Organizational problems and ADHD

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messiness-and-ADD/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goal_Setting/

http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/starting/goals.html

[quote:647845eda5=”anne”]Does anyone have ideas on helping children with ADHD to become more
organized at school and at home? I have found that this is a great
problem for the ADHD children I have worked with. Parents are often
frustrated with this problem also.[/quote]

I am a graduate student pursuing my Masters of Arts in Teaching Elementary Education and am student teaching in a classroom where I work with a couple of students with ADD/ADHD. I also work with a couple of other students who just have a great deal of difficulty staying organized. All of these students experiencing the plight of disorganization and the ensuing lost homework assignments, etc. are struggling to keep themselves afloat academically and, for some, both their self-esteem and social status are also suffering. Teacher and parent frustration are also an issue, as well as the students’ own frustration.

I am currently working on an Action-Research project that is attempting to answer the question of how to aid students with ADD/ADHD to become more organized so as to create greater motivation for them to become dedicated learners and to help them develop a true love for learning. I will attempt to post my results on this bulletin board when I have completed my research. If you would be willing to participate in a survey/interview for this purpose, please contact me at 401-451-5815.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Marni

The first thing that’s needed is a place to put everything and then encouragement - and help - to build the habit of putting everything in the place that’s been made for it.

I find it helpful if someone will sit down every night with the ADD/ADHD disorganized student and help them go through their papers rather than to leave them to sink or swim on their own. I will do that with my students and so model for them the process of discarding unneeded papers and putting needed papers away. As we do it together, sometimes they come to see that organization is possible.

Dr. James Dobson (focus on the Family Guy) has some great books! You need to decide what things he/she does everyday. And these things need to be done at the same time everyday consistantly. This is what my son and I do everyday from morning to bedtime:

Morning 5:30, wake up, use the bathroom wash hands, eat breakfast, take medicine, drink juice, brush teeth, get dressed, get bookbag, go to school.

afterschool 5:30, come home, eat dinner, practice spelling words, do homework, read story book from school, study for any up coming tests, and review what needs reviewing, pack book bag and put by the front door, lay out clothes for tomorrow, take a bath, brush teeth, go to bed, say prayers, go to sleep.

He does the same thing everyday consistantly. I know everyone does not have our routine and he does have time for play sometimes, but he knows what is to be done first! And It is easier said than done. We are definately not perfect. I am ADHD too, and without this kind of routine, I would never make it out of the house!!! Its not just for his benefit, its for mine as well!!!

I read too, that making a list of things to do everyday, maybe right them on a chalk board works very effectively too.

I think too often the disorganized, ADD or not, are just left to ‘sink or swim’ on their own. Too many teachers expect that somehow disorganized students will have an epiphany and after that moment will no longer be disorganized.

Organization needs to be modeled for them and they need to be shown that it is indeed possible to be organized. Someone needs to sit down with the chronically disorganized student in school and at home everyday until they can do it on their own.

First, they need a place to put everything and then they need help to put it there every class and every night. Eventually they learn how to do it from watching you do it. They learn not to fear organization and learn it doesn’t take up all their life to stay organized.

Most disorganized students don’t even know where to begin. They look at the vast pile of crinkled papers and shove them back in their book bag. While some students are naturally organized and have a natural tendency to put papers away (some are even obsessive about it) others have a natural tendency to disorganization who however with help can learn a different way to be.

I have a 6th grade son who has a horrible time with organization and executive functioning. Our school requires our kids to keep a daily organizer and write down all assignments from each class. Our elementary school also had students in 3rd grade and up keep a daily assignment journal to train them to use an organizer. Well…for the most part it’s very helpful, but sometimes the ADD kids miss the mark and aren’t paying attention enough to write the assignments in their planners. I’ve found the kids get better with writing daily assignments down by middle school. Our middle schools have homework hotline numbers where the teachers post their weekly class information on a phone message center, some even post their weekly lesson plans on the school website.

What I’ve found that helps my kid the most is to keep one loose folder that we call Homework in his daily binder. All papers that are assigned in class for homework during the school day go in ONE homework folder. If my child is not consistent in putting his homework in this file, he starts putting homework papers loose in the front of his notebook, then they get shuffled around, put in other pockets of his binder, and he either forgets it was homework, or doesn’t end up completing the work. Our kids get their papers marked to a C for late work - even if it was !00% correct.

Using only one homework folder helps my son to not have to go digging through other folders (even color coded ones), and waste time having to get the papers in the right folders. We us a red folder - the color of blood - to remind him that the homework file is his lifeline to school! We have a blue folder called Graded Papers - that he puts all of his returned work in for me to help him file at home. His teachers at school have other folders for class notes, etc. But the two folders that we use consistently are the Homework folder, and the Graded Paper folder. This also helps him at school to be prepared to work a little faster, too.

Every Sunday is clean your file day. We have to be consistent at not keeping too much stuff in the homework folders, or disorganization rears it’s ugly head again. It’s tough, but when we don’t clean the files - the grades start slipping. He gets overwhelmed with too much stuff.

I also make my son check off each completed task in his assignment file as he completes it. All work, books, materials are packed and put into his backpack before he goes to bed, and is placed by the front door. This helps eliminate last minute rush.

Our school counselor has even suggested the kid put their books and papers immediately into their backpacks after class - if homework is assigned, so they don’t go home without the work.

To save time, my son types a lot of his homework - vocabulary, language arts assignments, projects. This is extra backup in case he looses something, and it helps improve his typing skills. He learned to type early, and it has been extremely beneficial to him. Some teachers let him type at school.

I think the what’s important for ADHD and also any other kids is consistency. Also, some sort of visual may be helpful too so kids can “see” what they need to do. Little reward won’t hurt them either. I’m using EasyChild now and my kids seems to respond to that well. they do have a website easychild.com if anyone is interested.

Color-code, color-code, color-code!!! That is my advice.

We have a specific color deemed for each subject (usually respresented on the text book) and we stick with that for ALL students. We require them to purchase 6 plain folders in the colors of red, green, blue, purple, yellow and orange (one for each subject and the orange for homework). This helps the students know what they need for each subject and allows me to be able to just take a quick look around to see if everyone has what they need. Most of our students think this helps them too.

We also do a “pass-back” of all papers in one subject at a time and fill out a table of contents for each subject. (this gives ALL the students something to go by when organizing themselves in each subject). We do this weekly and then collect folders at the end of each quarter. This way they also get incentive to keep all papers organized as an added grade to boost their average at the end of the quarter.

I am an inclusion teacher and have students on all levels and with all different capabilities. We all struggle with organization, but these strategies seem to be working well. This is our 6th year and it is still working.

Hope this helps! :)

i an the mother of an 11 year old who struggles with organization as well. one of the areas was remembering things to do things before school starts and at the end of the day. i bought him a small pocket size planner that fits in his pocket. every night he writes down things heneeds to remember. we have two headings for each day that say the day of the week and am or pm eg: MON A.m.- TALK TO TEACHER ABOUT PROJECT MON P.M. CHECK HOMEWORK FOLDER. he has the “check homework folder ” written in it everyday . so thenbefore he leaveshe can make sure he has turned it all in. this seems to have helped a bit. its right in his pocket with a little pen inside to cross things off and he likes the idea of having his own”planner.”