Endless Homework? Helping Kids with ADHD Learn How to Manage Time

Executive Function is a set of skills seated in the frontal lobe of the brain.  It includes skills such as sequencing, planning, and organizing.  Many children with ADHD have developmental delays in this area. But ADHD or no ADHD, organization, including time management, is not an innate skill; it must be taught. Consider yourself your child’s organizational consultant. Your child should be engaged in the process, so include them every step of the way.  Expect them to be inconsistent-organized in some areas or on some days, and chaotic in others. This does not mean they are lazy.  Punishment will not help.  The following are some ideas to assist them with time management skills.

Sequencing, planning, and understanding the passage of time is a learned skill.  Analog clocks, as opposed to digital, show how time “moves.”

• Use a kitchen timer for countdowns.  This helps visualize the passage of time.  An added benefit is that when “Ten minutes are up” it’s harder to argue with a timer than with a parent.  Use it to give the 5 or 10-minute warning for departure on hectic school mornings.

• Post a weekly calendar in a conspicuous place. A monthly calendar may be information overload. A dry erase calendar works well.  Include your child’s after-school activities, sports games, and due date of long-term projects, tests, or quizzes.  You may want to color-code activities. Review the upcoming week on Sunday nights with your child.  Have your child cross off items as they’re completed.  The calendar offers a multi-sensory learning opportunity: it’s a visual record, writing and crossing off is tactile, and talking about upcoming events is auditory.

• Have your child wear a watch. The alarm can be set for important reminders, like going to the school nurse.

• Review the homework planner nightly with your child.  Help your child prioritize that night’s assignments, and help him understand that for Friday’s quiz he will have to study on Wed. night if he has a baseball game on Thursday.  Have him write “study” in Wednesday’s time slot. Cross off items as they are completed.

• Many kids have a poor sense of the passage of time or are poor estimators of how long a task will take. They may underestimate how long a task will take, and thus seem to procrastinate. Or, they may overestimate and think they have “hours and hours” of homework and feel overwhelmed. Help them break tasks down into smaller bits, and ask them to guess how long the first step will take. Set a timer, and see how long it really takes. Ask them if next time you can remind them of this occasion when they under/over estimated. They will eventually learn to adjust their time estimates and be more accurate.
• Most schools have a “ten minute” homework rule–10 minutes of homework for 1st graders, 20 minutes for 2nd graders, and so on. If your child is spending an inordinate amount of time on homework even with your organizational help, communicate with the teacher. Teachers don’t want your child spending endless hours on homework, either!