Developing Pragmatic Social Skills in Children with ADHD

Many common symptoms of ADHD affect the ability of children to function in the classroom and in their social environment. Children with ADHD typically have difficulty sitting still, paying attention and being impulsive in their behavior.

In the classroom, this can result in a wide range of challenges for both the teacher and the child. Children with ADHD are less likely than their peers to remain at their desks, to wait their turn in line or to remain focus on the subject being discussed. Because these issues can make it difficult for the child to learn, medication and therapy are often the standard of treatment proposed following diagnosis.

While these efforts commonly show improved behavior, there are other, untreated deficits caused by ADHD which can make it difficult for these children to interact socially. Specifically, many children with ADHD have deficits in their pragmatic social skills.

Pragmatic social skills refer to the basic social cues that are used by children and adults to engage and communicate with others. An example of a pragmatic social skill is greeting other people. Individuals with deficits in pragmatic social skills may forget to say “hi” or “hello” to other people. In addition, these social skills often include a wide range of nonverbal activities, such as making eye contact, reading body language and/or listening to tones of voices.

Children with ADHD may not be able to engage in pragmatic social skills to demonstrate to others how they are feeling. The child’s inability to engage in pragmatic social skills may result in the loss of important connections for the child. This creates challenges for creating and maintaining friendships. For instance, if the child is unable to make eye contact with peers, it is possible that other children in the social environment will believe that the child with ADHD is not interested in what they are doing.

As friendships and social interaction are vital to areas of development including cognitive capabilities, the loss of these important social connections can be highly detrimental to the overall health and wellbeing of the child. It is important to remember that a lack of pragmatic social skills not only impacts the social capabilities of the child.  This deficit has systemic implications that must be clearly understood and addressed before they become detrimental to overall quality of life.

Reviewing the cause of deficits in pragmatic social skills, it becomes evident that it is possible to solve the problem. Frequently, children with ADHD are moving and thinking so quickly that they fail to slow down long enough to pick up on the nonverbal language and cues of others in their environment.

While general social skills training can be helpful for developing the verbal interactions needed to sustain relationships, these programs often do not include interventions aimed at improving pragmatic social skills development. When these deficits are present, specialized social skills training programs may be needed to help children with ADHD.

Specialized social skills training programs are often group experiences in which the child with ADHD is given the opportunity to recognize and respond to social cues. As group therapy progresses, children may be asked to engage in roleplay activities. By providing these types of social supports, children can learn pragmatic social cues, making them more responsive to others.

The skills learned in these specialized social skills groups are invaluable for building the social capabilities of children with ADHD. Through these programs, children with ADHD learn to understand what specific social capabilities are missing, providing them with an opportunity to develop these skills and utilize them to improve their social capabilities.

Recognizing the need for developing pragmatic social skills will be vital to creating the support needed for the child with ADHD to grow and thrive. Pragmatic social skills development can provide parents with the vital information needed to facilitate evaluation. Parents concerned about their child’s pragmatic social skills development should discuss the issue with their child’s psychologist.

If deficits do exist, supports can be provided to overcome this deficit. Parents should be instrumental in helping to identify deficits in this area and advocating for the therapist or school psychologist to provide needed supports. Parents need to remember that pragmatic social skills extend far beyond making friendships and have implications for the child’s cognitive development.

As such, developing pragmatic social skills is not just a desired trait but an imperative for the effective and successful long-term development of the child. 

(Article originally posted on May 8th, 2014, on http://whatshappeningonline.com)