In Module 9, parents are introduced to their important role in helping their children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) learn to regulate strong emotions. Parents are the child’s first teachers for how to regulate emotions and serve the role of “external regulator” for their children. Children with ADHD are more sensitive to their environments and look to their parents for signs of how to react to a situation or stressor. The goal is for parents to stay calm and collected, modeling effective emotion regulation for their child during periods of stress. When parents learn to be “emotion coaches,” they are more likely to consider the child’s emotions without judgment and decrease critical or invalidating responses. By serving as the child’s “emotion coach” (noticing, tolerating and labeling the child’s emotion), the child learns “emotion language” so that acting out in response to emotions is not necessary to express how they are feeling.
The role of emotion regulation in alcohol use among adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
