6min chapter

ADHD Experts Podcast cover image

439- New Year, New Strategies: Helping Students with ADHD Plan, Persist, and Achieve Their Goals

ADHD Experts Podcast

CHAPTER

Getting Outside Help for ADHD Kids

Kathy Stewart: You need your child to have a system for keeping up with organization. She says if you find that you're still butting heads with your child, it's great to seek support. As kids get older, executive functions are really taxed in academics, she says. "We can control the positivity we bring to the equation," Stewart says.

00:00
Speaker 1
Another part of that time could be a clean sweep. Maybe it's not planning, that's the biggest issue. Perhaps it is organization and you need to, you need your child to have a system for keeping up with organization. Because the truth is when kids start out the year, they're super organized, but as the year goes on, they're not. But this really helps. So every week you say, all right, let's do our clean sweep. So it might be your kids are organizing their backpack, their study area for older kids. It could be their digital files, cleaning up their inbox and email, organizing their digital calendar or cleaning up their desktop with lots of loose documents. But what I would recommend is that it's consistent. It's every week. You know, if you've heard this webinar and you're thinking, there's a lot here. Start with one thing. Start with something easy. Maybe this. And do it every week. Ideally, your role in this is to set that structure. And outside of that structure, if you find that you're still butting heads with your child, it's great to seek support. I've found a lot of value in getting help, you know, when it's not you. Sometimes kids will do great things with other people, not always their parent. So outside help, we'll talk about that in a second. It provides that consistency as well. And that other piece, which is accountability. What I would recommend if you decide to get outside help is to find somebody your child will work well with. And that means, you know, kids with ADHD can be personality specific. So finding somebody that they're going to have a good rapport with is really important. And that what they're doing relates to what they're doing in school so that they feel like they're actually learning this for a reason and they're getting some of their work done. It creates more buy-in. Also, completing some of those assignments is helpful. All of these things help to increase motivation or goal achievement. So it could be you helping. If you have that relationship with your child, it could be after school or at lunch with the teacher. It could be another adult. It could be a professional, which was what we do. But regardless, it should be consistent. Lastly as we close, I want to mention that we can't always control the things our kids do. We just can't. We can control what we do. And we can control the positivity we bring to the equation. We want to preserve relationships. Pairing a kid with ADHD is hard. It's difficult. But if we can, as much as possible, keep it positive, it will preserve our relationship later on. And then lastly, oh, one more thing if you don't mind before we end, I mentioned that as kids get older, executive function demands increase a lot. When they're little, it's kind of like, oh, put those toys away. Keep that area of the living room organized. Don't forget your mitten and your gloves and brush your teeth. But as kids get older, executive functions are really taxed in academics. Oh, you've got these long-term assignments due. You've got competing demands from all these teachers. But there's no greater time this happens than when kids are thinking about college. And I found that with kids with ADHD, sometimes they're not sure. Should I be college-bound? I don't know. And sometimes parents don't always have that conversation. But I would encourage you to have it early, starting in ninth grade, even if it's a question, oh, college, have you started thinking about that, setting a time to discuss? I created a checklist that can help you with that in high school what to do at each grade level. So in ninth grade, what should freshmen do to open up the dialogue and think ahead? They're sophomore year, they're junior, and finally they're senior year. It is incredibly involved applying to college. And starting that earlier truly reduces a lot of stress. So I want to thank everybody here. Oh, and by the way, if you would like that document for you, if you have a high school or even a middle schooler, you can get that one by texting the same number, college, 554 to that number, and email me, and Dolan at EC Tutoring if you're outside of the US. So as we wrap up, I want to let you know, we're here to help. If should you have any questions about what I've shared today? If you would like to schedule a call to discuss your child to see if we're a good match for what your student needs, happy to talk. I have three program managers that are specific to ADHD and executive function, Kathy, Jennifer, and Ann Stewart. So if you get your phone and you hold it up to this QR code, it will take you to their calendar and you can schedule a time to chat. So thank you so much, Attitude. It was such a pleasure to speak with you today. Again, my name is Ann Dolan and I'd be more than happy to answer your
Speaker 2
questions.

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