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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
Before the child leaves maths, walk them through what comes with them and tell them to check in with the next teacher on arrival. That teacher greets them, says they can see they came prepared, and names the first thing to do. Between the two adults the child never has to carry the intention across the corridor unaided, and arriving somewhere becomes a thing that goes well rather than a thing that goes wrong.
When the prayer has ended, disperse in the land and seek out God's bounty (Quran 62:10). The end of one thing is given a shape and a next step, which is all a good handover is.
الجمعة
فَإِذَا قُضِيَتِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةُ فَٱنتَشِرُواْ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَٱبۡتَغُواْ مِن فَضۡلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرࣰ ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ
then when the prayer has ended, disperse in the land and seek out God’s bounty. Remember God often so that you may prosper
Qur’an 62:10read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A collaborative school and home programme for children with attention and behaviour problems ran for twelve weeks through school based mental health staff, combining parent training, consultation with teachers and skills work with the child, and looked at educationally relevant outcomes. It shows the value of adults coordinating around a child rather than each managing their own patch. It was an open trial, so there was no control group, and it tested the whole programme rather than the handover on its own.
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.
A transition asks you to hold a goal through a change of scene, which is exactly the bit that keeps slipping, so two adults hold the ends of it instead.
If a young person hears your suggestion of a planner as one more instruction, they will refuse it, and the refusal is about who is in charge rather than about diaries. Hand over the choice of format and the choice of what goes in.
A calendar that catches only some of your commitments is more dangerous than no calendar at all. You look at Thursday, see a clear afternoon, say yes, and only later meet the thing that never got written down.
When you set your own deadline, watch what happens to it. Thursday becomes Friday, Friday becomes Monday, and it helps to know what that slide actually costs rather than guessing at it.