Navigating School Accommodations as Parents of Kids with ADHD

Hello and welcome. My name is Amy Marie Hann. I am the creator of Master the Mundane. On Instagram, you can find me at @ActivatedADHDMama and I help moms with ADHD manage their home and their family. And a big, big part of that is raising ADHD kids because so many of us are doing just that. And so today I have two very special guests today. I have Dr. Lori Long and Katie Severson. Katie and Lori are part of an amazing trio called The Childhood Collective. They create content on Instagram and have courses designed especially for parents raising ADHD kids. You also have probably listened to them on their podcast Shining with ADHD. So today, they are here with me today to talk about helping our kids with schools. So welcome Dr. Lori and welcome Katie. And I'm so glad you guys are here today.

Dr. Lori Long:

Thank you for having us.

Katie Severson:

Thank you. Yes, thanks for having us on. We loved having you on our podcast, so we're excited to be here.

Lori:

I know, and Mallory is missing. She's the other part of the Childhood Collective, but she is watching her littles today, but she is also a child psychologist.

Amy:

Great! So I wanted to talk to you guys today because I know you have created so much content around helping our kids in schools. And as currently as we're recording this, it is early October here, First report cards are about to come out. And I know that is such a critical time because we're seeing things that are happening with our kids. And so I just wanted to get your advice on what parents should be looking for. But before we get to that, I wanted you guys to just share a little bit about your background and how you started doing what you're doing with helping ADHD parents.

Lori:

Yeah, well, I'm a child psychologist and I've been in private practice for 15 years now. And I used to do a lot of testing and therapy with kids. Now I just do testing for ADHD and autism and learning disorders. But I worked with a lot of families who are raising kids with ADHD. And one of the things that we really noticed was we'd be giving kind of the same skills to parents over and over again, one-on-one in therapy. And it was hard for parents to get parent behavior training, which is one of the recommended treatments for kids with ADHD, especially for young kids under the age of six. The American Academy of Pediatrics says kids should be, or parents should be getting help to support their kids' behaviors before we try medication.

And parents just couldn't get this. And we could only see kids one-on-one and could only see a few families. And what we just kind of put our heads together and kind of said, we need to be giving these families these supports and these strategies. And parents need help and support for raising their kids and also with navigating the schools. So that's how we kind of came up with the Childhood Collective. So we you know, started creating online courses to help parents. And then we also just, we have our podcasts, we have other content and that's kind of how it started.

Katie:

I think something too that we all have in common is all of us, myself as a speech language pathologist, but then Lori and Mallory as child psychologists, we all worked in private practice. At one point we all were in the same private practice and we would do these comprehensive evaluations on kids. And so we would be looking at all of their strengths and areas of need. And a lot of times the parents would be coming to us for a second opinion because they had been at the school district trying to get services and they weren't.

Getting their needs met, especially kids with ADHD. And we'll get into why that is so often, but it's really challenging for them to access services a lot of times, and yet it's a huge area of need. So we ended up really realizing like, oh my gosh, we're writing these reports and we're doing this and we're attending all these school meetings with families and realizing families need these tools. They need to know how to go into a meeting and advocate and what their rights are. And so specifically our-on school and supporting kids with ADHD at school was really born out of hundreds of hours of evaluations and IEP meetings and sitting with families and just really seeing that need for advocacy. And not every family can afford an advocate or has access to an advocate. And so we want families to feel equipped to know this knowledge and be able to share it with their school district.

Lori:

Yeah, and Mallory and I have backgrounds in school psychology, so that's our training. And we've worked in the schools, supporting kids in the schools, and we've also worked in private practice. So we kind of have that ability to sort of understand both sides of the systems, which I think is so important for families because they will go into the schools with a medical diagnosis and...

Amy:

That is so helpful, yeah.

Lori:

There's just differences in how they do evaluations, how they support kids. And we just know it's so essential for parents to really understand those systems to be the best advocate for their child.

Amy:

That is so important. So a little background on my family. So I have three kids. My two boys are in public school, but we started public school late in the game. So my oldest, he was mid fifth grade. So though all three of my kids have diagnosis, neither of my boys has an IEP or a 504. We're just starting that process now just to get it on the books. But even knowing all the things that I know, it still can feel like... it feels like there's these certain words that you're supposed to say, essentially because there's a lot of withholding unless you kind of say the right things and do the right things. And so I love what you guys are all about and helping and that experience of being on the school side is so valuable.

Lori:

Yes. Yes, we actually had a parent who has their doctorate in education, and she had taken our Shining at School course and reached out and was like, I don't know what to do. The school responded in this way and was just like, how am I not knowing how to do this and what my rights are when I have a doctorate in education? What are all these other families going through?

And it is the laws are very complicated and Katie and I know we've gone to, as she said, so many IEP meetings, contentious IEP meetings, and we still struggle. So again, we know how important it is for families to feel supported.

Amy:

But One of these things that I see a lot in talking to parents is just this expectation that we should be able to be like occupational therapists or physical therapists are the ability to do all these things that like, you can't do all the things like there are people that have gone to school for many years to learn how to help kids in these certain ways, you know.

Katie:

Well, and I think for anyone that's listening, just knowing that even as a professional in the field, I worked with kids with ADHD for at least the last 12 years, and then I had my own kids and they got their diagnosis and it's just totally different. So even everything you know is almost like, oh gosh, how do I even apply this? And my husband will ask me, what should we do? And I'm like.

Lori:

Yes.

Katie:

Oh my goodness, like it's so much easier when it's not your own family. So it might feel like you're at a disadvantage if you don't have a master's degree in speech or OT or something, but it is. It's just, no matter where you are, it's a lot. Like parenting ADHD, navigating the school system, it's a ton and there isn't maybe enough training in the world to fully prepare you to just get it right all the time.

Lori:

Yeah, and we always tell families like, you don't need a law degree, you don't need a child psychology, PhD, like half the stuff I learned is like so useless, to be honest, and the majority of it I learned in the trenches with families or being a parent myself. So I, to be honest, a lot of the parents we work with are so well educated from just reading up on stuff. And it does feel overwhelming, but you don't need to have like special degrees to be able to support you because you just need to know certain things.

Amy:

Well, okay. So what, excuse me, if I step back, you know, there's parents, they're in, I think so many have this, you know, just like waiting to see how things are going and how they're doing. Like, What are some kind of red flags that you might see at this time of year, you know, hearing from parents or hearing from students that would cause you to, you know, kind of tell parents to, you know, that they might need to take some action towards interventions.

Lori:

Yeah. This is definitely the time of year. It's like October hits and the phones are ringing off the hook in my private practice. Parents are panicking. And it's usually for a variety of reasons for kids with ADHD. It might be that their grades are going down. A lot of times, you know they are actually doing well in school. They have really great knowledge, but they're not able to show what they know in school. So that's either because they're not completing assignments. So they might be just not starting tasks, not finishing their assignments. They might not be bringing their homework home. So then they aren't getting homework done. Sometimes they work all night for hours on end with parents through a screaming battle and then they go to school and they forget to turn the homework in. And so they're missing points because of those things. Many families are saying like, my child's losing recess because they don't bring their homework home. And so they have to get it done during recess time. So you have kids with ADHD who have more of a need to get out their energy and have that outlet that aren't getting it during their school day, which is making the behaviors even more challenging.

Katie:

Another thing that we see a lot is kids are doing actually pretty well in school, but they're coming home and really falling apart. So if you know that your child's, maybe their grades aren't really suffering at this point, but they're coming home and they're really dysregulated and they're just sort of unable to kind of control themselves at that point, that's usually a sign that there's more going on at school and that they could use support. And that's not always indicated in grades because a lot of our kids with ADHD are really good at kind of pulling it together in that moment. And then later you have this collapse. And so just keeping in mind that home is a piece of that puzzle. And so if your child is struggling at home after school, that may be a sign that they need additional support during the school day to help them so that they're not so exhausted.

Lori:

And in more difficult cases, kids are having more severe behaviors. They're maybe becoming aggressive at school with other kids. They're being disruptive in the classroom. You might be getting phone calls constantly about you need to pick up your child and dreading every time the phone rings. So that can happen too. And sometimes it's not even happening during classroom time. It's happening during recess or specials or unstructured times of the day. But it's still happening and it's still resulting in your child missing time at school because they're being sent home or whatever is going on.

Amy:

So, okay, so you see these red flags and what next? What would you, kind of the first course of action that you would encourage a parent to take?

Katie:

I think one of the first things that we want parents to understand, and we sort of alluded to this already, but it's really important for parents to know that grades or your academic performance are not the only thing that should be looked at in deciding if kids need help at school. So again, a lot of kids with ADHD, there is a big overlap between ADHD and learning difficulties. So things like dyslexia, math issues, writing.

But we also see a huge chunk of kids with ADHD who do really well academically and they're gonna test well and that kind of thing. So looking at things like Lori mentioned, like the executive functioning piece of turning in their work and keeping things written down in their planner, bringing home all the books. This gets a lot harder into middle school, fifth, sixth, seventh grade, when kids have multiple teachers, they're switching classrooms, they have to have like their morning books or they're after, it's a lot to keep track of. And also socially, so we mentioned specials, that's a time during the day as well as lunch where kids are interacting more spontaneously. And sometimes for kids with ADHD, that can be overwhelming for a variety of different reasons. So something that's really important for when parents are thinking about what should I do or what am I even justified in asking for support would definitely be understanding that it's not just. That whole big picture of your entire educational curriculum is not just, do you have straight A's? So that's a really important piece.

Lori:

Yeah. Yes. And I think if your child has a medical diagnosis of ADHD already, and you know that a lot of these things are resulting because of that medical diagnosis, you can also go to the school and share that diagnosis with them. We usually tell parents to request a formal meeting to talk about initiating the process of either getting what we call 504 plan or an individualized education plan. If you have a medical diagnosis of ADHD, you can get a 504 plan, which is just some accommodations for your child, right away. And you don't need to go through a long evaluation process to do that. You can make those steps and get that started.

We always tell parents, if you just go to the teacher to talk to the teacher about that, a lot of teachers don't really understand those processes. They don't have any training in ADHD typically. So it really is important to kind of ask for a more formal meeting that might involve like a school psychologist that does have training in ADHD, the principal, assistant principal, any other providers that you think should be at that meeting.

Many times parents may be concerned about their child's speech or their handwriting. So an occupational therapist or speech language pathologist might be at that meeting too to discuss what's going on and then make a plan moving forward. Sometimes we're looking at doing an evaluation. So if your child hasn't had a diagnosis for ADHD, but maybe you suspect it, you can go through the school to get an evaluation.

We just tell parents this is one of the very confusing things about school systems is school systems typically don't provide a diagnosis of ADHD. They can do a full evaluation. They are trained in identifying ADHD. It's one of the most common childhood disorders that we see. And they can identify that through their testing that they do, but they won't always give a diagnosis. The purpose of their testing is to look at do they meet criteria for basically an IEP or a 504 plan at the school. That's really the goal of their testing. It's not to tell you if they have a medical diagnosis. Now, if you get to the end of that testing and it's showing that, then you might be able to take that testing and that information to a medical doctor who can provide you with a more definitive diagnosis.

Amy:

So in your opinion, it's better to, and this is what I advise families too as well, to seek private, if possible, a private diagnosis through a doctor or a psychologist. I tend to recommend a psychologist because then I think they can usually work with a psychiatrist and they better understand ADHD. Is that what you advise to, versus a general practitioner

Lori:

Yeah, I mean, if parents can swing it, then going to a psychologist is great because we do, again, very comprehensive evaluations. The downside of going to a psychologist is it's expensive and the wait lists are long. So going to your pediatrician can sometimes be helpful because they can do that quickly. They know your child. However, we always say for kids with ADHD, other co-occurring diagnoses. And that's why it is a lot of times important to see a psychologist because they can parse out if there's anything else going on, like specific learning disorders that could be impacting their performance at school, anxiety, depression, like any other things that could be going on and advise you on kind of treatments and things like that you could be doing outside of the school as well. You can again, you can go to a pediatrician and get a screening or a psychiatrist, they're not going to do as much testing, but you can go to the school and have more thorough testing done for free that you can use as well. So again, it sort of depends on your finances and how long you're willing to wait and availability in your area and all of that.

Amy:

One of the reasons why we haven't started a plan for our kids is because we found teachers, thankfully, have been pretty accommodating. They've gotten good teachers, and that's kind of like the luck of the draw. So what is the kind of benefit long term of having kind of the formal 504?

Katie:

Yeah, I was just going to say, I think one of the main things is that as kids move up in grades, it becomes, it's kind of like you said, the luck of the draw. And so a lot of times, especially in the younger grades, teachers are willing to accommodate kids. There's probably several kids in the class that can benefit from those types of accommodations and reminders. And then you just don't know, you don't know what teacher you're going to get next year, even.

Over the past few years, there's been more and more teacher turnover and teachers leaving in the middle of the year. And then all of a sudden you've got a brand new teacher coming in, learning 25 kids and all of their needs. And if something isn't formally written down, then it's really difficult to sort of reinvent the wheel. And then you always have the risk of running into that one teacher who's like, I don't see it. I think they're just being lazy or they're just not being compliant. And then it becomes really difficult. And so we know that as we can get a 504 plan in place, and Lori mentioned this before, but a 504 plan is gonna be accommodations. So you're not changing the actual curriculum that your child is learning. This is changing the way that they can show what they know. So for example, they might get an outline that they can then take notes in the outline, or they might be able to listen to audio books rather than having to read everything. There's a lot of different types of accommodations.

We actually have a free guide for families that we can link in the show notes here, but really going into like specific situations, this is what my child struggles with, what accommodations would be helpful. So again, accommodations is sort of like a generic term, but the idea being that it would really be, your child will need specific accommodations. They're not something that every child would benefit from. So the other thing is that 504 plan or IEP can follow your child into like high school and that sort of thing which can be really helpful as they get older.

Lori:

Yeah, I think a lot of families sometimes wait or hold off. And some of the advantages are, like, if you're seeking out accommodations for the SAT or ACT, they're very stringent. And so if your child hasn't had a history of needing accommodations, and maybe they did, but your teachers were just providing them, but there's no documentation, they're not gonna approve that. And I can tell you after working with many kids, the difference between getting extra time on the ACT or SAT and not getting it is a big difference in scores. And that can be the difference between getting a scholarship or not getting a scholarship. So I know a lot of families hold off because they don't want to label their child or some of those things. But again, there can be advantages going into college and things like that if you've had, you know, documentation and a history of need for accommodations too.

Amy:

I think so many moms just like, feel like anxiety or stress, not wanting to impose or, like what would you say to that mom who's like, you know, like it's not that bad or, you know, just needing that little encouragement.

Lori:

Yeah, I think it is, it's confusing and it's hard. And Sometimes you can feel like, well, do I, does my child really need this? And I think you do have to, when you're kind of going into the schools, getting support, understand that you and only you have your child's best interest in mind the school does not have your child's best interest in mind. And I say that not, there's so many wonderful school staff, but they have tons of kids on their, you know, caseload or in their classrooms and they can't give the best for all of them. You are the one that knows your child the best and you are going to be advocating for what they need. And you have to go in with that mentality. And the schools will sometimes kind of brush it off and say, oh, we don't need to do this. They're fine, we can do those accommodations. But again, I work with so many families that they will say, it's like every year, I'm starting over, I'm starting the process over. Like we had this plan last year, now it's a new teacher, new principal, and there's no documentation of anything that we did last year. No one knows anything and we're literally starting the whole process over again, which is frustrating.

Katie:

And as a mom, I think it's important to keep in mind that the person in that case who is going to suffer is your child. So if they don't have the supports in place, they're the one who potentially is going to struggle or feel ashamed. Like I missed that direction because the teacher gave six instructions verbally really quickly while I was still finishing the last thing I was supposed to do. And so as much as it can be painful and I'm such a people pleaser by nature. I don't wanna be the squeaky wheel. I don't wanna go into a meeting and have them like talk about me afterwards. But it's really, I'm thinking, like Lori said, I'm thinking about my child. And I think all of us can relate to this as moms, kind of that mama bear feeling of like, okay, I would never do this, but I'll do it for you. And so it is, it's really important to think like, the teacher is a professional. They are able to do these kinds of accommodations. It's not gonna be an inconvenience to them. It might feel like it is but you're really keeping your child's needs front and center, and that's gonna be the most important part of it. And as your kids get older, they can help with this accommodations piece. We really wanna make sure we're bringing our kids into this conversation so that accommodations aren't something that are done for them. And especially in those middle school, high school years, we hear from parents like, my child doesn't want accommodations. It's a really common thing in speech too, like kids get to a certain age. And when they're young, they want to go to their speech therapist. And as they get older, they're like, I don't want to be pulled out of the classroom. That's embarrassing. And so really thinking about that long-term, we want our kids to understand. This is, I have this special seat that I can sit in during a spelling test because I'm so distracted or whatever it is. So they, they know what they're doing and why, and that can be really empowering. Cause ultimately that's our goal is for them to be independent and say, this is what I need in order to be successful at my job. Or whatever it is down the road. So just keeping in mind when you're doing that, you're doing that with your child's best interests at heart, for sure.

Lori:

Yeah. And a lot of times, is your child able to do it? Yes. Like, can they do the homework? Yes. It takes them three hours, though. And a typical child who can focus takes 30 minutes. OK, and that's not fair to them. And then what I see or to the parents. Yeah, it's not.

Amy:

Or to the parent or the family, whole family. Yeah.

Katie:

Or to the parents, and to your relationship with your child.

Lori:

Again, their stress level is so high because they are having to put forth three times as much effort to focus and get the work done after school than a typical child. And then it's resulting in just like lots of disruption at home. It's not worth it. And there's, you can get homework accommodated. Your child doesn't need to do homework. There's not great research on homework, like, and it's usefulness.

Like we tell parents all the time, it is not worth so much stress in your family. So even things like getting homework accommodated or minimized, or you only have to do a couple problems versus two pages of problems can make such a huge difference on the happiness and stress levels of our kiddos and ourselves and the whole family.

Amy:

That is so it's so huge. So we're going through this with our my seventh grader And he it's one of the tricky things is he's a straight-a student but there's but he's really struggling in math because now is the math skinny because the handwriting piece and he didn't six middle school in a lot of ways has been a huge blessing for him because almost everything's on a laptop and So anyways, but just navigating this and we're going through that same thing of like he's like don't ask mom or you know, just not wanting to be like he doesn't want to be embarrassed.

Katie:

Yeah, absolutely. Every time Laurie says that kids don't need to do homework, I know we're gonna get an email from somebody, some teacher, some administrator that's like, why are you telling this to families? But it's true, you know, families don't realize that there are a lot of options out there. And I think, again, we just, we're.

We all did homework and so we're sort of trained to be like, this is what is expected and whatever it takes in my family, if we're sacrificing our night, our dinner, our sanity, we're gonna get this done. And that's just, we don't want families doing that. That's really affecting our kids that gives them less time outdoors, less time to play, less time to spend time doing something that fills their bucket. And for us as well as parents, it can be. No one really talks about that, but it's really exhausting. And there's a lot of stress around, especially if you have more than one child and they're across different grades. I mean, it's, it's a juggling act for sure.

Lori:

Yeah. I mean, just to tell you personally, in middle school and elementary school, I refused to do homework. I hated it. I didn't understand what is the point of doing homework when I've worked at school all day and I turned out OK. I'm a doctor like hated homework, did not want to do homework, refused. It was a struggle for me, too. It can feel really frustrating, especially for.

Katie:

You're a doctor now, so it's okay.

Lori:

For kids that are straight A students and they don't need to practice, you know, how to do long division with 10 problems when they can show it in one, right?

Katie:

It's like an ADHD nightmare. You know how to do this, now do it over and over and over and over, it's the same every time. It feels like torture.

Amy:

Right, yes, all the writing, yeah. I think So few parents know that that's an option that they can and what would you say to kids with in private school because I've heard that like do you feel I mean, I know there's not every school is different in terms of accommodations, but in terms of parents being able to say, my kid's not gonna do homework to you.

Lori:

So yeah, private schools are kind of their own separate entity, and they aren't held to the same kind of legal guidelines as a public or a charter school. So things are a little bit different. But I would say that the vast majority of private schools offer accommodations at the very least for kids with ADHD. Even if you're in a private school, you can go to your local public school and get an evaluation.

You can also get an IEP and you can also get services, even when you're in a private school, which many parents don't know. You might not get the same amount of services, but you can still have access to those things. And I would say most private schools, if you have medical documentation and a need for those accommodations, if you share that with them, most are more than willing to provide those accommodations as well.

Amy:

That's awesome, that's really good to know because I know that a lot of parents worry, but I wish more parents knew that it was an option that they could push back on homework. And so homework is a big one, is there maybe one or two other things that you would wanna share that are kind of obvious accommodations that you wish more people knew about?

Katie:

Yeah, I think it's gonna be so dependent on the child. But one thing that I think parents don't realize, and it was really surprising to me as a parent actually, is that a lot of times we might go to that meeting thinking that the school is gonna be providing us with a list of suggestions for our child. And the truth is that really doesn't happen very often. So the teacher might say, here's a couple things we're doing and this is working well, but more often than not, they're gonna look to you and say,

So what accommodations do you want? What would be helpful to your child? And I think parents, again, just, there's a little bit of a deer in headlights moment. And I can honestly say I've sat through hundreds of meetings on the professional side of the table. And then when it's your own kid, it feels so different. And so being prepared, definitely, you can go online. There's a lot of different.

like attitude.org and other places that have lists and lists of accommodations. Our guide goes through some very specific scenarios, but it's not going to cover everything. It's really just to kind of get those creative ideas flowing. But, but having some ideas, what are, and the other way I might structure it in my mind is like, what are the biggest issues you're probably not going to come in with 10 problems necessarily try to narrow it down to like maybe your top three something like that, looking for themes. So maybe your child is struggling in three subjects, but really the primary issue across all three subjects is that they're not writing down what pages are due, or they're writing it down, the teacher's checking it, and then they're leaving those pieces of paper in their cubby, or whatever the situation is, try to find those themes, and then get creative and having some suggestions and some ideas. Going into the meeting because I think that's another one that can blindside parents and they're like, oh my gosh, like I thought I was coming to like red stamp this thing and it's not, you know, it should be more of a conversation. So I think that's a big takeaway for parents to know.

Amy:

That's super helpful. Yeah, I think I felt the same way, like that you're like, what, you shouldn't, shouldn't you have ideas? And it's also hard to imagine like what it's like in their day, because it feels like school's different than what it was like for us. I don't know if other people feel that way too. Like you look at the math, and like so many things are different that, you know, what do you. It's just hard to get a feel for exactly where the problem is. You feel like they should be able to speak more to it. And also, I feel like my most hyper kid masks so much at school. So I think that's what it's hard. It's like I know that he's antsy, but I don't think his teacher sees that. So.

Katie:

I think there's also a really big difference a lot of times between boys and girls. So it's just, it looks different. And again, like teachers will say, oh no, it's totally fine. Everything is great. But again, you have to use your parenting instinct to know, well, my child's coming home and telling me that this is what the day feels like to them, you know? And that's where it's like doing a little research and that research might be talking to your own child. What's happening? You're coming home and you know your spelling words, but you didn't write eight of them in here. They're just blank. What happened? Oh, well, my daughter will tell me, oh my gosh, mom, there was this nest outside the window and then this bird came and built this nest. She's so excited to tell me about what she saw but I can immediately start to understand, okay, yeah, that's why you didn't write those spelling words because it was so distracting to you. And I'm excited to hear about the nest. I'm like, can we talk about this after the spelling test? So it's really, but it's like getting curious and understanding where the breakdown is happening. And again, you might be leading your teacher through that. Like Lori mentioned, teachers a lot of times don't have training in ADHD. We've got thousands of teachers that follow us. And when we ask them,

I want to say, was it 99% or 100%? They literally all said, we have no training in ADHD. The general education teachers, if you're in special education, they probably have more training on that and behavior management and things like that. But most kids with ADHD are not in a special education self-contained classroom. They're in the general ed classrooms with teachers who don't really know. And a lot of them have sought out their own professional training, or maybe they have a child.

Lori:

100%. Yep.

Katie:

With ADHD that we hear that story a lot, but they don't necessarily come to the table with you know years of experience and being well equipped. So you have to kind of do some detective work there.

Lori:

Yeah. And even as a parent, if you're like, I don't know what accommodations are. I have no idea. You can go to that meeting and say, just let the team know. These are the things we're struggling with. And they have an idea of usually different things that they can offer. And you can problem solve as a team things that are going to potentially help your child. But again, like Katie was saying,

A child who has hyperactive impulsive symptoms is going to need very different accommodations than a child who is inattentive, right? So if your child is hyperactive impulsive, we're going to be looking at different seating options. Can they stand while they work? Can they sit on the floor? We need to offer them lots of movement breaks throughout the day to go water a plant or go take something to the office so they're getting some of that movement and ability to self-regulate in the classroom.

Lori:

Whereas a child with inattentive symptoms might need some supports with initiating a task. They might not have been paying attention to instructions. So we want to make sure the teacher is following up with them afterwards to make sure that they understand what they're supposed to be doing. And maybe give them a prompt to start on whatever it is that they're working on. They might need a different organizational system at school to kind of help them or just. Extra reminders to, you know, at the end of the day to write stuff in their notebook or to a reminder in the morning to turn their homework in. Those little things can make a huge difference. If we just assume you should follow the routine, everyone else can turn their homework in. Kids with ADHD are delayed in that area and they're going to need more support for longer to get some of those things done. So little things like that. The teacher just reminding them to turn in their homework can make a huge difference on their success at school.

Amy:

That's so helpful. Well, oh my gosh, this was so helpful and I'm excited. I haven't downloaded that guide, so I'm going to download that guide too and check out the accommodations that you recommend. So you guys, please share with everyone where they can find you because you have so much great resources and tools to share.

Lori:

Well, our main area that we share stuff daily is on Instagram at The Childhood Collective. You can find us there. We're on stories, we make videos, lots of amazing content there. We have a podcast, Shining with ADHD, that you can find in most, wherever you listen to podcasts. Again, amazing information there. And then our website, www.thechildhoodcollective.com, we have all of our free guides. For parenting ADHD, for school accommodations, and our online courses, Creating Calm and Shining at School with ADHD, or at our website.

Amy:

Awesome. Thank you guys. And for those who are watching this live, You can comment COLLECTIVE here and I'll send you the links to everything that they shared today that we talked about. And on YouTube, I'll put all of the info here in the post. So you can follow up there after the live. So thank you guys so much for joining and I appreciate this. I learned so much as I as I'm sure that everyone is watching did as well. Thanks guys.

Katie:

Thank you, Amy.

Lori:

Thank you so much.

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