Jo-Ann and Candida talk with each other about this exciting and challenging time of year
Back to school articles and tips are everywhere this time of year – with great ideas for helping your child or teen navigate the start of the school year to set them up for success. But when mental health needs are in the mix, some of these tips may sound impossible to approach, let alone put into practice. Organizational tips that make sense for many children and families may not be accessible to students and/or parents living with ADHD. Or sleep habit building may be a persistent challenge despite best efforts for a child or teen with an anxiety or mood disorder. Modifying standard suggestions, avoiding judgment when the suggestions don’t work, and getting help can redirect toward more successful outcomes.
In this episode, Jo-Ann and Candida focus on sleep and organization as two key areas for skill building to support school success, Accessing enough sleep requires that students and families build sleep-supporting habits but it can also require pushing back on systems and expectations such as early school start times that interfere with sleep no matter what habits families are working on.
Tips for organization are helpful – and also can be hard to implement. Meeting a student (and family) where they are and making small changes can make a difference when needs such as ADHD are present. The good feelings that come from achieving small change can be part of an upward spiral in which feelings of reward and satisfaction help maintain the new skills. The Upward Spiral is the title of a book by Alex Korb PhD that brings the neuroscience of small positive changes into recovery from depression. And this neuroscience framework applies to building new habits for organization as well.
Most importantly – bad days will happen. Poor sleep, forgotten homework or lunches, getting to school late -sometimes all in one day – will occur and it’s critical to give ourselves and our kids grace and compassion. Recovering and re-approaching the tasks comes more easily when there isn’t a negative spiral into shame and judgment. Tears and big feelings will happen – and then they will settle down and there is a chance to re-evaluate and try again.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Later school start time [NEA]
Teenagers and Sleep: How Much Sleep is Enough? [Johns Hopkins Medicine]
The Upward Spiral by Alex Korb PhD (author) and Daniel J. Siegel MD (Foreword)
https://www.amazon.com/Upward-Spiral-Neuroscience-Reverse-Depression/dp/1626251207