Almost all teachers tell me that DD is not listening and not playing attention. I know she has adhd, and mostly inattentive type. She is not medicated yet. She is only 6. Will her attention improve over time? Any tips to improve her attention span?
She makes progresses slower than other peers because she is not paying attention and not listening. And she does that mostly in lesson environment like dancing, swimming, gymnastic and school. |
Her attention will improve over time, but probably at a slower rate of improvement as her peers. IOW, she will continue to improve but will probably always seem a bit behind her same-age peers.
Do not give her a phone or let her loose on youtube or tiktok. |
Her attention span will improve over time, but probably not as quickly as the teachers want. In the meantime, she needs frequent breaks to reset so that she can continue to learn. |
Obviously medication is something to consider. But, aside from that, when mine was that age, he was not required to sit in a seat for school. He could pace the classroom, roll on the floor, anything that did not disturb the class. But, he had to answer all questions asked by the teacher. He was called on often and it was amazing how different his attention was when he was not required to sit in a chair or sit on the carpet at carpet time. So, maybe look at other options for the way lessons are presented to her. |
Has your daughter received an evaluation? If so, did it include weaker areas and ways up support? There are tips and tricks but everyone is different so it may be helpful to understand what could work better for your child based on what specifically she is struggling with. Your child may benefit from sitting at the front of the class (away from friends) and receiving redirection if her attention noticeably drifts. Depending on the school, you may need this to be written up by the evaluator for it to be implemented. And you will probably also need to assess with her providers and teachers if and when she may benefit from medication. The alternative for school is to put her in a different environment that supports her needs better. For sports it’s probably a bit harder if you’re not in a 1:1 environment, but coaches of young kids do a lot of redirecting so that’s probably already happening. It’s good she’s in a lot of different activities so you can see what she enjoys and is most focused in. For something like swimming you may want to drop to a 1:1 lesson if your child doesn’t have basic swimming skills at this point since proficiency in swimming is lifesaving. For gymnastics and dance, what does she like better? A sport your child is good at that is engaging and fun at an early level will probably grab her attention more. Dance can be pretty slow (learning new positions) and very fast (putting everything together) and I think that combination can be challenging. |
I'm a big fan of medication, it helped my father, it helps me and it helps my son, all of whom have classic ADHD.
That said, don't do anything until at least fifth grade -- my son, who now is shockingly obviously ADHD would vary year by year through elementary school, in terms of his attention. One year, teachers would flag it as a real issue, the next year, teachers would say, "are you kidding, this kid is so locked in!" Let them develop a bit, giving extra support and encouragement and consider medication when they're a bit older. Your job right now is to make sure they don't get discouraged. |
It will get better but she won’t catch up for years if ever.
Tips: no or low screens, widely defined. Never interrupt her when she is focused on something (the brain develops according to how it’s used). Exercise, especially in the morning. Outside time, especially in the morning. Skip all homework other than reading for pleasure. |
In my experience when we started medicating our MS DD (she was a later diagnosis) it created space for her to develop this skill. She is now better at paying attention both medicated or unmedicated than she used to be. But she still does better with medication.
I sense it can be hard to develop this skill without the opportunity to practice it with medication and/or when kids are too young to really understand what paying attention does and does not look like. Six feels young to truly have the self-awareness to really grasp that. Not promoting medicating immediately, but noting I think this does get better with age, in our case through intentional skill development supported with medication. |
It will get better but I will echo everything others said and not repeat it. I will add lots of exercise helped my kid with ADHD in elementary school. I mean a tremendous amount. Like an active after school program, because I needed one anyway while I was at work, an intensive multi day sport that he loved in addition to that and lots of time outdoors with friends biking, running etc. The times he was active several hours per day we got fewer behavior reports from school and he was overall happier. He seemed to be able to concentrate more. |
^hes also the inattentive type. |
Exercise BEFORE school is very very helpful. |
Interactive metronome program helped our child. We did it after meds had too many side effects and were not that effective. DC was retested after doing the program for 2 years an no longer meets criteria for ADHD. |