more essential skills for ADHD

The most important Essential Skill for the child with ADHD to master is the skill of impulse control. However, there are other skills that children with ADHD also need to master. Teach about impulse control first. As they learn to master impulse control, they will also benefit from instruction in the Essential skills of Working memory and Planning

Working memory

Children with ADHD often struggle with working memory. They might appear to be listening to you when you give an instruction, but as soon as you have finished talking, they get distracted and forget what you said. They might even remember what you said, or remember what you said yesterday about how to get a task done. But, when they do the activity today, they get distracted and do not finish what they started. A lot of the time, these behaviors are due to impulsivity. Impulsivity can cause forgetfulness. In fact, when you ask your child why they made a mistake or why did not complete a task, they will often say: “I forgot”. They are not lying- they really do forget what they were told. Sometimes, they got too many things to do. here are some examples of how you can help:

Write it down. It’s hard to remember instructions, especially when they are boring or when there are too many. Sometimes, it’s best to write down the instructions. There is no problem if your child needs a ‘cheat sheet’ to remember what they’re supposed to do. A good strategy is to ask your child to write it down. Cut out pictures from a magazine or look up example schedules and example reminder lists on the internet. Teach your child to complete all of the daily routines, using a checklist: morning, afternoon, evening, and bedtime. Stop reminding them when they are being forgetful. instead, ask them to look at the reminder list or the checklist. Children with ADHD are usually very eager to use the checklist- for a day or two. After that, they either forget to look at the list, or they stop using the list because what you’re asking them to do is too boring. that does not mean that you step in to provide necessary reminders. The checklist provides the reminders. You just have to provide your child with a reminder to use the list.

Recite back. when you are in a non-routine situation, such as a community outing, you might not have a checklist handy. so, be strategic. Only ask your child to do what they are capable of doing. If you give them nothing to do, they might get bored and forget social rules. if you give them tasks that are too hard, they might get overwhelmed and forget what you asked them to do. give short instructions. Repeat them once, then ask your child to repeat back. Do this process more than once. When they forget, approach them and first ask them to repeat back what you said.

Don’t be your child’s working memory bank. Here is an objective for the adults: Stop being your child’s memory bank! It’s much easier to tell your child what to do, instead of asking them what they remember about what they were supposed to do. Don’t be your child’s working memory bank. Plan ahead for all of the things that your child will forget to do. Be curious about how much they do remember, instead of getting frustrated about everything they forgot. forgetfulness is part of your child’s psychological make- up. You are there to help thm notice their own forgetfulness and build strategies for what to do when they notice that they forgot something important. Celebrate the small things that they did successfully. Then create some space for them to remember what they forgot.

Planning/ Sequencing

Some of the time, your child can complete a task no matter how they start or finish. daily routines do not always have to follow a specific sequence. Worksheets from school are the same. You can start at the end and work your way to the beginning, or start in the middle and then work both ways. often enough, the order does not matter.

But- some of the time, the order matters a lot. Your child needs to do more than just remember what you told them to do. They also need to follow your instructions in the right order.

Ordering, sequencing, planning. When you write out instructions, make sure that your child can see the order. some tasks have to be done in the right order. If you’re going to clean up the kitchen, don’t start out by clearning the floor first. Start out by clearing the table and washing the dishes (or loading the dishwasher) before you clean the floor.

Sequencing and planning or skills that the adult usually has to show. creating your own plan is something that children have to learn when they enter into upper elementary school (e.g. grade 4 to 5). Most children do not do their own planning before grade 4. their environment is very structured and predictable. Adults create a predictable environment and provide instructions about what’s ‘first, second, third, and last.’ Do not worry about teaching your child planning skills when they are still very impulsive, forgetful, and make careless errors. Work on those basic skills first.

and look like a problem with working memory. Actually, working memory