Tips for Teachers: Organizing Your Students with ADHD

Thank you to all of our professional educators who are dedicated to our children! We know how difficult it can be working with children with ADHD, so here are your teacher’s tips for the week, brought to you by the ADHD Information Library and ADDinSchool.com. You can read over 500 classroom interventions at http://www.ADDinSchool.com. Here are some tips on how to organize your students with ADHD: See what you can do to help organize the environment of the child with ADHD. Use dividers and folders on your desk so you can easily find things. Teach him to organize himself better. These are skills he doesn’t know and needs to learn. Help the child organize their written work or numbers. Let your child move a pencil or finger across the page as you read. If he is typing, let him use one or two fingers to separate the words. During math, graph paper can be very helpful in organizing your numbers and columns.

Your student will perform better when he can anticipate the moments that require the most concentration. A visual representation of the day’s schedule will provide another opportunity to internalize the classroom routine. Completing schoolwork and maintaining behavior during the school day can be exhausting experiences. A large number of regular duties can become daunting for him and very stressful for the parent involved. Try to reduce homework, if possible, and limit it to guided practice on material you have begun to master. Try breaking down long-term assignments into steps to lessen your student’s feeling of being overwhelmed. Consider having the student complete one out of three problems, instead of answering each one. Emphasize practice and word processing completion to reduce the frustration many students feel with written work. Model an organized classroom and model the strategies you use to deal with disorganization. Establish a daily routine and schedule in the classroom. Show that you value organization by spending 5 minutes each day for children to organize their desks, folders, etc. Reinforce organization with a “desk fairy” that gives a daily prize to the most organized row of desks.

Use individual homework charts or pads that can be taken home with the child for parents to sign daily if needed. Develop a clear system for keeping track of completed and unfinished work, such as having individual hanging files that each child can place completed work in and a special folder for unfinished work.

Develop a color coding method for your classroom where each subject is associated with a certain color that is on the cover of the subject’s textbook and in the binder or workbook for that subject. Develop a system of rewards for school work and for completing assignments. An example of a system that reinforces both quality and quantity of work is to convert points earned into “dollars” to be used for a silent auction at the end of the qualification period. For children who need more immediate reinforcement, each task completed could earn the child a “raffle ticket” with her name written on it. Prizes or special privileges may be awarded based on a random drawing conducted on a daily or weekly basis. Write the schedule and deadlines on the board each day. Provide due dates for assignments each day. Divide longer assignments into sections and provide due dates or times for completing each section. Post a checklist on the child’s desk or place one in each subject folder/notebook that outlines steps to follow directions or check to make sure a task is complete. Provide study guides or outlines for the content you want the child to learn, or let the child build their own study guide with worksheets that have been positively marked. Be clear about when student movement is allowed and discouraged, such as during independent work hours. Your student should be encouraged to use assignment sheets, broken down by day and subject. He or her teacher can record assignments as each assignment is completed. Some organization time at the end of each day can be helpful in gathering materials needed for assignments and developing an action plan for completing them. This will be of great help for the development of “executive processes”. Your student may become overwhelmed with piles of paper and not be able to find the necessary materials. It is often useful to carry only two work folders, one containing the work to be completed and one containing the work to be archived. Reviewing these portfolios should become a regular part of the daily routine, eliminating irrelevant work.
Some students now take a small dose of their medicine when they get home from school to help them study or complete homework. Consult with your doctor about the time period of maximum effectiveness of the medication to help establish a sensible homework schedule. Very often, variability in job performance will be related to the style of the teacher and the temperament of his student. Teachers tend to instruct using their own preferred learning style. Sequential teachers can help by providing more structure, but the teacher may become frustrated with her disorganization and behavior. Random teachers, while not providing an external structure, may be more likely to use flexibility to suit your needs. Try to place your student with teachers who have similar styles that have been shown to be effective for their particular needs. Some teachers have received training in dealing with students with attention problems that would make them a particularly effective resource. One of the simplest and most powerful interventions is to have an extra set of textbooks at home to minimize the problem of not having the necessary materials for homework.
Since fine motor activities and spelling can be a problem, consider a greater emphasis on using a word processor at an early age. Typing practice software should have stimulating graphics to motivate its use. The use of a “spelling check” program is essential. Along with the “executive process” of organizing homework at the end of the day, a daily check-in schedule at the beginning of the school day can be helpful in setting yourself up for a successful day. Reviewing last night’s homework, highlighting changes in the daily schedule, and even pre-teaching some of the day’s lessons can relieve stress.
Your student should have a regular schedule to clean their desk at least once a week. This will improve your ability to find your materials. However, it may require adult assistance/instruction to make this a successful experience. Hopefully these will help the ADHD students in your classroom be more successful. You can learn more about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the ADHD Information Library.