Understanding Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

The motive behind CBT is to help individuals change their negative thoughts and behaviours into helpful ones for much better emotional and physical well-being.

What Is CBT?

What sets CBT apart from other therapies is that it is characteristically short and structured. It helps children understand their feelings and behaviours that they are having and turn those harmful thoughts into more productive actions. CBT is helpful for people who have ADHD and anxiety because it teaches people to manage their feelings and improve their mental health.

How Does CBT Work for Children with ADHD and Anxiety?

With children who have ADHD and anxiety, CBT concentrates on teaching the child how to manage problems, reframe negative thoughts, and control their feelings and actions in more productive ways. Children learn skills such as mindfulness, self-guided goal-setting, and problem-solving in more structured sessions, so they can better manage their symptoms.

Signs Your Child May Benefit from CBT

CBT can be beneficial to your child who finds it hard to control their feelings, tends to get anxious excessively, and faces difficulties with paying attention and controlling their behaviour.

Behavioural Signs of ADHD

ADHD kids are often more impulsive, hyperactive, and distractable. These behaviours can have a negative impact on their social and academic activities, as they tend to get frustrated and face many emotional issues.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

Physical symptoms that may indicate anxiety in a child can manifest as stomach pains, headaches, and insomnia. These are often present when the child is under stress, as during school or social situations.

Emotional Signs of Anxiety

A child diagnosed with anxiety may face an onslaught of overwhelming feelings and stress. Children diagnosed with anxiety also face constant fears pertaining to mundane tasks and express feelings of judgment on whether they will be able to manage circumstantial situations.

Social Challenges

Anxiety does not only deviate around personal problems but also social ones. Children struggling from anxiety tend to shy away from activities that require intermingling with peers. These problems will adversely affect their development and may make them feel lonely.

Academic Concerns

We all know how ADHD affects a child’s ability to have focus and attention for a prolonged period, as well as how they can stay organised. With anxiety along focus and concentration issues comes the fear of school, which stands where young kids’ undeveloped brains stand under extreme pressure and simply explode.

Persistent Negative Thought Patterns

Children diagnosed with ADHD paired with anxiety often develop thought processes that revolve around their inability to accomplish anything, overwhelming their circumstances and doubting their capabilities. This will hinder them from exposing themselves in a school or social environment.

Resistance to Change

Children struggling from anxiety paired with ADHD often have problems adapting to new circumstances, whether challenges to change the existing ones, because of the unknown. When addressing this phenomenon, CBT allows for flexibility to be exercised and overcome it with coping mechanisms and gradual change.

Benefits of CBT for Children with ADHD and Anxiety

CBT allows children with ADHD and anxiety to have greater command over their thought processes, leading to improved emotional regulation, anxiety suppression, and an enhancement in overall functioning in everyday activities.

Enhanced Emotional Regulation

Emotional control created through CBT takes the guesswork out of all attempts at dealing with stress or frustration. Children are taught to understand their feelings so that they respond as calmly as possible to trying situations. This helps reduce the intensity of the decisions they need to make in difficult moments.

Improved Attention and Focus

With CBT, children who have ADHD can learn how to improve their concentration and attention levels, organisational skills, and their ability to complete tasks in social and educational environments.

Reduction in Negative Thinking Patterns

Shifting and reframing negative preconceptions as children are taught through CBT puts them at risk for lesser self-doubt, anxiety, or negative self-talk, which substantially helps to bolster their self-image.

Strengthened Problem-Solving Skills

Using CBT, children can learn how to solve issues rationally and approach them step-by-step so that it is as easy as possible to find a solution. This allows them to meet various challenges in a self-assured, independent manner.

Stress and Anxiety Management

Children can now manage their stress and anxiety through relaxation and mindfulness exercises provided by CBT. When children learn how to cope with emotions, they will become more resilient to life’s challenges.

Improved Academic Performance

Children who have received cognitive behavioural therapy typically show positive improvements in their academic achievements. More specifically, they show better self-regulation, concentration, task engagement, and active participation in the classroom.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Techniques for ADHD and Anxiety in Children

The approach for ADHD and anxiety differs for children with ADHD in CBT. Some focus on paying attention, while others focus on managing anxiety.

Common CBT Techniques for ADHD Child

Some people with ADHD may benefit from time management tools to stay organised. Goal setting and self-regulation, along with time management, can also prove beneficial. It is not uncommon to come across impulse control problems on a day-to-day basis, and these steps attempt to rectify that.

• Cognitive Restructuring

Most children exhibit irrational thinking patterns indicative of ADHD. Cognitive restructuring can be helpful in those situations through bordering and erasing adverse and negative self-talk, thus enhancing healthy alternatives.

• Goal Setting and Time Management

When working with children, goal setting and time management techniques provide an organisational framework that helps children cope with tasks. For children with ADHD, these tools assist with maintaining attention and minimising procrastination, and for anxious children, these tools manage difficult emotions as they break chores into smaller and easier tasks.

• Behavioural Modelling

Behavioural modelling refers to therapists exhibiting the needed behaviours and assisting children in acting out those roles. This technique is helpful for ADHD self-regulation and for anxious children who require assistance with facing fears or social challenges.

• Positive Reinforcement

Using rewards to motivate positive behaviour is an important part of CBT for children living with ADHD. It helps children maintain motivation, develop appropriate behaviours, and increase performance. For children who have anxiety, it strengthens soft coping strategies and emotionally resilient strategies.

Common Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Techniques for Child Anxiety

Fear reduction and coping mechanism development are some of the more common techniques to cope with anxiety. Children can utilise or implement self-relaxation exercises, exposure therapies, or challenge negative self-thoughts that cause anxiety.

• Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy allows children to face their fears little by little through safe and controlled settings. This reduces the strain and intensity of their anxiety by facing the situation which builds confidence and resilience.

• Relaxation Techniques

Deep breathing and guided imagining help children ease the symptoms of their anxiety. These methods teach kids how to clear their minds when they are stressed or feeling too much.

• Thought Challenging

Challenging thoughts involves teaching kids to identify and analyse irrational or anxious thoughts. Learning to replace these unrealistic thoughts with more logical, practical, objective, and realistic ones helps children mitigate their anxiety and work towards better emotional health.

• Fear Hierarchies

Therapists categorise fears the child has from the least frightening to the most. This step, which is a part of exposure therapy, helps children step into the fear-inducing situation until the overlying emotion is diminished.

Meet Our Expert Therapists for CBT Therapy

What to Expect in a CBT Session?

Feelings, negative thoughts, and coping methods need to be discussed during a regular CBT session for children. Like most therapy sessions, they are meticulously planned and include set activities, constructive feedback, and emotional support that help children achieve positive changes.

Integrating CBT with Other Treatments

CBT is very effective when combined with other treatment methods, such as medications and play therapy. The multi-component therapies provide comprehensive care for children. Medication can control symptoms, CBT focuses on the emotional and mental level of the child, while play therapy fosters emotional expression.

• Combining CBT with Medication

The merging of CBT with medication can be useful because children can achieve emotional regulation and symptom management at the same time. Reductions in hyperactivity and anxiety can be aided with medication, while coping strategies for long-term emotional well-being are developed in CBT.

• Parental Involvement in CBT

For CBT to be effective, the participation of the parents is essential. Parents can assist their children by supervising the implementation of the strategies learned during therapy sessions as well as motivating their children and maintaining their routines.

• Incorporating Play and Creativity in CBT

The essence of play and creativity is captured in younger children, and, with art and stories, therapists and educators can address the children’s needs in a more engaging and emotional way—achieving so much more than learning.

• Tailoring CBT to Your Child's Needs

At Cadabam’s Hospitals, each child and each family are unique and has their own story, so we set up CBT goals to ensure every child’s specific challenges are addressed and obstacles can be overcome.

Creating a Supportive Home for Your Child’s Recovery Journey

The setting at home must be one where therapy objectives can be attained. When home routines and encouragements are offered support, the child can practice the skills learned during therapy, resulting in their enhanced emotional development and overall recovery.

How to Find the Best CBT Service for Your Child Near You

In searching for the appropriate CBT therapist, you should look for a provider experienced in ADHD and anxiety disorders. They should have a license to practice child therapy and use evidence-based methods like CBT to ensure they treat problems children struggle with.

Supporting Child ADHD and Anxiety Recovery at Cadabam’s CDC

At Cadabam’s CDC, we provide specialised CBT for children with ADHD and anxiety disorders. Our trained CBT therapists ensure children are in a nurturing and reassuring environment where they can learn coping mechanisms, emotional regulation, and function well academically and socially.

Contact us today as a first step toward helping your child recover at our Child Development Center.