How to encourage DS7 to care about presentation/plan his work

[stillsleeptraining]

My DS has typical ADHD spirit of “rush it out, I’m full of ideas, need to do it right now”. His homework is rarely coloured in, is scruffy and he resists planning anything. We were trying to do a poster tonight and it was soooooo hard not to get frustrated. Lots of random drawings, refused to discuss it and it was honestly crap.

i don’t want to kill his motivation or love of learning, so I’d love some tips on positively guiding him to give a shit and to stop and think.

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DS is 7?

He’s 7. If he has ADHD, that’s even more reason not to focus on it.

Oh no! Not poster homework! How is that helping him read or do maths? I’d ditch that type of homework and concentrate on the curriculum homework. What’s his literacy and numeracy like?

Does he always have lines to write on? This can help with spacing.

if he needs to get ideas down quickly can he do them on a laptop or tablet instead using a drawing pen, stock or even AI images?

sounds like you’ve identified the key behaviour as rushing- can you talk about doing a rushed first draft to get his ideas down and then a neater second good copy, but in stages, where he focuses on one bit then goes to do a physical activity?

Yes sounds like a lot of work for a 7yo, is it a competition or something?

I'd leave him be to be honest, at that age. It's not preventing him learning.

My DD1 had reading homework and maths at this age. From age 8, very little. They don’t need to colour in posters. Does the teacher even look at them? All this diagnosis of DC doesn’t ever come with advice or a change of strategy! I’d agree that writing on lines and concentrating on the curriculum is better.

If that’s his way of working I don’t see a problem? You want his work to look like someone else’s work?

Is he 7 or year7? I’ve got one of each. If year 7, it’s not because he has ADHD, it’s because he’s 12 and this is just how they are about homework.

If he’s actually 7, dear god, cut the poor kid some slack. I don’t even necessarily do the termly homework, only if mine expresses interest in it. He did this term. It was to do a drawing inspired by LS Lowry (industrial scenes). He drew a factory, some smog, shoved a few people and horses in the foreground and bam, done, took 15 minutes and I doubt his teacher will even look at it. Most of his other homework are SATS practice tests and I don’t do those because I don’t give a rats ass about SATS. I’m certainly not going to be forcing my 7 year old to do boring practice tests.

I’m an academic with a PhD and I can assure you that long term academic success has nothing to do with battling to get pointless homework tasks done when they are still babies practically. It’s natural talent and passion that makes people successful. Focus on doing what he loves, playing outside, etc and don’t stress about homework. This doesn’t sound at all like ADHD to me.

He’s only 7! Just concentrate on reading for now, making a poster should be fun so don’t make it stressful.

Why does it need to be neat?

He's only 7, and with ADHD. His teachers will understand what's going on for him.

Really good ideas - thank you!

Thanks, all. Will take the advice.

I have ADHD and would have benefitted for someone to teach me life skills like planning etc, so it probably triggers me to see him enact my own behaviour!

OP, take a moment.

You’re triggered because you can see your son doing things that got you into trouble when you were young. I’m guessing you probably had a tough time at school trying to fit into “normal” parameters? You don’t want your son to go through that high is completely acceptable but, your son isn’t guaranteed to have a bad time at school because he’s doing it in a time when ADHD is a more widely known about condition.

So what if his poster was messy (are you a perfectionist by any chance?)? He’s at school to learn. If he’s got ADHD you’re not going to be able to make him not be messy or rush into things, but what you can do is use his traits to his benefit. Nothing will kill his love of learning faster than being made to feel like his or is rubbish, again.

What are his obsessions? Get him to incorporate that into an extra poster. Do 5 posters. Use an egg timer to see how quickly he can do one. He will have a certain amount of focus in a day and he may have used all of that up at school. Does it really matter if his poster is crap? He’ll learn techniques as he gets older but no should just be about finding out what works for him (walking about/listening to music/short timescales). Play around with it and have fun!