Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

This post aims to show one bahvioral form of treatment that can be used for children with ADHD. This can be used in conjuction with medications or on its own. In recent studies, it was found that nearly 20-30% of children do not react positively to medications. Because of this, the controversy of medicating young children, and parental opinions towards medication, caretakers are often driven towards finding other methods of treatment for ADHD (Trout et al., 2007; Verduin, Abikoff, & Kurtz, 2008).

PCIT is often chosen as a viable treatment when the child struggles with hyperactivity, aggression, impulsiveness, and noncompliance behaviors. PCIT focuses on the parent-child relationship and aims to teach the parent techniques to better handle the symptoms of ADHD found in their child. The first step of PCIT training is learning to attend to appropriate behaviors and ignore unruly behaviors. After many sessions of practice of this in the therapists office and at home the child will quickly change from negative behavior to positive while being ignored by the parent. The next step is learning about the use of commands and subsequent consequences. Examples of these include praise when the child listen to commands and time out (TO) as a consequence for not following the objective command. The goal is to eventually need less and less TO periods (Verdiun, Abikoff, & Kurtz, 2008). These techniques can be used both at home and in school environments if trained properly.

It is important to note that when giving commands to children with ADHD only one command should be given at a time as the ADHD makes completing tasks and understanding multiple directions difficult (Barkley, 1997).

Now it is your turn. Tell me what your thoughts are on the PCIT therapy treatment for ADHD.