ADHD and Timers

At school or at home, utilizing timers to help an ADHD child get and stay on task can be extremely helpful.  Using timers takes the ambiguity out of a task for an ADHD child.  They know they will have to work on a task for as long as the timer says rather than the infinite amount of time that they were thinking it would take in their head.  Sometimes they will not complete the task in the time provided but if the child was putting in effort it is important to praise this behavior and even reward it.  Although they did not complete the task, they stayed focused for a period of time which is difficult for ADHD children.  

As the child becomes more proficient at focusing during the allotted time, you can make the time periods longer.  Most importantly don’t forget to praise the effort your child is putting in, this is by far the most important part as praising effort has been proven to drive stronger results in the long term than only praising task completion.