Life With ADHD Inattentive Kids
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Help your ADHD Child to FOCUS!You Can Stick Anything With Velcro…even attention. Kylie is a 2nd grade teacher who subscribes to our newsletter, and she told me she sticks a strip of Velcro on the underside of the desk of some of her kids. Running their finger over the texture helps these children maintain focus. Lemon Fresh~During a long study session, sniffing a lemon is a great way to refocus. The scent of lemon and peppermint really will sharpen thinking skills. Transitions~If your child is having difficulties with transitions, talk to her about them, recognizing that these are hard for many children. Have her identify the transition times during her day. Write them down, along with the trouble is having. Be specific. "After math: Put your name on your paper. Turn it in to Mrs. Collins. Make sure your homework is turned in, too. Write down your homework for the night. Put away your math book. THEN get ready for the next thing." Start now trying to get her to remember to stop and go through the steps on her own. The Main Squeeze~Children sometimes fidget to help themselves focus. Instead of constantly asking your child to "Be still", or "Stop tapping", give them a stress ball to knead. The C3 Kids Program is about learning the power of nutrition in effectively managing Attention Deficit. Put it all together with C3 Kids Program, two quick and easy reference guides that will allow you to begin a healthier, natural, multi-modal approach to ADD right away! Night Cap~Studying right before sleep is the best time to learn. It seems the brain is better able to process the information during the down time, and more permanently imbed the facts into your child's store of knowledge. Tone it down~A teacher passed along this hint: Instead of using a verbal reminder to get your child back on task, use a tone. A bell or a buzzer work well to bring your child back to reality. Flash Point~The same principle applies to a flashing light. Simply flashing the lights often serves as that wake up call. Like a broken record~Use a cassette player to help your child stay on task. Every few minutes, record a verbal reminder or another kind of signal. When your child is doing a boring task, play the tape, bringing your child back to the chore or homework at hand. Picture This~If your child hasn't responded well to a written check list of chores, do a visual one. Have your child take or create pictures representing each item on the to do list, and use these pictures instead of words on your chart. Having a picture of what a 'clean room' looks like is quite helpful as goal and a standard. The Main Event~Your kids probably attend a class outside of school, whether it be a camp, Bible School, club meeting or lessons. Instead of asking, "How was it?" get a bit more specific. "What was the most important thing you learned today?" "What did the leader want you to learn?" "How can you use this lesson to make you a better person, swimmer, golfer, citizen?" The End is Coming~Children with ADHD are notorious for being unrealistic, especially when it comes to how much time an activity will take. Your child may really think that it will only take one night to read a 150 page book and do a report. Pick some tasks your daughter does often and have her predict how much time it will take to finish. Let her do this often and see if her expectations become more realistic. It also helps to guess how long it will take to read a chapter in a book, and to calculate actual words read per minute. Recipe for Success~Help your child learn to enjoy following directions by following a recipe. Start with something easy like a box of brownies, and progress to something more complicated out of your Julia Child cookbook! Job List~~My boys can take forever to do simple chores. A task like 'clean your room' can seem impossible. Our son Ash typed himself a list, and glued (GRRRR) it to the desk in his room. Here it is, word for word: Clean under bed. Clean under dresser. Clean behind dresser. Put away clothes. Dust furniture. Dust baseboards. Vacuum edges of room. Vacuum floor. Close drawers. Ash instinctively took a big task and broke it down into smaller chunks. You or your child can break chores into pieces, so that the child doesn't get overwhelmed with what needs to be done first. Follow Ash's example, and write it down! Do avoid the temptation to glue it onto the desk. Walk the Talk~Walking sometimes helps keep the brain focused. Our cousin John paces back and forth as he reads. Another friend of ours studies notes while walking. And our son Mike records classes on his IPOD, another easy way to walk and learn. |
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