ADD/ADHD is one of the most researched and most misunderstood diagnoses. Confusion occurs largely because the terms “attention deficit” and “hyperactivity” describe only the surface features of this challenge: these are just the tip of the iceberg: the symptoms are much broader and deeper than this.
When considering the difficulties your child is having in the classroom, with peers, and at home, one must contemplate all possible causes including anxiety and mood disorders. Children who struggle with these challenges may have trouble with school and can appear distracted, impulsive, and even hyperactive.
At home and in the classroom, structured behavioral techniques and discipline are proven successful. Combined with flexibility that adjusts for the child’s unique difficulties associated with inconsistent mental effort and variable self-monitoring, flexible structuring is an attitude that focuses on addressing problems instead of bemoaning them.
Problems with the executive skills of response inhibition, planning, prioritizing, goal directed persistence, and self-monitoring all add up to problems creating, implementing, and maintaining a sound budget. In this set of posts, our team will outline practical ways and suggest useful tools to help overcome these obstacles.
Classroom accommodations are a vital part of the management process for children who struggle with ADD/ADHD and associated executive functioning problems. Accommodations should be used to assist children and teens in managing their struggles while facilitating success in their academic and personal efforts.
Children and teens who are struggling to improve their behavior problems respond well to structured discipline that involves clear expectations, immediate reinforcement, and consistent consequences. In contrast, when a child or teen is within reasonable reaching distance of a necessary skill set to manage behavior, the flexible structure provided by natural and logical consequences is recommended.
The child or teen with attention and executive functioning struggles has difficulty learning and benefits from an education plan that addresses two specific needs: (1) structuring aimed at helping her build her own internal structured approach to problem solving, and (2) flexibility of classroom accommodations and auxilliary aids to support her unique set of executive skill weaknesses.
Executive functions are a set of abilities that help us manage our time, energy, talents, and resources in order to achieve our goals. These skills include time management, planning, prioritizing, task initiation, organization, working memory, self-monitoring, and goal directed persistence. Here’s the good news: each of these abilities can be identified and improved by teaching structured techniques while flexibly accommodating related weaknesses.
Children with learning, attention, social, or emotional problems often lose esteem because of continued failures and struggles. They negatively compare themselves to their peers who don’t struggle, and over time, they can easily become unmotivated. Poor motivation often leads to negative beliefs, harmful actions and a cycle of continued failure. The good news is that parents and teachers can help change a child’s trajectory in life! Read this series of articles to learn how.
Studying without a plan and without organization is like trying to eat a pizza that’s not cut. It’s overwhelming! Where do you start? Active learning strategies give your child the ability to break her studies down into small manageable steps just like a pizza cutter allows her to cut a pizza into smaller easier to handle pieces.
