What Is the Task Timer App and How Can It Help Students With ADHD?

Task Timer – Task Management App – App Store

Task Timer is a great executive functioning tool for helping students with ADHD strengthen their time management skills. Using this app, they can set times for specific tasks using a built-in visual timer, and can break down homework assignments, projects, and other school assignments into manageable steps. Students can add new tasks, like projects or upcoming tests, then set deadlines, receive notifications, add notes to tasks, and even filter them to just show overdue tasks. There are many useful features on this app to help students with ADHD build stronger time management skills.

What is MindNode and how can it help students with executive functioning challenges?

MindNode

MindNode is a useful app for students with ADHD that helps them organize their ideas into visual maps and outlines. This tool is useful for brainstorming before writing a paragraph or essay, along with taking notes when reading or listening to a lecture. Using the app, students can connect their thoughts with branches, group them together, and create visual maps to help them present information in an organized manner. The visual maps can also be converted into outlines, helping students see their ideas in different formats. The app offers customized colors, themes, and stickers.

What is the myHomework app and how can it help students who struggle managing their homework?

myHomework Student Planner & Digital Hall Pass System

myHomework is a digital assignment book that helps students with ADHD track their homework, projects, upcoming tests, and schedules. It allows users to create customized themes and includes reminders of upcoming due dates, the ability to prioritize tasks, and calendar synchronization. It’s easy for students to enter new tasks and then organize them by specific classes or due dates. The app can be used to break tasks down into individual, more manageable steps, helping students feel less overwhelmed and more on top of their workload. This is a great app for building time management, focusing, and study skills. It is a great organization app!

Opal

Opal – The #1 Screen Time App

Opal is a great app for helping students with ADHD build their focusing skills and avoid distractions so they can stay on task when completing their schoolwork. With the app, users can set a list of websites and apps that will be blocked or limited when they are working. It helps prevent mindless scrolling and surfing online for hours on end. Instead, it tracks app usage, gives students scores and information about their habits, and even integrates rewards to help them stay focused and motivated.

What is the app Flashcards Deluxe and how can it help students improve their study skills?

Flashcards Deluxe Lite App – App Store

Flashcards Deluxe is a useful app for helping students with ADHD create digital flash cards that they can use when studying and memorizing information for quizzes and tests. They can create their own flash cards or download shared ones and then can organize their cards into different categories and themes. It allows students to create visual drawings on their cards or add pictures, and integrates repetition of cards students struggled with, helping to ensure they learn the information before they are tested. Additionally, the app offers a text-to-speech feature and includes quizzes on the information they are studying with multiple choice answers.

Students with ADHD often struggle with the rising organizational demands of school. Encourage your child to try these apps to help them build stronger time management, planning, organization, and overall executive functioning skills.

While apps can be helpful tools for students who have ADHD, most students can benefit from one-on-one executive functioning coaching to further develop these skills.

If you are looking for individualized tutoring or executive functioning coaching in NYC, contact us at www.eblcoaching.com to see how we can help your child.

Frequently asked Questions

How do I choose the right app for a student with ADHD?
When choosing an app for your child with ADHD, consider the specific difficulties your child is having. If they need help with time management, choose an app that helps them build time management skills. Likewise, if they struggle with organization, staying on task, or study skills, find apps that can help them develop those skills.

Which apps help students with ADHD build their organizational skills?

There are many apps that can help students with ADHD build their organizational skills. Some of these apps include myHomework, Task Timer, and MindNode.

Do apps really help students with ADHD focus?
Yes! There are many apps that can help your child with ADHD improve their focusing ability. The apps can help them set reminders, reduce distractions, and learn tips for improving their executive functioning skills.

Dr. Emily Levy has been helping students with ADHD build their academic and executive functioning skills for over 20 years.

The post 5 Best Apps for Students with ADHD appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Start nurturing the focusing skills school demands

Your Kindergartner’s teacher tells you that he consistently has trouble staying focused at school. He misses directions, forgets to bring home books, and loses his belongings. You may notice these patterns at home, too. His room is a mess, his toys are frequently missing, and he seems downright scattered. As students move through school, they are required to stay focused on tasks for increasing amounts of time. Help your Kindergartner develop stronger focusing skills with the ideas detailed below.

Set a Timer

Many, especially those who have challenges staying focused, become antsy after just a few minutes of being engaged in an activity. Help your child extend his focusing window using a timer for completing tasks. Start by setting the timer for 10 minutes and have him work on a given activity for that period of time. When the timer rings, give him a five-minute break, then have him work for 10 more minutes, then take another five-minute break, and so on. After several days or weeks of following this pattern, try increasing the “focusing window” to, say, 12 minutes, then 14 minutes, and so on. You might also find that you need to start with a shorter initial time window if even 10 minutes is too long for your child. The key is to start with a small window and increase it as your child develops stronger focusing skills.

Limit Screen Time

Most parents have witnessed their child watching television with such focus that they seem to be in a “zone,” completely out-of-touch with their surroundings. This type of focus, known as “hyperfocus,” when a person focuses on one subject exclusively, can harm a child’s ability to excel in school.‎ At school, kids need to have strong “intentional focus,” which involves setting a goal and focusing on it for a given amount of time. Instead of allowing your child to zone out while watching television, encourage her to engage in hands-on activities that require intentional focus, such as building a castle using blocks, finishing a coloring book, or completing a worksheet.

Play Games

Play active games that help strengthen your child’s focusing skills, such as Follow the Leader or Simon Says. To play Follow the Leader, a leader is chosen to head the line while the rest of the players line up behind him. The leader performs certain actions and the other players mimic them. Any player who does not correctly “follow the leader” is out. ‎Likewise, with Simon Says, one player, deemed “Simon,” dictates specific actions for the players. The players must only follow Simon if his command begins with “Simon says,” requiring players to stay focused and only move when these words are spoken. Those who follow an action without the words “Simon says” are out. By practicing these types of games, your child will learn to focus better on a given task, a skill that transfers directly to the classroom.

Integrate Rewards

Most children, especially those of Kindergarten-age, respond well to rewards. Set up a rewards system to help your child develop stronger focusing skills. For instance, create a chart with stickers. When she successfully completes a 10-minute activity without getting distracted, for instance, she earns a sticker. If she earns, say, ten stickers, she earns a prize from your “prize box,” which could be a shoe box filled with small toys such as bouncy balls, sticky hands, bracelets, and so on. If those types of prizes don’t motivate her, sit down with her and come up with rewards that excite her, such as extra screen time, a trip to the movies, or a special lunch date.

If you find that even after trying these tactics, your child still struggles tremendously to stay focused, and is also disorganized, scattered, and forgetful, he may have a deeper attentional challenge, such as ADHD. If that’s the case, a complete evaluation may be useful so that appropriate accommodations and services can be integrated into his classroom. For others, however, using the strategies above can help them develop stronger focusing skills and academic success.

The post Four Ways To Help Your Kindergartner Focus appeared first on EBL Coaching.