Coaching Organizational Skills To ADHD Children
Dr. Steven Richfield
www.parentcoachcards.com
Of
all the struggles associated with ADHD organizational problems create
the greatest havoc in children’s academic lives. Forgotten or
misplaced homework assignments, lost supplies, poor long term planning,
and underestimating task demands are a few of the typical traps that
sabotage school performance. The resulting stress imposed upon family
relationships, coupled with the damage incurred by the child’s
self-esteem, makes it vital that children learn ways to overcome the
organizational chaos so typical of ADHD.
Parents
wishing to coach organizational skills to their ADHD children can
benefit from the following strategies:
Educate your child about the practical challenges imposed by ADHD.
Many
children diagnosed with ADHD hold only a simple understanding of their
condition. Labels such as “focusing problem” or “being
too hyper” don’t begin to capture the interferences with
managing the demands of life. Consider the following explanation:
“ADHD pushes people off the path of getting things done. It
can block you from taking the time to write down a school assignment,
or place a homework sheet in the right place, or remember to do it,
or to file it away once it’s completed, or to hand it in the
next day.” Point out how these examples have surfaced in your
child’s school life but assure them that there are ways to control
for these troubles.
Explain how controlling ADHD interferences is similar to developing
a “personal navigational system.” ADHD children
are often unaware of how random events, such as dropping a pencil
on the floor, can open up another thought pattern in their mind and
steer them far away from picking up important cues in the classroom.
Expose how you have witnessed this at home, and emphasize how distracting
habits push them off track, and therefore must be minimized. Describe
how ADHD causes people to drift off course and ignore the signals
that teachers send to students about what is important to remember
for tests/quizzes or to include within written assignments, etc.
Pinpoint how they can prompt themselves at different times of the
day to mentally check up on their self-management. Suggest
that they silently ask themselves, “How’s my steering
and have I stayed on track so far?“ Stress how their rush to
leave a class once the bell rings or to speak with a classmate rather
than carefully listen to a teacher’s last minute instructions
will cause them to ignore critical organizational cues. Help them
develop a list of those times during the day when “organizational
check points” would be especially helpful. Do the same for the
home and encourage them to practice drilling themselves until these
check-points become routine.
Coach them about the importance of planning and thinking in
advance. ADHD cultivates a mindset that focuses upon present
wishes and whims rather than future responsibilities and commitments.
Children need help developing a view of the road ahead in life. Here
is one way to approach this critical need: “By remembering to
ask yourself three questions throughout the day, you can make life
run more smoothly:
(1)
What do I have to remember to do today? (2) Before I leave this place,
do I have everything I need? And (3) What’s coming up in the
next few days that I need to prepare for now?” Help
them assimilate these three questions by prompting them at pivotal
points while they are on their “life road.”
Dr.
Steven Richfield is a child psychologist in Plymouth Meeting, PA.
He has developed a child-friendly, self-control/social skills building
program called Parent Coaching Cards now in use in thousands of homes
and schools around the world. His new book, The Parent Coach: A New
Approach To Parenting In Today’s Society is available through
Sopris West (sopriswest.com or 1-800-547-6747) He can be contacted
at director@parentcoachcards.com or 610-238-4450. To learn more about
Parent Coaching Cards, read more parenting columns, or review the
press kit to The Parent Coach, visit http://www.parentcoachcards.com
