ADHD Preschool Parenting Groups
The Center for ADHD in the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s offers many therapy groups for parents and children with ADHD, including our preschool parenting groups. Evidence supports that 8-week parent training groups can significantly improve behaviors in children and increase parent confidence in managing challenging behavior.
In the fall of 2023, we began encouraging providers to send referrals to our parenting groups first for patients ages 3-5 with behavioral problems, regardless of whether there was an established ADHD diagnosis. A diagnosis is not a prerequisite for our preschool parenting groups. We want to get families into group services before referring for an evaluation or before referring for individual/family therapy. This is for several reasons:
It is often difficult to get ADHD evaluations completed for this age group because children are not yet in school.
The evidence says to start with parent focused behavioral training before trying medication even if there is a diagnosis.
Many preschoolers with behavioral problems can greatly benefit from these parenting groups, and diagnosis doesn’t matter.
Access to groups is often faster than waiting for individual therapy sessions; capacity for providing services is increased in a group format.
Here is an update about the families referred to our preschool groups:
The number of preschool referrals to groups has significantly increased.
In 2023, 21 families enrolled in our preschool parenting groups.
As of April 2024, we have already had 29 families enrolled in groups (average 9.3/month).
We added an additional group to meet the demand.
Outcomes remain excellent.
For 2023, we had 99% of the families report significant improvements at the end of the 8-week group.
For 2024 to date, we have 100% of the families reporting significant improvements at the end of the 8-week group.
We will continue to monitor demand and add groups as needed.
We want to encourage anyone referring preschoolers to BMCP for behavioral problems, ADHD or suspected ADHD to refer to this preschool group first.