Difficulty processing multiple steps

[justine_lynae]

Has anyone found that their children with ADHD really struggle to complete tasks with more than one step to them? We’ve had things like this happen multiple times, but just now I asked my daughter to go in to the car and take out two bags, and put the two bags in the house. Then, she is to take the blue bin and put it on the front lawn. I explained it twice, making sure she was giving me eye contact and listening to me both times. Then, she attempts to do the task but ended up doing it backwards (the bin made it in the house and the two bags are on the front lawn 🤦🏽‍♀️) if you’ve had this issue, how do you help your little ones cope with tasks that have more than one step?

[Cjkchamp]

It was hard to watch...I had my son in occupational therapy to help and to see him struggle broke my heart. He would get instructions to complete an obstacle course and couldn’t follow the order. Things have improved but I still try to give one task at a time otherwise he ends up failing and becomes upset and I find myself getting irritated.

[Mama_Maehem]

We have the same trouble. It’s endlessly frustrating to me. I don’t have great advice, other than to keep a written checklist. I’ve seen my daughter complete a whole list of chores in record time when she had a written list!

[whitenoisecalm]

I'm an adult with ADHD. I can identify with the multiple step issue that you noted in your post about your child. Although I take medicine that has helped me immensely, no med is a cureall.

A written step by step list will be a huge help. Checking off the list with a pen/pencil, as each step is accomplished, would keep me on task. But if a cute dog came over I'd be distracted.

So the bottom line is the list helps a lot, but nothing guarantees success each time.

[eperez18]

Our 9 year old son struggles with following multiple steps at a time regardless of the setting he is in and even though he is on ADHD medication. I mostly see him struggle in his Taekwondo class when the instructor asks the students to do drills on the punching bag. He is currently a purple belt and I often see his facial expressions of his self disappointment when he does not follow instructor's demands. For this reason we pay an additional fee for private lessons twice a month to help him practice multiple moves at once. The same goes for school work, I make him practice and practice his reading with ME at night (30 minutes at least), and I make him practice his math facts or math word problems that involve multiple steps at home. It literally breaks my hard to see him struggle but I rather have him practice and practice at home so that at least it may become a bit natural for him when he is faced with the task of conducting multiple steps at once. One thing that has helped us beside the private lessons and the practice is that I have a routine for him at home. He knows that at from the moment he steps inside the home from school he can look at the weekly calendar I have posted in our kitchen and he knows exactly what he needs to do that day: Kumon Reading homework, his extra-curricular physical activity and the time, practice math (30 min at least), dinner, bath/shower, and bedtime reading with me.

[5Flyingeagle]

My daughter wont do a 1 step little lone multiple steps.

[dubstepMaul]

yeah, structure is really important with ADHD kids (and adults), a regular routine is very beneficial.

My son always struggled with tasks that have multiple steps. Helps to break it down into small pieces. My son is grown up now but still gets overwhelmed with multi-step tasks. I have always told him just start with one thing and work your way through. He does make lists for himself and this helps.