Does your Child with ADHD Feel Anxiety about the Coronavirus?

Many adults feel anxious about the Coronavirus and its ramifications for their families. Many children with ADHD feel anxious as well and need to understand their feelings as well as having them validated. As parents who also may have similar anxiety right now, how can you help your children? There is a subtle balance between helping your child with ADHD to express his feelings and subsequent anxiety and causing him to shut down and not talk about how he feels.

So, what should you do? Try to immediately have a conversation with your preschool child with ADHD about that change. If your child does not want to talk, however, do not try to force him to talk about the change that has occurred. Instead, see if he will draw some pictures to represent how he feels, or tell you what to draw that will represent how he is feeling. If he will not draw, just wait it out in the hope that he will be ready to talk very soon. 

Here are some possible questions to ask your child with ADHD to encourage him to talk about his feelings about the virus:

What does he think about the fact that the virus has occurred?

Has he spoken to anyone about the virus? If he did so about what did they talk? 

What changes has he noticed in his own behavior? 

What changes has he noticed in his siblings’ behavior?

What changes has he noticed in his parents’ behavior?

As you are reading my list of questions, please realize that the answers to these questions will be dependent upon the level of maturity and/or developmental level of each and every child with ADHD. One child may be able to answer only one question while another child might be able to answer all of these questions. Just have patience while you are waiting for the answers to these questions because preschool children with ADHD for example will need approximately eight to ten seconds to form their thoughts and respond to each question.

 In addition to conversing about your child’s anxieties, it is possible that by employing resources such as reading books about similar life changes to your child with ADHD, he might be able to answer these questions more easily. It also would be a good idea to read your child a good book for children about anxiety such as A Little SPOT of Anxiety: A Story About Calming Your Worries by Diane Alber. This book explains anxiety in a simple way and offers methods to allay the child’s anxiety.