Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology

Behavior Group Therapy

Parental training can help:

• Improve parents’ understanding and ability to manage their children’s behavior
• Improve parents’ interactions with their children
• Reduce stress for all family members

Our program teaches parents skills for dealing with specific problems common to most children who have ADHD. Parents also learn how to advocate for their children. The goal of our program is to empower parents to manage their children’s ADHD more effectively, leading to better outcomes for their children.

In order to increase the availability of this treatment in the Cincinnati area, the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s offers behaviorally based parenting groups for parents and caregivers of children with ADHD. Group behavior treatment has been shown to be the best approach to improving functional outcomes of academic performance, peer interaction and reduced family stress. Groups are held throughout the year at the Center for ADHD, located at Cincinnati Children’s Oak Campus, and at several of our other neighborhood locations.

Our parent group program, Understanding and Managing ADHD, consists of eight weekly sessions that teach parents behavioral management strategies they can use at home and school to improve the functioning of 6- to 12-year-old children with ADHD. Because the skills taught in each week’s session build on the information presented in previous sessions, it is important that parents make a commitment to attending all eight sessions with no absences to maximize the benefits they and their children can obtain.

Children do not attend these parenting groups. We offer optional child groups that meet at the same time as the parent groups at the Oak Campus. While children enjoy these groups, research indicates the real driver of behavior change occurs from parents attending the program. Children may not attend the optional child group unless a parent is attending the parenting group.

Parenting the Difficult Preschooler Parent Group Program

In addition to our Understanding and Managing ADHD parent group program, we also offer a group program for parents of difficult-to-manage preschool children (ages 3-5 years). The program is appropriate for parents of preschoolers who display difficult-to-manage behaviors, whether they have been diagnosed with ADHD or not. The group meets once a week for six weeks and is designed to provide parents with education, support and training in parenting strategies that can improve their children’s behavior.

The Parenting the Difficult Preschooler program is typically offered at the Cincinnati Children’s Burnet Campus and Mason Campus throughout the year.

To learn more about the Parenting the Difficult Preschooler parent group, or to be put on the waiting list for the next available group, call our Intake Office at 513-636-4336, option 2.