ADHD and poor attention span go hand in hand. In fact, inattentiveness is one of the consistent symptoms of ADHD that is evident in all people who have it. So, our kids with ADHD naturally have trouble maintaining attention, especially if they don’t like the subject at hand.

The good news is that we can help them to extend their attention spans, but – it won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen without lots of input from us. Of course, if you are a parent with ADHD (as I am), you’ll have to fight your own attention battles, and you might want to try these activities yourself so you can be consistent with them. 🙂

If you’d like to help your children learn to focus for longer periods, try these suggestions about how to increase attention span in your kids with ADHD!

How to Increase Attention Span for Kids with ADHD

Encourage them to take notes.

One of the things we’ve done with our kids is to encourage them to take notes whenever they have to listen for an extended period of time. We attend meetings at an American Sign Language congregation, which is completely silent. As you can imagine, getting them to sit down and pay attention was a challenge. 🙂

Letting them take notes helped a ton. We don’t require that they write the entire time, either. Sometimes they draw pictures of what they see, which is actually a big help in understanding ASL.

Personally, I’m a visual learner, so when I take notes I use bullet points, multi-colored pens, and arrows to draw my attention to specific items. Mixing things up like that can also make it easier to pay attention.

Stimulate their senses.

We can also help our kids to pay attention longer by involving as many of their senses as possible. If you’re teaching a lesson in your homeschool, use bright pictures, upbeat music, and movement whenever you can. These additions can make your lessons more interesting, which will help your kids maintain focus.

If you have children with sensory integration issues, these kinds of activities are even more important. We’ll talk more about sensory issues in tomorrow’s post.

Use timed focus sessions.

You can also make paying attention into a mini-challenge. Establish special “focus periods” – short, intense periods when the kids will pay attention to a topic as closely as they can. Start with a few minutes, 2 to 5, and then gradually increase them based on age level.

You might even want to add an incentive for each milestone they reach. For example, if they can pay attention to a lesson for 10 minutes and show it by remembering three key points, they get an extra 10 minutes of screen time.

Have you been able to help your kids with ADHD increase attention span? Share your secrets in the comments!

This post is part of the 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 28: When ADHD and SPD Collide!

Raise your hand if your child loves using a tablet. *everyone’s hand in the world goes up*

Digital devices are everywhere these days. And it’s pretty common for kids to use screen devices, such as tablets, computers, and TVs, all the time – even for educational purposes.

For kids with ADHD, though, excessive screen time can pose some serious problems. While it’s unlikely that watching TV will cause ADHD, it can certainly worsen the symptoms. Many television programs and movies are designed to cater to short attention spans, which is something that people with ADHD do not need help developing. Not to mention that an excessive amount of screen time can actually contribute to behavioral problems in some kids, including aggression, irritability, and hyperactivity.

Personally, I don’t know if screen time is actually worsening my kids’ ADHD, but I do know that when they watch it for too long, they have an extremely difficult time settling down, listening, and paying attention afterward. So in our family, we use very clear screen time limits for kids and they seem to be working for us. Here are a few of the suggestions we’ve tried.

Setting Screen Time Limits for Kids with ADHD

Set a daily allotment of screen time.

On school days, we have a limit of no more than one hour of screen time per day. When we’re doing a relaxed day, I might let them watch more, depending on the content. If they want to watch a documentary, I don’t mind if it’s three hours long. If they want to watch Phineas and Ferb, I set the limit to no more than two episodes. They get so worked up after Phineas and Ferb that I can just forget about getting anything else productive done that day. 🙂

Time it right.

If I want my kids to take a nap in the afternoon, I’ve found that I simply cannot let them watch television or play a video game that morning. They won’t settle down enough to rest. So, if I intend for them to take a nap, I save screen time until after they get up from resting.

We also don’t watch television with them in the evenings. TV after dinner means an extremely lengthy wind-down period before bed. If we watch anything with them, we try to do so before 5 p.m. That way, we have about three hours before bedtime to help them begin calming down.

Tie screen time to schoolwork.

In our family, the kids have to earn screen time based on their schoolwork for that day. I make a list of assignments or topics we have to cover that day. If we get through them all and their work is up to par, they earn screen time at the end of the day.

We do complete some school assignments on the computer. But I try to use low-intensity programs and websites such as Khan Academy and Essential Skills Advantage. They don’t have the loud noises and frenetic action of some other educational sites, and I notice that my kids do a better job of focusing when we use them.

Have you struggled with setting screen time limits for kids with ADHD in your family? How do you avoid excessive screen time with your kids? Let us know in the comments!

This post is part of the 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 27: How to Increase Attention Span in ADHD Kids!

If you have kids who are living with ADHD, you’ve probably experienced this scenario:

You assign your child some schoolwork. You walk away. You come back 15 minutes later and your child is sitting in the exact same position he was in when you left. You look at the schoolwork. He has managed to write his name and that’s it.

You ask: “What have you been doing all this time?!?” The answer you get is: “Um….” or “I don’t know. I was just….”

As frustrating as this sounds, it is pretty normal. Since kids who have ADHD have a hard time maintaining their focus long enough to finish something, it can seem as if your child will never learn how to do his schoolwork without you standing right there.

The good news is that our kids with ADHD can learn how to work independently, but they’ll need some help from us to do it.

Tips for Helping Kids with ADHD to Work Independently

Start with bite-sized assignments.

Start small, and I mean very small. If you use worksheets, assign your child ONE problem or question and ask him to complete it before you come back into the room. If that goes well, assign ONE more. If that one goes well, assign ONE more, then stop.

At this point, it doesn’t matter if the work is done correctly. It may not be. In fact, your child’s answers may not even be in the same galaxy with the right answer. But if he did the work on his own, that’s a victory for that day.

Stay close to your child while he works.

I got this idea from a fabulous blog post by Coach Carlene, and it really does work. Stay in the same general vicinity with your child. Don’t stand around waiting for her to finish, because that can just make her anxious. But remain near enough to observe discreetly.

When Tigger does her independent work, I try to stay nearby. If she’s at the dining room table, I’ll use that time to clean the kitchen. If she’s working on the sofa, I’ll go fold laundry on the other side of the living room. Just having me in her line of sight does wonders for her focus.

Give lots of praise.

When your child completes something on his own for the very first time, shower him with praise! Don’t focus on the accuracy of the work. Even if it’s accurate, that’s not the goal (yet).

The goal is for him to stick with his work without needing you to prod him along. If he does that today and you give praise for it, he’s more likely to try again tomorrow.

Have you had trouble helping your kids with ADHD work on their own? How do you encourage them to work independently? Share your tips in the comments!

This post is part of the 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 23: Homework Strategies for ADHD Kids!

We’ve been talking about ADHD all month long – what it is, how it affects people who have it, and how the brain of a person who has ADHD operates. If you’re just finding our series or if your eyes have glazed over because of all the posts so far, don’t worry! Today we’re going to start talking about what we can do to help our kids with ADHD learn. 🙂

One of the main concerns for people who have ADHD is maintaining focus, not just attention, but focus. Focus is what helps us start a project, pay attention to it, and complete it. For many people with ADHD (like myself), starting projects and assignments is easy. It’s the finishing that gives us the most trouble.

If you’re homeschooling (or even if your kids attend public school), they’ve got to learn how to finish their assignments, whether they have ADHD or not. But if you’re teaching them at home, you’ll have a lot more room to adapt as a teacher. So – here are a few homeschool teaching tips for ADHD kids that you can try this week!

Homeschool Teaching Tips for ADHD Kids

Use lots and lots of energy.

Now when I say “lots of energy”, I mean LOTS OF ENERGY. Think Robin Williams in Dead Poets’ Society. Stand on tables, jump up and down, burst into song in the middle of a sentence…you get the idea. And I’m only half joking.

The days that our school lessons went the best were the days that I came out and put on a show during class. When I make the lesson memorable, the kids pay attention and do a better job of focusing. Not only that, they actually remembered it the next day. (My personal struggle is being consistent with this, which as a mom with ADHD, I’m not.)

Remove any distractions.

Depending on the type of stimuli your children respond to, you might have to get rid of lots of things in your school space. My kids are easily distracted by visual stimuli, so I had to take down my beautiful map of the world which hung on the wall in front of our dining room table.

I loved that map, but every time I stood in front of it to teach, my kids’ eyes went directly to Murmansk, not me. Our homeschool room is pretty boring now, but the kids have done better work this year.

Separate siblings, if necessary.

As much as I liked the idea of a one-room schoolhouse type of class, I ended up having to separate some of my kids, especially during certain subjects. My two oldest kids are very competitive, and the younger one will try to rush through his work to catch up with his older sister.

So I started having him do his work separately. Without that peer pressure, his work improved immensely. Plus, Tigger had an easier job staying focused on her lessons.

Do you have any tips for teaching kids with ADHD? Feel free to share them in the comments!

This post is part of the 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 22: How to Get Your ADHD Child to Work Independently!

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably been there. Standing in front of your child, struggling to keep your voice calm while saying, “I’m going to count to five, and if you don’t stop screaming by then….” In fact, I think I just did this a few days ago.

Lots of parenting books offer suggestions for how we can help kids to calm down and listen, but there aren’t a lot of books about how parents can calm down. All parents get frustrated and irritated by their kids, but for parents with ADHD, these everyday irritations can lead to major blowups.

For the longest time, I couldn’t understand why I had days when I was perfectly equipped to manage my kids and then I had days when every little thing they did would set me off. But that’s the inconsistency of ADHD for you. I’ve also learned that there are certain “triggers” that cause me to overreact and, now that I know what they are, I’m having an easier time managing my emotions.

So, today I’m sharing a few of my personal calming tips for parents with ADHD!

Calming Tips for Parents Who Have ADHD

Identify your “buttons”.

As I mentioned above, the first thing I had to do was to pay attention to my “buttons”. You know, the ones that kids always find a way to push? 🙂 These buttons are different for every parent. Some parents are oblivious to loud noise and don’t mind it at all. Others need a quieter atmosphere.

Here’s my trigger: Noise from several sources ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And, of course, I decided to have four children who tend to recreate this exact environment. When I have one child on the floor shouting “Mom!”, while another is in the kitchen doing schoolwork and shouting “Mom!”, and two more are in the room calling “Mom!”, I tend to lose it.

So, my solution is to avoid that scenario whenever possible. I set one child up with an activity, then another, and another – until everyone has something they are assigned to do. I tell them to come and sit down in the living room quietly when they finish and then wait for me to explain the next thing. That keeps everyone from yelling “Mom!” at the same time.

Know your limits.

Stop overcommitting. Just stop it. And I know this is hard for a lot of us who are living with ADHD, because we really do want to do every single thing. But overcommitting puts such a strain on your brain, which may already be not performing at its best, that it can make you into an angry mom.

I’ve been attending college, working, and homeschooling my kids for the past couple of years. It was going fairly well until my husband went back to work full-time this past summer. He had been saving me by watching the kids when I studied. But after that, it was totally on me to keep the kids on task with their schooling, take care of the house, get my work done, and take my classes. Suddenly, I turned into some kind of Mother/Incredible Hulk hybrid. It was not pretty.

Recently, I’ve been reevaluating my choices, which I’ll talk about in a future post. And I’ll be cutting some of my obligations back, so that I can go back to happy mama mode again.

Cut out the multitasking.

Okay, this one is particularly hard for many parents with ADHD. If you have a brain that’s going in multiple directions, you’re probably used to feeling like Stretch Armstrong. (Remember those stretchy dolls you can pull in all directions?)

Unfortunately, that’s our natural inclination but it’s usually not the best thing for us. Many people with ADHD perform best when they can do lots of things in a single day, but one thing at a time. And I’ve found that to be true.

If the kids are in the living room watching TV and I’m trying to study, I’m going to be irritable when they interrupt me. (Which they will.) Now I know better. I sit out there with them and do something that doesn’t require intense concentration, like meal planning or writing a post like this. That way, I’m less irritated by interruptions, which keeps me calm.

Have you struggled with keeping your cool as a parent? Share your calming tips for parents with ADHD in the comments!

This post is part of the 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 20: How to Use Worksheets with Your ADHD Child!

Have you ever had a day when your child just didn’t want to do anything related to school? And I mean, nothing. No writing, no reading, no drawing, no math, no nothing.

Since we’re currently homeschooling three kids, there’s usually one that is just not in the mood for school that day. Initially, I thought that I should just give them a day or two off, but when those uninspired days stretch into weeks, then we have a problem.

All kids need to form connections to what they’re learning, but children with ADHD need to do so even more. Developing a strong interest in the subject at hand is generally the best way to help kids with ADHD maintain their focus. (This explains why some kids with ADHD can watch TV for hours on end, but won’t sit still to read.)

What can you do when your ADHD child is feeling uninspired? Here are a few suggestions to help you motivate your ADHD child to learn!

Image: danilkorolev / Dollar Photo Club

How to Inspire Motivation in ADHD Kids

“Strew” Their Path with Various Subjects

If you’re familiar with the philosophy of unschooling, you already know all about “strewing”. (If you’re unfamiliar with it, this is a great book about unschooling.) We’re not unschoolers, but I love the art of strewing our kids’ paths with all kinds of things. I might get a book that covers a new topic or have the kids watch a short documentary about a part of the world we’ve never covered. There’s usually something they see that makes them want to know more.

Strewing is especially helpful for preparing the ground when you’re ready to introduce a new concept. For instance, if I know we’re going to talk about East Asia in an upcoming geography lesson, I might learn how to say a few words in Japanese and mention them at the dinner table. Then, the kids generally want to know more about Japan, which makes the subject much more interesting when we cover it in depth later.

Focus on Their Strengths

If your child has already expressed specific interests, make those the focus of your lessons for a while. The unit study approach is great for this. My boys are in a huge construction phase right now. Just about anything with a dump truck or a cement mixer on it is right up their alley.

So, we’ve been reading books about construction equipment, looking at videos of the building process, and making shape structures. I’ll probably find a way to weave in the history of construction, basic Spanish words and ASL signs about building, and more so I can cover multiple subjects.

Help Them Set Goals

We talked about the importance of setting learning goals for kids with ADHD yesterday. Goals are an extremely helpful way to motivate kids to learn. They can be especially helpful for kids who have short attention spans. When we sit down to go over a subject that I know one of the kids doesn’t like, I let them know right away how much we’ll be covering.

For example, Roo doesn’t have much interest in math, so when we begin a lesson on Khan Academy I tell him, “We’ll do your mastery challenge and then we’ll do review one concept.”  That way, he knows how long he’ll have to sit down and pay attention. When I forget to do this, I hear “How much longer, Moooommmm?” for the entire lesson. 🙂

How do you handle it when your kids with ADHD don’t feel like learning? Tell us about your experience in the comments!

This post is part of the 31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 14: How to Get Your ADHD Child to Learn a Subject He Hates!

Try these other tips for teaching children with ADHD!

And see more ideas on my ADHD Homeschooling Pinterest board!

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you may recall seeing our ADHD homeschool schedule for this school year. Well, we’re about two months in, and I’ve already changed it.

We still do most of the activities on the schedule, but the time and general format of the day has evolved quite a bit. When you’re homeschooling children with ADHD, you have to start with a regular daily routine. Once that’s established, you can begin developing your homeschool schedule. Our problem was that I started the schedule before the routine was in place. Bad idea.

So, today I’m sharing a few suggestions for how to develop a good homeschool schedule for ADHD kids. If nothing else, you can learn from me about what NOT to do. 🙂

How to Develop a Homeschool Schedule for ADHD Kids

Start with the most important subjects first.

In our original schedule for this year, we started with copywork, math, and reading. That seems to work and I didn’t change it. In our family, handwriting, math, and reading are our most important subjects, so we schedule them first.

If we get the morning off to a good start, it’s usually the best time of day for our most intensive lessons. Tigger, in particular, struggles with concentrating on her math work. She does best when it’s one of our first subjects of the day.

I’ve also noticed that she tends to do her math assignment and then promptly forget how to do it later. A few times a week, I give her a worksheet in the afternoon that contains the same concepts we learned that morning. Then she remembers it better and I don’t have to start from scratch during the next lesson.

Make room for their personal interests.

Do your kids have a favorite subject? If so, make plenty of room for that in your schedule. People with ADHD may struggle to pay attention in most areas, but if the subject is something they love, they can stay on it for hours at a time. This is called “hyperfocus“.

Roo can play with Legos for hours. Literally, hours. Tigger can read books for hours. Both of them lose interest in math within about 20 minutes. 🙂 So, if they’re enjoying an activity or a lesson, I don’t insist on stopping it at a certain time. As long as they’re interested, I let it continue (within reason, of course).

Generally, I schedule room for their interests after lunch. That way, I don’t have to rush them through something so that we can complete another subject.

Be willing to make adjustments.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had to tweak our schedule already, and that highlights an important part of homeschooling kids with ADHD: flexibility. Since the ADHD brain operates sporadically, there’ll be days when your kids seem “on” and days when they seem “off”. Sometimes they’ll even switch between “on” and “off” in the same day, or even within the same hour.

While you’ll want to maintain the same general routine, you may have to move a few things around or even skip a couple of subjects. That’s why it’s important to schedule your most important subjects first. Once those are taken care of, you won’t feel so much pressure to complete every other thing if your kids are having an “off” day.

Have you made a homeschool schedule for ADHD kids? Do you have any tips to share? Tell us about your experiences in the comments!

This post is part of our “31 Days of ADHD Homeschooling” series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 10: The WORST Homeschooling Method for Kids with ADHD!