Homework for Children with ADHD

I have sometimes mentioned that homework reform is particularly important for children with ADHD. I address it as a particular issue in my book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents,Students and Teachers, with the recommendation that children with ADHD may need more time for their assignments at school, but less work for their assignments at home, i.e. homework.

Today, I ran across an article, Surefire Strategies That Don’tWork for ADHD – And Some That Do, that is worth reading and highlights this point. Among the author’s strategies that do not work are criticizing, conforming, and working harder.

Constant homework pressure is tantamount to giving the child ongoing criticisms throughout the course of his educational days. This is true even when the feedback is given with a smile and under the guise that we are trying to help the child.

Homework policies that demand that all children complete all the work, the same work as other children without modification, is essentially a demand for conformity.

Working harder, is of course, the mantra of teachers, “if he only tried harder, he would be an A student.”

I understand that teachers may find it difficult to individually modify every student’s assignments as they try to do their best to teach the whole group. But, individual modifications can be made through a 504, and, even without a 504, a policy that redefined homework from an assignment based to a time based session would go far in resolving this issue.

Visit The Homewor Trap website

Dr. Kenneth Goldberg, is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Teachers, and Students, published by Wyndmoor Press.