Nowadays, videotaping
is an easy task, because every Smartphone has a video component.
It is imperative however, that
the child does NOT think that he is weird and/or that he does NOT think that is
doing something really terrible. Children with ADHD arguably have low
self-esteem and you certainly do not want to make him feel worse about himself.
Watch the video with your child
and ask him general questions about his interactions with you in the video. If
he does not see how he is speaking, then very carefully, ask some more direct,
specific questions, as I have written below.
Ask your child the following questions about his behavior in the video:
v How close is he
standing to you? Is he standing too close to you?
v Is he waiting
for you to answer his questions, or does he just keep talking?
v Does his talking
escalate into more and more and faster and faster talking, without him waiting
for answers?
v How are you
reacting to his excessive talking?
v Are you trying
to stand further away from him as he speaks?
v Are you trying
to answer his questions but unable to answer them because of his excessive
talking?
v Do you appear
frustrated as he is speaking to you, because it is very difficult for you to
answer him because he does not stop talking?
v Does he appear
frustrated that you are unable to answer his questions?
