On one of the parenting support group meetings of ADHD Society of the Philippines, Special Education Philippines was able to get information on one of the topics discussed to help children with ADHD live successfully on their own and that is “End Household Clutter: ADHD Organization Help for Kids”

In my online research I found out that the original article was written by Dr. Patricia Quinn M.D. and it was released in ADDitude. The latter is an online website and magazine dedicated in helping people with ADHD.

Below is a summary of the points Dr. Quinn mentioned in the article and some of my personal thoughts about teaching organization to children with ADHD.

What Not to Do for Your Child With ADHD:

1. Don’t clean up for your child with ADHD

Dr. Quinn said our child has to clean up his own mess. One of the basic things one must learn regardless if the person has ADHD or not is to control their own clutter. My thoughts: It is easy for us to do it ourselves because it will be faster and cleaner. I know that because I already have a system. But for that system to work, I learned it first hand through experience. Experimented on a lot of things and finally came up with a process that works for me. If you keep on cleaning for your child, how is he/she going to have a chance to learn it for himself? Clutter control is something you develop over time. Nobody is born a neatnik right away.

2. Don’t take his cluttering personal.

Your child with ADHD did not create that clutter to spite you or to make you late or himself late. It is what it is. Dr. Quinn described children with ADHD as people who are good in creating clutter. I guess if you want to look at it in a positive way you can add cluttering in the list of things they are naturally good at. Anyway, according to the article, it is because people with ADHD are just wired that way. I understand how ironic it is how they can hyper-focus on one task and disregard everything else around them even the things you did not expect for them to forget like wearing their polo shirt with the hanger still in it and complaining to you that it doesn’t fit. Believe me it happened to us!

3. Don’t steer away from the rules.

I always tell my son, don’t re-invent the wheel. The rules are there not to harm you, make life hard for you or even to punish you. The rules in the house are implemented to give you security of what you can expect from every member of the family. It is what unites us to ensure that we can depend on one another because the rules gives us that protection.

Read more tomorrow for the four household rules Dr. Quinn has included in her organization tips for children with ADHD.

Do you have any organization tips for children with ADHD? Share it with us by commenting below.

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