It’s October and that means it’s ADHD awareness month! What better time than now to share 16 Easy Tips To Help You Homeschool an ADHD Child? Be sure to subscribe to my newsletters because next week I’ll be sharing another post entitled Homeschooling Neurodivergent Kids + 7 Ways Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help.
Also, I have this post as a video too. If you would prefer to watch the video click the button below.
Be sure to stick through to the end of this post because at the end I have some great resources to help support you in this journey!
Disclaimer; I am not a therapist or a doctor, I’m simply a mama with a couple neurodivergent children and am sharing what we have been learning from therapists and doctors, from resources they’ve given us and resources I’ve found on my own over the past 12 years.
Lastly, before I share the tips, if you are looking for homeschool curriculum for your neurodivergent child be sure to read 9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Review-ADHD, watch my video in that article, and subscribe to my newsletters (at the end of this post) because I’m going to be sharing curriculum choices for other grades as well in the future.
This post contains affiliate links.
16 Easy Tips To Help You Homeschool an ADHD Child
8 Tips for Teaching the Neurodivergent Child
- The very first tip is to fully acknowledged that teaching your ADHD neurodivergent child is going to look different than teaching a neurotypical child. It is helpful to know that there have been so many studies done that have discovered that the ADHD brain is different, that isn’t wired the same as a non ADHD brain, that there are differences in size, what parts are under and over active, and there are chemistry differences1. Knowing the differences and how they affect a person with ADHD can be extremely helpful in understanding, dealing with and teaching an ADHD child/person.
- For some neurodivergent children, when they see a whole page of work that needs to be read their brain often times will just shut off or else go into hyper panic mode. They don’t see one word at a time, and remember start at the first word and work their way across and down the page. They see everything at once and become overwhelmed. This happens with tasks too-they don’t always see steps of action. This will happen long past the “normal” age (it’s common for younger kids to get overwhelmed if they don’t enjoy reading or picking up their room). This can be a real problem with reading though and will happen all they way into adulthood if not given the coping skills needed to learn how to read/study. Two things that can help; one is before you give the child their reading tell them that they are allowed to take breaks-they just need to get it done today, or by a specific time. You could also cover part of the work, tell them to read until they get to the covered part, and later have them read the rest. Eventually they’ll be able to handle that whole page.
- Reading strips are another great study and reading help that can relax and calm the ADHD children just enough. I knew a young woman who had a learning disability and this helped her especially through college. Amazon has a selection of a variety of reading strips SHOP THEM ALL HERE, you could always have your child help you pick some that they would like to try. Another option is to use a piece of paper in a relaxing color the child likes, and to cover all of the words beneath the line being read with the colored paper.
- If your ADHD child is prone to daydreaming something to try is to limit the amount of time spent on each subject to 20 to 40 minutes, then have them put it away and go on to the next subject. Eventually they rotate back around to the first subject (all in the same day so that they can complete the daily work load). This doesn’t work for every kid but it does work for some.
- Audiobooks are wonderful in a neurodiverse family-or even just a big family. They will help save mama so much time. If you have an ADHD child with an audio processing glitch (not completely uncommon) this won’t help them but it could free up some of your time.
- Too much screen time is bad, we all know this. But if you are 100% screen free you might want to consider some subjects on screen that the child has to interact with. This can help some ADHD kids stay on task.
- Christian Liberty has been a wonderful resource for our family when it comes to teaching neurodivergent children. They way it works is you purchase their testing services and add on the a Recommendation Service session. After the test and before the consultation contact them to let them know you are working with a neurodivergent child with ADHD or whatever it is your child’s struggle is and need someone who has knowledge in that area.
- With ADHD people it is common for the brain to run out of steam by around 2:30 to 3:00 PM and for it to take a couple hours to recharge. If your child is having daily meltdowns pay attention to the time the meltdowns happen and what is causing them. Is it random or is it around the same time each day? For one of my children with ADHD it’s always around 2:30 to 3:00-which I learned is common for the ADHD brain to need a break. So we learned how to curtail them before they happen with some self care (taking a break and going outside, drinking water, deep breathing exercises and/or exercise). Another thing Cognitive Behavior Therapy taught us (which I talked about in another post/video) is to pay attention to what our child was melting down over-was it the same thing or something different all the time? Once we pinpointed this our child’s therapist helped me know just what to do with this situation and it made all the difference in the world.
- If you have other children, you may need to hire help. Homeschooling neurotypical plus neurodivergent children is not the same as regular homeschooling at all. Your workload can be doubled for each neurodivergent child. It is likely not going to be be possible for you to meet the educational needs of all of the children, run the home, keep on top of meals, plus be a parent and “do all the things.”
- Spouse support and understanding is CRITICAL. It is really difficult to find homeschooling mom’s that have graduated neurodivergent children, but lately I’ve been finding a some and between them and some of the curriculum specialists I’ve spoken with a key theme I’m hearing is that home educating a neurodiverse family requires both parents involvement as it’s not a one person job. I’ve talked more about this in THIS ARTICLE HERE.
5 Random Helpful Tips
- Many ADHD children have additional learning disorders. One study2 found that 70% of children with ADHD also had a learning disorder. If your child’s dr. doesn’t seem to know much about ADHD and learning disorders ask them to refer you to a specialist. It’s helpful to know the exact area’s where there is disconnect so you can know which steps to take to support your child’s developmental needs so the struggle is minimized. At the end of this article I do have a link to a resource that may help you narrow down what learning disorder your child has if they have one.
- Patience is key for families with neurodivergent children. Spouses will need to remind each other of this, and they will need to remind all their children (including the neurodivergent and neurotypical children). Life can be exceedingly difficult for parents with children with special needs especially if they don’t have support.
- Number one; parents of neurodivergent children (regardless of the education choice) need various forms of support, and they need tools. If you are not able to find support in homeschool communities or from your extended family, I highly recommend finding a therapist that will support you in your homeschool journey.
- ADHD, Asperger’s and neurodiversity runs in families. Be sure to read the ADHD FACTS HERE for more help and information.
- Don’t take neurodivergent signs lightly. Without intervention and help ADHD people may not be able to have the best relationship experiences and they can go on to have very difficult lives. As a person with ADHD and unmanaged neurodivergency in my extended family I can fully attest to this.
Tip 16- Discipline and the ADHD Neurodivergent Child
I’ve separated this tip from the rest because it’s so important. It’s not uncommon for ADHD children to test a parents patience for more often then a neurotypical child.
It’s critical for parents to know and remember that a neurodivergent child’s their brain is working differently. It’s easy for parents of ADHD kids to think their kids aren’t even trying. This is one reason parents of ADHD children need support. They need to remember these kids ARE trying, most of them DO NOT WANT to be a disappointment and when they mess up they often times will feel bad enough simply for disappointing you (even thought they don’t know how to communicate it and may become defensive when they should be apologizing).
Once you understand this and know some of how the ADHD brain works you’ll understand why many forms of discipline simply don’t work with ADHD kids. ADHD kids and people are exhausted. Their brains are constantly racing and so they forget what the rules are and what they are supposed to be doing often, but it isn’t usually on purpose. Parents need to remember their ADHD child is are trying harder than it appears and that they usually have good intentions.
When I talked to our children’s doctor about some of the issues we were having with our hyperactive ADHD child she gave me some advice that worked miracles for us. She told me that when we ran into problems with our child, to take our child to a quiet room away from all the others. Make sure to make eye contact with the child, (harder than you’d think with an ADHD person as sometimes their eyes will be jack batty all over the room). Once you have eye contact simply talk to the child but keep it very short, especially if the child is worked up. She warned me the ADHD child will only hear the first few words spoken.
We started doing this and made a night and day difference!
Each child is different though! What works for one may not work for another and it may take some time to figure out what works best for your family.
I highly recommend Love and Logic video’s on YouTube, as well as looking into Nicholeen Pecks, Teaching Self Government YouTube Channel and positive parenting resources on her website HERE for help in dealing with discipline and positive parenting techniques.
To Conclude
Parenting and homeschooling an ADHD child is a big deal. It’s not a light issue, as you know if you have an ADHD child. The more support and information you are armed with the more successful the journey will be though, and the more parents and children will be able to thrive.
An additional resource you may want to look into that we have been exploring include Brain Integration Therapy by Dianne Craft. Dianne has a lot of help and information for neurodivergent people, she also has a YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE.
Be sure to check out all of my NERUODIVERGENT LEARNERS related posts HERE including ADHD Fact and Fiction Plus Our Story and Homeschooling a Neurodivergent Child-But First, What Is A Neurodivergent Brain?
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References
Resource by Dianne Craft to informally test for learning disorders can be found HERE.
My daughter got diagnosed with ADHD last month, and I’m trying really hard to help her focus. Thanks for mentioning that it’s important to remember that a neurodivergent child’s brain is different that others. I’ll have to find a therapy program for her to help her learn to focus.