ADHD college kid overwhelmed by assignments
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Anonymous
| She handled it well in the first two months of the semester and actually did fantastic in all midterms, but then she got tired. Consequently she found it once again very hard to focus, stay motivated and get things done. What can she do? She take adderall every morning and talks to a therapist every week but she feels like she needs help with her executive functioning. Any advice? |
Anonymous
How good are her note-taking, writing, and study skills? Is she already going to professors' office hours? Are there certain assignments that are more hard than others, or is overall management the issue? There are EF coaches who work with college students. Maybe one could help her, but she would need to articulate what she wanted help with. |
Anonymous
| the school needs to ensure they are making accommodations to ensure her success - have you raised to the administration? they likely have dealt with this before |
Anonymous
| Does the school have office for disable, something like that? I think these kids need some system support. For example the professions give extended deadline and etc. I am very worried about mine too. Mine is in high school, with some help, the report cards are great. But without any help, it could totally crash. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Yes she talked to her professors and they were accommodating, giving her extensions for assignments. However it’s still hard for her to get assignments done, sometimes it’s just very hard for her to start, even though the assignments are not hard according to her. She told me she wished there was someone who could get things together for her. That’s had been an issue at home but I used to help her. She is a very smart girl, just not good at managing her time. |
Anonymous
| Is her medication long-acting? My kid takes Focalin 2 times per day, a larger dose in the am and then another smaller dose in the afternoon. We found that the longer acting meds didn't allow her to make it through til the end of the day, and my kid is still doing homework at 9:00 pm. Also, have your child ask about executive functioning coaches, some DS offices will have this service, or you might be able to hire one outside of school. Disability Support Services should be able to provide some additional supports for her. |
Anonymous
| I’ve no experience with executive coaches. Do they work with the kid on site or online? |
Anonymous
Totally understand. I feel like I am a secretary for my son, reminding him of what’s on the list all the time. He could get a tippy top score in a hard exam, but also get 0 in an easy project if he missed something. I am so worried. Can you remotely help her in some way? Like sending her important reminders, checking her progress from time to time? This is not helicopter parenting. They need help all their lifetime. |
Anonymous
Which school? If her school allows it: Consider choosing one course to be pass/fail, so she can pass without focusing too much on that one. |
Anonymous
This isn't for OP to raise with administration. The college student is an adult and needs to self-advocate and take responsibility and accountability. The real world has little patience for excuses. |
Anonymous
| Many schools' Disability Services Offices have executive functioning coaches on staff, and it's either included in tuition or an added service you can pay for. There are also private coaches outside the university system. The one we used- in high school- was in person. She helped my kid organize her assignments and taught her different ways to track her deadlines and stay on top of stuff. Well worth the money, as it set her up with good habits that she's continued to use throughout high school. |
Anonymous
Get her help with executive functioning. Coaching for this is readily available. |
Anonymous
Definitely look into an EF coach. But does she also have strategies for starting work when she feels like she can't? Body doubling, pairing a "fun action" with a "boring" action (my DC has special studying playlists he only listens when doing school work. It's got his favorite songs & it's like the dopamine-seeking part of his brain is quieted by the music so the rest of his brain can get to work), etc. An EF coach can help identify strategies but it's also probably worth it for her to attempt to try out different things. If the work isn't hard for her & the issue is she just can't start it, that's really a life skill she needs to develop, either with EF coach, reading up on various strategies, watching YouTube videos on strategies, etc |
Anonymous
Our college kid works with an EF coach virtually twice a week. It’s a game changer. |
Anonymous
PP is right that the student themself needs to raise this. Also, what we found with my son was that there is a deadline for requesting accommodations and that deadline doesn't get extended. He had a semester with probably his most difficult class and no accommodations. Last important thing that we learned is that accommodations are followed to the letter. So, in one case, there was extra time for tests but if the final was a take home writing assignment instead of a test, no extra time because the accommodation was for tests only. It has been a completely different ballgame from HS in terms of the rigidity. OP, good luck to your daughter. It was really tough for my son. I think two things help him. One is that he lives at home. Second is that he completely structures and plans out his days several days or even a week in advance. So, if I asked him today what he's doing on Monday, he will tell me when he works, the time of his classes, which class homework he is going to do and what times of the day and for how long he will watch TV. Sometimes he will even add in that he plans to play with the dogs for 15 minutes in the afternoon or something like that. He is not so rigid that he can't make changes, but if he does decide to do something during the time he had intended to study, he will rework his study plan. He doesn't go with the flow at all. |