Opportunities for Children with ADHD and Executive Function Disorder to Experience Positive, Guided Social Time with Peers
Children with ADHD can — and often do — grow up to lead fulfilling, interesting lives. Many of them make great friendships, find love, and build something genuinely good for themselves. But childhood is hard, and children with ADHD often struggle to make and keep friends during this early and critical development period in ways that their neurotypical peers don’t.
Friendships in childhood aren’t just pleasant — they’re formative. The experience of feeling liked, accepted, and understood by peers shapes how children see themselves and what they believe is possible for them socially as they grow. When that experience is consistently hard to come by, the effects can follow a child well past the years when the difficulty first appeared.
Social Time at ADHD Training Center is designed to give children with ADHD a supported, positive experience of peer connection — with coaches who understand ADHD in the room. To learn more or sign up your child, call (516) 873-8056 or reach out through the contact page.
What Social Time Is
Social Time is a monthly in-person social hour currently being run in person at ADHD Training Center’s Long Island location in Jericho, NY. It brings children with ADHD together to play, do activities, and get to know each other in a setting that is supervised by trained and experienced ADHD coaches who understand what it’s like to live with ADHD.
The distinction between Social Time and an ordinary playgroup or after school program is the presence of those coaches. Children with ADHD navigate social situations differently — impulsivity, difficulty reading social cues, challenges with turn-taking and emotional regulation can all make social interactions harder and less rewarding than they should be. Having ADHD coaches in the room means the environment is shaped by people who understand those dynamics, who can support positive interactions as they happen, and who provide the kind of guided, structured social experience that allows children to connect and relate to peers who genuinely understand their experience — because they share it.
That last piece matters. One of the most meaningful aspects of Social Time is that the children in the room are not being asked to fit into a neurotypical social environment. They are with peers who experience the world similarly, which changes the quality of the interaction in ways that are difficult to replicate in other settings.
Why Guided Social Experience Matters for Children with ADHD
Social difficulties in childhood don’t resolve on their own for many children with ADHD. Without positive social experiences — opportunities to connect successfully, to feel liked and included, to practice the social skills that friendships require — the gap between a child with ADHD and their neurotypical peers can widen over time rather than close.
Guided social experiences provide something that unstructured social time often doesn’t: the support and structure that allows children with ADHD to have the positive interactions they’re capable of having, rather than the frustrating or exclusionary ones that unmanaged social environments can produce. A child who has regular experiences of successful peer connection develops a different relationship with social situations than one who has experienced mostly rejection or difficulty.
Social Time also works alongside the other support ADHD Training Center provides. For children working with an executive function coach or participating in self-esteem coaching, Social Time offers a real-world environment in which the skills and confidence being developed in coaching can be practiced and reinforced with peers.
Location and Scheduling
Social Time is currently offered monthly at the ADHD Training Center location in Jericho, NY. The location may change and additional locations may be offered in the future — if you would like to be notified of new social hours, staying in contact with the team is the best way to receive updates.
Remote Social Hours — Coming Soon
Many of ADHD Training Center’s classes and coaching sessions are available or will soon be available remotely, and the team is actively exploring a remote social hour option for children located outside of Long Island. Remote social experiences require more planning and structure than in-person sessions, but the goal of opening this program to children throughout the United States is one the team is working toward. Reach out through the contact page or sign up for updates to be notified when remote social hours become available.
Sign Your Child Up
If you’d like to sign your child up for Social Time or learn more about the program, call (516) 873-8056 or reach out through the contact page. The team can discuss upcoming dates, answer your questions, and help you determine whether Social Time is the right fit for your child right now.