Non medicinal treatment of ADHD can cover anything from counselling, family therapy and child behavior modification. They all have one thing in common and that is that they aim to teach the child coping skills in managing day to day events, at school and in making friends. If the child is taught these, that is half the battle.

SOS Nanny
There is a popular program on Italian TV at the moment which is called 'SOS Nanny'. The nanny observes the family for the first few days and then recommends and supervises an action plan to get the family back on track. All the episodes seem to be a repeat in that the same problems crop up again and again!. There are no structured routines, TV dominates the household and children are incapable of feeding themselves and or even sleeping on their own. Giving children adequate support, and especially ADHD children, is probably the best and most effective non medicinal treatment of ADHD which exists to-day.

Research at Lehigh
The same sort of non medicinal treatment of ADHD has been tried by researchers at the Lehigh University's College of Education. The study was called "Project Achieve" and the group was about a hundred pre school children of between three and five years old which had some ADHD symptoms. It took five years to complete the study and it was funded by the NIMH

Through the same sort of behavioural support and child behavior modification approaches, the results were remarkable. Teachers too noticed them. Overall, the children displayed less aggression and there was an improvement in their social skills.

Results in the classroom
In the classroom, the improvement in these behaviours was even more noticeable and teachers found that literacy skills had improved by at least three times. It was found that they key to success was intervening at this early age. The results were lasting and the children are definitely much better equipped for life and much more likely to overcome the challenges associated with ADHD.

Academic tasks with teenagers
Another interesting approach, this time with teenagers with ADHD, as done at the Summer Teaching Program led by Dr Pelham and Dr Evans at the University of Buffalo. They found that when they taught these kids to take notes, there was a positive improvement in comprehension, longer attention span and much less disruptive behavior. They were able to tie this in with a behavioral program where there were very clear expectations of behavior linked with consequences and rewards. This is at the heart of any child behavior modification program.

So, there you have it. Most research has indicated the value of non medicinal treatment of ADHD especially in the field of behavioral studies. Parents have found that when this is combined with ADHD homeopathic remedies, the chances of a child overcoming ADHD with success and happiness is much greater than merely popping amphetamine pills!