How Can Summer Tutoring Help Your Child With ADHD?
Many students lose critical skills during the summer. Research tells us that students can lose up to 2.6 months of math skills and 2 months of reading skills during their summer break, and this learning loss is likely even more profound for students with ADHD. Because of this learning loss, students may start the new school year behind their peers, struggling to catch up while new material is being introduced. Prevent this summer slide and help your child with ADHD jump-start the school year on a positive note with one-on-one tutoring. ADHD tutoring can help your child in the following ways:
Build stronger focusing skills
Many students with ADHD struggle to stay focused for long stretches of time. Take advantage of the summer time to work on building your child’s focusing skills with one-on-one ADHD tutoring. Your child’s tutor can use a method like the Pomodoro Technique to help them stay focused for longer time periods. To use this strategy, the tutor would select a task and ask your child to work on that task for 25 minutes. This might involve reading several chapters in a book, working on math worksheets, or even doing an organizational task like cleaning out a drawer. After 25 minutes, your child would take a 5 minute break to relax or do anything of their choosing, then work for another 25 minutes followed by a 5 minute break, and so on. Once they have completed three segments of 25 minutes plus 5 minute breaks, they can take a longer break of 30 minutes or so before starting the process again. Your child’s tutor can teach them this strategy and show them how to apply it during the school year when their workload piles up.
Work on time management
Many students with ADHD struggle with time management. Summer is a great time to work on building this skill! Your child’s ADHD tutor can teach them the ET/AT, or Estimated Time/Actual Time Strategy. To use this technique, your child’s tutor would ask them to complete a task, like writing three pages in a journal or completing one sheet of math problems. They will ask your child to estimate how long they think it will take to complete that task and write down the ET, or estimated time. Then your child will complete the task, noting the time it actually takes them to complete it, and write down the AT, or actual time it takes. When your child first starts using this strategy with their ADHD tutor, there will likely be a big discrepancy between the ET and the AT but the more they practice this strategy, the more likely these times will start to merge and the more their time management will improve.
Set up organizational systems
Summer is a great time to set up notebooks and systems to help start the school year off on a strong note. Having solid organizational skills is a large part of being successful in school. Your child’s ADHD tutor can help them set up a color-coded system, where each class is designated with a specific color. For example, math might be blue, science might be green, English may be yellow, and so on. They should designate a folder and notebook for each class in the appropriate color. Once your child starts school and (hopefully) writes down their assignments regularly in their planner, they can highlight the assignment for a particular subject in its designated color. If your child takes home papers on a regular basis, their tutor can help them set up an organizational system where they designate one day per week to be the “clean out my notebooks and backpack day.” On this day, your child would clean out all of the papers they don’t need to be carrying with them on a regular basis and file them into an accordion file or file drawer that they keep at home.
Learn more about these types of executive functioning strategies at https://eblcoaching.com/executive-functioning-strategies-for-your-child/.
Fill in learning gaps
Many students with ADHD miss out on key concepts during the school year. They may be day dreaming in class, show up to school late, or forget certain skills that may have only been briefly been covered by their teacher. Summer is a great time to review content that was conveyed the previous school year, fill in any gaps, and preview material that may be taught in the new school year. You or your child’s tutor can reach out to their teacher from the previous school year to discuss any skills or concepts that might need development over the summer. Perhaps your child didn’t quite grasp multi-digit subtraction or long division; they may need to work on elaborating their writing; or perhaps they need extra practice with finding the main idea when reading and making inferences. Summer is a wonderful time to work on these skills, when there are fewer academic constraints from school, and tutoring can be focused more on remediation.
The transition from summer to school in the fall can be a tough one for students with ADHD. Help boost your child’s self-esteem and improve their organizational skills over the summer with ADHD tutoring. In doing so, your child will likely feel more confident and well-prepared to start the school year on a strong note.
Learn more about study skills strategies for your child with ADHD at https://eblcoaching.com/study-skills-strategies-for-your-child-with-adhd-by-dr-emily-levy/
