What supports made the biggest difference for your audhd child?

[Anonymous]

I have a first grader who has been diagnosed with adhd/anxiety for two years, but was also recently diagnosed with ASD level 1 and a ready disability.

He struggles with social cues, back and forth conversation outside his areas of interest (not always, but significant enough), hyperactivity/focus, processing disappointment and at school, he can struggle with the demands placed on him for attention and executive functioning - things like sustained attention to work, initiating independent work and consistently adhering to instructions for independent work. He can get overwhelmed and refuse to do his work. Not all the time, but enough that it’s interfering with his academics.

He is medicated for his adhd and anxiety which helps a lot. We have an IEP in place, looking at schools for reading disability. He did OT privately for a few years and does a social skills group now. We have a reading tutor and a behavioral/executive functioning coach. Trying to tease out what supports he needs academically, behaviorally and adaptively.

All of that said, what interventions worked best for your audhd child? I feel like we’ve tried a lot. It’s expensive and would love to hear from parents who’ve been there what made the biggest difference in your child’s ability to “go with the flow,” regulate emotionally on a daily basis, and help socially.

[Anonymous]

For my AuDHD kid, the biggest thing has been to find a supportive school environment where he isn't overwhelmed. It's been a game-changer. If you're in NOVA, I'd check out the Newton School.

[Anonymous]

For my kid, the biggest support was a smaller class size. Paras and 1:1s are great, but they just add more bodies to an already over crowded classroom.

A smaller environment where my kid can build social relationships was huge. Then there was no fear of asking questions in class since everyone was friends. Also, having the ability for the teacher to go slower and provide explicit instruction was big.

[Anonymous]

The most effective intervention we did for my son was not something implemented at school. Rather, we did it at home. We taught him that everything had a place and to put everything in its place even if you're just putting it down for a minute. That required that every time he got something new, we had to figure out its place. Same with seasons changing - where do hats, gloves, boots, etc go. I always went to the pre-start of school open house so that we could learn where and how things were stored in the classroom and we could identify where his belongings would be. There was no generalizing about things - like, it didn't just go in the backpack, but it went in a specific place in the backpack that we defined. This really helped him think in an organized way, which generalized to other areas.

One thing the school did was that they taped a checklist to his desk every morning before he got there that included all of the things he needed to do before he was ready to sit at his desk. Even before he could read, it was effective because he knew what each item was. After completing a task, he'd check it off and move to the next one.

This is really not an ES support that was provided, but when he hit MS, they would carefully choose when he would have which classes so that he would be in the more challenging ones when he was better able to focus.