How to Help Your ADHD Child
Get Organized
Empower
Ability
Inspire Advocate
Special
Needs
Potential Thri
Growth Strategies
— by Meagan Ruffing
Y
ou know it — the never-
ending battle of your son’s
messy room. His room
isn’t like other children’s, though. Your
son’s room is an all-out black hole where
things disappear… never to be seen
again. You feel the anger starting to boil
up inside of yourself and before you can
collect your thoughts, words are spew-
ing out of your mouth as you yell, “Pick
that up! How did your room get this
messy? Why are your comic books torn
up? Are these wrappers under you bed?”
The truth is, kids with Attention
Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
have a hard time getting organized and
staying organized. There are few things
short of threatening your child with tak-
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34 WNY Family August 2019
ing away his electronics for the rest of
his life that will let him know how seri-
ous you are about picking up after him-
self.
Try these 5 tips the next time you
walk into your child’s crumb-infested
bedroom.
1) Tell him one thing at a time.
Kids with ADHD have a hard time fol-
lowing multiple directions. Give them
one command at a time. For example,
you might say to your daughter, “Please
put all of the Legos in the red bin. When
you are done with that, come back and
see me.” Notice the command was not
vague. It was very specific. This tip is
imperative for children who process
commands differently than other chil-
dren. It can be overwhelming and frus-
trating for kids when they can’t remem-
ber which order to do things in, which
almost always ends up in a meltdown.
As the parent, this extra and some-
times timely step can feel like just one
more thing in the laundry list of tips to
remember with our children but, in the
end, it really does benefit everyone in-
volved.
Once your child has put all of the
Legos in the red bin and is now standing
in front of you, go ahead and give her
another task. “Please make your bed and
then come back and see me.”
Even after specific commands like
these your daughter might still feel over-
whelmed with the constant picking up.
For these types of children, it is impor-
tant to give a timeline or a plan. For ex-
ample, “After you put the Legos in the
red bin and make your bed, you can take