ADHD - How It Affects Social Skills

Social skills, under the best of circumstances, can be difficult to master. Meeting new people, learning where you fit in, holding on to core values while feeling peer pressure are all issues young teens deal with on a daily basis. Throw in sexuality and hormones and you have a volatile set of emotions mixed with the complex world of learning social skills.

Dealing with social skills when a young adult is afflicted with ADHD is even more harrowing. ADHD, also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, makes learning and keeping social skills even more difficult.

There are two sides to social skills. One of them is the capability to process and comprehend your own emotional understanding and the other is how to relate to the actions and emotions of others. Giving out social impressions and taking in social impressions are important emotional components necessary for the flow of well-managed social skills.

Teens with ADHD typically do not have the social skills necessary to succeed in interpersonal relationships. Many issues can arise for them during their teen years, as well as during their adult years. However, if young children learn the skills to create close friendships during their formative years, it will ease their difficulties later on in life.

There are many unfortunate circumstances contributing to poor social skills in teens with ADHD. Many times, a teen with ADHD is the one picked last for a sporting team or the one individual who seems to always hover in the background and not be included as much as their peers.

This can have a negative impact on any future social skill building techniques that ADHD teens need to learn. Confidence and self-esteem are greatly impacted by feeling left out or different. This can set off a circular chain of events. The less a young adult is included in social activities, the more he or she may act out. The more he or she acts out, the lesser chance that they will be included. It can be a difficult cycle.

Children with ADHD often display aggressive and impulsive behavior and, therefore, other children tend to stay away from them. The more they are left out, the more aggressive they may become - thereby exacerbating the social situation even further.

It is important for a child who is diagnosed with ADHD to begin learning social skills as early on as possible. Having them interact with other children for short periods of time is a positive beginning. Rewarding the child for positive behavior with other children reinforces the fact that behaving in a positive manner will result in positive reception for the child.

Social skills must be addressed early on in a child’s life in order to begin the process of healthy social skills that he or she will use in later years.