Suggestions to help your ADHD and/or learning disabled child. This was taken from the book How to reach and teach all students in the inclusive classroom by Sandra Rief.

1. Be sure your expectations are made clear.

2. They need a structured environment

3. Assist them with changing tasks ( ex. Going from math to reading)

4. You may need to use external cues to help get or keep attention (ex. Hand signal)

5. Active learning is usually preferred

6. Provide high response opportunities

7. Help them get better organized

8. They usually respond better to multisensory instructions

9. It’s best if you are teaching to their learning style

10. Give them choices

11. Try teaching to their strengths and go around areas of their weakness

12. Be flexible and positive. Make learning fun and interesting.

13. Try to help them see the connection to what you are doing and why. Make it relevant to everyday life.

14. You will have to modify and adapt your curriculum and environment to their learning style

15. Keep them on a schedule and have routines.

16. Use a “survival kit” ( see details on this website)

17. They usually do better with more work space.

18. Avoid speaking in a monotone voice, vary vocal pitch

19. Keep instructions simple, as brief as possible.

20. Try and teach while in close proximity of the child. The closer the better for maintaining their attention.

21. Some children do better when they are allowed to hold something in their hands- play dough, clay, squishy ball. You will need to experiment with that.

22. Some children do better when they are able to have a small object, toy attached to their belt loop so they can touch it. You may try a keychain with a small object attached.

23. Block pages so it doesn’t overwhelm the child or cause them to give up. By blocking I mean cover up part of the work, or copy off only small sections to give them at a time.

24. Make a contract with your child for on task behavior with positive rewards.

8 POPULAR TEACHING APPROACHES USED BY HOMESCHOOL FAMILES

1. SCHOOL AT HOME
This, the most familiar of styles to those of us who attended schools ourselves. Generally it involves 4 or more subjects a day, taught during specific time periods. Generally this style uses prepackaged purchased curriculums, but certainly not always. This section doesn't need much detail because we all lived it for 13+ years.
2. CLASSICAL (Trivium)
Classical Education organizes education into three Biblical categories. These three categories are Grammar, Logic & Rhetoric. Or otherwise known as knowledge (learning the facts), understanding (organizes the facts into rational order), and wisdom (taking that knowledge and understanding and uses it in practical ways). This is the original liberal arts education. Memorization, dialogue, writing and languages are stressed.
3. CHARLOTTE MASON
A Christian based philosophy of education that stresses good literature (rather than textbooks), copying of relevant materials, and dictation. Nature walks are stressed throughout. Structure is crucial and training of good habits begins in infancy. There is no standard curriculum. Many Classical and Charlotte Mason homeschoolers feel their two styles overlap in many areas - so you may want to look closely at the materials available for both.
4. WALDORF
is a non-Christian spiritually based program featuring delayed academics and a rich variety of music, arts and literature. The aim of Waldorf education is to educate the whole child -- head, heart and hands. The curriculum is geared to the child's stages of development and brings together all elements -- intellectual, artistic, spiritual and movement. The goal is to produce individuals who are able, in and of themselves, to impart meaning to their lives. Rituals of daily and seasonal life are strongly emphasized.
5. MONTESSORI
The original works of Maria Montessori have been gravely distorted here in America by a lack of copyrights on her name, but the original concept was to respect the child's inner desire to learn and allow him/her to make spontaneous and free choices within a carefully prepared environment (structure the environment, not the child). While this is frequently now limited to only the younger grades, Montessori principles work well through high school. The role of the adult is to observe and use brief teachable moments to introduce new concepts (usually by doing the activity quietly herself and waiting for a child to ask a question about it).
6.UNIT STUDY APPROACH
Unit studies can be as flexible or structured as a family wants. They allow for a great deal of individual choice in both the choice of units to be done and in the materials used. It is usually an in-depth study of one specific topic (baseball, the planets, trees, puffins) that takes into account many areas of the topic, such as geography, science, history, art, etc. It is a complete immersion into the topic so that the student will see things as a "whole" instead of bits and pieces. They can be done very frugally using a wide variety of internet and library resources. You will find more links here than usual - because so many of them are available!
7. UNSCHOOLING
Unschooling is not how something is done, but why. Unschoolers use textbooks, movies, classrooms and correspondence courses, museums and magazines, jobs and volunteer positions (and the rest of the world) to learn, depending upon how they want to learn about the topic. Unschooling is the belief that all people, no matter how old or young, have a built in desire to learn (unless that desire has been crushed by outside forces). It is a belief that if you allow a person of any age to pursue their own interests throughout life they will end up gaining the knowledge they will need in order to pursue the life they want. Unschooling is not never saying no and letting the wolves raise your children. It is allowing them to learn without guilt and with educational freedom.
8. ECLETIC
Most homeschoolers probably fit into this catagory more than the others. Eclectic homeschoolers don't pick any one style. They use a formal curriculm for a few subjects, use a literature approach for another, and enjoy long daily nature walks and copyrighting and journal keeping. They have taken what was right for them, and left the rest behind.

Help for parents whose child has ADHD