If there is no conductor, the orchestra will not produce good music. Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.
This month’s article was written by Angela Rooke, Kaizen Academic Coach. Angela enjoys working with all students, but she regularily puts her specialized training and experience to work with Kaizen students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and accompanying executive skill challenges.
“It was the school setting that really started to highlight his attention challenges. He had trouble staying focused on the lessons being taught, and struggled to sit in class without moving around. The teachers would explain that he was a great kid – creative, fun, loving, and had a great sense of humour BUT…he just could not focus on an activity or assignment that required extensive attention. His backpack and binders were a disaster and he would forget to complete and hand in assignments. Nightly homework became a huge challenge for him and our entire family! Even HE would explain that he just couldn’t focus on something that was boring. However, something he enjoyed and was engaged with, like video games and Netflix, no attention problems there! In fact, he could focus on those things for hours…” (Kaizen Parent of a grade 9 boy).
Parents are often referred to Kaizen when their child has been diagnosed with ADHD, their stories almost identical what this parent explains. Students with ADHD certainly have amazing gifts and talents that should not be overlooked, however, this disorder certainly comes with its challenges, especially in the area of Executive Skill Functioning.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurologically based developmental disorder and is most commonly diagnosed in children and adolescents. ADHD is often referred to as an ‘invisible’ condition, and as such, those who are not familiar with it, do not always recognize it. ADHD is pervasive and affects a student’s ability to organize and regulate their behaviour, which ultimately impairs their ability to be successful academically. However, it is important to remember that a diagnosis of ADHD does not imply a deficit in intelligence. In fact, it is possible to have a very high IQ and still have ADHD.

Dr. Russell Barkley, an internationally recognized authority on ADHD, explains that ADHD is an executive function disorder. Executive Functions (EF) skills are perhaps the strongest barometer of a student’s ability to integrate and flourish in his or her academic and social life. They are the skills we use to navigate our lives and learning experiences. Because EF are at the heart of everyone’s ability to plan and organize themselves, initiate work, switch between activities, filter our emotional distractions, and self-monitor our progress on assignments, they are crucial to success in academic, social, and interpersonal pursuits. The brain’s executive skill functioning centre (found in the frontal lobe) acts like a conductor of a symphony, carefully organizing, coordinating and choreographing all the moving parts to play a beautiful piece of music. In an ADHD brain, the conductor isn’t always present, leaving each musician confused, uncertain and even disengaged, affecting the symphony’s overall output.
THROUGH YOUR CHILD'S EYES
If you do not have ADHD, it is difficult to comprehend what someone who has the disorder may be experiencing. Our friends at Understood.org have created simulations so that parents can experience what it may be like to have ADHD. Try out a simulation HERE.
Research also suggests that those with ADHD have a difficult time sensing or using time as adequately as others in their daily activities, and as a result, are often late for appointments and miss deadlines, ill prepared for upcoming activities, and less able to pursue long-term goals and plans as well as others. EF skills are also integral to reading, writing, and paying optimal attention in the moment, while keeping in mind the past and looking toward the future. Problems with time management and organizing themselves for upcoming events are commonplace in older children and adults with the disorder.
Individuals with ADHD sometimes have challenges with social skills and social relationships. Social skills are typically learned incidentally by observing others, practicing or imitating others, and by getting peer feedback. Lack of social skills can lead to peer rejection, avoidance, and isolation. Individuals unable to think socially have a difficult time relating socially. Often, social skills support can be very helpful for these students.
Watch this video. Julia’s Story : Julia explains how ADHD has impacted her in the classroom and strategies she finds helpful to keep her on track.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
1. Emphasize Strengths
Many students begin to feel badly about themselves if they are struggling.
Emphasizing a student’s strengths and understanding that ADHD also brings amazing gifts and talents with it that should not be overlooked.
2. Learn more and understand the disorder.
Remember this is a neurological disorder.
Use empathy.
Remember it is an invisible disorder that impacts every area of an individual’s life.
Continue to educate yourself on ADHD.
3. Provide Immediate Behavioural Feedback
Individuals with ADHD need significantly more help regulating their behaviours, and this translates into the need for immediate and regular feedback about their behaviour.
- Proximity Control
- Behaviour Charts (young children)
- Token Economy (Response-Cost procedure)
- Strategic Attention (provide positive attention when child is behaving and withdraw your attention when they are not behaving appropriately).
4. More Action Less Lecturing
Lecturing rarely works for any adolescent, but it is even less effective for individuals with ADHD.
Children are more responsive to our actions than our words.
Are there sufficient tangible consequences (both positive and negative)?
Take action: give a token, remove a token, withdraw your attention, but don’t lecture!
5. Make Rewards & Consequences More Powerful
In addition to making consequences more immediate, make them something that is motivating to the child. Individuals with ADHD often lack the intrinsic motivation to finish a task or get to a goal, therefore the adults in their lives need to use external motivation to facilitate their child so they are motivated to complete homework and study for tests.
6. Increase Structure
- Be Predictable (understand your child needs this)
- Make Rules Clear & Explicit (every time you do X, Y will happen)
- Set Behavioural Expectations (chores, responsibilities)
- Set Learning Expectations (you are required to study for…)
- Provide transition signals (5 minutes until dinner time)
7. Plan the Environment
An organized home = an organized mind.
The more organized your child’s study area is, the more conducive it is to distraction free learning.
Ask yourself: Where is my child’s desk? Does he/she study with the TV on?
Ask your child what works best for them. Involve them in the design of their workspace.
8. Provide Outlets for High Activity Levels
- Take study and homework breaks
- Have your child stand to do some of their homework
- Have them sit on an exercise ball for movement
- Insist on daily outdoor physical exercise
9. Providing ESF Assistance
The neurological impact of ADHD tends to impair executive functions such as planning, foresight and decision-making, which = lost homework assignments, overdue assignments, messy binders, nonexistent organizational systems, etc. Hiring an academic coach to support your child’s executive functioning development and learn some practical innovative intervention strategies can make all the difference in regulating life both at home AND at school.
Adapted from Rick Auger, 2011: The School Counselor's Mental Health Source Book: Strategies to Help Students Succeed. Chadd.org