6 Tips on Treating Adults With ADHD

Nearly 8 million adults in the United States have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These adults often find speech, social and executive function skills challenging, affecting their social communication. As speech-language pathologists, we can help people with ADHD through educating and coaching social communication skills and self-awareness. Adults with ADHD experience difficulty forming social relationships, communicating clearly in those social relationships, and controlling executive functions. SLPs understand social communication and skills from our work with people on the autism spectrum, we understand treating executive function impairments through work with acquired brain injury, and we certainly know about treating speech. The following affected areas fall within our scope of practice: Speech Rate Volume Clarity (mumbling) Amount Social skills and relationships Non-verbal communication (posture, gestures, non-verbal communication) Turn-taking Topic maintenance (tangentiality) Listening Self-awareness Perspective-taking Voice quality Disinhibition Executive functions Organizing ideas Problem-solving Emotional regulation It makes sense then, for SLPs to help adults with ADHD develop greater self-control, self-awareness and social inclusion. I’ve experienced success working with clients with ADHD using the tips below. Set goals: Your client may wish to work on multiple areas of concern in one treatment session. Rather than skimming over m...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Autism Spectrum Disorder Executive Functions social skils Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs