Practise friendship without pressure
Pick one social situation your child wants help with, and keep expectations realistic.
Very low certaintyADHD evidence
Start with the time you have
1 minute
Try one gentle question: 'Is there a friendship situation you want help with?'
5 minutes
Rehearse one short exchange with your child, if they want to.
15 minutes
Discuss a recent social situation, practise one option and ask whether it feels useful to your child.
How sure the science is
Very low certainty, ADHD evidence
We barely know. Small or short trials, and people knew what they were getting. The true effect could be much smaller, or zero. Measured in people with ADHD.
- 5 trials
- 270 people
- children and teens
- about 12 weeks
- measured on social-communication skills
EBI re-estimation of youth social skills trials; practical rehearsal is an extrapolation, not a tested substitute for a programme. See this row on the evidence map
The number, drawn
Why it matters
NHS guidance suggests rehearsing conversations through role-play and supporting friendships. EBI found only a small short-term effect on social communication from social skills training near 12 weeks, SMD 0.253, with very low certainty. The medium-term estimate came from 2 small trials and was too uncertain to show an effect. A brief rehearsal at home has not been shown to deliver what the programme did.
How to do it
- Ask your child which social situation they'd like help with.
- Rehearse one simple exchange together, like joining a game or asking a question.
- Look for enjoyment and your child's own goals, not a change of personality.
Do not promise that social skills training will reliably improve ADHD or friendships; the evidence is very uncertain.
Putting it into practice
In real life
- Practise asking, 'Can I join the next round?' if your child wants to.
- Take turns asking about a shared interest and listening to the answer.
Watch out for
- Common mistakePractising without the child's interest can feel corrective, so let them choose the goal.
- Common mistakeBullying is not a social-skills failure, so involve responsible adults if a child is being targeted.
Trusted guides
How we rated it
- Evidence grade
- C Small or mixed studies, expert consensus or clinical practice. Worth knowing, not worth betting on.
- The number
- Very low certainty: small short-term gain in social skills from full programmes (SMD 0.253) (Gosling et al., BMJ accompanying open data, 2025)
- Benefit
- 32/100 The benefit score is an editorial prioritization for the general list, weighted by certainty. It is not a prediction of what will happen for you.
- Effort
- Quick win
Sources
- Tier 1 guidelineEBI-ADHD umbrella review: re-estimated dataset, commit 86eff22a9ffbGosling et al., BMJ accompanying open data, 2025
- Tier 1 guidelineBenefits and harms of ADHD interventions: umbrella review and platform for shared decision makingBMJ, full text via PMC, 2025
- Tier 1 guidelineADHD: supporting relationships (undated)Norfolk and Waveney Children and Young People's Health Services, NHS, 2026
General information about ADHD, not a diagnosis or an individual treatment plan. Tailoring changes the order of suggestions; it does not assess you. Medication decisions belong with you and a qualified clinician.