Back-to-School Behavior Battles: 5 ADHD Hacks Teachers + Parents Can Use Right Away

It’s back-to-school season, which for many parents and teachers means the emails are rolling in about fidgeting, blurting, not finishing work, and rough afternoons. If you’re already bracing for a long year, breathe. In this episode of Raising ADHD, we share simple, proven strategies you can use tomorrow morning to make school days smoother at home and in the classroom.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• ✅ Start the day right: Use predictable routines and a simple, visual morning checklist (backpack, shoes, breakfast). Create a “launch pad” so everything’s in one spot.
• 🗣 Give clear, short instructions: One step at a time, minimal words. “Brush teeth.” “Open your book.” Clarity beats lectures, every time.
• 🔁 Build in movement breaks: Trampoline jumps at home, quick errands to another classroom, stand-and-share, or timed brain breaks to reset focus.
• 🌟 Catch them being good: Notice and name wins, “Thanks for getting started right away.” Positives replenish motivation and buffer constant redirection.
• 🏫 Create a home–school connection: Swap the smiley/frowny charts for “Two Glows and a Grow” (two positives + one focus area). You’re a team, not opponents.

Why this matters:

ADHD behavior isn’t about willpower, it’s about executive function. When you reduce novelty, add structure, and make steps smaller and clearer, kids can succeed. These strategies improve attention, behavior, and confidence,and they help every child in the classroom, not just ADHD kids.

Resources + Next Steps:

• Post a visual morning checklist near your launch pad.
• Try a timer anchor (e.g., “one Bluey episode” for breakfast) and set firm screen boundaries on school mornings.
• Add micro-movement breaks: 10 jumps, hallway errand, or a 60-second stand-and-stretch.
• Ask your teacher (or use at home) for a Two Glows + a Grow feedback routine.
• Subscribe to Raising ADHD so you don’t miss next week’s episode on medication: to medicate or not?

Transcript

Speaker 1 

ADHD brains thrive on structure. Their brains are so messy on the inside, so if you can provide that structure and support on the outside, it's going to help them. So something as simple as a morning checklist like your backpack, packed shoes on and breakfast done can reduce chaos for school. So one thing that I love is a launchpad, and the launchpad is you have a place where the backpack is all the stuff in the morning, right? I actually like to have my daughter's backpack and we have like a little window bench. I like to have her backpack ready. I like to have her clothes set out the night before. And we have a shoe rack with her shoes right by the back door where we go out. So we always know where her shoes are. So then it reduces the morning meltdown and chaos of where's your shoes? Get your shoes on. Welcome to raising ADHD, the podcast for parents and teachers raising ADHD. Kids, if you've ever felt frustrated, overwhelmed, or just unsure what to do next, you're not alone. I'm April Bradford, a former teacher and ADHD mom, and alongside my husband, Doctor Brian Bradford, a child and adolescent psychiatrist. We're here to give you the clarity, strategies and support you've been looking for. Every week we breakdown the misconceptions, answer your biggest questions and share real tools you can use right away at home and in the class. So if you're ready to feel more confident and less overwhelmed, you're in the right place. Hey there, welcome back to the raising ADHD podcast. And it's back to school season, which for parents of ADHD kids usually means the emails have started to roll in the text messages, the calls your child has had a rough day. They can't stay in their seats, they're calling out all the things, right. And suddenly you're dreading the rest of the. 

Speaker 2 

Year I see how frustrating this is for families. Parents feel like they're failing, teachers feel wore out and the child's just stuck here in. Middle so today we're cutting through the frustration and we're gonna give you some practical, real-world tips that you can use right away starting tomorrow morning. 

Speaker 1 

So whether you're a parent or teacher, you're going to walk away with strategies to make your back to school season smoother for everyone. So let's dive in. This is where I get really excited because it's classroom stuff, so let's dive in, OK. Number one, we're gonna start the day. Good. So start the day. Good at home with predictability. ADHD brains thrive on structure. Their brains are so messy on the inside. So if you can provide that structure and support on the outside, it's going to help them. So something. As simple as a morning check. 

Speaker 

Just. 

Speaker 1 

Like your backpack packed shoes on and breakfast done can reduce chaos for school. One thing that I love is a launchpad. And the launchpad is you have a place where the backpack is all the stuff in the morning, right? I actually like to have my daughter's backpack. We have like, a little window bench. I like to have her backpack ready. I'd like to have her clothes set out the night before and we have a shoe rack with her shoes right by the back door where we go out. So we always know where her shoes are. So then it reduces the morning meltdown and chaos of where's your shoes? Get your shoes on, right. And another thing, as far as the morning. Checklist if you can make this as simple as possible and visual, that will be very helpful too. So like eat breakfast. Brush your teeth. Get dressed and you have like, little pictures that go with that. 

Speaker 2 

Right. Kind of going along with this novelty is one of the things that really impacts the like a hyper focus or a distraction. And so the less novel you can make your, your, your morning, the easier it is to stay on task. And so when you flip on the TV and Oh my gosh, what's going on in the news, this is. I mean, that's just like. Fuel on a fire for ADHD and. 

Speaker 1 

Well, I don't know if the kids are actually going to be into the news, but if you turn on, you know, 1. 

Speaker 2 

It's the kids news. 

Speaker 1 

Thing that all. The kids, one thing that my daughter would love to do every morning is watch YouTube Kids. And I was like, no, we are not doing that summer time. You know, our routine is different, but school. I know that if she turns on YouTube, it's going to be. You know, get your clothes on, get your clothes and get dressed. Why aren't you eating? We have 5 minutes left. Let's go. So it's like, no, I actually do. Let her watch Bluey. Well, she eats breakfast, which don't come after me. Let's not like the healthiest thing. But it does make her morning calm for her and she can handle that. And those episodes are so short I can be like, OK, you need to be done eating breakfast. In one Bluey episode. 

Speaker 2 

Right, you just gotta realize that whatever you introduce in the morning is now going to be competing with brushing your teeth or whatever else you've actually got a complete and. I mean that Bluey episodes gonna beat brushing your teeth every time. 

Speaker 1 

Oh yeah, for sure. That's why, you know, it's like those setting in those places and time lets limits and stuff. Another thing in the classroom. I was a very structured teacher in the classroom. It was helpful for me to have structure, but this helps lower. Anxiety for kids, too, when they know like, oh, when I come in in the morning, this is what we do. And then we do reading time and then we do recess or math. They know that routine. And they know that they can follow this. And here's The thing is. What I love about strategies for kids with ADHD don't just benefit kids with ADHD. It benefits. All kids, none of these strategies are going to hurt any other kid in your classroom. They're actually only going to help. So that predictability and that routine. Is really, really helpful for kids. The next one, Brian, you want to introduce the next? 1. 

Speaker 2 

The next one is using clear short instructions and this applies to teachers, parents, the kids themselves. When you're planning out things, spouses. Yes, everything needs to be very concise, clear and and simple. Otherwise you're not even going to get the first thing done. 

Speaker 1 

Spouses. And I find myself doing this with our daughter like, because my brain is going so fast. I'm like, OK, we've got to do all these things before it's time to go to school or bedtime is another time that I tend to do this. And I'm like, hey, get your pick up your clothes, get your backpack, and she will tell me. I'm overwhelmed and then I'm like, OK. Calm it down, April. It's fine. And then it's like, OK, the one thing that I need her to do right now. Go brush your teeth and even that. Can sometimes be too many words. The less words the better. With these kids. Brush your teeth. That's even better. So if we can break it up into those one step at a time. It's very helpful for them. 

Speaker 2 

This throws me back to my childhood and my parents lead work construction in the summers and we'd get to the job site and the very first thing was my dad or whoever was the boss that day would walk throughout the job site and basically lay out the day. Of. You know, pointing at things or whatever needs to be done and there being two or three things in. Sounds like. Everything else is gone. Like now I'm completely overwhelmed. I can't believe how much we have to do today, and it was. It was exhausting. And it wasn't that helpful. And it had been so much better to have it. Either, you know, a few things at a time, or even written down. So it's like here's. Some structure, one or two. Let me start here. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah. So you're bring didn't have to try to remember all of that. And again, going back to how these strategies are good for everyone, everyone on the job site would have benefited from that, like wouldn't have been just you. 

Speaker 2 

Right. I mean this is one that's not necessarily specific to ADHD. This is anybody who's. Gets overwhelmed quickly. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, for sure so. I know too, like as a teacher I would try to do. You're going to finish your reading when you're done with your reading, you're going to grab this assignment. Going to do this salmon, and then you're going to put it in the basket, right? So I would try to break it down like that. But now, having an ADHD child. I see that even like I thought I was breaking it down and making it so simple, but now I see even that was too much for that child. And I would have them repeat like, OK, what are we doing? We're reading. We're doing our worksheet, we're putting it in the basket. You know, we do all those things or point to where your paper goes when it's done. And they point to the basket. Which is all good, but if I would have taken it one step further for like these kiddos with ADHD and just went over to them and. And ask them, you know, just like a quick second, say no. We have a million and one things going on in the classroom just that quick second with eye contact like OK, Hey, what's the first step that you're going to get started? And see if they could answer me. And if they couldn't? Don't make them feel dumb for it. Just give them that reminder of hey, we're going to start with reading, can you? Pull out your book. And just do that. 

Speaker 2 

If you can tell they're so distracted, there's no way they're gonna answer it. Just point it out. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, good point. 

Speaker 2 

Maybe Step 1 is this one. 

Speaker 1 

OK, so there's another one. Use clear, short instructions. The last words the better so. And then I'm building movement brakes. Movement is huge for the brain. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, these movement breaks jumping on a trampoline, walking the dog, whatever the things are that we're doing at home, these kind of thing, these same kind of things can happen in a school. It can be, hey, when you finish up your assignment, we're gonna take the last five minutes and walk around the classroom once or whatever it is. Just something to get them out of that. Same focus part and just get a little bit of novelty going and then they can basically reset themselves. 

Speaker 1 

It's literally resetting the brain, and now that I sit at a desk all day long. Like I find when I was a teacher, I was up moving constantly. Right. The kids are in their desk. I did do like movement activities and let them like move around and stuff. But I see it and obviously adults can sit longer than kids. There is that rule. You know, every 50 minutes, get up and take a quick 5 minute breather or whatever. Do 10 squats or and it really does help to refocus. And I know sometimes teachers are a little bit afraid to do this because they're afraid that they'll lose the management of the kids and it'll become chaos. But. I promise it's going to help your kids do better. Remember, be able to actually sit down and refocus. By giving them these breaks. 

Speaker 2 

And this this same thing's happening in medical schools. The They're all using learning techniques and they're doing 50 and 10 or 25 and five. They know they can't sit down and be productive for two straight hours. Without that, that break in the middle. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, a home, something that we've done. We've got our daughter a little trampoline and it. Kind of drives me crazy because it's like right in our living room, which is the room that you walk in so. 

Speaker 2 

Constantly in the way. If you said something on there, it's liable. To get jumped on. 

Speaker 1 

Brian likes to dry his clothes on it anyway, but it's actually very helpful, especially in the evenings when her medications were off and she is just bouncing. Wells and she will just go pull the trampoline out cuz it's kind of tucked in the corner, but she'll just go pull it out and jump on it. Or I'll be like, hey, go do 10 jumps on your trampoline and it just kind of helps to reset. And with the classroom 2, if you don't want to do like, a whole classroom brain break, you can also send this, kiddo. To go do a quick job. Hey, can you take this paper over to miss so and so's class and it can be #1. They feel good because they feel like they're being a helper and #2, they're getting that. Break from the class. And so that's another thing that you can do as well. Also, I could just talk on this forever, but you can build. Movement into your learning Kagan learning strategies is a good resource for teachers things even like turn and talk or you know, stand up and high 5A partner and then go tell them the answer to this question. There's all those little things too that it's not even taking a break from. Your lesson or you're learning. It's just building that movement into the lesson. Next up. 

Speaker 2 

So catch them being good. Kids with ADHD are hearing corrections. They're hearing just small comments, even if they're not like overtly negative hearing. These comments all day long and. Eventually, if you hear the same comment over and over, you view this as a negative and. Something to be ashamed of. So bouncing that off with some good just anytime there's a win. Just. None of them just things for getting started right away. Whatever that can be, to, to build up their self esteem. 

Speaker 1 

And these kids thrive off of hearing the positive. Like all kids do, right? But because they hear so much negative and even those, I think we said this in the last episode or one of the episodes, even those little redirects are. Negative. So just, you know any sort of positive thing that you. Can. See and for some of those kids, it's. Diving in deep, but try to find something positive that they did. Positive is. Going to go a long way with you and same thing with the home parents with at home like. Always because we are constantly redirecting and sometimes have those negative things too. So the more we can do positive for our kids, the more positive we can point out then. You know, then the negative it outweighs that negative a bit. Like every for every one negative comment, you need like 7 positive to balance that out. So the more positives we can put in the bag. The better. 

Speaker 2 

And you can also use a positive comment to to reinforce something that you would normally use a negative comment or even a neutral comment, and instead of saying something like, hey, you gotta pay attention. You can say something more like, hey, you've done really good. You're you're through 7. Nice. How many more you? Got 3 ah, that's awesome. And rather than get back on task or or something else that. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah. Yeah. Or even it might be as little as, like, you got out your pencil. Good job. Now, can you start with #1? 

Speaker 2 

And also saying, you know, pay attention is. To somebody who isn't able to pay attention, is is just a moot point like. You might as well tell him to jump over the men. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, very good. Point #5 is to create a home school connection that works, and this goes both ways. This goes for parent or teacher. Starting that relationship out early in the year is so important because already, like I said in the Facebook groups like, I feel like it's like parent versus school. And if we can create that relationship, remember that we're A-Team trying to raise this kid. The thing that we're against is. The problems the ADHD can have, like ADHD, can bring up right? We're both in it for the common good. Like we want both want the best for our kids. So let's get on the same team. And. One of the things that teachers you can do, which I love my daughter's teacher this year, she's already. Done 2 positive things she I've gotten. We've been in school for three or four weeks now and we've gotten an e-mail from the teacher that you know, was like that positive reach out and our daughter has got a personal note from the teacher again. But how many positives can you put in the bank before you have to bring out a negative? So when I got the e-mail from the teacher that we had forgotten to give her. Meds one day. Like I didn't. I wasn't like this teacher, blah, blah, blah, no. We're on the same team. We're we're both fighting for the same thing. We want the best for, you know, our child. So one of those things that you can do. One thing I will say as a teacher and as a parent, the report cards and I have a whole system that I'm creating for School Report cards that actually work and when I mean report cards, it's like behavior cards. When I was a teacher, I hated filling those. Out because to me it was just like checking the boxes. Like Oh yeah, they didn't do that again. They didn't do that again and again. Please don't judge me because we had. No. No training on this whatsoever, but. It was like no, nothing works. This is just a stupid thing that this was my thoughts. So again, forgive me, but this is a stupid thing that the counselor was like here. You need to do this. And so it was like, OK, I'll fill out the check Marks and. And it was like, and then the parent got it. And it was like it was negative every single day. Right. So. All they are is it's crushing for kids and parents and teachers all in, like, so instead of doing, you know, like this :), frowny face, doing something like A2 glows in a grow system would be way better because the two glows are two positive things. You're writing down to positive. Things that the kid did that day and then one thing and the growth system, you know, one thing that they can work on and do not because I know some some teachers will, you know. Spell out the entire days worth of all the behavior. Don't do that. One thing that you really want the kid to work on, and I would say that is their grow. Until they get that figured out. And again, I have like a whole system allowed to do a podcast on this of like how we can start implementing these things and actually help them to create those. 

Speaker 

Yes. 

Speaker 1 

So that is my 2 glows and a. 

Speaker 2 

Grout really like that. It feels like the feedback is more balanced with the the two glows and a grow and. 

Speaker 

Hi. 

Speaker 2 

Kind of like we just talked about, the negative feedback isn't really all that beneficial for somebody who can't make that change themselves. So this is something the parents can reinforce wins at home as well and. 

Speaker 

Yes. 

Speaker 2 

You know that positive reinforcement just builds dopamine and just builds that desire to do better. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, it builds the relationship and when parents or when teachers have good relationships with their kids and good rapport with the kids, those kids are going to try harder. When you know that, you know, the teacher cares about them. To sum it up, here are the five takeaways that you can do today or you can share. With your child's teacher, you can share this episode with them #1 post a simple morning checklist or plan. And if you can make it visual even. Better. #2 give short one step directions with the least amount of words as possible. #3 add in movement breaks before or during school. #4 catch your child being good at least three times more than correcting. And #5 ask your teacher about a balanced feedback system. So I would recommend the two glows and a grow. Hopefully you can start implementing a few of these and back to school doesn't have to feel like such a battle. Small changes like the checklist and the movement breaks can set your child up for success, and the whole classroom and your whole house, even when you implement these. 

Speaker 2 

And I mean kind of, I'm preaching the teachers here, but when you focus on the catching, the kids being good and simplifying the directions, it can shift the whole classroom energy and it can shift that child's energy and their motivation to to do better. And when they had that motivation, the the ADHD symptoms can treat themselves. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, they'll. At least reduce, right? 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, not not cure themselves, but. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Speaker 1 

So if this episode gave you something useful, please share it with a fellow parent or teacher who's navigating the same back to school. Struggles were all on the struggle bus together, and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review so you don't miss next week's episode. Next week we are diving into. To medicate or not? 

Speaker 2 

And in the words of our daughter, when she ends her own recordings that she sends out to her grandparents, hit like, and subscribe, thanks so much for joining us for today's conversation on raising ADHD. Remember raising ADHD kids doesn't have to feel overwhelming. Small shifts can make a big difference. If you found this episode helpful, it would mean the world if you would hit subscribe. If you'd leave a review or if you shared it with another parent or teacher who needs this support, and don't forget to join us next week for more real talk, practical tips and encouragement. Until then, you've got this and we've got your back.