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ADHD Home Program

This document provides home and classroom strategies for helping children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). It outlines recommendations in 6 areas: [1] changes to make at home to improve focus and behavior; [2] tips and activities to improve concentration; [3] tips for improving hyperactive behavior; [4] tips for the classroom; [5] diet recommendations; and [6] an introduction to ADHD. The strategies aim to create structured and focused environments, keep children engaged in activities matched to their energy levels, and eliminate problematic foods from their diets.

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124 views

ADHD Home Program

This document provides home and classroom strategies for helping children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). It outlines recommendations in 6 areas: [1] changes to make at home to improve focus and behavior; [2] tips and activities to improve concentration; [3] tips for improving hyperactive behavior; [4] tips for the classroom; [5] diet recommendations; and [6] an introduction to ADHD. The strategies aim to create structured and focused environments, keep children engaged in activities matched to their energy levels, and eliminate problematic foods from their diets.

Uploaded by

dahocctherapy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Northern Cape

Department of Health
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

ADHD
Home Programme

Patient’s name: ____________________

Hospital:_________________
Therapist:_________________
Phone nr:__________________
1. Introduction

ADHD is a common problem that affects about 8% to 10% of school-age


children. Boys are about three times more likely than girls to have it,
though it's not yet understood why.

Kids with ADHD act without thinking, are hyperactive (they move a lot),
and have trouble focusing (concentrate). They may understand what's
expected of them but have trouble following through because they can't
sit still, pay attention, or attend to details.

There are ways in which you can help your child cope with these problems at home and at school.

2. Changes to make at home:

 Don’t let your child be hungry, worry about things, be scared etc.
 These changes will help your child to focus on his/her work:
- Quiet room with no TV or radio or other noises in the
background.
- People should not be passing by all the time.
- Put his table for studying against a wall, he can sit looking at the
wall when doing homework.
- Remove all the pictures from the wall.
- Do not put the desk in front of the widow where his attention
can be taken away by all the outside activities.
 Enough sleep is very important.
 Wake up earlier to have enough time to ensure that the morning activities take place peacefully.
 The child should not watch a lot of TV or play computer games.
 The child should play outside/do creative activities (crafts, making things, drawing and painting)
 Play classical or other calm music (e.g. baroque) softly in the background while the child works.
 Speak slowly, quietly and calmly. If the parent behaves in a hyperactive and intense way, the
child will copy his behaviour.
 Have definite places for toys to be put away.
 Make a punch-bag for the child and hang it from the roof. The child can hit it when feeling angry
or frustrated.
 Use colours like green, blue, light purple and pastels of red, orange and yellow in the child’s
environment as it calms him down.
 Let him do less activity from 18h00 onwards. This will help him to calm down.
 Children have different ways to study. Try to find out which way works better for your child. See
if he learns better by seeing or hearing information.
3. Tips and activities to improve concentration:

 Try to make learning fun.


 Only work for a short time with the child in the beginning.
 To get the child’s attention, make physical contact i.e. lightly touch him on
his shoulder when you see that his attention is somewhere else.
 Give very short, simple, clear instructions.
a. Give only one instruction at a time.
b. Make eye contact when you give him an instruction.
c. Let the child repeat the instruction to you if necessary, to ensure
he knows what he must do.
 Break his tasks into parts.
 Find out for how long the child can concentrate before his attention wanders. This can be
achieved by timing him when he does his homework or any other activity where he must
concentrate. Now you can try the following to help him to increase the time he can
concentrate gradually: explain to him that you will work for 10 minutes before he can have a
break of 5 minutes. Put the clock in front of him to see the time. If he does well, increase the
time to 15 minutes the following week etc. until he can concentrate well for at least 45 to 50
minutes.
 Reward the child when he has concentrated well.
 Allow for short breaks every now and then.
 Encourage the child to complete a task, even if you have to give him a hand in the beginning.
Do not allow him to leave tasks half done and do not finish it for him.
 Play games to make the concentration better e.g.:
a. Say three numbers after each other and the child has to repeat the numbers to you.
You can make it harder by doing more numbers as the child gets better.
b. Take the child to a room in the house. He must look at everything in the room for a
time, and then leave the room. Ask the child to remember everything he saw.
c. Give the child a pen and paper. The following instructions have to be followed on
the paper: Draw a dot in the top left corner etc.
d. Draw simple patterns on paper, the child must then redraw the pattern after
only glancing at it.
4. Tips for improving hyperactive behaviour:

 Do activities, which need a lot of movement and then


activities where the child has to sit quietly and work.
 Any fast movement that is done again and again can make the
activity level of the child high.
 Avoid activities which will make his activity level too high, like
jumping on a trampoline for a long time.
 Praise the child and tell him if he is behaving well.
 If the child’s activity level has been made high by any jumping
exercise, let him do some activity that will calm him down, like
wheelbarrow walking (see picture) or making forward-rolls.
 You can let the child lie down and close his eyes for 5 minutes;
he must try not to move or make a sound for that period of
time.
 Be very firm in what you want from the child, but know that he
has a short attention span and gets frustrated easily. Set limits
and be consistent (do it the same every time).
 Set very clear times in which he is expected to sit still and take part.
 Let him move around when working, i.e. the child may be allowed to get up to fetch a glass
of water.
 If you let the child jump 10 times when you see he needs to move you will find that it will
help him to concentrate.
 Help the child to relax before going to bed, i.e. massage or play soft
music in the background.
 The child needs to do some kind of sport, like gymnastics, karate,
wrestling, swimming, soccer, netball, rugby.
 Make time for the child to be active: If you notice that he really needs
to be move around, give him an activity like running around crazy for a
few seconds. Afterwards he needs to come back, sit down and
continue with his work.
 Using massage every day can help the child a lot as it calms him down.
5. Tips in the classroom

 If the child experiences problems to concentrate in the classroom, try to place him in the
front, next to a quiet student.
a. Next to the window, door or next to a lively child will make it harder for him to
concentrate well.
 Speak slowly, quietly and calmly. If the teacher behaves in a
hyperactive and intense way, the child will copy his
behaviour.
 Making an activity fun will help keep the child’s attention on
his work.
 In the classroom, tasks should be clearly given in written
form, both for the child and to inform the parent.
 The classroom should be orderly and the child must know
what happens every day. There should be clear rules and
they have to be applied every time. The child must know what good or bad things will
happen if he does something good or bad.

6. Diet

 Have a “food diary” for the child to look for any patterns of how particular foods affect them
 Note how much sugar, processed foods, or junk food the child eats
 Replace processed, unhealthy foods in diet with healthy options such as fresh fruit and
vegetables
 When shopping, check the ingredients of food
products
 Try not to buy things that say:
o Artificial colourants
o Preservatives
o Flavourings, E.G. Monosodium
glutamate (MSG)
o Bleaching agents
o Emulsifiers
 Make food in their natural form as far as possible (e.g. fresh fruit and vegetables)
 Essential fatty acids are very important to have in the child’s diet and are obtained from
nuts, seeds and fish (but not tinned fish)
o Omega 3 & 6 supplements are proven to be very affective (eye-Q)
 Provide the child with multi vitamins for their age everyday
 Avoid
o Foods that cause allergic reactions (sore stomach, rash, swelling)
o Too much sugar
o Caffeine (coca-cola, tea, coffee)
o Fizzy drinks

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