focusing

Are You Focusing?

While your child often needs one on one monitoring to do homework, it shouldn’t always be necessary. While she is working solo, it helps to frequently say something like, “Stop. Are you focusing?” Get her to notice whether she is paying attention to her work and what she is reading/doing. If she is reading, ask if she is thinking about something else. Help her to become aware of when her attention wanders, and teach her to put effort into keeping it from happening!

Staying on Task

Staying on task is HARD. Trying to write this, I keep getting distracted, and I don’t have ADHD. To help bring attention back to the task at hand, our family LOVES this little gadget, a 3-in-1 Timer. It flashes, buzzes and/or beeps at regular intervals to simply remind you – or your kids – of what you are supposed to be doing. You program it with the frequency you need, and it does the rest. Our guys used to fight over this thing. Of course, there are many variations on the theme. There are lots of cool gadgets – medication reminders, watches, alarms, you name it! Check out our new page on reminder clocks here.

Reminder Watches

“Pay attention.”     “Go to the bathroom.”
“Get a drink of water.”     “Eat.”
“Take your meds.”    “Pay attention.”     “Move to the next problem.”

Hearing the nagging voice of a teacher or a parent all day long is enough to drive anyone to distraction. Thankfully, there are products on the market that can alarm, buzz, vibrate, and/or blink, reminding our child to do what he or she is supposed to do. Our boys fought over our timer. And boy did it help them stay on task, especially when they were cleaning their room! Timers for ADHD are invaluable. But what about when your kid is on the move?

There are all sorts of reminder devices, and you may want to try – and use – a couple of different kinds. We really like watches that are designed for ADHD kids, like the WobL one pictured above.

ADHD/ADD Watches

When choosing an ADHD watch, keep in mind the following questions:

Will this embarrass my child? Does it have a silent vibrator? Is it ugly, or obviously a ‘medical’ device?
Is the alarm noticeable enough? Is it loud or bright? Does it last long enough?
Can the alarm sounds be varied?
How easily can the device be programmed?
Can you set the alarm to sound a different intervals?
How portable is the device?
Does it have a countdown or stopwatch feature?
Can you record a voice on it?