Five Suggestions to Promote Good Study Habits 

Executive functioning is a neuropsychological concept that involves different cognitive processes including working memory, sustained attention, performance monitoring, inhibiting impulses, goal directed persistence and the ability to plan and direct activities that includes task initiation, and follow through. Children who have poor executive functioning tend to be forgetful, have trouble beginning tasks, easily distracted and can sometimes make careless mistakes that they do not catch. 

Many children who have been diagnosed with ADHD have poor executive functioning skills, therefore studying can be a challenge. Utilizing these five suggestions in promoting good study habits can help your child get the most out of school. 

1. Choose a study time based on energy patterns. People tend to have specific times during the day where they have more energy. Encourage a student to track their energy patterns and identify the time of day when their energy is at its peak and to utilize that time to study. 
2. Identify optimal study environments. Finding the best place to study is important. A student wants to be able to find a quiet place in order to study whether it is their bedroom, the dining room table, or even going to the library. A student should also explore other study conditions such as studying with a friend or having calm and relaxing background music playing. 
3. Create a study schedule that works and what to start with. Students should identify whether or not getting the harder topics out of the way first will better help their focus. Sometimes switching between tasks can be helpful for those who have trouble focusing on one task for too long. 
4. Identifying the right organizational system. Everyone has a different way to organize their work so finding the organizational system that works best for each student is important and may look different from others. Some students find having a separate notebook for each class is helpful. Other students may find having things color coded is more beneficial, for instance, finished work goes in a green folder and work that still needs to be completed gets placed in a red folder. 
5. Find effective study strategies. Active strategies, such as making flash cards, creating practice tests, studying with a friend, and writing out a set of questions prior to reading the chapter are more effective than passive strategies which are defined as rereading a chapter or looking over notes. 

If your child is having difficulties with motivation or the challenges from ADHD, we can help!  Call Dr Gordon at PNA to schedule an appointment.

References 

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2012). Coaching students with executive skills deficits. New York: The Guilford Press.