ADHD motivation technique

I homeschool a daughter with ADHD, and I have found a technique that
works more often than anything else I've tried.

When I tell my daughter a task to accomplish, I use a variation of the
carot - stick routine. I set a timer with a time limit for her to do
the task in. Then, I tell her that if she gets it done early (say ten
minutes for a 45 minute task), I will give her a reward. If she takes
too long; however, she is told she will be punished in some way.

It has produced amazing results and should help others out there. If
you are in a homeschool group, paste this technique into those group's
email servers so others can benefit.

Also, and this is a personal request. I've written a Christian book
on God's Providence that I am giving away for the benefit of the body
of Christ. It is at..
http://beingone.20m.com/providence.html

Check it out, and include it in your posts of this email (if you
would) so that others may be blessed by it as well. Thanks.

http://beingone.20m.com/providence.html
(30 Days of Providence)

SPAM ALERT.... Don't feed her!


"K C" wrote in message
om...
I homeschool a daughter with ADHD, and I have found a technique that
works more often than anything else I've tried.

When I tell my daughter a task to accomplish, I use a variation of the
carot - stick routine. I set a timer with a time limit for her to do
the task in. Then, I tell her that if she gets it done early (say ten
minutes for a 45 minute task), I will give her a reward. If she takes
too long; however, she is told she will be punished in some way.

It has produced amazing results and should help others out there. If
you are in a homeschool group, paste this technique into those group's
email servers so others can benefit.

Also, and this is a personal request. I've written a Christian book
on God's Providence that I am giving away for the benefit of the body
of Christ. It is at..
http://beingone.20m.com/providence.html

Check it out, and include it in your posts of this email (if you
would) so that others may be blessed by it as well. Thanks.

http://beingone.20m.com/providence.html
(30 Days of Providence)

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...
SPAM ALERT.... Don't feed her!

You did already !!!!!

"K C" wrote in message
om...
alternativebeliefs
If she takes
too long; however, she is told she will be punished in some way.

My, that's certainly a typically Christian approach. Too bad you can't teach
her life lessons about doing things for the sake of doing them, rather than
because some big bad entity is going to GETCHA if you don't.


--
Byron "Barn" Canfield
-----------------------------
"Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
-- Ambrose Bierce

"Byron Canfield" wrote in message news:wbk6c.34870$1p.538456@attbi_s54...
"K C" wrote in message
om...
alternativebeliefs
If she takes
too long; however, she is told she will be punished in some way.

My, that's certainly a typically Christian approach.

Is it? I've yet to meet the typical Christian. How nice that you have.

Too bad you can't teach
her life lessons about doing things for the sake of doing them, rather than
because some big bad entity is going to GETCHA if you don't.

Perhaps we can talk about what it is like to be ADHD or ADD?

Firstly, I can't imagine giving my daughter a 45 minute task, not
even at age 11. Rewards might have worked better for me than
punishments, and Lord knows that when I was in school I learned
to take whatever the teacher could dish out! It didn't matter
how in trouble I was going to get. The threat of trouble in no
way enabled me to concentrate on my work or be productive.

Neither did the promise of reward do anything to help. It didn't
matter how badly I wanted the reward either.

Why? Because the *problem* is not one of motivation! Duh.

Likewise, doing for the sake of doing, while an admirable quality,
does not address the reason that it is difficult for an ADD
person to *do*. Have you dealt with ADD or ADHD, Byron? Wanting
to do something, wanting to do a good job at it, all of it is
irrelevant to the question of why that child can't keep his or
herself on task.

It's not lack of motivation or stuborness that makes a child sit
before a workbook for three hours, giving up play-time or priviledges,
when the work will take less than 15 minutes to complete. It is
certainly not because the child has not been taught to do things
for the sake of doing them.

What has worked best for *my* child is to stand over her, admittedly
not pleasant for either of us, and insist that she stay on task
and even walk her though the tasks, ask prompting questions, tap
her page and have her read or re-read. And most importantly to
be absolutely sure that she is learning that she CAN GET DONE.
Quickly. 10 minutes or less, usually.

Education happens when a child is receptive. I can't imagine any
concept in elementary school that takes longer than 10 or 15 minutes
to teach. And then later you teach it again. But not right away,
and not for 45 minutes straight.

I *could* give her half an hour or 45 minutes to complete tasks
but most of that time would be spent diddling around or day-dreaming
and those are not useful habits to encourage. Giving her less
time is better.

-Julie