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First week–help with focus for ADHD child
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Well, we’ve finally begun! Well, just math and a bit of penmanship, some character study and lit read-a-loud (which I don’t really count becasue we’ve always done that) the last three days, really, but I thought that was more than a sufficient start considering we spent the last week out of province in a hotel room. Not exactly the ideal place to start, but I thought it worked well enough. I had the week off work (I work mornings 9-12) so we travelled with my dh who had to be in Prince Edward Island for the week. How fitting that our read aloud has been Anne of Green Gables! This morning we visited the Green Gables house before heading home to NS.
I’m sure things will improve and we’ll feel like we are accomplishing more as time progresses. There really hasn’t been too much narration happening yet. I am starting to get a better idea of how my children learn and I may have to switch from Math Mammoth to Math-U-See for at least one of them — maybe both. My older seems to be a very a combination of visual/kinetic, he really needs the manipulatives. I’ve started him with the grade 3 Math Mammoth, but right now it looks like we need to go a little slower than anticipated.
My younger ds I have the grade 2 for, and when you can get him to focus he flies through it. Unfortunately with his ADHD, focusing for even two minutes can be very difficult for him. I’m not sure how to handle this yet. I want to keep lessons short, but it might take him 20 mins to finish one page because he is playing with the chair, climbing, talking, distracted by something he hears or sees out of the corner of his eye, decides he’s thirsty, has a thought in his head that he must share NOW or burst. This past week we were going to the pool as a reward when he got the page done, but it has taken a few breaks to do something else then coming back to it.
Thankfully his older brother is much more focused and independant, but he does get overwhelmed sometimes looking at numbers on a page — especially if they are large numbers or there are multiple steps. He needs me to just slow him down and put the manipulatives in front of him — I fill in the answers on the worksheets while he does the work beside me and he does fine. With his dysgraphia, writing in answers slows him down considerably.
Is it ok that I do this? I’ve been doing it for the younger as well, partially to try to keep the momentum going once he gets going, partly to avoid his tendacy to doodle all over the page or chew pencils (he ‘ate’ a lot of pencils in PS last year). Also, any advice to helping him to focus for longer stretches?
My dd does not have ADHD, but she has some sensory processing issues, specifically proprioceptive, visual, and tactile senses. She has a lot of trouble focusing, and narration is very difficult (sometimes impossible) for her. I have found that allowing her to do a “heavy work” activity for a few minutes prior to sitting down to listen to a reading is helpful for her focusing ability. Heavy work activities (she is sensory seeking) include swinging, riding her bike, pushing a heavy box around, running around, and vacuuming. Anything that requires her to expend her built-up energy counts as heavy work. Also, my dd LOVES deep pressure massage. You can Google that for more info, but it also feeds her sensory-seeking need for touch and movement.
I think what you’re doing with your ds is fine, if it’s working. He’s only 7 or 8, right? His need to climb, play with the chair, or whatever seems like a sensory-seeking tendency. Have you looked into SPD? I’m not one for labels, but I do know that 70% of kids with SPD have actually been misdiagnosed with ADD/ADHD. Just a thought that might help you some. I know that understanding my dd helped all of us out tremendously.
Blessings,
Lindsey
If he has ADHD, let him move around. If my son has to stil for too long, he just can’t focus and he can even get irritble.
Do you have anything he can hold in his hand? Silly putty, play-doh, etc? He can fidget with this.
Also, balance balls!!! My son even hangs upside down from the edge of the sofa and reads. Whatever works. I will ask him to narrate so I know he has read it … and he has! This article, though I don’t agree with all of it, does talk about the benefit of sitting on a balance ball. You can get inexpensive ones at sporting good stores.
http://life.gaiam.com/article/how-sitting-ball-helps-kids-focus-and-do-better-school
I’m glad I happened upon this post. We’re on our 4th week of school and already I’m reverting back to doing school like “school”. I think I do this out of fear that my kids will get behind but it’s funny because it goes against the whole reason I decided to h.s. this year. Anyhow, my 9 yr old son also has sensory issues and has a hard time focusing especially during math and having the abacus out in front of him can even make it more difficult. The reminder to have a ball or something for him to squeeze while he is sitting to do math is very helpful. I agree about the balance ball. My son luckily had a teacher last year that was willing to experiment with children sitting on the ball and she said it helped him. I think I’ll have to get ours back out 🙂
Something else to try with the overwhelming page of “stuff” is to cover up the rows underneath with a blank paper. This removes several areas of distraction, not the least of which is the overwhelming part. My dd has APD (ADD like) and this helps so much.
The thing in the hand will be very important to you…it really does help ground a child to pay attention. I can handle the hand thing much better than the swinging from a chair. =) A mini trampoline in the house 5 minutes between subjects might help too. I notice the more hands on I can be the better I get the attention.
Use all the manipulatives you need, and print the extra worksheets from the MM site – I was totally suprised at how I reacted to that curriculum…and I have been doing math for a while. =) I also just got the games from the RightStart b/c everyone talks about how much they have helped their kids…my dd seems to enjoy math much more this way. I actually have had to take my kids down a grade level or two just b/c I don’t see the grasp of it from the PS experience. (It’s soooo hard to not compare my family to others at times, but this will benefit my kiddos best).
One other thing…keep a record of what he eats, when he is most calm, when he is more energetic, etc for a couple of weeks and see if there is a pattern or rythum that you can adapt to for some of the more intense study times. Also notice if a paticular food sets him off and avoid when you need attention. I know we all talk alot of diet and not everyone wants to hear…but lots of us are learning in the pit of desperation (learning/behavior-wise) what food can do to your body. =)
Thanks to all of you! Today went much better and he did most of his work independantly! Just sat down and went right to it. He had his reading, copywork and math done in no time flat! Go figure. I have found that reading lessons or literature during lunch or colouriing has helped a little, also. A ball sounds interesting and we will have to look into that. I wonder how distracting that would be for our extremely ball crazy puppy…
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