ADHD Treatment: Training Interventions
Behavioral therapy involves training adults to influence the contingencies in an environment to improve the behavior of a child or adolescent in that setting. It can help parents and school personnel learn how to effectively prevent and respond to adolescent behaviors such as interrupting, aggression, not completing tasks, and not complying with requests.
Training interventions target skill development and involve repeated practice with performance feedback over time, rather than modifying behavioral contingencies in a specific setting. Some training interventions, including social skills training, have not been shown to be effective for children with ADHD.
Training approaches that are focused on school functioning skills have consistently revealed benefits for adolescents. The greatest benefits from training interventions occur when treatment is continued over an extended period of time, performance feedback is constructive and frequent, and the target behaviors are directly applicable to the adolescent’s daily functioning.
These pathways do not establish a standard of care to be followed in every case. It is recognized that each case is different, and those individuals involved in providing health care are expected to use their judgment in determining what is in the best interests of the patient based on the circumstances existing at the time. It is impossible to anticipate all possible situations that may exist and to prepare a pathway for each. Accordingly, these pathways should guide care with the understanding that departures from them may be required at times.