Kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will experience an extra hard time to study and they will take a longer time to finish any homework given. ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder of children, whereby they are hyperactive, unable to control their impulses and have trouble paying attention. Don’t be a stressed-out, as a nagging parent will only make your child’s condition worse. In this article, we will explore ways to aid children with ADHD to study better.
Symptoms of ADHD
Do look out for these symptoms to see if your child has ADHD. Your child may not be an absolute nuisance or intentionally giving you trouble. Your child may just have ADHD which needs a different type of parenting to handle them.
What can you do?
Studying with ADHD can be daunting enough for your child, hence, parents need to have patience when handling them. Setting a structured routine for your child can help them to focus and study better. They do not need to study MORE, they just need to study DIFFERENTLY.
1) Have a designated homework or study station
2) Schedule interval study time
As kids with ADHD have troubles staying focus and seated for a long time, it is impossible to make them study for a solid one hour. Parents can schedule a few 20-minute sessions with playtime or snack in between. When you see improvements in your child, you can then slowly extend the session. Another alternative would be to switch subjects every session: Math to English to Science and back to Math. This way, you can tackle your child’s trouble to stay focus on one thing for a long time.
3) Stay on schedule
Your child will have trouble managing time and they get off track easily. To tackle this, after having a schedule set accordingly, ensure that your child follows it. You can use a toy timer to keep him on track for each section. Having small deadlines for your child will slowly help them to get tasks done on time.
4) Study timing
If your child is taking ADHD medication, they are most likely to study better earlier in the afternoon as the medication is still in effect. Otherwise, parents have to monitor your child and see if they could focus better in the afternoon or evening as every child may be different. Some children can study better after an afternoon nap while some do not.
5) Create practice tests
If a child with ADHD has trouble putting focus, they will have an even harder time going for examinations. Many will end up disturbing other students and not finishing the examination. As the saying goes, ‘Practice makes perfect”, parents can set practice tests to slowly train your child. Start with a few questions and slowly increase them as you see improvements.
6) Send your child for a sports lesson
Sports is a good way to improve your child’s focus and executive functioning skills. And as much as your child with ADHD hates studying because they hate sitting still, they will love sports! This way, you will be able to sharpen their focus on their body and mind while catering to their interest in ‘hyperactivity’. Although any sports will help, the most recommended ones are ballet, badminton, yoga and swimming.
7) Motivate with rewards
Kids being kids, they will always be motivated with rewards when they do a good job. It is okay to reward your child as a small encouragement for them to push themselves further. Rewards do not have to come in the form of gifts. To make things more interesting for ADHD kids, parents can consider playing a trading time with them. For example, for every homework they complete, you will reward your child with a coin and they can turn the coins in later for rewards like playtime or TV time.
There you go! Most importantly for parents with ADHD children is to never get agitated and annoyed by your child. Patience and proper parenting is all it takes to improve their condition. Do let us know if you have more suggestions on helping ADHD kids in the comments below!