Essential Tips for Parents & Students With ADHD

Show Notes:

College for Students With ADHD: From Feeling Lost to Finding Your ‘A’ Game (Free Resources Included!)

This interview explores the challenges and opportunities faced by students with ADHD transitioning to college. College professor and ADHD coach Dr. Lauren Kerr-Heraly shares her insights on:

   • Executive function skills: These crucial skills, like time management and organization, can be underdeveloped in students with ADHD. Lauren emphasizes the importance of identifying and strengthening these skills for college success.

   • Building a support system: Students with ADHD benefit from a strong support system in college. This can include disability services counselors, tutors, coaches, and of course, parents. The interview highlights strategies for effective communication and collaboration within this support network.

   • Self-advocacy: Lauren stresses the importance of students taking ownership of their ADHD and advocating for their needs. This includes reaching out to professors and disability services to discuss accommodations.

   • Positive approach to ADHD: Focusing on the strengths of students with ADHD is a key theme. Lauren highlights the creativity and fast thinking that can be hallmarks of an ADHD brain.

Bonus resource: Lauren offers a free infographic on her website, Altering Course outlining the “four S’s of college prep” – essential executive function skills for transitioning to college.

This interview is a valuable resource for parents of children with ADHD, high school students with ADHD preparing for college, and college students with ADHD seeking strategies for success.

🌟Download Lauran’s FREE Infographic! College Prep Essential Skills

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Music Used:

“LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

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Episode #100: College Success for Students With ADHD

Essential Tips for Parents & Students With ADHD

(Recorded April 22, 2024)

Full Transcript of Interview:

Tonya: Lauran, welcome to Water Prairie.

Lauran: Hi there.

It’s nice to have you here today. Listeners, we’re going to be talking about, um, ADHD, executive functioning, college, all of the things that, that my family talks about a lot. And I love meeting another mom, another professional who understands some of the things that, um, that a lot of you are dealing with too.

We’re going to have a great time. Thanks, Tonya.

Let’s just jump in because we, um, we’ve already said we’re going to talk about ADHD, but we have listeners who have heard of ADHD before, but other than the, the letters, or they may know the full name, that may be all that they know.

And there may be some preconceived ideas that aren’t really accurate. Can you kind of in a nutshell tell us what ADHD is whenever a parent’s hearing those, those names and those, those letters?

Sure. So it stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. And there’s a, there’s a pretty large campaign to get rid of the “H” in that because the hyperactivity doesn’t describe everyone.

There’s multiple types of ADHD, there’s hyperactive, there’s inattentive, there’s combined. Girls, especially often don’t get diagnosed as early on because they might not show the hyperactive side of it. Um, but their focus is still an issue. So they’re typically people with ADHD have a hard time focusing.

They have a hard time regulating themselves and might have some additional difficulties with things like transition and sensory. So my family’s story is that when my daughter was seven, um, the, we were having, you know, some of the focus issues, a lot of emotional regulation issues that led us to talk to our pediatrician who suggested we get her, um, Um, tested for ADHD and it was pretty much, uh, you know, the, the neurologist spent about three seconds with her and was like, yeah, this is what she’s got.

And then ran all the tests. And, um, so it was, it was pretty night and day once we got her the proper treatment. And um, Behavioral modifications that she was a lot happier. She was not so frustrated doing better in school, et cetera. And in that process, the doctor said, so which one of your parents can’t focus?

And she said, daddy, daddy. Um, so this little seven year old, um, he told her, well, he should get tested. And my husband had kind of always suspected this about himself, but again, he’s not, he didn’t have the age. He didn’t have the hyperactivity. Um, so he did well in school. He never got in trouble, but he really struggled.

Um, and so he went and got tested and then he again got treated. And at 40, he said, I can’t believe I’ve lived my whole life without the, you know, without having the proper, um, treatment assistance to deal with this in my life. So, um, so it can present differently in different people. I talked to someone recently who said, you know, our, our kid is having X, Y, Z issues, but he can focus so well.

And what they meant was he could hyper focus or the, the term for it really is perseverate, um, that you focus on something that’s not helpful to the point where you can’t be pulled away from it. And that actually is a type of inattention. So Because it presents differently and it’s a very complicated, it is a spectrum.

Um, it can be difficult for some people who haven’t seen it or been around it a lot, um, to kind of diagnose, um, I don’t mean diagnosed, but recognized, I should say. Um, You know, it’s kind of funny because as a college professor, I have a lot of neurodiverse students have for years. And I couldn’t even recognize that my own child had ADHD because she’s my kid, right?

You know, this is why, even though I’m an executive function coach, I have, I do not coach my own child, that’s for someone else. So it does present differently. And when you’re close to a situation, it can be difficult to see, to think, you know, um, My child might have this. My spouse might have this. I might have this because it is a disability.

And that is something that it took me a while to kind of come around to, even like I said, having taught neurodiverse students for years, the fact that it is a permanent disability that can, of course, like the brains and muscle, like anything else, right? Like, there are a lot of things that we can do to provide coping mechanisms, et cetera, but it doesn’t disappear.

So that did take a It’s kind of a lot for me to get used to, but we’re all much happier now that we, we know both the disability side of ADHD and the superpower side of it.

It’s interesting too, in, in your family where you have the two that different ages, male and female, everything else with that and, and presenting differently too.

The studies are pretty interesting lately that it’s a, it’s a pretty high percentage of people who have ADHD. It’s also genetic. Um, you know, it’s not a hundred percent, but the more they study it, the more they’re seeing the presentations in, you know, multiple parts of multiple generations.

Well, and a lot of our families that are listening, they may have another disability that’s, that’s diagnosed, but they may be seeing some of the behaviors of ADHD and that may not have been recognized yet.

And, um, and that’s, that’s why I, I like bringing this topic in because It, you may be a parent that’s listening and this is the diagnosis and it may be all that you can handle right now, but we may also have others who are also looking at at multiple issues that that they’re trying to balance. And it gets hard sometimes for a parent to know, where do I focus first?

And how do I. How do I help my child the most? And I think there’s, and you can correct me on this, but I think there’s times of life that we need to focus more on them during some of those transition times and all maybe to give them some more skills.

Well, yeah. And transitions are huge and I do want to talk about that.

And I’ll just mention that when it was something like ADHD. There’s usually what we call a comorbidity, right? That there’s something else going on. Maybe it’s anxiety. Maybe it’s sensory processing disorder. It could be, um, oppositional defiance disorder. Lots of things can go on at once. But most of my clients will say until they treat the ADHD, they can’t treat the other things.

Um, because. That is what is taking their brain in so many different directions and it’s difficult to focus. So once that they can kind of focus, then they’re like, Oh, wait, this is why I’m anxious. Now I can work on the anxiety. Um, so I do encourage people if, if you suspect ADHD, do get tested, explore treatment options.

Um, You know, for us, it’s been a combination of medication, behavioral modifications, and changing our lifestyle really, um, that has worked for us. So, so I do think that there’s something to focusing on supporting the ADHD side and then that kind of freeing you up to to be able to help them, the other issues.

So, and along with that too, my son, now he’s, he shared his story during season one. So I can, can freely talk about this, this, this part of his life, but part of that conversation between him and I, um, we were going back through when he was eight, the, the psychologist. couldn’t tell whether it was ADHD or anxiety.

And so he did not have the, the diagnosis of ADHD until he was in middle school, but it was, it was, it was on the, it was questionable on it. And so they addressed it as anxiety. First, the anxiety is still there. ADHD definitely is there, but he was the kid that in kindergarten. you’d look around the room and his place was always the one that just exploded.

You know, so there, there were markers there pretty early with some organization issues that, that were not age. Um, uh, well, what, what is the word I’m looking for? They, they, they, they weren’t in line with it with his peers at the time. And, um, and so as he got older, it was easier for that. And I, I remember back during that time, there was a certain age that if the symptoms weren’t there by that age, that it wasn’t ADHD.

Is that still part of it? Like if it hasn’t shown up by age seven or whatever that was?

Not that I know of. No. And part of that is because it is a spectrum. And like I said, some, some of the markers that we used to live, that we used to sort of use when I was in elementary school ages ago, again, was like hyperactivity, right?

And that’s it. Um, so like I said, my spouse got diagnosed at 40. Um, and. Not because he And really because of my daughter, right? Um, so no one ever suspected that he had ADHD, you know, he kind of, like I said, maybe thought about that, thought this about himself, but it’s, it’s more of a, something that you probably have and maybe have coped with, or at it’s been kind of in the background because you’ve learned to deal with it or because you didn’t have, you know, Um, maybe an environment where it was super obvious, something like that.

So, but as you know, and I’d have to check the research on this, but as far as I know, that, that is a big part of it.

Well, the other thing too, that you mentioned that I found interesting, you said that they’re, they’re talking about. Removing the, the hyper part of it out of the, of the, the name. We had years where we had the ADD and the ADHD and ADD, and then now it’s only ADHD.

So we’re going to go back to the ADD now, or we’ll add some other letters in there.

Probably some other letters. Yeah. And it, you know, it’ll take the scientists a while to kind of agree on, on how to do it. But I know for a lot of people with ADHD, they, they feel like that doesn’t really define them. So there’s kind of a movement.

Yeah. So my, my understanding was the H did apply because of the hyper focus, not necessarily hyperactivity. As in running around and swinging from the rafters.

Yeah. Your, your brain is hyperactive. Yeah.

Now my daughter is not diagnosed. Um, I, I, if she were to test, it might come back that she does, but, and as you say, it presents differently a lot, a lot of times in girls.

But she was three years old and was reading already and would sit down and would do an entire first grade workbook from cover to cover without stopping. And it was hard to get her until she finished it to get her to move and to do anything else. So she always has had a very strong hyper focus, but it was being a girl.

It was always in the more appropriate. Area where you would get encouragement from that because, you know, she’s doing, she’s doing schoolwork when she’s little and she’s wanting to do, you know, she wasn’t watching TV and never coming to dinner. It was, was different. So we weren’t picking up on that either back then.

Oh, yeah, totally. And, and sometimes, oftentimes when we notice or, you know, when we suggest getting tested or something like that is when people are struggling in a pretty big way, whether it’s with school or their relationships or regulation or whatever. Um, so sometimes it takes us a while to kind of figure out what that is.

And people with ADHD often are very intelligent, um, you know, very high IQs to the point where, um, They, you know, they might need to be a grader to a head, but then their brain is probably not ready for that kind of a social environment. So there’s a catch 22 there as well. And that can be challenging.

When we’ve talked a little bit about the, the executive functioning skills being behind in past episodes. And, um, and so I wanted to talk about that as well, because, um, it’s kind of a good, a good point here with it, where academically, mentally, they may be, Beyond their peers, but like you’re saying, the social, social skills, knowing when to, to get up and down from their seat in the classroom.

A lot of times can be a reason that our kids are getting written up or being well, in my son’s case, he spent 33 days and in school suspension for. throwing away paper at the wrong time during his seventh grade. So, um, and that was the worst that the teachers ever told us that he did. It wasn’t anything really inappropriate.

But, um, but that, that part of it does start showing up, I think, more as they get into those middle school years when their peers are starting to do more independent things and, um, and can read those cues. A little bit faster with it. So, um, so executive functioning skills, how, how is it, is it a three year gap?

Is there a definite age difference there or is it individual to individual?

I think it’s individual to individual. And part of it is how their executive function skills have developed. You know, one thing that I emphasize when I talk to my, you know, Clients is that the executive function skills that are demanded of a middle schooler or a high schooler or a college student far outweigh what they can actually do, what their brains can actually do.

Um, so if they’re getting overwhelmed and they’re falling behind, it’s because their brains can’t keep up. And that’s for a neurotypical child. So for someone with. No, you know, someone who’s neurodiverse compound those, right? So the, what helps is to have the skills and oftentimes when they’re thrown into middle school or high school or whatever big transition it is, you know, that we call it, um, in higher education, we call it the unwritten curriculum that we just sort of assume that they’re supposed to know, right?

That they’re supposed to know how to take notes. They’re supposed to know how to organize, know how to manage their time. And they, uh, they often don’t. So. Um, because there’s not direct education on how to make those jumps with those skills. That’s when we really see students struggle. So I have clients who have ADHD or, you know, some other kind of neurodiversity and because they’ve been taught the skills and they’ve been taught some tricks on how to stay focused and organized and manage their time and give themselves grace when they don’t, then they actually do really well.

Um, so it’s less about. What they’re, you know, is there a definite, we’re two years, three years behind, like, is there a clock somewhere? Right. And more about, um, what you’re sort of being recognizing what you’re able to do, but also being, being very, you know, encouraging to yourself about what you are actually capable of doing.

You know, it’s interesting. One of the, um, one of my favorite things to do is group coaching and bring different people together of, um, generally they’re similar ages, but they, we talk about executive function skills and the group that I’m working with right now, working memory is a big part of executive function and that’s being able to kind of organize things in your head.

Um, that’s being able to, you know, understand systems of language of, um, of social systems, et cetera. But it’s also just plain old memory. Right. And that’s one of the things that we start with. And you know, that kindergarten toddler matching game that with the cards, right, where you turn over one card and you have to remember where the other one is, but it’s not a skill that’s actually taught so much.

Continued through education. And so, we actually spent quite a bit of time with this group working on just memory skills because they were, you know, they were saying, well, I can’t remember what chores I have to do. I can’t remember what, um, assignments that I have to do. And for one, we work on the organization.

We work on having a system that they actually like and will follow through. Um, most kids hate a plant, hate the planners that they’re given. And, you know, so, so they don’t have to use them like, well, so we come up with something else. Um, but then it’s also just like. Well, your memory needs to be put back into shape.

You need to exercise that memory. So, some of these things seem maybe quote unquote basic, but they’re actually not if you’re, if you’re not practicing them. So

I know for my son, he uses his iPhone and texting, um, as part of his, it’s a system that he’s put together. But if he has an appointment, he texts it to me.

And it’s not for me to remind him he has the, it has a documented now. And so, then he can go back cause he knows, he knows it’s coming up next week. He doesn’t use a calendar. He doesn’t use anything like that, but this is what’s worked for him.

Well, and that’s why I started my business because as much as I try to help my students with executive function skills, sometimes, you know, they’re in their twenties and they don’t have the basics. And that’s, that’s what I, that’s why I started going backwards, right? I’m work with high school students. I work with middle school students to try to help them with these skills.

Because even if a school has a study skills class, for example, or a transitions class or something like that. They’re, they’re gonna give them great information, but they’re, it’s not gonna be tailored to what they need. Um, which is part of what I see with my clients, my young clients especially, is that if they don’t wanna do something, they’re not gonna do it.

If it’s boring to them, they don’t wanna do it. So like, we have to figure out a way to make it interesting enough that they’ll want to actually do it. And we do that through a lot of, you know, coming up with small rewards that they like and making. Sure that they have something to get their brain going like we call this dopamine hacking that we have them get a little bit of feeling of accomplishment before they even start something where they’re not going to start.

Um, so I, I think that is. One of the benefits of having an executive function coach is you can have someone sit down with you and say, like, this is where you want to be. And I asked them this at the beginning of our sessions, you know, how do you feel now? And how do you want to feel at the end of this? Um, and then what do we do to get there?

And sometimes it’s really simple little shifts. Um, some people feel like they have to do like overhaul everything, right? And I always suggest to start with one thing, because if you can get one small thing, And you feel some accomplishment from it, then you’ll be more willing to change other things. So.

Well, and I, and I love that now we have, I think the coaching system is more ready now where 10 years ago that wasn’t a thing yet. And so now parents and young adults who are in need of getting some direction and wanting some help, they don’t have to go to the school and ask and be told, well, we don’t do that here. There are other, excuse me, there are other options out there. And so having some, someone like you who, whether it’s virtual or in person, they, they can come and get that information that they need and to start working on those skills.

I’m just thinking how many kids at this, at the age where my son was really starting to struggle. If we had had someone like you working with him. From maybe fifth grade on, where would it be today? How much, I mean, he’s, he’s doing well. He, he has to work really hard to get the grades that he gets, but would he have to work as hard now if he could have started developing some of those skills? So, um, so parents listening, it’s worth looking at this type of information and to see what’s out there for you.

It is. Yeah. And I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been when elementary school parents started contacting me. Um, because they’re seeing the same things already happening.

They’re already seeing the deficits in elementary school and they’re concerned that they’ll just multiply and they will. So, I’ve started expanding my services to, you know, to help elementary school families as well.

I think it’s great. The, um, you know, executive functioning skills can lag even when a child that doesn’t have ADHD.

Totally, they lag in all of us.

Is there anyone who’s perfect? Maybe there was one that’s in each class.

Well, this is why I don’t love the term neurotypical, right? Because it assumes that people that maybe don’t have a diagnosis or somehow have it all together. Um, and, and it often is people that. You know, have done really well in school that all of a sudden realized they don’t have that they have these deficits.

And then you have people that are just, their motivation is really lacking, but generally the motivation is lacking because they don’t have a structure that works for them to get them going.

Transitioning from high school to college is a, is a gap there. But once they get into college, now those supports that they had through their IEP team, um, mom’s not there anymore. If they’ve gone away, if they’re in community college, they may still be living at home.

But parents, you’re no longer going into the classroom with them. You’re not even going to the school to meet with disability support with them unless you’ve been invited to come in. So now your child’s out there and they have to do it on their own. They’re 18, they’re an adult. What do you have to tell these students and their parents about this transition?

How can they get ready for that independent part after having so much support through all those years?

I love that because, you know, I love to assume that parents and, um, high schoolers have a great relationship. Cause that’s what I, that’s what I look forward to with my kid. And it’s really important to have that warm, open communication when they’re at home.

Um, to ask questions like, I’m curious, and I noticed that instead of, you know, how can you possibly not have your homework done? How? Like, um, cause it is frustrating, right? But first of all, that gives you the warm communication, but it also puts a puts more of the onus on them. Right. So when they get to college, I see a couple things happen, particularly with students with ADHD and other neurodiverse students.

Some of them like to think they’re starting over. And they will not tell the professors that they have accommodations. Some of them won’t go to the learning support office and get their official letter because they’re like, I’m in college now. I’m in, I’m 18 or I’m 25 or however old they are. And somehow they think they’ve grown out of it.

You don’t grow out of it. Um, so I always tell my students, smart students, ask for help. Successful students ask for help. Please give me your letters because then I can help you. Um, so that, that’s my number one thing, because you’d be surprised how many of them halfway through this semester will tell me, well, everything’s late because of ADHD.

And I, well, I said, well, What, why am I just now hearing about this? So it’s really important that from the beginning, you’re having that communication with your professors. And if you’ve gone through the proper channels, then they’re legally required just like they are in high school to provide those accommodations.

It’s also important to advocate for yourself. I’ll give you an example of this. One of my students who gave me the letter and, you know, has, you know, been really good, but good about communicating. One of the things that we determined was occasionally I’ll have them do kind of, uh, at the end of the class, I’ll have them write for 10 minutes, kind of a reflection on what we’ve talked about.

And that was really stressful to him because there was a time limit and, you know, he has extra time on assessments and whatnot. And so, I told him he doesn’t have to do that. Like he, we can just talk about it at the end of class. And, um, So a few weeks later, remember also that your professors have way more students than they did in high school often.

Right. Uh, for me, I’ve got over a hundred students. So anyway, during this class, um, I, you know, I told all the students to do it and then I kind of got onto him. I was like, you need to be doing your reflection writing. And he very discreetly raised his hand and asked me to come over. And he said, I just wanted to remind you, he said, I didn’t have to do this.

And then, you know, we could talk about it. And I said, oh, you know what? You are right. Um, so that was a really good way of handling it. Um, because he didn’t draw attention to himself. I didn’t draw attention to him. We just had a conversation and it was. Something that was easy to deal with. Um, the other thing I’ll say is that with, with social stuff, it’s really important to get plugged in with people who will support you.

And it’s important that you get plugged in somewhere. Um, some people will go off to college and they’ll just, they’ll go to class and they’ll go back to their dorm room or in a community college like mine. They come to class, they leave, they don’t hang out. even if you have a job, even if you have care responsibilities, you need to be connecting with other people.

And there’s ways to do that that don’t take up your whole day. You know, I, I never assume that a college student doesn’t have to work or doesn’t have other responsibilities. Right. Um, but there are ways to do that. That, I mean, the most popular club at my campus is the anime club. Um, and not everyone can come to every meeting, but they are all really excited about anime and they.

connect on that level, right? So, there’s something for everyone. And the reason that’s so important with, um, for neurodivergent students is because part of executive function is emotional regulation and it is social skills. So, and I’ve got a free infographic that y’all can grab. Um, we’ll put it in the show notes, but it’s, um, I call it the four S’s of the skills you need for college.

And it’s about executive function, really. But one of those is on there is that social skills. And so if you’re not practicing those, Then they’re not going to grow. And if you’re not connected with other people, then you’re not going to have positive stimuli. Um, you know, find people that you can study with and actually study, not like your books are in the corner, but you’re playing video games.

Um, so that’s really important to get, to get plugged in, um, and to get the support that you need. And I would also say that, you know, my campus does a really good job about, you know, having workshops about time management and whatnot. Um, There’s TA’s. There’s all kinds of support services, and it can be very overwhelming to even learn what those are.

But there’s generally peer tutoring that’s included with your tuition, things like that. I have a student assistant who is great. Um, when students are afraid to talk to me, they’ll talk to her. Um, so find the support networks on campus. Um, Because again, successful students ask for help and smart students ask for help.

And the reality is that people with executive function deficits, whether neurodiverse or not, need extra help. And the jump from high school to college is big. And it doesn’t matter how old they are, because I have a, I have a wide range of student ages, right? Yeah. You know, from 15 up to, I think my oldest student is in her 60s right now.

Somehow a lot of them still think that deadlines are a suggestion. They are not. They are not. Um, so things like that, you have to be aware of how the expectations affect you. Um, whether that’s consequences and grades, or it’s going to affect your relationship with the professor, which then affects your future opportunities, et cetera.

So that is one part of executive function is the emotional regulation of, you know, knowing I have to reach out. I have to say no to this thing so I can study, et cetera.

I know with both of my kids, um, they’ve been in college for a few years now, so they’ve kind of worked all this out and they both started in high school.

You’re talking about having a 15-year-old, their junior and senior year in North Carolina, they’re able to go tuition-free to the community college. So both of them took advantage of those classes as well. So they, um, while they were home, we were able to walk them through the transition to disability services at the college while they were still minors, so we were able to kind of go with them, help them see how you have those conversations to begin with. But we didn’t go with them to talk to their teachers because we told them even at that age, they have to do this. And so we would help them write the letters. To, to get the email to ask for the meeting and all, um, but now they do that on their own.

They’re able to do that. And, um, some every now and then I’ll get, uh, a message from one of them asking, can you, can you read this for me to see if it sounds right? And, um, because they, they don’t want to, to push too hard, but they also want to make sure that they’re communicating what they need to for their disability support, but, um, but it, so your kids are going to mature as, as they’re doing this.

And in fact, my son and I just had a conversation today, you know, college is going to end one day and you’re going to be working in the workforce. You’re still going to have a supervisor, someone that has to be aware of your accommodation needs with a disability and you don’t want it to be. And this is what he was saying.

You know, I don’t want to be a weak link. I don’t want to be the one who is “disabled.” I want to be a contributing member of the team. And that’s what they’re learning during that college time is how do they do this in an appropriate way and still be part of the contributing factor to their team, whatever it is that they’re doing.

And um, so these are great, um, points that you’re making for parents to hear today for their kids to know as they’re going there. And I don’t know, we, I think we do have some high school kids who are listening to. So, they’re going to be able to get the benefit of this as well.

Well, I’m going to, I’m looking at our time and, um, I could keep talking on this subject forever, but, um, but I do want to get to our advice statements. And so I, uh, like I’ve done with our other guests this season, I have three open-ended statements that I’m going to ask Lauran to finish for us.

And she’s agreed to do this with us. So, are you ready for your advice time?

I’m ready.

So, the first one is the most important piece of advice I would give to a student with ADHD transitioning to college is…

The most important piece of advice I would give to a student with ADHD transitioning to college is to find a system of organization that works for you because you’re going to be asked to adapt and do a bunch of things and you’re going to get overwhelmed with the amount of things and you need to have a system that works for you that you will actually keep up with.

All right. So, number two, college success for a student with ADHD requires a strong support system. One key member of that team should be…

College success for a student with ADHD requires a strong support system. And one key member of that team should be your counselor from Ability Services, because they can help you determine the accommodations that you need, make sure that the letter of accommodation gets to the professor, et cetera.

Then it’s up to you to make sure, you know, that. that you’re getting what you need in the classroom, but that learning support counselor is going to be really, really significant.

And the last one as an educator and a parent, I believe the key to helping students with ADHD thrive is…

As an educator and a parent, I believe the key to helping students with ADHD thrive is affirming the way their brain works.

And I’ll explain that a little bit because sometimes we, we try to almost some of the support that I see for ADHD is like, well, how, how to get your child to not do this and how to get your child to whatever. And I would really prefer to approach it from the standpoint of, you know what? Your brain is amazing.

And this is how I start with my, my coaching clients. Tell me something you love about your brain. And then now let’s work with that. Now let’s, let’s help your time management, et cetera. So, celebrate their brain. That is something that I think that we all need, but particularly for students who are told their brain is part of their problem. Let’s celebrate it instead.

Reminds me of when my kids were, were growing up, you know, we would always have the IEP and would always be focused on the deficits of what they needed to work on. And so, to counter that, I would start the year by writing each of their teachers. And it was a letter of celebrating all of their strengths that they had because I wanted them to walk into the classroom and to see them as a positive who just needed a little bit of support. And, um, and so, so yeah, we’ve, we’ve always as a family focused on where, where are your superpowers and it’s, um, and a fast brain is a superpower because you can think really fast and react very quickly to, to put out whatever the problem is and the creative thinking that can come with an ADHD brain.

I love seeing that. So, great advice. Thank you for sharing all three of those with us. Now, um, before I get into what you’re doing, um, you mentioned the infographic that you have. So, tell us again what that is, and we’re going to put the link in the show notes, but if you want to tell what the link is, that’s, that’s fine as well.

Sure. You can go to my website, alteringcourse.com. And if you go to the freebies section, I’ve got an infographic called College Prep Essential Skills, and I break down into what I call the Four S’s of College Prep. And they’re the executive function skills that I think you really need to focus on in high school. You know, to help you transition into college. So grab that. Um, I’d love to hear what you think about it.

Thank you for sharing that with us. Cause I think, I think that that fits in really well with what we’re talking about, but I think a lot of parents will, will enjoy seeing that. Now tell us more about what you do, how we can get in touch with you.

Who, who you can work with, like, is it just locally or around the world where all of the details.

All right. So, alteringcourse.com, my website is the best place to go. You can find my socials there. I’m pretty active on Instagram. I have some other freebies that you can access, but I work with children and parents of all ages. Um, I say parents because I’ve had parents approach me after I’ve worked with their kids and say, well, can you help me with my time management? Can you? And the answer is yes. So, um, that is something that I like to do. My favorite way of working is to work with middle school or high school, um, students and their parents. So, sometimes for high school students, I prefer to work with them 1 on 1 or in a group setting with the students.

And then I work with the parents afterwards to kind of follow up on everything we talked about. Middle school and elementary families I like to work with parents and kids at the same time. And then college students, I’ll work with them on their own. And then if their parents would like to come in, that’s up to the student.

Um, but, and then again, I also work with adults, but I do have a group program that I really enjoy. And I think that is a great place to practice so many of these skills because it’s more of a social setting. And it’s something that they can see, oh, wait, someone else is struggling with the same thing I am.

And they’re here because they also want to improve because a lot of students can recognize, well, no one in my class is turning things in on time, but no one’s doing anything about it. So, like, let’s do something about it. So, I work virtually. Um, if you are in the Houston area, um, or. Kind of surrounding, then I can, I do in person workshops.

I also travel for workshops though, if you want to have me into your school or community group, but most of my one-to-one coaching and group coaching is virtual. So, I have students from all over and I taught in England for a long time. So, I love working with students from London as. Well, I taught in London. I love working with students from England, but from all over the world, really. So, there aren’t a lot of limits.

Sounds like it. And, and I like that because our audience is pretty widespread. So, anyone listening has an option of calling you and, and checking in with you. So, thank you for that. Well, Lauran, thank you for, for sharing this with me.

I’ve enjoyed the conversation. I always love talking about my kids, of course, you know, but, but also just learning more and you’re bringing more up to date information than, than what I’ve been able to share just because my experiences from when the kids were younger, so, um, so for bringing that in and just taking the time to share with us today.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Tonya.