ADD Student

Archive for September, 2008

Have you ever really thought about what your child’ school day is like? About all the information he has to absorb every day, to understand and remember? It’s more than most of us have to handle each day, and probably more than we had to deal with when we were in school.

One of the characteristics of Attention Deficit Disorder is difficulty making transitions. Transitions are very hard for someone with ADD. Moving from one thing to another - at the speed most people would like us to - can be hard.

Now I know that our minds are constantly transitioning from one thing to another, so it seems odd that to do so when someone else asks us to should be difficult. Still it is.

If you wonder if your ADD child has trouble making transitions, all you have to do is look at their sleep habits. Do they have trouble settling down and going to sleep at night? Do they have trouble waking up the next day? Think about when they were toddlers. Were they more resistant than most to changing from one activity to another? Leaving the playground to go home?

ADD often shows up or begins causing real trouble when a child is in 4th - 6th grade. At that age, kids have moved into the “upper el” and most teachers are adding more subjects to their day and making the move from one to the other more distinct. It’s a way to help prepare them for middle school and changing classrooms throughout the day.

For a kid with ADD, studying math for 50 minutes, then abruptly changing to history or language arts can be a bit of a shock. They need time to make the move from one subject to another - more than a few seconds.

There’s nothing we can do about changing classes and abrupt transitions.

What you can do is this: educate your child on what’s happening. To understand that they will need an extra bit of time to catch up with the new subject will go a long way in helping them adjust.

Then give them a little visualization to work on. Have them picture closing the math part of their brain (or their math book, if that’s easier) and then opening up the next subject’s part of the brain. If they work at doing this, eventually they’ll get pretty good.

Give it a try and see.

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Learning never stops, no matter how old you get or what you already know.

I’ve recently been concentrating on learning internet marketing, something that I studied very intently when I first became a website owner. I’ve found out that covering the same material I covered 18 months ago still taught me new things and reinforced things I already knew.

It’s kind of like when you re-read a favorite book, or see a movie for the second or third time. You always notice new things and get greater insights.

Learning can always be that way, no matter who you are or what you’re learning.

Maybe this is a technique you can use with your ADD child for things that are especially hard to grasp. Let them study it once, and then re-visit it a day or two later to see if you can add to, or reinforce what has already been learned.

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Do you do a homework review with your ADD child each day? I bet you think you do.

Your idea of a homework review is one question: “Do you have any homework?”

Sorry, but you get about a C- for that answer.

A homework review is valuable for any child, but especially those with Attention Deficit Disorder. A real homework review (that will get you an A and maybe your kid, too) consists of the following:

The question - “Do you have homework?” followed by (regardless of the answer)
An unpacking of the backpack to see what came home and what didn’t
A search for the paper with the assignment on it, whether it’s a paper from the teacher or a note in your child’s notebook or planner
A search for corresponding supplemental items, like textbooks

Ideally, a homework review is done as soon as the child gets home, or if they’re in after school care, as soon as they arrive there. This gives you a better opportunity to get back to school and get whatever your child forgot.

Once you’ve determined that everything is there, you can decide about how much time will be needed and when the homework needs to be started.

A homework review also gives you the chance to straighten up the papers in the backpack, possibly see papers with grades or others that need your attention, and get a general sense of whether your child might be “forgetting” homework at school or failing to hand completed work in.

A daily homework review emphasizes the importance of school work and organization to your child, and teaches them a good habit as well.

Start making a homework review part of your routine. You’ll be glad you did.

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