6 Homework Lessons on ADHD
1. After giving your child a few minutes to just relax, check the backpack and homework assignments to see what has been assigned and to make sure you have everything you need.
2. Make specific rules about when homework gets done. That includes weekends. If you have to make more than one rule about homework due to after school activities, then do so.
3. Make a plan with your child about what homework gets done first. Do this at a time when homework is not an issue. Some kids like to get the hardest stuff out of the way first, others prefer the easiest to give them a sense of accomplishment.
4. The only homework visible should be whatever your child is working on at the moment. Seeing a stack of book and papers that still needs to be done will only overwhelm them.
5. Plan ahead. Buy generic school supplies that you often have to run out for and keep them on hand. This includes poster boards, construction paper, glue, markers, report covers, etc. Hide them so they won’t be used for art projects. This eliminates that last minute trip to the store which is really about putting off doing the work.
6. Remember to remind your child to take breaks every 15-20 minutes. A short stretch, a snack (not a half hour tv show) will help their brain store what they’ve learned so far and refresh them for further study.
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Wait Five Minutes
October 8, 2008 by Brenda
Filed under ADD Student, Life Skills
Ten or fifteen would be better.
What I’m talking about is that time of day when your ADD kid walks through the front door. Or maybe, if they get home before you, it’s when you walk in.
People with Attention Defiict Disorder have trouble transitioning from one thing to another. They need a few minutes to make the adjustment from one environment to the other. And no, the traveling time in between doesn’t count.
Haven’t you ever walked in the door from work (or any place at all) and felt attacked the moment you walked in? Everybody suddenly has demands and questions and the phone is ringing and you’re tired…
Don’t you just want to turn around and walk back out again?
Well, that’s kind of how your ADD child feels when they get home from school.
They’ve been there all day, it’s often not so easy for them there, and now, when they’ve finally arrived home, all you want to know is how was school, do you have homework, and what did you learn.
Take a few breaths. Let them get a snack and unwind a little bit. Then you can start finding out about their day.
You may even find they’re not so crabby that way 
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Transitions and ADD
September 30, 2008 by Brenda
Filed under Life Skills, School
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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