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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Systems for daily life
Get hold of the actual document and read it properly. Extra time, a quiet room, not being made to read aloud, notes given in advance: these are often already written down. Then work out who has to tell whom, and make that single message the whole task. For a young person, speaking to the teacher directly is usually the hardest part, so send it through the support staff whose job it is to pass it on.
If you lend me your strength, I will put up a fortification between you and them (Quran 18:95). Asking someone else to carry part of the work is written into the plan from the start.
الكهف
قَالَ مَا مَكَّنِّي فِيهِ رَبِّي خَيۡرࣱ فَأَعِينُونِي بِقُوَّةٍ أَجۡعَلۡ بَيۡنَكُمۡ وَبَيۡنَهُمۡ رَدۡمًا
He answered, ‘The power my Lord has given me is better than any tribute, but if you lend me your strength, I will put up a fortification between you and them
Qur’an 18:95read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A twelve week programme run by school based mental health staff combined parent training, consultation with teachers and skills work with the child, and measured outcomes that mattered educationally. It was an open trial without a control group, so it shows the approach can be delivered rather than proving what it achieves. The piece worth borrowing is that someone was given the job of talking to the teacher, instead of leaving that to the child.
Pfiffner LJ, Villodas M, Kaiser N, Rooney M, McBurnett K. (2013). Educational outcomes of a collaborative school-home behavioral intervention for ADHD.. School psychology quarterly : the official journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
An adjustment only helps once the person in the room knows about it, and getting it written down is a different job from getting it used.
When someone has shut down, pressure to get moving usually pushes them further in. Safety first and activity afterwards, even when the whole household is desperate for a sign of life.
Put small obstacles between the urge and the doing. One browser used only for work, tempting apps buried three folders down, notifications off for anything that is not an actual person you love.
The good place to be is where things matter but nothing is on fire yet. Booking the check-up, planning next term, getting the haircut before it becomes a situation.