Life Hacks to help Kids with Learning Differences and Attentional Deficits

​1. Always raising your hand and having everyone notice when a student is struggling can affect self esteem.  Ask your teacher to hand out different sticky notes and children can stick one on their desk showing the teacher if they have grasped the concept.

​2. Need help with reminders and organizing?  Use reminder little bracelets.

3. Is your child struggling getting the right pencil grip?  Have them hold a small stress ball or cotton ball to help the hand and fingers form the correct writing position.

​4. Mornings can be stressful for everyone.  Write the morning chores in erasable marker on a mirror.  Leave the marker there so kids can check off when they’ve done everything on their list.

​5. Set a timer or let your child go into school with a watch.  Time management can be very difficult for kids learning difference or attention deficits.  If they see a timer counting down on their desk so they know how much time they have to complete a task, they will find it very helpful.

​6. Weekly or daily visual schedules help kids with any anxiety or organizational deficits know what’s up during the week.  For older kids, a written weekly schedule prominently featured in a high traffic area like the kitchen is very helpful.

7. School planners should be used at all ages as a communication tool between parent, teacher and student.  This is where assignments should be listed, checked off when done and feedback can be given.  We’ll often see a planner start the year off great and then fizzle out.  Don’t let this happen! Stay consistent with a student planner throughout the year.

​8. Homework hack with a notecard.  Kids often get distracted or freaked out if they see all the problems they need to complete.  Use a notecard to cover the problems they are not working on.  We also recommend using a notecard to track reading in a book so that children can easily read the line that they are currently reading.

​9. Fidget toys help a wriggly learner.  We recommend something small and that doesn’t make noise as to not distract other learners or the teacher.  We love to recommend a stress ball for a student to hold during classroom learning.

​10. We all need reminders that yelling and negative reinforcement doesn’t help our kids.  What does help kids is realizing how all kids learn differently and it’s our job to help them.