The absolute best approach per 100 years of research regarding children and behavior  is an approach that combines individual counseling with parenting tips and family system tips to modify behavior. All of these elements are vital in creating desired change in your child or teenager.

Before stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, and Adderall began their rise to popularity in the 1970s, treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) focused on behavioral therapy. But as concerns build over the mounting dosages and extended treatment periods that come with stimulant drugs, clinical researchers are revisiting behavioral therapy techniques. Whereas stimulant medications may help young patients focus and behave in the classroom, research now suggests that behaviorally based changes make more of a difference in the long-term. ADHD drugs are tested for 8-12 weeks in experiments and most children stay on the drug for years not knowing how it impacts the brain. Many children suffer withdrawal symptoms and behavioral changes when taken off the drugs similar to what a drug addict experiences when stopping long term drug use.

Recent research findings suggest that behavioral and cognitive therapies focused on reducing impulsivity and reinforcing positive long-term habits may be able to replace current high doses of stimulant treatment in children and young adults.

Lifeworksaz has been working with ADHD children and teens using a combination of cognitive therapies, behavior modification, play therapy, and more to teach children how to manage ADHD with excellent results.

Recent surveys indicate that 12 percent of all children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD’s core symptoms include hyperactivity, inattention, inability to perform monotonous tasks and lack of impulse control. Children with ADHD have trouble in school and forming relationships, and 60 percent will continue to suffer from the disorder well into adulthood if they do not receive counseling and therapy.

Over 3 million U.S. children and adolescents with ADHD were being treated with stimulant drugs. New research reveals that these drugs are not necessarily the panacea they have been thought to be.Research outcomes suggests that if ADHD children and adolescents could learn good study habits early on, medication could become less necessary.

Other research has examined the role of behavioral interventions not only for school-age children, but also for their parents. Parents of children with ADHD tend to exhibit more parenting-related stress and difficulties than do those of non-afflicted offspring. After training parents in stress management and giving them behavioral tools to help their children, significant improvement in their children’s ADHD-related behavior appeared.

Cognitive therapy may also boost improvement: In a 2011, showed that children with ADHD show extra activity in brain areas associated with “task-irrelevant” information during working memory tasks (those that depend on one’s ability to hold and focus on information for immediate reasoning and recall), suggesting that they have less efficient cognitive control. Cognitive therapy and counseling can improve control and ability to focus.