ADHD: Increasing Elementary School Student's Time on Task

Increasing Your ADHD Elementary School Students' Time On-Task

Promote time on-task with attention deficit students, never time off-task. Reward the behaviors that you want the ADHD student in elementary school to do, not the one's that you don't want him to do. Pick and choose what behaviors you reward, and what you ignore.

Give a minute timer to keep on his desk. Ask the ADD ADHD child how long he thinks it would take to perform a certain task. Let him set his own time and race against the timer.

Most elementary school students with attention deficit disorder have difficulty with sustaining attention on tasks over time. Students with ADHD problems may need different levels of stimulation to keep them focused.

ADHD students will do better in elementary school classrooms with four walls than in an "open pod" arrangement, which will have a lot of distractions.

ADHD: Time on Task Tips for Elementary School

Break work up into smaller segments and sprints, and allow your ADHD student frequent breaks to move around inside and outside the classroom. This may vary from a daily outside walk, doing errands around the building, to classroom stretching exercises.

Schedule the most demanding attentional tasks in the morning.

Your ADD ADHD student in elementary school may get overwhelmed with large assignments. His attention may wander after guided practice on similar tasks. Adjust the assignment down to smaller intervals. Give the assignment one sheet at a time. Assign every third problem, rather than every one, for completion to reflect mastery level. Cut apart single worksheets into strips. Tailor guided practice to occur during those time periods. Schedule breaks after this optimum attention time period and then return to the assignment.

Seat work is often extremely difficult for students with attention deficit disorder. This can become compounded when the teacher is instructing another small group. Check on your ADD ADHD student as much as possible or have him check-in with the teacher.

ADDinSchool.com for elementary school

Elementary School Intervention Pages:

• Your Room Set-Up and ADHD Students
• Presenting Your Lesson to ADHD Students
• Using Worksheets Giving Tests to ADHD Students
• Organizing Your ADHD Students
• Increasing Your ADHD Students' Time-On-Task
• Dealing with Impulsive Behaviors
• Improving Social Skills
• Increasing Compliance in the Classroom
• Improving Consistency of Performance
• ADD in School Home Page