Are you wondering why your ADHD child struggles to read? Does teaching your child phonics feel like a battleground? Do you find yourself frustrated as a homeschool mom thinking, “Why can’t he just read the words? I don’t have time for this!” If this sounds like your homeschool Kindergarten, Grade One or Grade Two reading lesson, keep reading!
When your ADHD child struggles to read, it feels like teaching phonics to your child with ADHD-like behaviours is a nightmare! You’ve come away feeling like the bad guy, but it’s your child who just wouldn’t write the words!
You’re downright frustrated because you have a hundred things on your to-do list, multiple kiddos to teach, a toddler to keep from pulling the playroom to pieces, so could your child just focus long enough to get through the lesson?
I see you homeschool mom. Your child with ADHD still struggles to read! I sense the frustration you’re feeling. What if ONE, yes, just ONE simple tweak in your daily phonics lessons could significantly lessen the seeming battle between you and your child?
Why Your ADHD Child Struggles to Read?
What is ADHD? The acronym ADHD is short for ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER. I’ve often heard parents say that their child has ADHD simply because he won’t sit still, seems to have lots of energy and has difficulty with focus. I’ve heard this undiagnosed condition spoken over a child by a frustrated parent. However, here are some facts about true ADHD. ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. Symptoms start in childhood and often last into adulthood. Treatment can involve a combination of behavior therapy and medication.
You know your child best, and I believe that you will know the difference between your child simply being restless or high energy and having true ADHD. Of course, if you have serious concerns, then it is best to consult your pediatrician.
What might you notice about your ADHD child who struggles to read? You may notice your child is highly distracted, unable to hold attention for very long. He or she may be impulsive, having difficulty controlling immediate actions or thoughts, often leading to acting before thinking, have difficulty with organization, and the big one when it comes to phonics instruction, avoiding tasks that require sustained mental effort. Enter your next phonics lesson. Matching phonemes to graphemes, then blending these sounds into words requires sustained mental effort. Professionals refer to this as increased cognitive load.
An article titled, ‘Developing Reading Skills in Children with ADHD’ by the Centre for ADHD Awareness in Canada states, “Working Memory is a cognitive skill necessary for successful comprehension of text. Working memory and attention are closely related. When reading, children need to activate prior knowledge, integrate new information with information stored in memory, be able to analyze incoming information, think critically about text, and make connections.”
So, since your child is required to dedicate sufficient focus and mental stamina when reading, if your child has even a mild form of ADHD, these symptoms will likely show up when teaching your child to read.
The article goes on to state the process of learning how to read can be more complex: “While not all children with ADHD experience difficulties learning how to read, it is estimated that up to 50 percent of children with ADHD may struggle with the process of learning how to read, reading with fluency and reading comprehension.”
The article goes on to say, “Learning to read requires attention and executive coordination. This means your child has to hold onto the letter sounds, string the sounds together and make meaning from the individual sounds to read the word – and then they have to do the same thing again with multiple words to read a sentence. Keeping so much active working memory at once can be exhausting, especially if it is difficult for your child to maintain their attention.”
Fortunately, learning to read is a skill that can be mastered in your child. Your ADHD child who struggles to read will need more repetition and review of previously learned phonics skills so that they stick.
How can you decrease the parent-child teaching battle AND help your child increase focus and attention so that he can apply phonics skills and successfully learn to read?
An article by ADDitude states that “ research has shown that exercise relieves ADHD symptoms by increasing endorphins and neurotransmitters in the brain.”
When your ADHD child struggles to read, it’s time to uplevel your body breaks and physical activity. I’m talking about short, planned brain breaks (30 seconds – 2 minutes in length of physical activity) throughout your phonics lesson. Plan for short movement breaks inside your lessons to increase retention of phonics skills learned.
When DPA, Daily Physical Activity, was added to the daily classroom schedule, I thought, that’s a waste of time. Students already had recess and phys-ed each day, and they could play outside long after the school day was finished. We could be reading, writing or working on math facts.
Initially resistant to the idea of extending gym class, or so it seemed. However, I have experienced the benefits of frequent brain breaks for students, as well as myself. Taking a few moments to do simple stretches, run on the spot, hop on one foot for 60 seconds has increased my students’ willingness and ability to complete cognitively demanding skills, such as applying phonics skills to read words and sentences in a simple text.
Timers are highly effective tools. Set a visual timer for your child to jog on the spot for 2 minutes. Do jumping jacks for 30 seconds. Stand up and hop on one foot 25 times. Frequent, yet brief body breaks will help your child focus for phonemic awareness, hear and spell, see and say, word chains, or any other simple phonics strategies part of your daily lesson. Limiting screen time is a given. Help your child to mentally reset and increase his focus.
When your ADHD child struggles to read, ask yourself, “Have I included brief movement breaks during my child’s daily phonics lesson?” If not, decide where you can add 2 short movement breaks in your phonics lessons.
When your ADHD child struggles to read, do this ONE simple tweak of adding frequent brief periods of movement throughout your child’s reading instruction.
