Setting up your child for school success

The classroom environment can be a challenging place for a child with ADD/ADHD. The very tasks these students find the most difficult—sitting still, listening quietly, concentrating—are the ones they are required to do all day long. Perhaps most frustrating of all is that most these children want to be able to learn and behave like their unaffected peers. Neurological deficits, not unwillingness, keep kids with attention deficit disorder from learning in traditional ways.

As a parent, you can help your child cope with these deficits and meet the challenges school creates. You can provide the most effective support: equipping your child with learning strategies for the classroom and communicating with teachers about how your child learns best. With support at home and teaching strategies at work in the classroom, there is no reason why kids with ADD/ADHD can’t flourish in school.

Tips for supporting teachers-

Remember that your child’s teacher has a full plate: in addition to managing a group of children with distinct personalities and learning styles, he or she can also expect to have at least one student with ADD/ADHD. Teachers can do their best to help your child with attention deficit disorder learn effectively, but parental involvement can dramatically improve your child’s education. You have the power to optimize your child’s chances for success by supporting the work done in the classroom. If you can work with and support your child’s teacher, you can directly affect the experience of your child with ADD/ADHD in the classroom.

There are a number of ways you can work with teachers to keep your child on track at school. Together you can help your child with ADD/ADHD learn to find his or her feet in the classroom and work effectively through the challenges of the school day.
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