Imagine yourself standing on the top of a hill next to a ball. To start the task and get the ball rolling, you need to put some energy into pushing the ball. Once started, the ball rolls down the hill picking up momentum as it goes. Starting any task is like pushing the ball and it does require extra effort. Like the old saying, the hardest part is getting the snowball rolling. For kids with ADHD, starting tasks, such as school projects or homework, is even harder as it does take extra focus. They will be distracted easily by any background noise and visual stimuli.
ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in Canada, affecting 5-7% of children and 4-6% of adults, or approximately 1.8 million Canadians.
The common coping mechanism used by kids with ADHD is reliance on a sense of urgency. If there is a deadline and the consequence of not finishing the task has a meaningful impact on school grades, kids will develop a strong sense of urgency. The urgency will get the kids moving. However, it can be a painful experience for both the kids and parents. It will likely leave the kids feeling guilty, anxious, or overwhelmed. This coping strategy is unhealthy and leaves the kids with negative emotions.
Add the Sparkles
Just like starting the car engine, we need the sparkles to fuel up the gas stored in our body.
Discover the part of the task aligned with the kids' interests. Instead of spending time reminding kids that they need to start working on their projects over and over. You can spend 5 minutes with them to discuss what the project is about. Pay close attention to their facial expressions and find the moment when the kids start speaking faster. After you find the interesting part of the project, you can encourage the kids to elaborate on the topic.
Bring the competitiveness to the task and create the emotional reward. No one likes to do boring tasks. Sit down with your child create a time plan and challenge them to finish the smaller tasks ahead of the time. For example, both you and your child can agree to do the project for just 20 minutes every day. You can "dare" them to do more than 20 minutes. If they do more than 20 minutes for the day, record the time and challenge them to beat the record the next day.
Starting with a small task to fire up the bigger one later. You need to sit down with your child and find the parts that they find easiest to do. Since it is easy and doesn't take a ton of energy to start. It will be easier for them to move progressively to larger tasks as they pick up the momentum. Help your child to group similar tasks together as much as possible as it can minimize the energy loss from changing tasks. It also maximizes the energy to push the next task forward.
Also, check out the complete guide on the importance of communication for a Learning Disability: communication-the-essential-teaching-tool
Divide and Conquer ADHD:
Break up the project/tasks into smaller parts. For example, you can ask your child to focus on completing an outline instead of jumping into writing a full essay. When we are helping our child to break the projects into smaller parts. We need to be careful not to break them into too many pieces as it can lead them to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks remaining. With their weak working memory, too many smaller tasks can be a recipe for demotivation.
One step at a time. Now that the bigger projects are broken down into smaller tasks. We need to remind our children to just focus on the next step and not to think about how many more tasks are ahead of them. This will reduce the anxiety, which may stop the child from doing the tasks at all.
Out of sight, out of mind. Only give the child the work that they need to do. If the teacher has given 10 pages of practice sheets for math homework for the week. Tear the pages apart if you need to, and just give your child 2 pages that they need to do for the day. When all the pages are finished, you can pile up all the pages and show them how much they have accomplished. This will create positive reinforcement and they will be more confident when starting the next package assigned by their math teacher.
These are just some of the strategies to help kids with ADHD overcome the initial hump when starting school projects or homework. Everyone's experience is different, however, with consistent support and practicing these strategies. It will be easier for your child to be more independent and comfortable starting their work on their own.
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