Over the past several months, I have been focusing on helping parents understand and manage some of the common behaviors in children with ADHD:

When Your Child with ADHD Lies

Managing Hyperactivity in Children with ADHD

Curbing Impulsive Behavior in Children

Six Ways to Help Your Child Focus

Using behavior modification strategies is one of the most effective ways of helping a child with ADHD. Although we have talked a lot in the past about setting up a program like this at home or in conjunction with your child's school, it is not always as easy as it sounds. Behavioral charts certainly help keep track of your child's behavior and target those problem areas and many psychologists, doctors and ADHD coaches suggest parents use this type of tool not only to help change behaviors but to keep track of homework, chores and other daily activities.

The following tips should help you make the most of using behavior charts:

Make sure behavior charts emphasize and reward desired behaviors. Behavior charts should place more emphasis on rewards than consequences, desired behaviors than undesired behaviors.

Consistency is key. Creating a behavior chart is the easy part; follow-up and consistency is more difficult. If you create a chart for the week, be sure to follow up every day and finish out the week; if you create a monthly chart, make sure you continue to use the chart throughout the entire month. Your consistency with completing the chart will make a big difference in monitoring and changing behaviors.

Make it fun. Children with ADHD often respond more favorably when behavior programs are fun and interesting. Use charts as a fun way to change behaviors. Using charts that your child can relate to, such as car racing or the Itsy Bitsy Spider for young children can help keep them motivated to improve their behavior.

Be sure your expectations are reasonable. As you begin using behavior charts, it is important for your child to experience success. Reward any changes or improvements, no matter how small. Let your child's successes fuel his motivation to continue to improve. If your child is not earning stickers or stars, your expectations may be set to high. Review your expectations and revise to help your child succeed.

Limit charts to one behavior at a time. Focus on one single behavior rather than asking your child to try to change many behaviors at one time will help make behavior charts more successful. As your child uses and succeeds with behavior charts, you can add a second behavior.

Be sure goals are specific and trackable. Word goals in specific language to help your child understand what is expected of him, for example, rather than saying, "get along with siblings," state, "no hitting siblings." The more specific your goal, the easier it is to track the behavior.

Use rewards that will motivate your child. Rewards should be simple and something your child enjoys. For young children, the chart itself may be motivation enough, getting a sticker or star each day can be exciting. Other rewards can include choosing what to have for dinner, renting a favorite movie or having a friend come over. The more your child relates to the reward, the higher the motivation.