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There are so many things that can distract your child in the classroom setting, whether it’s the assortment of fall leaves on the wall painted with a variation of greens, yellows and reds or the sound of Mrs. Larson’s voice down the hall telling a student to stop calling out.

As an Occupational Therapist working in a school setting, one of my roles is to modify the classroom set up to create a more calming and conducive environment for our children to learn in. When it comes to children with ADHD specifically, who are so easily distracted, classroom modifications may include taking down excess artwork from the walls, dimming lights, or placing their desks away from high traffic areas such as the classroom door.

Now that the gears have shifted and more students are learning from home, I can’t always expect parents to modify or alter their homes completely. The great news is you don’t have to. Here are 14 simple and easy strategies to help your child with ADHD focus during remote learning. 

1. Limit Distractions

As soon as my young bright-eyed students join the zoom call for their telehealth sessions, I notice the area around their workspace. Often, I would see toys on the floor, the tv on in the background, the dog intermittently coming to lick their foot or even younger siblings crying in the background. The first step, which may be an obvious one, is to remove or limit distractions from the room. If other siblings are present in the room, have them engage in a quiet activity or set up desk dividers if they are sharing the workspace. The area should also be away from high traffic areas of the house where people are constantly coming in and out of. Placing your child by a bare wall, away from windows and decorated spaces is also encouraged.

2. Declutter the workspace  

Creating a clutter-free workspace is key in helping your child stay focused and organized for their remote lessons. If your child is drawing a picture to show what they did over the weekend, try to have out what is absolutely necessary for the activity and clear everything else off the table. If they are coloring an image, have them use one type of coloring utensil (either crayons, markers, or colored pencils and not all three). Also, try to stick to the primary colors since having too many options for colors may make it distracting for our kids to finish their work on time. It is also helpful to have out the required materials prior to your child starting the activity so they don’t spend time deciding which items to use when it is time to work.

3.  Consistent location

Try to allocate a specific area of the house as your child’s ‘workspace’. Kids would sometimes log onto their remote lesson from their living room while plopped up on the couch and then decide to sit on the kitchen table the next time while eating a snack. A consistent location helps your child associate his workspace with, well, work. Changing the location constantly gives our kids more distractions to ward off as new places come along with new distractions. It also makes it more difficult for your child to stay organized when they now have to scurry to locate and transfer their supplies to a different area of the house.

4. Visual Schedule

A visual schedule with the upcoming lessons or activities for the day is a great way for your child to know exactly what to expect without feeling too overwhelmed by their work. Keep the schedule in clear sight, preferably on their desk, so they can easily look at it when losing focus. Making the schedule ‘visual’ with images (ie. a book for reading class, an addition sign for math) helps our kids to quickly understand the schedule especially if they have not yet learned to read. Furthermore, have your child check off each activity or lesson that has been completed to help them monitor their progress.

5. Use Sensory Strategies

Incorporating sensory strategies is a great way to help our kids feel more ready to learn. Similar to how we bite our pencil while thinking of the answer to that math problem or even pace back and forth in a room when memorizing our times table, our kids sometimes need movement (vestibular input) and/or deep pressure (proprioceptive input) to help them focus. Sensory strategies that help with both deep pressure and movement can include a seat cushion to sit on, a wobble stool, engaging in animal walks or even carrying heavy items in the house. (Refer to my blog for more sensory strategies for remote learning.)

6. Lay on the Stomach

Who says you can only work sitting up at a desk? Whenever possible, (and I do this quite often), have your child work while laying on their stomachs (prone position). Visually, this allows them to focus just on the area directly in front of them as opposed to sitting up at the desk and being able to easily see everything in the room, having more distractions in plain sight. Laying on their stomachs also serves as a great sensory strategy as we discussed before, which helps your child receive deep pressure throughout her body while completing her work.

7. Break up the activity

Breaking up the lesson into smaller blocks or periods allows our children to sustain attention for shorter periods of time. It makes the task of completing their work without getting distracted more attainable, which can help your child feel good about the work they are getting done. Giving your child a little sensory break between lessons can prevent them from feeling overwhelmed and help them feel more ready for the next block of the lesson. You can further break up a task or activity into smaller parts by having them complete one portion of it before moving on to the next. For example, if your child has 20 math problems to complete, cover the page to show the first five and then proceed to the next five when they are done.

8. Noise reducing headphones

This is probably one of the most commonly used strategies when working with kids with ADHD. The headphones that I use in the school setting help to reduce sounds while allowing the child to still hear the main voice in the room. This is great in helping our kids block out any distracting or irrelevant noise in the room while still being able to hear the voice of the teacher, therapist or parent to ensure they can still hear the instructions of the activity or receive verbal reminders when needing to be redirected to their work. If your child is tuning in to their virtual lesson, be sure to get headphones with an audio connection to a tablet or laptop.

9. Give choices 

Giving choices is one of the best ways to improve behaviors and engagement with our kids with ADHD. Choices can be given for the type of activity you want your child to engage in: “would you like to start with reading homework or math’ or the initiation of an activity “should we start the math lesson in two minutes or three?”. You can even give them a choice of the type of reward they will earn once they completed their work “are we working for the ninja turtle floor puzzle or some pretzels?”. Our kids did not ask for remote learning so giving them more control over the situation will not only improve behaviors but keep them engaged even longer if they know this is something they chose to do.  

10. Set a timer

Timers are a great visual reminder to help your child initiate their lesson, transition between activities, or even end an activity without putting up a fight. It is easy for our kids with ADHD to lose track of time and not realize how much time may be lost when they become distracted by other things. Have your child help set the timer to promote compliancy and even provide choices before deciding how many minutes to set the timer on. An example of what to say before setting a timer can be: ‘We have to start our math lesson soon, let’s set a timer so you know when to start cleaning up your toys. Should we set the timer for two minutes or three minutes?’. A timer that visually displays time decreasing either by an hourglass or a pie chart may be preferred over decreasing numbers to make it easier for our kids to see how much time they have left.

11. Take a deep breath

With their mind and bodies moving so quick, help your child take a deep breath before or in between their lessons to help calm them down, relax their muscles, free their mind and be more ready to learn. If your child is having a hard time stopping to take a deep breath or may not have the receptive skills to comprehend what is being asked of them, you can easily facilitate deep breathing by having them blow bubbles, move small objects while blowing through a straw, blow on a pinwheel, blow up a balloon, or even play dragon (“Let me see your fire breath!”).

12. Strength-based work

It is easy to focus on what your child shouldn’t be or isn’t doing but focus on your child’s many strengths and use it to help them reach their goals of sustained attention. If your child enjoys painting, incorporate that into their math lesson. Similarly, if you child enjoys toy cars and racetracks, use it to help them understand shape and angles. Using their strengths not only serves as a motivating factor in completing their work but also helps your child feel more empowered when they know they are skilled at certain tasks.

13. Schedule a time to talk

It is really easy for our kids with ADHD to get sidetracked and go off on tangents when they remember the lady they met at the grocery store who wore a funny hat or the dog that did a cartwheel on their way to school. Cutting them off to redirect them to the task can frustrate them with the activity. Rather, let your child know that what they have to say is very important to you but right now is not the best time to talk about it: “I really want to hear what you have to say but right now we are working. Let’s talk about it when we are done with our work”. You may also give your child 5 minutes before the start of an activity to share anything they have a dire need to discuss, setting a timer to help them know when the five minutes are over. If they did not get to finish, you can reassure them that we will return to this conversation at the end of the activity.

14. Reward positive behavior 

Your child has a lot on their plate. Remote learning has been a challenge for all our kids so do try to reward positive behavior whenever possible, especially if your child had engaged in an activity longer than what they are used to. And always remind them what it is that you are rewarding them for to encourage consistency. Also, be sure to have realistic goals for your child. If your child has an attention span of 5 minutes before they are up and out of their seat, reward them for sustaining engagement for 6 minutes the next day. Any small gain is big step in becoming more functional.

Please share any tips in the comments section on what helps your child stay focused at home. I (as well as other parents) would love to see what works! See you in my next post!