Teaching Your Child to Develop a Plan

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We’ve all heard the adage – “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail”. For a child with ADHD, who is living in the moment, this warning is especially true.

One of the negative aspects of ADHD is our distorted perception of time. The bad times seem to last a lifetime, while the good times seem to disappear in the blink of an eye. We have our moments of intense focus on some narrow topic or issue and then we have moments where days, weeks, and months disappear in everyday distractions.

Almost any survey looking for the common behaviors of successful individuals or organizations seems to touch on the effect that planning can have on meeting our short and long term goals. Almost invariably having a clear plan or vision is a key starting point in successful endeavors.

That’s great – but what does that really mean? I have had opportunities, in working with our kids on elaborate projects, to see just how effective a plan can be with someone overwhelmed by their ADHD tendencies. These are strategies developed through business experiences that warranted detailed planning to ensure that goals were met on time and important details were not lost along the way. The concepts were powerful, but still very simple. Teaching my kids to use these techniques can take “I quit!” projects to “I’m done a week early!” very easily.

Clear the decks! The first step involves no attempts to make progress on the project itself. Take that pressure off yourself or your child. Instead, we will just brainstorm.

Get out some pads, a clean calendar and any materials that may help us understand what the project is, such as an assignment sheet. Break the overall project into the mini-steps involved:

· Select topic
· Do background research
· Go to library/internet for detailed research
· Prep Item #1
· Prep Item #2
· Prep Item #3
· Typing
· Artwork
· Bibliography
· Table of contents
· Covers
· Final assembly

Obviously, the above list is just one example of possible subtopics. It should be broken down into steps that would take less than an hour to complete or could be completed in one or two sittings.

Now, using the list above, estimate how long each step should take. BE GENEROUS with the allotted time. It is much more encouraging to complete steps within the planned time, rather than for your child to feel a tsunami building behind them as they are losing time each day.

Using the calendar, drop notes into the available days, showing what can be completed each day, allowing for other homework, after-school activities and leaving an occasional day open. Ideally, you would have plenty of extra days before the project’s due date. It is important for the child to understand that if needed, some of those free and extra days may be needed if we fall behind or if surprises arise. Monitor the schedule throughout the project to determine if adjustments need to be made.

This method is simple, yet can be a great tool even as he or she enters into their post-school years and is working. I have used this method to plan anything from a school project, planning a complicated Thanksgiving meal to staff scheduling for a multi-million dollar accounting practice.

Teach your child that with a plan, the most daunting tasks can be overcome. Hopefully, they will make the leap to planning a very successful life.