Managing ADHD at home
At school a child with ADHD has SEN support, special educational needs coordinators and classroom assistants, but when they come home how can you cope with their behaviour alone?
If your child suffers with ADHD, try these top tips to manage their behaviour at home:
- Liaise with school and have homework instructions written down, so that they are clear. Your child might struggle to remember what they were told to do.
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- Try leaving notes around the house as reminders to your child, such as a sticker on the bathroom mirror saying ‘Brush my teeth’. Children with ADHD often have poor concentration levels. This saves you having to follow them around issuing reminders.
- Set up a reward system, but make the goals small and immediate. For example, praise and a sticker for five minutes concentration, rather than saying, “If you finish all your homework we will do something at the weekend.” Focusing on little chunks of behaviour at a time will keep them motivated.
- Do use praise as an immediate reinforcement for good behaviour as soon as you notice it.
- If you can, ignore the bad behaviour as much as possible.
- Remember, sometimes you have to allow children to make their own mistakes and you can’t always be around.
- Have regular meetings with the school, perhaps once a term, to be clear what the SEN support is for your child. Ask whether your child is meeting their goals, and if there anything else that can be done to help your child achieve his or her targets.
