After you have had your child’s ADHD doctor perform an ADHD assessment and give you the diagnosis, there is a lot that goes through your mind. You want to begin making modifications and accommodations for them immediately. One of the things you will worry about the most is how their school work will pan out for them. Your child’s school and school district will help you to prepare for this and prepare your child for success in a lot of ways. But you can do some things at home too. An ADHD study space that is customized for your child’s needs will help your child learn to love learning a little bit more. Learn more about how to create an ADHD study space right here.
Furnish the Area Comfortably
One of the markers of ADHD is an inability to sit still or stay in one position or space for an extended period of time. Because homework and study time can be lengthy and last for hours, a standard study space can be very confining to someone with ADHD. They won’t be able to sit still. Furnish the area comfortably and age-appropriate in order to ensure that your child will be able to be comfortable. When your child is comfortable when studying, they will be able to focus more on the task at hand.
Additionally, students with ADHD can get very stressed out when they are doing homework or studying. You may want to look for support for back pain relief with their study furniture. Work with different kinds of chairs in the same room to give your child what they need when it comes to their ADHD study space. A rocking chair or a beanbag can be ideal furniture for a child who needs to move around a lot or needs a comfortable space.
Give your child a lot of room to move around in their space. If they have room to move around when they are studying and know that it is there, they will feel safer and more comfortable to move. Things like an L-shaped desk with lots of room for both toys and study materials can help if toys or stuffed animals don’t serve as a distraction. They may never use a wide space or a beanbag chair. But, they may like knowing that option is there for them if they need to get up or move while they are studying.
Keep the study area clean, and involve your student in keeping the area nice. You may want to hire interior painters to decorate the room a little bit and make the ADHD study space more inviting. You don’t need to hire an office cleaning service to keep an ADHD study space clean tidy and structured for a child with accommodation needs. If they are old enough, make keeping the space comfortable and tidy part of their study routine. They may appreciate having something to do to burn off some energy prior to starting their work.
Find a Well-Lit and Well-Aired Area of the Home
Having a comfortable ADHD study space is part of establishing the ideal space. You want it to be comfortable in many ways. The air needs to be clean, and comfortable, and you want to make sure the space is ideal for studying. That means that you want it to be ideal for studying for anybody. Air purification systems don’t have to be extensive, but you want to be sure the student is not near smoky or dusty atmospheres. Even adding things like dehumidifiers or essential oil diffusers for relaxation may help your student considerably.
You also need to make sure that the space has air conditioning for warmer temperatures, and appropriate heating when the temperatures begin to drop. If your student is thinking of how hot or how cold they are, they aren’t going to be able to get much accomplished. Having a study space for your ADHD student near a garden or with some potted plants in the room may also liven up the space for your student.
A well-lit area is important too. When it comes to study space, you can never have too much light. Have a bright overhead light with LED lighting in it. A few lamps in the room as well can help. You may also want to add to the décor of the space by bringing a novelty lamp with some LED lighting onto the desk itself. This is both practical and a fun thing to add to the study space of a student with ADHD.
If you start to notice that their eyes need dry eye treatment, or they need glasses or contact lensesadhd suddenly, examine the lighting in the room. The lighting in the room can have a long-term or permanent impact on their vision. Keep an eye on whether your child is squinting or complaining about seeing properly when they are studying. It may not have anything to do with their study space, but accommodations can be useful here.
Another suggestion is to keep any technical devices for your student’s work in a well-traveled area. This will help you to monitor their work while not looking like you are snooping. If you put a computer or tablet in an area of the home where the student will not be alone, they will be less likely to have wandering minds when they are around others. A study space in an area where there will be a lot of people is too much distraction. But in a space where they can have structured computer time is ideal.
Build Structure Into an ADHD Study Space
Lack of structure is a really important component of an ADHD study space that needs some attention and love. Focus is an incredibly difficult task for a student with ADHD. You want a study space that makes it impossible for them to lose focus. Include elements of structure into the study space that force them to stay focused and on task with the homework or work that is in front of them.
Make a point of building not a study space, but a study space for your special student. This has to be all about them while building structure into the space so that they feel comfortable in the space. Consider every rule you would normally have in a study space for a child, and ask about your child with those rules. Would this work? Are you getting a lot of nos here? Then find other ways to build structure into the space.
Bring elements like calendars, to-do lists, schedules, and organizers into the space so your student can have a fun way of staying organized. Make them theme-based or designed or decorated in a way that your student will appreciate. Add cubbies or shelves into the space if you can to provide a means for your student to find everything they need with little assistance. The key here is to create a space where your child will be studying. This is an important task in life where they begin to take ownership of their own lives. Make it structured in a way that will help them to figure it out on their own, and they will.
Let Them Help Design the Space
An important part of creating an ADHD study space is creating one that will keep them focused. Wouldn’t you love a space more and feel more focused on it if you designed it yourself? Bring your child’s ideas into the space. Make it a fun event for you over a weekend or a spring break. Give your child or your student the opportunity to make their own personal investment into this space.
Children will be tempted to go off the rails of structure here. Any child would. However, if you give your student a budget and some structure, they can make some solid decisions on their own about their study space. This gives them a sense of ownership and pride in doing so. At the same time, when they are in the space, they may even feel more obligation to work harder in this space.
Be prepared to be surprised by what your child may come up with. They may want to study underneath the kitchen table, or outside on the rock in the backyard. They may not have an ideal study space that conforms with the one we would create. Are they reading more while they are under the table? Let them do it. The goal is to get their work done, not to teach them proper sitting habits in this experience.
If the asks are really peculiar, create some boundaries but don’t fret. Most things like this are things they will outgrow. And if they do not, then they do not. If they read better while sitting under the kitchen table, they might become the next Tom Hanks or Bill Gates … under the kitchen table. Let them decide what makes them happy and where they will succeed. You might be surprised by the results.
Let your child decide what kind of noise they want in the background if any at all. Music may be disconcerting to them, and they may find it distracting. Other children may not be able to study without it. The kind of music will make a difference as well. Is there a kind of soft music that makes your child happy? This is something an ADHD study space may be able to benefit from. Your child may ask for this. Experiment and if it goes well, and they get their work done, you may find that you enjoy the results.
Remove Clutter That is Not Useful
Removing clutter from an ADHD study space is a key strategy in many different study guides. That is because clutter is a distraction, and it can prevent them from getting their work done. It might also upset them. You want your student with ADHD to feel comfortable and happy when they are working. Make sure they have a clutter-free desk while having everything they need on it.
There are a few suggestions or ways on how to do this. A caddy that is portable and carries all of their necessary items will help them decide where they want their ADHD study space to be. You may also want to have cubbies or bins where they can tidy up and clean up excess things from around their study space.
There is something to be said about useful clutter when it comes to the ADHD study space. These are students who need a little bit of extra attention for the areas in their lives when they have too much attention. In their study space, you want them focused and paying attention to things that will get them thinking. Put art around them that inspires them or calms them. For some, a stuffed animal that turns inside and out can be something to fidget with while they are working through a math problem.
Involve your child in the cluttering and de-cluttering of the space. They will want their space organized the way that they want that done. You can find the balance here between giving them control without letting them go overboard. The space still needs to be conducive to working. However, it needs to have the appropriate modifications for comfortable studying that they will want to do. A few stuffed animals or figurines on their desk or study space may be exactly what will help them to get their work done.
When it comes to creating a study space for ADHD, you need to keep the individual student’s needs in mind. Although ADHD is an issue with a number of known characteristics, there is still a human inside the diagnosis. That human is more unique than any symptom a doctor could describe to you. That human has very specific needs. Make them a part of meeting those needs when creating the study space, and you will find them more inspired to create and learn than ever.