The ADDEdge Family Focus Issue 3

Welcome to another week of The ADDEdge Family Focus. So far we've talked about some of the thought processes you can work on to make a distinct and noticeable difference very quickly. Today let's discuss something concrete that will continue to help you make changes in your household or with the children and families you are helping.

Tip #3

These kids/adults are visual people and learners. They process information in their heads a little differently than society expects them to, therefore they're "different". Reality is these kids learn and function as well as anyone else, but things need to be structured to meet their needs, rather than expecting them to bend to meet society's.

So how do you do that? With the right instruction set it's fairly simple. Adjust things so that the information they need to use and learn is set up in a visual way. Here is one of the most useful things I found to do in our household.

We wrote lists in color. We asked/insisted that my daughters' teachers give them their assignments for chunks of time rather than daily. My youngest daughter got her assignments weekly, that was 5 days worth, and my oldest got them at least bi-weekly.

We then took those assignment lists and wrote them on a big white board, checking it off every day. Each child got a different color. They had to read me their own upcoming assignments thereby getting the information into their verbal memory also. I wrote them down on the board while they watched, this helped my own ADD by not making me jsut sit there. It also helped the kids as they watched their assignments get written in color.

What I noticed is that this helped them remember the work without looking at the board! The information being in colors actually helped them access the information in their brains. I would watch them as I asked what they had due the next day and they would ALWAYS look up to remember. They were picturing the board in their heads!

Well, that is this week's topic. These kids are visual. They are great and exciting, and they are visual. Next week we will continue talking about concrete things that you can do bring out the best in your kids!


Tracy Hoobyar is a personal trainer for academic, personal and professional excellence for people with ADHD, and those who love them. After graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in Psychology and working with children as a substitute teacher and volunteer, she learned what an incredibly widespread problem ADHD can be. Through her training in NLP, Psychology, and her experiences working with all these children, she has finally developed a unique yet effective program to help those living with ADHD. She blogs about various parenting issues affecting all those concerned and she is a frequent guest blogger on Sew Cute’s blog. Learn more by visiting www.ADDvantageForLife.com