Speaker 1: A question I am frequently asked is, what can the school do to help my child with ADHD? Aside from medication, accommodations can be made to optimize the environment to help a child with ADHD focus and learn. Some of those accommodations will be outlined next. Hi and welcome to my channel. I'm Kim Feeney with Butterfly Beginnings Counseling. I'm a licensed independent social worker and a registered play therapist supervisor. I have 10 years of experience helping children and families lead healthier emotional lives. And this is something I would like to help your family with as well. So subscribe, hit the bell for weekly notifications on the latest content. Students with ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, have difficulty with attention and self-control. To help these children, a partnership between parents and school is very beneficial to the student. While this video discusses school accommodations, to receive some parenting tips, download my free guide, 20 Parenting Tips for Kids with ADHD, with the link below in the description. At school, behaviors can look like inattention, distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and disorganization, all of which can get in the way of the child's learning. If we want children with ADHD to succeed, we must set them up for success, starting first with the classroom environment. Utilize flexible seating such as wiggle chairs, standing desks, footrests, seat cushions, or resistance band on the chair legs. This allows the child to move, which helps to regulate their nervous system. You can also help to eliminate distractions by increasing the space between desks or work tables, and set up preferential seating close to the teacher and or away from high traffic areas. Try designating a quiet workspace in the classroom in case the child becomes flooded and needs a quiet place just to calm down and regulate. ADHD kids thrive off of structure and routine, so have the teacher post a written or picture schedule of daily routines and rules when possible, and then let the student know in advance about any changes that the schedule may have. The next area we will discuss are ways to increase organizational skills. Teach the student to use an assignment planner or an electronic calendar. If possible, provide them an extra set of books at home to eliminate forgetting and the back and forth between home and school. This will increase their ability to complete assignments. Provide the child with folders and baskets of supplies to keep the desk organized, such as a basket for markers, one for headphones and electronics, and one for papers. Use color-coded materials for each subject, such as green for science or purple for math. And then, in the upper grades, provide typed notes or an outline of the lesson to help them follow along with the note-taking and increase the ability to process the lesson and follow along. When a teacher is giving instructions, have them give the directions out loud and in writing or pictures, and then have the student repeat them to ensure that they understand. Provide the student a lesson outline that details instructions and assignments. Keep the instructions simple, clear, and concrete. Limit the directions to one or two at a time. This helps the child to remember. Utilize pictures and graphs to help create visual interest. These children often need to learn through multiple modalities, such as auditory, visual, or hands-on kinesthetic. Provide a detailed rubric or outline that describes the elements of a successfully completed assignment. Let the students know what they're striving to achieve, and then help the student break up assignments into smaller, more manageable pieces, again, in for one or two directions at a time. Don't go for a five or six, and then the student will get lost. When the student is completing tests and assignments, allow understanding to be demonstrated in different ways, like oral reports, posters, and video presentations. Provide the child different ways to respond to test questions, like saying the answers out loud or circling them. To avoid overwhelm, minimize the number of questions and problems per worksheet. Instead, schedule frequent, short quizzes instead of one long unit-end test or quiz at the end. Accentuate the positive by giving credit for assignments that either have partial work or late work, and then work with the student to develop a plan to complete the full assignment later. Grade assignments for content, not for neatness. These kids often are disorganized and messy, so the handwriting skills are sometimes limited. And allow the students extra time and quieter space to work on tests and projects. In an effort to manage behaviors, use a behavior plan with a reward system. Use nonverbal signs, like a sticky note on the desk, or a hand on the shoulder to get the student's attention, and indicate the need for things like a mindfulness break. And make this communication two-way, so the student can then begin to read the cues in their own body and take breaks when they need it. Talk through behavior problems one-on-one with the child when they are in a regulated state. Check in frequently to monitor the student's emotional temperature or frustration level. In play therapy sessions with clients, I have worked together with the kids to create five-point scales based off their favorite characters from movies, CVs, or video games. I've used characters from Minecraft, Marvel Super Heroes, or Go Dog Go to implement this scale. For examples and illustrations, check out the links below in the description. When kids have ADHD, it's important to talk with their teachers or school about how it affects them. This will let teachers find ways to help your child be successful in the classroom. Here are some tips for talking to your child's teachers in school about their child's ADHD. To begin with, make a scheduled appointment. Instead of trying to catch teachers in the morning or after school, set up a 15-20 minute appointment. That's going to be enough time to begin the conversation without interruption. If it's necessary, provide some psychoeducation about ADHD. Your child's teachers may know something about the disorder, but they may not have enough good information on it. Ask the teacher how familiar they are with ADHD and whether they've taught kids with ADHD in the past. If their knowledge is limited, or if their examples don't resemble what your child's behaviors and distractions are, you can explain ADHD as a condition that affects kids in different ways. For instance, not all kids with ADHD are hyperactive. Some kids just struggle with inattention. Give the staff specifics on how ADHD impacts your child. And since ADHD does look different for every child, let the teachers know what they're most likely to experience from your child in their classroom. Does your child tend to talk out of turn? Is it hard to get your child back on track when their attention wandered? Is your child very disorganized? If your child has a hard time controlling their emotions, that's important for the school to know too. Discuss the current accommodations in place. Don't assume your child's teachers know the details of your child's IEP or 504 plan, especially if the child is going to a different school. Provide a copy and ask them to look over the accommodations. Also, make it clear that you do expect your child to meet the school expectations with this support in place. Be open to sharing strategies that have and have not worked for your child. If there are strategies or systems your child has used successfully with teachers in the past, share them. Maybe a daily schedule was helpful, or maybe you give cues that help your child notice when it's time to get back on task. Explain why the strategies were successful. And again, be sure to mention what hasn't worked too. Teachers may suggest things that have worked well for other students in their classrooms. They might have ideas on how to adapt techniques to fit your child's needs or to improve strategies that haven't worked for your child in the past. Again, together you can come up with a plan for trying informal strategies to help your child in the classroom environment. Remember, we are looking to form a partnership to best help your child. Asking how you can help shows that you want to work as a team to make sure everybody has a good year. It can make them feel supported and reassure the teachers that you're available for further communication. Teachers who feel supported may be more likely to reach out to you before a problem becomes large and unmanageable. Be sure to work out the best way to stay in contact. For example, do they prefer email, text, or telephone? Establishing a working relationship with the school is the most effective way to help your child with ADHD to succeed. Again, if you're looking for tips to help at home too, remember to grab 20 Parenting Tips for ADHD Kids with the link below in the description. If you found this video helpful, give it a thumbs up, subscribe, and share with a friend or a teacher. Here are some other videos that you also may find useful. Thank you for watching and wherever you are in your day, hug your child and make it a great one.