• School Success
• Tips for Home
• Foods
• Common Sense Tips for Parents

School Success

• Check assignment sheet daily; you may want to record on calendar.


• Help child monitor school supplies and replenish before they run out.


• Help your child set up notebooks and supplies to stay organized. Use a separate "tab" for assignments and instructions.


• Require notebooks be brought home daily, even weekends and holidays.


• Develop a system of rewards to reinforce behaviors you want. Keep it simple.


• Know what is happening in your child's classroom; know the teacher; volunteer when you can.


• Make a study spot at home with scheduled "study times." Keep distractions minimal. Eliminate clutter.


• Make study time positive. Start or end with asking about their day at school. Listen.


• For long assignments, help set short range goals. Use a timer and check progress frequently.


• Have a spot by the door for the child's school work and books so they don't forget to take them to school the next day.


• If possible, do not use bedroom for study; this is distracting. Bed should be associated with sleep.

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Tips for Home

• Have a schedule with set times for waking, bedtime, chores, homework, etc. Explain changes in routine ahead of time.


• Set clear rules of behavior with consequences for breaking them and rewards for appropriate behavior. Be consistent. Posting rules is helpful.


• Be firm on setting limits but give plenty of love and affection, too.


• Make instructions simple, breaking them into smaller parts when needed. Demonstrate if necessary. Ask child to repeat instructions back. Praise when child responds correctly.


• Minimize child's stimulation level by removing unused toys and eliminating needless background noise from TVs and radios. Limit play to one child at a time; involve him in one activity at a time.


• Don't repeat or over explain. Say it once: briefly, clearly, firmly and calmly. Follow through with a logical consequence.


• Provide supervision by being physically near the child.


• Give choices within set limits.


• Use a timer with homework and small chores to help give child a sense of passing time.


• Keep your voice quiet and slow when talking to your child.

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Foods

• Keep a diary of foods eaten and effects, if any, on behaviors. Although rare, allergies may sometimes produce reactions similar to hyperactivity. Some foods to watch for are: chocolate, tomato products, wheat, sugar, milk products and peanuts.


• Also note any strong reactions (i.e. headaches) to fumes from perfumes, inks, detergents, cleaning products, etc.

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Common Sense Tips for Parents

• The ADHD child needs compassionate understanding. Understand that the condition is real; it involves essential deficits; the child did not cause the condition; and much can be done to help the ADHD child, both at home and at school. You are your child's best advocate.


• Parents need to work together for the common good of the ADHD child. Both parents need similar policies about and reactions to the child's various actions. This requires good communication between the parents.


• Be realistic about what to expect from your child. In school, some courses have a lot of detail and place heavy demands on attention and memory. A combination of these classes in one semester may be too much for the student to be successful even if they are intellectually able to assimilate the material. For example, a foreign language and difficult mathematics course taken in the same semester would be too taxing.


• Help your child find ways to be successful and earn recognition. Encourage art work, story telling, musical ability, physical prowess and interesting hobbies.


• Don't try to deal with all of the child's undesirable traits at one time. Pick one or two that need the most work and focus on them.


• It's unrealistic to expect the child to change dramatically overnight. Look for steady improvement (as opposed to a cure) and try not to use threats. Temper criticism with praise each day. The goals should be to decrease the frequency and severity of inappropriate behavior.

Adapted from: Developmental Variations and Learning Disorders, by Melvin D. Levine.
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