Effective Inattentive ADHD Home & School Management Guidelines Review

Effective Inattentive ADHD Home & School Management Guidelines Review

ADHD management at home and at school requires some very simple and easy to understand guidelines.  I thought I would write about this because I have recently been asked by two separate readers to post guidelines on ADHD management tips for home and for school.

I have written many posts with ADHD home and classroom tips but I thought that I would make a post with a review of these guidelines and with a list at the end of the post of resources that readers can get to further their knowledge about these guideline. 

This post is intended only to outline the basic guidelines.  Please refer to the multiple resources at the end of this post to get more information on how these guidelines are put into place at home and at school.

Home ADHD Management Principals:

• Parents must maintain a positive home environment and eliminate stress whenever possible.
• Parents should schedule time to just be with their child.  Kids get benefits from just being the central part of a parent's day even if it is only for 20 minutes.
• Parents should aim to praise your child 10 times for every time you consider punishment.
• Parents should try to maintain this perspective. "If your child could do better, he/she would be doing better."
• Parents should try to organize your home so that your child can be better organized.
• Parents should put in place multiple motivation systems and reward often.
• Parents will need to be their child's time keeper and show your child how to know time is passing.
• Parents will need to keep instructions simple.
• Parents need to be a good example.
• Parents will need to pay attention to what is going on at school and socially in their child's life and offer support and social skills training when necessary.
• Parents will need to pay attention to their child's mood and get support for depression or anxiety when necessary
• Parents should be involved in their child's school. School is less stressful for ADHD kids (all kids) when parents are involved.

School ADHD Management Principles:

• Teachers must have an established and easy parent/teacher communication system (email, weekly checklist).
• Teachers should structure the curriculum so that Gross Motor movement is allowed as often as possible.
• Classrooms must have more activity and less lecturing.
• Kids should be given 'jobs' or a role in school so that school is something they feel a part of.
• The best teachers are caring, involved and connected to the Inattentive ADHD child
• Teachers should try to maintain this perspective. "If the child could do better, he/she would be doing better."
• Teachers should make learning relevant to the child.  If instruction has no meaning in the child's life, the inattentive child will likely "check out".
• Teachers should praise often.
• Teachers should act as timekeepers in the classroom.
• Teachers should have a task management system that the most disorganized kids find easy to follow.
• Teachers should be on the alert for Inattentive ADHD children's loss of focus and have a simple process (a touch on the shoulder, a task to get them back on track) to bring these kids out of their 'daydreams'.
• Teachers should pay attention to a child's mood and alert parents of signs of depression or anxiety.
• Teachers should encourage parents to be involved at school.

Posts regarding home ADHD Management tips include:

• This is where I write about how just spending time with your ADHD Inattentive child helps them.
• This is where I wrote a long post on disciplining with praise.
• This is the link on the use of timers and time management for ADHD Inattentive kids.
• There is a visual timer called a Time Timer that helps kids with ADHD get a sense of the passage of time.
• This is the link where you will find information of organizing your ADHD Inattentive home.
• This is the link where I discuss how and how to set goals and reward an ADHD Inattentive person.
• This is the link where I talk about stress at home and why it affects people with ADHD-PI.
• This is where I write about treating anxiety and depression in kids and adults with Inattentive ADD.
• This post explains how to keep instructions simple when dealing with people with Inattentive ADD.
• This post describes why it is important to maintain a perspective of, "If your child could do better, and he/she would be doing better".
• This is the link with information on  teaching kids with Inattentive ADHD social skills.

Posts regarding ADHD school management tips include:

• The importance of making school for the ADHD-PI child relevant is described in this post
• Organizing classroom tasks for Inattentive ADHD is described in this post.
• The post on using Timer tools in the Inattentive ADHD classroom in here.
• This post talks about school, separation anxiety and why parent involvement is important for ADHD-PI.
• This post is about how an Inattentive ADHD child fares at a school where the teachers only lecture.
• This post gives some information regarding how to coach and motivate kids with Inattentive ADHD.
• These practical classroom tips are useful for teachers of kids with Inattentive ADD.
• This post is about Home/School Communication for ADHD households.
• This post lists classroom tips for teachers of younger children with ADHD.
• This post gives details regarding why teachers must be caring, involved and connected with the ADHD-PI child.

Additional Book Resources:

Superparenting by Edward Hollowell

How to Reach and Teach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD

The Shutdown Learner

Motivation Breakthrough is a great resource for parents and teachers.


I am sure that I have left out posts that are probably helpful. If you use the search bar in the upper left hand corner you can probably find more posts that are helpful for the management of Inattentive ADHD at home and at school.

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