Let’s be honest right up front: doing homework while having ADHD is probably never going to be a picnic, nor is being the parent who has to force a child with ADHD through homework. It’s just not a joyous experience (though there may be moments of joy — savor those).
Experts have long said that homework can have negative effects on kids, especially when it’s piled on heavily and when other stress factors such as poverty, mental health struggles, developmental delays, or learning disorders are present. Some districts, schools, and individual teachers are moving away from a homework-based education model. Still, if your child is being assigned homework, his academic success (at least in terms of grades) may rely on finding a way to get through it.
Here are some of the tricks and tips students, parents, and experts are offering.
Can Your Child Do Homework In Motion?
I have one kid who prefers to listen to audiobooks while circling on a Hoverboard. If I ask questions afterward, I’ll find that he’s absorbed the material. When we were homeschooling, I also allowed the kids to play casual games on their phones or tablets while I read to them, just nothing that really involved their brains.
If your kid has homework he can do while moving, let him try it. It’s less likely to work for long division than chapter books, but even if part of the work can be done in motion, it may make sitting down for another part easier. (One Redditor suggested a bouncy chair or practicing spelling words while jumping on a trampoline.)
Experiment With Alternative Mediums
In one recent assignment, my kid switched from pencil for most of the writing to colorful markers for words that deserved emphasis. It made the work a little more interesting and made looking back for essential points easier. In our case, the teacher had no complaints, but you can always check in advance if you feel the need.
Other options include swapping paper books for ebooks (with text that can be resized as necessary) or audiobooks that can be listened to on the move (together in the car, through headphones in the park, etc) and adding manipulatives to math work.
Just Work On It For A Few Minutes
One Redditor said that setting a timer helps their kid. The rule is that you must focus on this assignment for ten minutes. If you spend ten minutes working without stopping to run and get a snack, check on the dog, or engage with other distractions, you’ll find yourself surprised at how much got done.
Agree on a reasonable amount of time to spend on homework and split it up appropriately between assignments. (If you agree that more than an hour and a half is excessive for his age, maybe he gets 20 minutes for his reading assignment and 35 each for math and science questions, for example.)
Decide that anything not done in that time — as long as he’s working during that time — is unimportant.
Let Your Kid Have A Break After School
For some kids, taking some time off between schoolwork and more schoolwork is necessary. (That’s pretty understandable.)
Let them grab a snack, run around outside, play a game, or whatever they need to do for thirty minutes or an hour before they jump into more paperwork. Every household has to work out the best homework time for its schedule, but consider whether after supper might work better for your kid, for example.
Some teens even swear by morning work — but you may not want to try that unless your kid has already exhibited an ability to function well in the early hours.
Try It With A Body Double
Clinical psychologist Liz Nissim-Matheis suggests using what she calls the body doubling method. Unfortunately, this method does not involve your child calling in a stunt worker to do his math for him.
Instead, it means that you keep him company. You stay in the same room, working on your project or task, while he focuses on his. In Psychology Today, Nissim-Matheis writes:
“Perhaps it’s knowing that the person is present and can check in at any time that maintains focus and improves productivity. Some of us need the presence of another person to regulate and ground us.”
One Redditor offered a variation on this: the parent does a chore like sweeping while the child reads the assignment aloud to them.
Physical Cues To Get In The Schoolwork Mood
A Redditor suggested a very Pavlovian notion: pick a cue that means schoolwork and practice using it. It could be certain music, a special homework cap, or a specific snack that means it’s homework time. It may also be a specific location, like a desk or a table. Another suggestion was to bring out a “homework tablecloth” that is only allowed for an hour at a time (this meshes with the tip to use a timer).
Over time, this could train the brain to leap into homework mode when the right tune plays or the thinking cap is on.
Remember that experts recommend avoiding homework in the bedroom, as it can make the space more stressful and interfere with sleep.
Check In With Your Child’s Teacher
As previously mentioned, there are many situations in which homework is not conducive to learning. One Redditor says that when she shared with her child’s teacher that a 10-minute worksheet took two tear-soaked hours, the teacher said to cut it out.
The teacher agreed that this was only adding stress to the kid’s education and not teaching her anything new. She worked out a compromise with the parent so that instead, she worked with her kid at home on difficult concepts and skipped the regular homework assignments.
“Third Spaces” Could Be A Helpful Answer
“Third spaces” are places that are not home or work (or for your kid, school) and don’t have the associations those places hold. This could be a park, a coffee shop, or the library.
Several Reddit users say these are the places they were best able to work as a school kid, with one explaining that he was never able to break the “home = relax association.” Some even added that this still works for them as adults. One said:
“I still need this strategy working on a doctorate. Also if I do it outside the house I am motivated to get it done faster so I can go home and put on stretch pants.”
Gamification: Make It Fun
ADHD kids get a lot of criticism and negative messages, and one that they hear over and over is that they’re able to concentrate just fine when the subject is their favorite video game or YouTube channel.
It’s a bizarre criticism anyway since, well, isn’t that true for everyone? It’s easier to concentrate on things you enjoy, right? Instead of leveling it as an attack, leverage it as a teaching tool.
If your kid is learning multiplication, maybe he’d rather practice three M&Ms per row times five rows instead of three dots or stars per row. One Redditor said she used hopscotch grids for her kid to practice spelling words. Others suggested simpler tricks like earning stickers or stars as points toward prizes.
Spread The Support Around
One Redditor said that she and her husband split which subject they help their child with, each taking the one they’re better at. This reduces everyone’s stress because when the parent feels capable of rewording or better explaining a concept, they’re less likely to get overwhelmed, and the kid is less likely to pick up that frustration.
Another even suggested hiring an older kid to drop by for a relaxed tutoring session. One example they offered was the older kid playing Lego with the kid while also practicing their spelling words.
Break It Up (Into Smaller Time Chunks)
Many parents say that making sure there are frequent breaks to stretch the body and move around a little has helped their kids. One described stopping her daughter between assignments and sending her to do a flip or jump on the trampoline before the next task.
Some recommend small snacks during those breaks or time to cuddle a pet. Others just allow a little reset time or have their kid get up and do something active.
Utilizing a timer for these breaks also helps keep things in perspective.
Offer Accommodations, Fidgets, Stims, Etc
When setting up the space where your child will do schoolwork, fill it with soothing and helpful things. Noise-canceling headphones may help some kids, while a fidget toy or other stimming device (like Calm Strips or other texture stickers) may help others.
If you’re using a timer, a very visual one can be set up here—a digital timer, a sand timer, or something similar—so that a glance tells your kid how much longer is left for this specific current task.
For some kids, keeping the walls in this area boring and distraction-free may help, and for others, the classic teacher tactic of covering the walls with educational material so that even distracted kids are looking at math facts or spelling tricks may be helpful.
Plan Around Likes & Dislikes (Saving The Best For Last)
One Redditor says that her school experience taught her to shuffle assignments from least-favored to most-favored. She explained:
“I liked the homework that I liked, if that makes sense. Reading a book for English? NO PROBLEM. Doing math homework? MANY PROBLEMS. So I started doing the ‘hard’ homework first, then the good homework at the end as a ‘reward’.”
For another kid, that might mean alternating between complex and manageable parts.
By the way, if a problem or question is specifically overwhelming your kid, encourage him to mark it, skip it, and speak to the teacher about it the next day instead of agonizing about it for long periods.
Keep Things Positive
One thing that adults who struggled with homework as kids will say pretty consistently is that part of the frustration and misery was the parents shouting at them for not understanding, fussing at them for small failures, and generally being out of patience with the whole ordeal. We know parenting is stressful — but taking some of that negativity out of the equation might help, too.
Try praising your kid for accomplishments, even when they’re relatively small, like completing the first three math problems or reading a whole page without getting distracted. Also, praise them for the non-academic things they excel at—being a good friend or a kind neighbor is at least as valuable an accomplishment as mastering algebra.
Cognitive Pairing
We’re back to Pavlovian measures again, but this time, it’s all about adding joy and comfort to the routine. This tactic isn’t about using association to message the brain that it’s time to work but instead to form an association with positive things and joy. Beyond Book Smart recommends:
“One effective way to make homework time less scary is by pairing work with something fun and rewarding. This could be a pet curled up by your child’s side, their favorite treat waiting for them before they start, or a playlist of music they can enjoy listening to while they work (instrumental tends to be best!) Whatever it might be, pairing homework time with something they enjoy can greatly reduce the urge to avoid whatever assignment needs to get done.”
Take Time To Save Time
Do some prep work in advance. Ensure the homework area is ready with paper, sharpened pencils, erasers, a calculator if one is normally used, and any other needed materials. Have your kid take ten minutes before the work starts to reread exactly what the assignment is and any directions or notes.
This will prevent incidents where your kid does the math problems on page 45 when page 43 was assigned and limit the number of times they must jump up and run off to find an essential pencil or index card.
Color-Code Assignments & Notebooks By Class
Pick a class, pick a color. If math is blue, then the composition book, the three-ring binder, the folder, and the book cover for math are all blue. This will make it easier to find tonight’s assignment and ensure that the math assignment hasn’t accidentally been put into the ELA folder tomorrow.
This will also make locker time more manageable in the afternoon. If there are math assignments, grab everything blue. Maybe all the ELA items are red, and maybe Social Studies is all green. Whatever colors your kid chooses, this way, he won’t end up bringing home his math book to do a science reading or leaving the Social Studies folder with the worksheet in it in his locker because he mixed it up with the one for Computer Science.
Implement Mnemonic Devices Where Appropriate
You might use these tidy little educational mantras for actual academic purposes. I still remember the quadratic formula more than two decades after the last time I used it because our teacher sang it to us. Looking it up now, I find that teachers have done so to a few different tunes, including Pop Goes The Weasel.
You can find some similar mnemonic devices for spelling various words (we all struggled with spelling “friends” until Spongebob offered a solution, right?), for math procedures (like PEMDAS for order of operations), and even for Social Studies (HOMES to remember the Great Lakes).
You can also employ them for remembering other things — you could make up one for remembering backpack, lunchbox, and other necessities, or for remembering which subjects are which days of the week or which class periods.
Allow Your Child To Set Boundaries & Limits
Doing homework is not very beneficial if your child is crying and miserable the whole time, and stretching out what should have been an hour’s work takes well past bedtime. When your kid is burnt out, let them stop for a break or the night. ADDitude Magazine calls this “respect[ing] your child’s saturation point” and advises:
“If he’s too tired, stressed or frustrated to finish his homework, let him stop. Write a note to the teacher explaining the situation, and if it happens every night talk to her about reducing the homework load.”
Every human has limits, and for a child with ADHD, sometimes those limits might be more tightly held than others realize. Your kid’s body is the best judge of when she can’t take anymore.
Request An IEP Meeting
If your child has an IEP, schedule a meeting with his team to discuss how homework affects him. Be prepared to discuss the purpose of the assignments (one teacher on Reddit said that even when she deems homework unnecessary, she feels pressured to assign it because of what other parents want or what other teachers are doing) and whether he is benefitting from them as they stand.
If not, discuss the possibility that he could do modified or shortened versions each night or do a specific time amount and then stop. Several parents say that their child’s IEP allowed for an hour of work maximum and a parental signature avowing that he had spent the time and effort.
