Success in School

 Why is school so hard for children with ADHD?

One of the biggest struggles you face with a child that has ADHD is in school. This can be extremely hard and frustrating at times. The biggest thing you have to remember is that more than likely your child wants to do well, and they are the ones struggling. From my personal experiences I know it can feel like they are deliberately not trying, but this is not the case. School creates several constant challenges for a child with ADHD, it can be challenging for any child. If you think about it, pretty much everything you are asked to do in school includes sitting for long periods, focusing and paying attention, being quite and patient, raising your hand, remembering homework. These things seem easy to most people but it can really be a hard job for an ADHD child. If your child has ADHD, school may be difficult because their symptoms such as inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity are getting in the way. This page is to give you the methods a resources I use as well as others I have found that may work for your child. 

Involve your school

 Talk to your child's teachers, principal, and guidance counselor to see what programs to help your child they may offer. Some things I do or have found others do are:

IEP- I work with my sons school and we have implemented an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that is specified to his needs. We have an IEP meeting usually twice a year to make any changes, however, if we feel a change needs to be made at a different time we can discuss it by phone or email and make any minor changes. This is a wonderful program! It keeps all the faculty at the school up to date and gives your child any assistance he/she may need for things like support or testing environment.

Start a daily chart- This is where teachers for each class can tell you about how your child was in class that day (my sons school has one) and homework for that night. This way you know what he has to do that night. Or you can use the planner most schools have, and just have the teacher initial the assignments and write any that your child didn't as well as write anything that happened you may want to know about. (I use both a daily chart and have the planner initialed).

Keep in contact- Now days, most schools offer emails for each staff member. I contacted my sons teachers and we keep in contact regularly through emails to keep up with whats going on in school and at home or make any changes in the plan and discuss behaviors. This helps you know what to discuss with your child's doctor or psychiatrist at the next visit for the child's medical treatment plan.

Have extra Items Sent Home- Ask the teachers or support teachers working with your child to send home extra texts books. You can even have this implemented in your child's IEP. I know I always have an extra Math book and if he is reading a novel/book in Reading class I get an extra copy sent home as well. ADHD children tend to forget a lot and this will help so that even if they forget the book you can still do the homework or study, this helps keep your child from getting behind in his/her classes.

In my experience the more you know and use the school resources the more help you can give your child to succeed. Involving your child's school about their ADHD is a very important part of their education.Think about it this way, you know your child best and their history, and your child's teachers see them and work with them all day every day. So, together you have a lot of information, and a better understanding of your child's strengths and weaknesses. Together you can make a difference in your child's education and success!

Help your child organize

 

Children with ADHD tend to be unorganized and lose things easily. This can affect bringing homework home/turning it in book reports, studying etc. Helping your child organize and know where things are can help tremendously. 

Use a planner- Most schools issue each child a planner for the year. Try to get your child to make sure to write all his/her assignments in their planner each day. This way they don't have to remember all their homework all they have to do is open to that day and see what they need to do. Again talk to your child's teacher, you can have them initial to make sure all assignments are written and correct for that nights homework.

Separate classes- Get your child a separate folder for each subject and put them in a binder, you can even label one side "classwork" and the other side "homework", this will help your child find what he/she needs quick and easily.

Put and organizer together- This is personally what I chose to do and seems to work great! I went to the Dollar Store and got an accordion organizer. I labeled the tabs for each core class in the order he has them each day and one for his "others" such as Art and Music. There are two tabs for each core class, one orange for classwork and one yellow for homework. This has really helped my son, but I decided to go a little further recently and changed it to where there is only one tab for each class and there is a folder in where you put the papers that has a side for classwork and a side for homework. I did this because it is easier for him to search through a folder he can open. You can do it either way.

Give your child incentive

 Give your child something to work towards. ADHD children have been proven to pay more attention to things they are interested in, you can use this to your child's advantage to help in school and other areas. For example, I do it on a daily basis for school, Dillon (my son) has a PS3, cell phone, DSi, TV in his room etc. So, I go by his daily chart and if he remembered everything and did well he is able to use everything that day, if there were issues, depending on what they were, some or all of those privileges are taken for the day. You may think this is harsh, but, this helps your child help get control over their symptoms by working towards something they like through something they may not like so much. It gives them a good reason to try to restrain from speaking out, and interrupting others as well as to make sure they bring home and turn in their homework. In shorter words, it makes them think twice.


These are just some of the things you can do to really help your child to succeed in school. I will post more when I come across them, if something else works for you feel free to contact me (right of of Home page) or leave a comment. Knowing your child will determine what the best strategies and programs are for your child's personal needs. And remember to try to be patient, you might have to try different things before you find one that works for you and your child. Your ADHD can succeed in school!!
~S Overly 

-To help your child with school more try Making Math Fun, Children Learning Reading, or the Parenting Package for School age Children.