By Laura Zajac, PhD

As students and families settle into the new school year, children with ADHD may struggle to adjust to the greater organizational demands of middle and high school. ADHD’s effect on children’s ability to plan, focus, switch tasks, and remember details can make it very difficult for them to prioritize and plan schoolwork.

Parents can help by “scaffolding,” or giving students temporary support, as students learn how to organize and plan their time. The goal is to remove the support over time so that the student gradually becomes more independent. It can be difficult to know exactly how much support is needed, and it may take trial and error to find the best solution.

Structure and routines are important to help students stay organized. For example, starting a routine of sitting down with the student after school to plan out the evening’s homework assignments. Let the student decide what type of planner works best for them: a paper planner, a planner app, or a simple Word or Google doc. Although the student should decide what to use, they’ll likely need help knowing what tasks to write down and how to plan ahead for long-term projects or tests.

Children and teens with ADHD frequently have a poor sense of time and may struggle to predict how long it takes to complete specific tasks. For a few days, have your student use a stopwatch to time how long it takes them to complete a task (e.g. math homework, reading a book chapter). Then help them use this knowledge to plan their homework more accurately.

Over time, the “scaffolding” can gradually come down and students will be able to stay organized independently.