Springboard Clinic

Guest post from Joanne Sallay of Teachers on Call

The sun is shining, summer break is here, and students are enjoying time off from school. While they definitely deserve a much needed break, the entire summer is a long time to go without educational enrichment. This can be challenging for the best of students, but can definitely impact those who are currently behind and struggling.

Preventing learning loss over the break, popularly referred to as the “summer slide” is on the minds of many parents.

When ADHD is part of your family life, you might have some mixed feelings about summer time. On the one hand, it may feel like a relief to step away from stresses related to school and homework. On the other hand, you may have concerns about how to help yourself and your family cope with the many transitions and changes in routines that summer brings.

To make things more complicated, as Canadians, we are often so excited for the weather to finally be nice that we have a tendency to over hype and over commit with our summer plans. Beware of the temptation of trying to fit too many things into your family’s schedule this summer and consider actively planning time for “rejuvenation”.

Read on to see our top 4 tips for slowing down this summer.

It’s that time of year where school starts to wrap up, and if you have ADHD in your home, you might really be feeling like you need a serious break. You probably all (parents and students) want to run out the front doors of the school and not give another thought to anything academic until the absolute last minute in September.

Wait, stop, not so fast!

Before you put school “out of mind” for the summer, consider these 3 steps (we promise it will be easier now than in the fall)!

From Laura MacNiven, Director of Health Education/Coaching at Springboard Clinic

Let’s face it, children with ADHD hear the word “no” a lot. They hear “sit down”, “listen”, “If only you tried harder”, “stop bouncing”, and not a lot of “yes”. I think when you hear a lot of the word no, you really physically, emotionally and mentally lose motivation. You don’t feel like you can do the right thing. You’re just kind of trying to avoid disasters.

That’s why picking battles can be so important for working with ADHD children. We can work to notice when they are doing something right (or partially right), try to give freedom when possible to make “low-risk” mistakes, and really work to say the word “yes” whenever we can.

Have you ever found yourself wandering along with a crowd, on your ‘vacation’ thinking: I don’t even like (insert whatever you are currently doing)?” 

Too often, we get so excited about the concept of a holiday that we just follow along with what the guide book says and don’t customize it to fit our own wants and needs, or the strengths and limitations of those traveling with us. You do the “must sees’ according to someone else, or hop on a pre-planned itinerary and skip the necessary steps to make it yours. You forget to ask yourself the meaningful questions about what you are wanting out of this time, and instead find yourself on holiday thinking “it would have been more relaxing to just stay home.”

As the holidays approach, children and parents alike are looking forward to some time off. Not only that, children with ADHD often experience challenges at school, and because of this are often told what to do, what not to do...no wonder they need a break!