Did you know that children with ADHD do not just struggle with focus and attention? They also struggle with deficits in executive functioning skills. These are skills that allow individuals to manage their thoughts, actions, and emotions in order to get things done. They also enable kids to plan, manage time, and to organize. So if you struggle with executive functioning skills getting started on things and organizing your life can be very difficult at times.
These six areas will also be affected: task initiation, time management, planning, self regulation, perseverance, and organization. When you ask your child to clean their room or to clean up a mess they made, avoidance typically happens. Before doing my research and finding out why, I thought my son was just not wanting to do it and was refusing This would create an argument and consequences when he refused or did not begin. It would result in me being very stressed out and him in a full blown meltdown and a messy room still. Something had to be done, so I set aside some time to research.
This is what I found! Individuals with ADHD struggle with planning and initiating tasks. This means that if they are presented with a large task of cleaning up their room, they cannot plan what they need to do and how to start it. They may know that they need to put the books on the shelf, put the laundry in the basket, and the toys in the bin, but they will struggle with doing all of the tasks one after the other. They cannot decide which one to do first and in what order. This is why my son would meltdown when I would tell him to just clean up his room. Its not that he would not do it. He could not do it.
He also struggled with attention, so if he did get started, he would get distracted by everything around him and would not be able to get back on track.
These are the tips that I can up with to help manage that clean up time, to make it less stressful, and to make it fun for your child. This can be helpful for any child!
1. Go through and thin out the number of toys that your child has or has available to them. The visual clutter is overwhelming when it is all over the floor and can increase the stress when they are trying to come up with a plan
2. Having too many options of toys can cause problems. Put toys in rotation. Sort them into categories and place them in the bins with labels. Then rotate the bins and toys each day.
3. Store the toys that are not out in a place that your child cannot get to or is locked up. Otherwise the child can get them all out and it will defeat the purpose.
4. Model what a clean room looks like and how to clean up the room in steps. They need to learn how to clean up and place things in the correct spot before having cleaning.
5. Create a checklist of what needs to be done each time to help those children that have problems with planning and task initiation. Make is simple and basic for the children.
6. Organize the play area. All toys and items need to have their own spot and it should be labeled. This way when it is time to clean up, it will be easier for your child to put the items away into their designated locations. I usually use labels with pictures and the words together.
7. Get your child started. Remember that getting started is hard for children with ADHD, so help them get the task started. Use visual timers to help with time management. This will help your child keep track of the time they are spending on the clean up Sometimes time management can be a struggle when cleaning. Sometimes using those visual timers can help them stay on track and prevent them from getting distracted.
8. Make the clean up a challenge. Who can clean up the most blocks in one minute? Who can clean up the blocks first. Beat the timer or clean up song.
9. Give your child breaks if it is a large mess.
10. Keep calm and clean with them. Show them that you are in reading this goal together!
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