Dedicated parents like yourself were already doing everything you could to help your ADHD student before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Now you’re suddenly confronting all the challenges stemming from how you’ve had to alter your life – and now you’re responsible for replacing your kids’ teachers, or at least managing your students’ entire days.
No one faults you for the learning curve you’re on as you try to figure out how to do the best for your kids especially those with ADHD.
The good news is that there is help available – there are people who can work directly with you and your children to teach them skill sets that will improve their lives and reduce the stress for all of you. This is where professional organizers like myself come in. Working with you in person when it’s safe, or virtually in the age of the pandemic, I can provide techniques and tools that can help your students do everything from improving their grades to boosting their self-esteem.
I know what it’s like for you. Your daughters and sons with ADHD constantly want to be moving, be active. It’s hard enough for them to sit in a classroom and be still. When they’re in their own houses and they have to do things that they don’t want to do, their lives become all the more challenging. You and I may be used to taking on a task and going from A to B but kids suffering from this kind of learning challenge go from A to Q to Z and then may bounce 20 times before coming back to B.
The place to start is with understanding time. Note that I don’t use the phrase “time management.” That comes second. 
As I’ve written before, kids today don’t know how to tell time. Many don’t know how to read a regular clock because they’re used to only seeing time in a digital format. They see time as numbers on a screen; they don’t understand the passing of time. If you know how to tell time on an analog clock, you can see the hands moving. You can appreciate the passing of time. Students with ADHD need to be able to understand time better so utilize that time better.
There are so many benefits to helping students understand something the rest of us take for granted. Mastering time management takes stress off their shoulders, makes them more independent, enables them to manage their schoolwork better, and gives them a better chance at getting off to a good start in college.
Regardless of how old your children maybe now, it’s critical to be thinking ahead to college. When they’re in middle school or high school, support services are available when they need them. They don’t always get that same support in college, and oftentimes many students don’t know how to ask for what they need once they get there.
I work on a variety of other areas with ADHD students, too – everything from teaching them how to maintain order in their rooms to developing project management processes to helping them stay on top of their homework and other assignments.
Getting the right help and learning new skills makes students feel better about themselves. Anytime people have a learning challenge, the first questions they often ask themselves are, “Why me? Why do I have to deal with this?” (Up to 9 percent of students may suffer from ADHD, but that fact doesn’t make it any easier for them.) If they’re able to manage these questions and feel more like all of their friends, it makes a big difference.
Parents are grateful when they see their children’s lives improving. They become less stressed themselves, and they feel better because they’re not getting after their kids all the time.
Usually, as students get more organized, their grades go up, too.
If you would like to explore how I could help your students better navigate the world of ADHD and school, contact me today to schedule an initial consultation.
Working privately with your students on a self-improvement vision can go a long way to helping them face and conquer the challenges they’re confronting now – and prepare them for the ones ahead.
