Morning Routine Challenges
Getting kids ready in the morning can turn into a battle.
As a licensed child psychologist in California, many of the families that I have worked with have kids who struggle with focus, paying attention, and listening to directions. Some of these kids may have ADHD or defiance, or you may be unsure if this is developmentally normal.
For kids with ADHD, they often require additional monitoring of their behavior due to difficulties in executive functioning skills. Executive functioning skills make it difficult for kids with ADHD to initiate tasks, stay on task, and to complete tasks. So for morning routines, this can make it very difficult for them to get through a series of events.
Here are some common challenges parents face in morning routines:
Having to stay on top of their kids to get ready
Managing having multiple kids that need to get ready in the morning
Kids not listening to instructions that are given
Feeling frustrated by a lack of independence in their kids
Rushing out of the house late every single morning
When these challenges become a daily issue, it may be the right time to seek out more support. Helping kids with ADHD in the morning may require some additional upfront effort; however, it can become much easier after some time working on skills made just for your child.
Here are some ways that you can help your child get ready in the morning on time:
Make time real for them by externalizing it as much as possible
Provide reminders to stay on task
Create motivation to complete tasks by rewarding completion of small steps within a routine
Focus on completion of individual steps within a routine rather than completion of the entire routine
Include only necessary routine steps
Putting all of these steps together can be really hard! Because the mornings are a stressful time for parents to get ready and get on time for work, having systems in place to make the mornings easier is so important.
In my ADHD Program’s self-study option, I’ll be covering how you can put these steps into action with your family. You’ll also immediately get access to all the past trainings and Q&A sessions that have been done.
