Transitioning from one task to the next

[Hyacinth]

Is this a learned skill? If so, how do I teach it to my pokey, procrastinating, chatty, do-anything-but-what-needs-to-be-done-next boys? I'm all for short breaks for water, a snack, a breath of fresh air, whatever. But these boys stretch that inch into one heck of a mile. :banghead:

 

I feel better now. Thank you.

 

(Today is our first full day, so I know an adjustment period is needed--for them and for me. I don't know that I'm actually asking for suggestions, but I'll read them if you have them!)

[kbutton]

They lose breaks if they abuse them. I have one that abuses breaks no matter what, and one that uses them properly if he has a well-defined task during that break (otherwise, he gets lost just walking across the room).

 

It's an executive functioning skill, and those skills are slow to mature in lots of folks, but with notable, significant lags in kids with LDs, ADHD, etc. Typical kids at least sort of see the problem. Non-typical kids are clueless and 20 steps behind any awareness. I have two non-typical kids who come by it honestly (not from me!).

[OneStepAtATime]

Totally agree with the above post from kbutton.  I found the books Smart But Scattered and ADD Friendly ways to organize your life quite helpful (and no, I don't believe anyone here is actually ADD/ADHD but we do have Executive Function issues).

 

And different things work for different people and for different kids.  Hopefully you will get lots of good suggestions here and can pick which things sound like they might work the best for you and yours.

 

For us, DD needs a list.  She wants to know exactly what we are doing each day and that once everything is checked off that list I am not piling more on.  Once the list is done (including chores) she is free to read, paint, play, whatever.  She needs the mental relief of seeing her responsibilities for the day get reduced plus knowing she has truly finished at the end.  And she wants the material spaced evenly across the week as much as possible.

 

For DS, he uses a list but what he really wants are blocks of time, too.  So for instance if he has 45 minutes allotted for Language Arts, if he gets through it faster than that he wants the remaining time for doing something fun or interesting to him before starting on the next thing on his list.  Does that make sense?  He also likes that he can work ahead if he chooses so he can have more free time on Friday (except for daily chores) if he gets nearly everything done M-Th that was assigned for the week.  This encourages him to actually spend extra time starting on the next day's assignment where it is possible to do so.  Some subjects, though, we have to do daily, in small segments, such as handwriting, since he is also dysgraphic.

 

We have also dabbled with clear plastic closable plastic boxes for organizing our day.  I believe this system is sometimes called workboxes.  Each box has another assignment for the day and everything needed for that assignment goes in that box.  As the assignment is completed everything is put back into that box and put away for review later.  As the stack of boxed is reduced, the student is motivated to keep going because they see that their required assignments are getting done and their free time will be coming up.  I found some great stackable colored clear boxes at Costco.  They aren't very deep, but definitely deep enough for whatever is needed for normal school assignments.  I work with the kids a lot one on one since both are dyslexic, but it really helps me too, when organizing, to just toss what we will need into the various boxes.  That way I KNOW when we start the day that the materials are ready to go.  It helps the kids with transition, too, because I am not wasting time trying to find anything and taking away from the momentum.  I plan to use this system more diligently for this year.

 

I know that some parents have found it helpful to intersperse seat work with something that requires more movement, even maybe some sort of chore presented as something more fun to do.  Kids tend to hate to just sit for long periods of time.  

 

HTH.

 

Good luck and best wishes!