| Children with Primarily Inattentive ADHD | | | | housekeeping trick from my aunt. When she |
| (ADHD-PI) often get distracted on their way to | | | | taught it to me I thought that it was ridiculous. I |
| completing tasks. There are tools that I use at | | | | now use this trick every day. The trick is this; |
| my house to keep my Primarily Inattentive son | | | | when you find something out of place you do not |
| on task. I am able to help him because I too | | | | need to stop what you are doing and put it away. |
| suffered from ADHD-PI when I was a child. | | | | All you need to do is put it closer to the location |
| One of the best tools that I have found to | | | | where it resides permanently. The next time you |
| remedy inattention is to break down whatever | | | | are going towards the part of the house where |
| task needs doing into many small tasks. There is | | | | the out of place object resides, you grab it on |
| an old African Proverb that says; "The only way | | | | your way and place it closer still to its final |
| to eat an elephant is one bite at a time". I have | | | | location. Eventually, the thing is very near to |
| found this proverb to be extremely useful in my | | | | where it should be and you put it away. |
| life. Sometimes the hardest thing for people with | | | | I have a basket at the bottom of my stairs. All |
| ADHD to do is to just get motivated enough to | | | | the upstairs things go in the basket until the next |
| start whatever needs to be done. | | | | time I climb the stairs. I have found these little life |
| It is easy to become overwhelmed when you | | | | skills, like proverbs, to be invaluable resources. Try |
| have a million things to do. It is easy to look at | | | | it out for a while and let me know if it works for |
| the "to-do" list and just cringe. When I find myself | | | | you. I love that elephant proverb. At my house |
| sinking into despair, I try to remember to break | | | | we use proverbs for teaching all the time. I can't |
| the tasks down into small pieces of tasks. I also | | | | resist but leave you with a few more proverbs |
| fine that I cannot function without rewarding | | | | that apply to this discussion. |
| myself for small achievements. So a couple of | | | | * A little rain each day will fill the rivers to |
| steps towards my goal get me a read of 10 | | | | overflowing. |
| pages in my current book or magazine or a nice | | | | * Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. |
| cup of coffee. I take the same approach with my | | | | * Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, |
| young son and homework. One half of the | | | | but he who caught it chased it. |
| workbook page gets completed and we stop and | | | | And finally, unrelated to this particular discussion, |
| play a few hands of 'Go Fish'. That little bit of | | | | but a staple at my house: |
| sugar, absolutely, helps the medicine go down. | | | | * He who forgives ends the argument. |
| Speaking of little steps, I learned a little | | | | |