Could This be Inattentive ADD?

Could This be Inattentive ADD?

Recently I have received several questions from parents with young children with symptoms of:

• Inattention
• Disorganization
• Procrastination
• Plodding Work Pace
• Lethargy

The parents of these kids want to know if these symptoms are Inattentive ADD symptoms and they want to know what to do.  They often are concerned about the “labeling” of their kids and this is a legitimate concern and they are concerned about not acting on these issues as they fear that the symptoms will only become more of an issue as their children age.

As an aside, I am always heartened by the fact that 95% of the parents who write me, describe their children as poor students but “delightful people”.  I always ask parents if their children are “good company” and they almost always say “yes”.  I mention this because, at the end of the day, a person who is “good company” has a lot more potential than a person who is not.  Excellent, A+ students, can be obnoxious, arrogant and “bad company” and I like to point this out to parents who are despairing about their children’s academic performance.

Anyway... back to the topic.  The above symptoms may or may not be Inattentive ADD symptoms. It does not really matter as these children need help.  In children who are ten and younger, the plan should be to help them establish life and academic skills that will support them in years to come.  These skills include:

• Regular Exercise
• Healthy Diet Habits
• Healthy Sleep Habits
• Good Parent/Teacher Communication
• Organizational Aids such as wall charts, Big visible task calendars,
• Appropriate Incentives

For older kids, the support plan should include all the above plus:

• Having a spare set of school books (a whole extra set) at home to help eliminate the issues of not having the right books to do whatever assignment is due. 
• Engaging the help of a high school student, paid minimum wage, to be your child’s "homework helper". Communicating teachers and asking that assignments be put online or available in such a way that you, the Homework Helper and the student know what it due, when it is due and what is required to complete the assignment.
• In addition all the recommendations in this post talks about classroom changes that help all students and especially helps students with memory and organization problems.

To find more of my suggestions, you can use the search bar in the top right hand corner of my blog and search under the terms "teacher" and "classroom".  This will bring up posts with more recommendations.