How Parents Fail their ADHD Child (or LD or ADD or Asperger’s Syndrome)

If you are the parent of a challenged child, this is your wake-up call:

If you are not focusing significant efforts on your challenged child’s social skills, you are failing that child.

In case anyone misunderstood, let me rephrase this:

Social skills are the number one need of challenged children.*

It is a mistake to spend thousands of dollars on private tutors and special programs so that a challenged child can get through school at the expense of social development. If your child cannot make friends, cannot communicate effectively, cannot ask for help, does not know when to listen and when to talk, then all the classical education in the world will not help him or her lead an independent life.

How many friends does your challenged child have? Friends at school don’t count. How many friends does he or she see outside of school on a stricty social basis? If there answer is none, you must take action!

Here are some links to helpful tools that you can use. Don’t make the mistake I see parents making every day: they will spare no expense to make sure that their child can pass school, or to address behavioral problems, but they won’t spend one thin dime to make sure he or she can make friends.

• http://www.addvance.com/help/parents/social_skills.html
• http://www.ricklavoie.com/videos.html
• http://www.addinschool.com/elementary/socialskills.htm
• http://www.comeunity.com/disability/adhd/adhd-socialskills.html
• http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/social.html
• http://www.modelmekids.com/

Good luck!

Allen Dobkin

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_{*As long as the basics of food, shelter, safety and affection are met.}