ADD Student

When you think of school or doing homework, you think of sitting at a desk.

ADD Students don’t always do well sitting at a desk, especially for long periods of time. (Note: an ADDer’s definition of a “long period of time” may be quite different from yours.)

Unless you have an extremely understanding and flexible teacher (who has the ability to do so), there isn’t much you can do about having to sit at a desk in the classroom.

But once your ADD Student comes home from school and is ready to do homework, you can work outside the lines.

What does that mean?

For one thing, it means ditching the desk, at least part of the time.

So how do you get homework done without a desk?

Well it depends on what kind of homework you’re doing.

Any kind of homework that requires writing might mean a desk, but it might not need a chair. Or maybe it needs a desk and a chair, but not necessarily your child sitting there.

For instance, my son Andy had a lot of trouble writing papers when he was younger. (He does just fine now.)

So, Andy would pace the room and talk. I would sit at the computer and type exactly what he said. It’s not as hard as you think – even talking out loud requires time to think and gives you time to type. When he was done, we would print out the paper and then edit from there.

When he had to do math, Andy was on his own. He still needed a table to write on, but again, he preferred to pace the room and stop by the table to do a problem or two. Pacing helped him think better. It works that way for me, too, especially if I have a speech to make or a class to teach.

If homework involved memorizing something or repeating information over and over, we would sometimes print out main ideas in big letters and tape them to the basement wall. Andy had a spot down there where he would shoot pucks. There was a “net” painted on the wall and he would practice his slap shots there. Add in a few things he needs to learn and it’s almost painless!

Learn to work with your child’s nature and outside the lines when it comes to school and homework. It’s worth the effort.