ADHD Tips

Just a few quick tips to help your child/student when attempting to complete academic work at home!

1. Limit Distractions- Make a designated academic workspace for your child, facing away from the window, TV, doors, large areas with visual distractions (toys, magnets on the fridge, pictures and writing on the walls or calendars), and try to make it a quiet space with limited auditory distractions. Decrease the distractions in the workspace by only having the necessary tools for the academic work being completed at that time.

2. Communicate and Positive Feedback- Kids with and without ADHD benefit from frequent, immediate feedback about their behavior, reward for the good behaviors frequently and give them positive praise. Ignore the minimally disruptive not so great stuff as much as possible.

3. Give Them a Break- Kids need frequent breaks and integrating movement into learning when possible helps with overall focus and attention. Have them move around for an academic task, lying down to complete part of it, standing up, taping a writing assignment to a wall and completing it! Also, frequent brain and movement breaks should be a part of all learning. Students go off task more often as an instructional activities increase beyond 10 minutes; if you notice your child struggling, give them a quick 1-3 minute break to help re-focus!

4. Break Things Down- Small and manageable tasks help set up your child for success. Break a task down into small chunks and have them choose which to complete first. Kids with ADHD can easily be overwhelmed so giving them a smaller workload makes tasks seem less daunting and sets them up for success.

Below is a tool you can use to (hopefully) help figure out why someone with ADHD is struggling