ADHD Strategies for Students: Dr. Emily Levy on Helping Neurodivergent Learners Succeed
Many students with ADHD and learning disabilities struggle with their executive functioning skills. These skills may include organization, homework management, working memory, time management, and prioritization. In this episode of the Fully Mindful Podcast, Dr. Emily Levy shares concrete strategies elementary, middle, and high school students can use to improve their study skills, homework management, and time management skills. These ADHD strategies can help students manage their schoolwork more effectively.
Use a Calendar to Improve Organizational Skills for ADHD Students
Calendars serve as great tools for helping ADHD students stay organized. The key is to use them consistently. Some students prefer to write in a physical calendar while others like using digital calendars, including one on a smart phone. Either option is a good executive functioning strategy but make sure you enter all assignments and obligations into your calendar as soon as you find out about them. You can even try color coding the items you enter based on category; for example, you or your ADHD child might highlight school assignments in blue, sports activities in green, and social engagements in yellow. If you are using a calendar on a smart phone, try setting reminders to alert you when a due date or social obligation is coming up.
Create a Homework Routine
For students with ADHD, setting up a consistent homework routine is key. They should pick a designated time of day when they will complete their homework. This could be right after school when they are still in “school mode” or after a snack or athletic break. Any of these options can work as long as your child stays consistent with completing their homework at this designated homework time. Also help your child set up a study space optimized for ADHD students. This space could be a desk in their room or a spot on the kitchen or dining room table. Make sure they have all necessary supplies in their study space, including pens, pencils, paper, highlighters – any tools they may need for completing their work. If the stock of supplies starts to run low, refill it right away to prevent your child from wandering around your home searching for supplies in the middle of homework session. Also, if your child works at your kitchen or dining room table, you may want to set up a portable homework bin containing all supplies they need for completing their homework that they can carry with them to and from their homework sessions.
Integrate Structured Breaks to Improve Focus
It can be hard for anyone to sit in one place for a long stretch of time working on what may feel like endless homework. For those with ADHD, this challenge is typically even greater. Encourage your ADHD child to use an executive functioning strategy by building structured breaks into their homework sessions. For instance, they might set a timer and work for 25 minutes straight, then take a 5-minute break – and do two more cycles of 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break. After three of these cycles, they may take a longer break of perhaps 15-20 minutes. Feel free to tweak the length of the break times based on your child’s stamina and needs. The key to this executive functioning strategy is breaking down very large stretches of time into manageable increments. Study skills tutoring or executive functioning coaching may be helpful to further help your child develop these skills.
Teach Students with ADHD How to Prioritize Tasks
Being able to effectively prioritize tasks can be a challenge for both children and adults with ADHD. Help your ADHD child learn to prioritize with a color-coding strategy. If they have eight items to complete, for instance, have them write down each task on a list and then categorize them into “high,” “medium” or “low” priority level. Then they can choose a color to associate with each priority level. For instance, they may highlight items with a high level of priority in yellow, those with a medium level of priority in green, and those with a low level of priority in blue – then complete the tasks in order of high to low priority. If your child continues to struggle to prioritize tasks, you might consider executive functioning coaching.
Students with ADHD and learning disabilities can excel academically when they build stronger executive functioning skills. Strategies including using calendars, creating regular homework routines, building in structured breaks, and prioritizing tasks can help tremendously. Try implementing these strategies at home to help your child develop stronger organization, planning, focusing, and study skills.
Does your child have ADHD or struggle with their executive functioning skills? EBL Coaching can help them with individualized one-on-one tutoring and executive functioning coaching. Learn more about us at www.eblcoaching.com.
Read more about ADHD strategies at
https://eblcoaching.com/study-strategies-for-your-adhd-child/
Frequently Asked Questions About ADHD Strategies
Why are structured routines helpful for students with ADHD?
Structured routines can help students with ADHD minimize distractions, improve their time management skills, and build stronger study habits. Executive functioning coaching sessions can help your child develop structured study routines.
Can tutoring help students with ADHD?
Yes, absolutely! Tutoring can help students with ADHD develop academic and executive functioning skills. These skills might include planning, organization, time management, task initiation and study strategies.
What is executive functioning coaching?
Executive functioning coaching helps students with ADHD build important executive functioning skills, such as prioritizing, organizing, planning, managing time, and structuring their homework assignments.
Read more about how ADHD tutoring can help your child at https://eblcoaching.com/can-tutoring-help-your-child-with-adhd/.
You can listen to this full podcast here! How to Help Adults and Children with ADHD and Learning Differences