After-school activities for child with ADHD?

[Anonymous]

My (newly) 6 year old was recently diagnosed with ADHD. We just started dabbling more into extracurriculars when he started kindergarten. In the fall, he participated in an exploratory music class (focused on vocal music vs instruments) and he only did okay and was constantly in movement. He did soccer both fall and spring (2 nights a week). He goes to speech therapy weekly.

He has very high energy and is constantly climbing, swinging from things, and dancing. I'm strongly considering a 5 week into gymnastics class once a week for him as I think the full-body activity would be great for him. I'd also love to explore more of an instrumental music class and I honestly think he's a kid that would do great in theater---he loved performing with his school for music. I don't want to overwhelm him (and myself- I have ADHD too!) but I want to help support his different interests and give him the opportunity to try out things he likes.

My older child (almost 9) is 2E (ADHD/gifted) and likely is autistic. He requires A LOT of downtime to regulate and has only stuck with 2 extracurriculars (karate and cub scouts) so my approach to supporting my younger child is very different than how I support my big kid.

I know some kids with ADHD thrive best when kept in several physical/engaging activities but all kids need down-time to just be creative and play.

How do you navigate this with your kids? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Taekwondo

[Anonymous]

Track and field for my kid

[Anonymous]

My DD was high energy and enjoyed gymnastics. I didn’t know she had ADHD at the time so I didn’t choose it for that reason but it was a great fit.

[Anonymous]

I second TKD. Gymnastics would be good especially the Ninja type stuff. Do some tours though as the larger facilities are overwhelming for many kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Track and field for my kid

+1

Also swimming

[Anonymous]

OP here- thanks! I'll have to explore TKD. I did gymnastics as a kid and loved it (it was perfect for me as I was constantly climbing and swinging on things like my son) and was also into music. I have to sign up for gymnastics THIS weekend- oof, so I'm trying to decide quickly. I guess it also depends on what is accessible.

My son also LOVES BUILDING with legos & magnatiles and I would definitely love to eventually sign him up for a snapology class (those are the only lego/robotics/engineering into type classes in my area for little kids). He's actually really good at building but I feel like that is something to do when he's a little older. I asked him yesterday what he wants to do when he grows up (it was his bday) and he said an engineer!

[Anonymous]

Soccer and swimming are good for my HS kid. He basically doesn't stop moving for 1-3 hrs depending on practice. Sports like flag football and karate with a lot of down time and/or focus weren't great for him.

[Anonymous]

You are basically writing about my DC now 10.

First as a general matter, on the one hand yes these kiddos of ours need a lot of movement. But they also need a lot of rest too. I would not "overprogram" your DC. Wonderful, wonderful things happen too with rest and good sleep hygiene.

Second, we always made sure there was at least one day a week of coming home from school to just "be". We also did not want DC in a classroom after a full day in the classroom, so for us, at those younger ages we did not do things like music after school.

Second, especially at the beginning levels of sports there can actually be a lot of structure to activities where there are a lot of movement. Gymnastics is very structured behaviorally and also re how to do maneuvers; tennis is also quite structured re proper form and there is a lot of standing between turns sometimes.

The "problem" with such activities is that they can prove to be self-defeating--not a positive contribution to the routine if DC is constantly redirected and/or not moving enough.

We found that more kinetic sports like soccer and basketball provide for movement with coaching and less of a need for redirection per se. Also the team settings are great for building social skills.

We also do swimming bc of the sensory feedback it provides. My DC doesn't love it, but doesn't resist either.

If your school offers unstructured aftercare, that too has been a welcome contributor to the routine.

The good news is that kids like "ours" tend to be happy to try new things. You will self select into what works best through time.

[Anonymous]

I am curious how do you all know if your child need downtime or not.

For my 8 year old with adhd/asd. During weekdays, I keep him busy with daily beforecare/aftercare (they do craft, movement, playground), speech 1x/week and seasonal soccer 1x/week for practice. On weekends, he has swim 1x/week, seasonal soccer 1x/week for game weekend school 1×/week, and playground/festival/chess club/events etc. We are normally not home on weekend, and I am sure that he has 10 hrs of sleep daily. He falls alseep in 5-10 mins every night. I can't tell if he needs downtime or overstimuated or not. He seems to be happy and fine with all these.

[Anonymous]

Mine enjoyed parkour more than gymnastics, probably because it's a bit more free-form and allows for some problem-solving (i.e., what's the most efficient and/or coolest way to navigate this obstacle). She's always done best with activities that involve both physical and mental energy, like rock climbing or scrambling, or challenge courses.

I figured if she was going to literally run up the walls at home, she may as well learn how to do it properly in a controlled environment. Classes still involved some standing in line, which was always challenging, but overall the energy she expended was much greater than in gymnastics.

[Anonymous]

You may need toome trial and error at this age. We have tried several classes and sports and many didn't work for us. Nota great answer but also encouragement to try things and it's ok if he doesn't like them and you move on to another one. (I did enforce a you must follow through with the full season/session before quitting so we could really determine if he likes something or not)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You may need toome trial and error at this age. We have tried several classes and sports and many didn't work for us. Nota great answer but also encouragement to try things and it's ok if he doesn't like them and you move on to another one. (I did enforce a you must follow through with the full season/session before quitting so we could really determine if he likes something or not)

This.

We tried: ice skating, tai kwon do, flag football, soccer, swimming, t ball, robotics, drama, dance...to figure out what clicked for him. Like PP, some we just did one session, some a couple of years, and a couple stuck (soccer and swimming) through HS and he will participate (informally) in college.

[Anonymous]

Sampling was needed, like others have said, swimming quite calming, but the movement part, ouch, I wish the school day had more built in, is there a way you can do that?

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I had untreated ADHD (my parents refused to medicate me) and was also gifted, so what is now called 2E. You could not put me in enough after-school activities to tire me out. It was not possible. I could be moving from 4pm to 8pm after getting out of school at 3:15, and even when I went to bed at 9pm I'd be singing at the top of my lungs or doing ballet in bed or something for an hour. The energy never stopped. It was best for me to be out of the house doing things where I was supposed to be physical rather than at home where I was expected to sit quietly and read or do puzzles.