Helping Your ADHD Child Get Organized

Joyce A. Kubik, an ADHD coach and skills trainer, conducted a seminar on Tuesday to help Northern Ohio professional organizers work with ADHD clients. She has ADHD herself, discovering it as an adult.

Her description of how an ADHD mind functions: Pretend you are sitting and watching a train go by. Each train car represents a new thought in the ADHD person's mind - constant, quick, ever-changing. Never a calm thought process, but always moving on to a new thought.

One of Joyce's recommendations was to start recognizing distractions. In my case as a professional organizer, when helping an ADHD client sort through paper, a paper will remind her of something else she needs to do. She will want to go to another room to do that task. Instead of going to the other room, Joyce suggested drawing a box on a piece of paper, labeling it with the name of that room, and writing down the task that needs to be done.

Because a person with ADHD is very visual, if she goes to the other room, she will forget about what she was doing in the previous room. By beginning to recognizing these thoughts as distractions and writing them down, it allows the person with ADHD to stay focused on the task at hand.

If you or your child suffers from ADHD, this may be a place to start to help you stay focused and organized: start recognizing distractions and writing them down. I'll share some other pointers in future blogs.

If you'd like to learn more about Joyce Kubik's teleseminars and coaching, go to her website. She is an amazing source of information, has written books, done research.