Transforming Chaos to Harmony: Unlocking the Potential of ADHD Mornings

What if you could transform your child's morning routine from chaotic to harmonious with just a few simple changes? Join us as we share the inspiring story of Sarah, a dedicated mother who faced daily battles with her son's ADHD challenges and emerged victorious using the SUCCESS Method. This episode of the Neuroquirky Nexus series uncovers a roadmap for turning struggles into strengths. By focusing on spotting strengths, understanding triggers, and making small yet impactful adjustments, we offer a guide to achieving quick wins and fostering growth. Learn how practical tools like a trigger tracker can support these strategies, helping parents embrace and celebrate the unique qualities of their child's ADHD brain.

In this chapter of our journey, we emphasize the significance of viewing ADHD not as a limitation but as a different kind of wiring that holds untapped potential. Together, we'll explore tailored strategies designed to unlock this potential, one step at a time. Share your victories with us using #NeuroNexus and let others benefit from these insights. Don't miss our upcoming workshops for deeper engagement and learning opportunities. Remember, success with ADHD is about recognizing and unlocking potential, celebrating each small triumph along the way.

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Transcript

Transforming Mornings

Laurie 1:45

Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Neuroquirky Nexus, so happy to have you here Today. We're continuing our series in pre-workshop episodes. In fact, actually, this is the last one. Our workshop is January 25th and in the evening, so I hope you will join us, and today we're going to be talking about one strategy that we're also going to be covering in depth, more in depth, in the workshop. So this is the success method a practical and proven approach that's different from anything you've tried before. So I'm really excited to share with you the success method. I hopped on Facebook for a live for a little bit, but I'm going to go more in depth today on the success method and I hope you can join us January 25th. So are you ready to get started? Let's get quirky.

Understand the Trigger

Laurie 2:47

Let me share with you a quick story. What I don't know how long ago it was, it was a little while ago and I spoke with a mom, and her name was Sarah, and she was really struggling with morning routines with her son. She tried everything from charts and rewards and consequences, and nothing seemed to stick. So she was asking me what can I do? Right, as a lot of us parents with children with ADHD or ourselves, we're wondering what do we do? Well, I told her I'm working on this method called the success method and within hopefully, a day or a morning, your mornings will be transformed. And so today I really want to show you the success method and what I did to help Sarah and her son, and how it can help you to quickly which is the reason for my workshop title. Right, the Quick Wins from Stress to Success. So come on, join us. All. Right, let's break down what success stands for. I'll give you some practical examples you can use today if you'd like, or if you need to use it in the morning, obviously in the morning. So S stands for spot, the strength. This is where everything changes. Instead of seeing your child's ADHD behaviors as problems to fix, look for the strength trying to emerge, and you've heard me say that many times. Instead of seeing your child's ADHD behaviors as problems to fix, look for the strength trying to emerge. You've heard me say that before. But let me give you some concrete examples.

Laurie 4:45

You know that child. Do you have that child that can't sit still during homework? They're showing you. They're a natural kinesthetic learner. We can use movement to enhance learning. This has worked for many of my clients, right, using movement to enhance learning, and that's what you're going to hear often. These kids need movement, not necessarily because they're hyper, but their brains are hyper. A child who, hyper, focuses on video games Do you have one of those that's showing incredible capacity for sustained attention when engaged, we can channel that focus. The child who interrupts with constant ideas, that's creative thinking and enthusiasm trying to emerge. Harness that energy. I know that was me for sure.

Laurie 5:32

Here's how to spot strengths in your child. Watch them when they're in their element. What natural abilities shine? Notice what energizes them versus what drains them. Look for patterns in their successful moments. Ask yourself what's the gift in this challenge? Okay, that's S.

Create Small Change

Laurie 5:57

U is for understand the trigger. Most approaches jump straight to solutions without understanding what activates challenging behaviors, and we've talked about these triggers before. Right, but once you know the trigger, you have the key to change. Let's look at some common triggers and how to identify them. There's environmental triggers right, the time of day, physical space, noise level, lighting, those type of things. There's internal triggers, such as energy levels, hunger, their emotions, how they sleep. There's social triggers, such as how is it in a group? What's it like for the social demands. Is there pressure, communication styles, expectations Any of those activities or events could set them off.

Laurie 6:49

It could be a trigger, right. So I have a trigger tracker. In a previous episode, one of the earlier episodes, I did, so definitely get that download to help you. But if you don't want to, then just keep a small notebook somewhere easy on the fridge or somewhere convenient and note what time of day is the trigger happening, what happened just before, what's the environment like, what's the internal situation, what's the social situation right, the ones that we just mentioned what's your child's state of being? How bad was it? Was it a small little reaction? Was it a huge reaction? And what was the outcome? How did it repair itself? Or what happened? Right? And so do this every time your child gets triggered by something. Something sets them off and then you'll start to see patterns and that's when we can really work together and get these patterns figured out.

Laurie 7:51

Okay, that is understanding the trigger. So important and that's what I like to focus on as a holistic neuro, growth, learning and life success coach is the whole child. And what is setting them off and what can we change? All right, c, the first C stands for create small change. Here we go with our changes. Yeah, notice, I said small. We're not overhauling your entire life routine. We're not changing everything. We're just making tiny shifts that create immediate wins.

Laurie 8:31

Here's what makes a change small enough. Can it be started today with what you have? It takes less than two minutes to set up. I know I'm telling you this is like gold. Here you can do this and all you have to do these small little changes. It really doesn't require much preparation and it shows results within 24 hours. Is that not a cool quick? That's a quick win. Right, that's a quick strategy, and I'm going to tell you how to do it.

Celebrate Progress

Laurie 9:05

So some examples could be a morning routine change. You could implement a morning stretch before getting dressed. Put shoes out by the door the night before. Create a high five checkpoint out by the door the night before. Create a high five checkpoint. I've got some really cool changes in morning routine or afternoon routine, evening routines that I want to share in the workshop, but I also shared them last podcast. So I've got some really cool strategies for these quick wins. So if you haven't listened to the last podcast, it will go nicely with these strategies. But these are additional ones, right, additional ones. So set a 15 minute timer for focus or sprints, focus right. Or if you've heard me talk about the Pomodoro technique, that's a wonderful one.

Laurie 9:56

Add movement, break between subjects, create a success spot for working like a nice homework. So, thinking about all of those environmental or what, what sets them up for success. You want to think about those areas? Um, evening challenges. Uh, you could have a cleanup race. You could do a cleanup race. Choose tomorrow's clothes, lay them out in like a racetrack format where they have to ready, set, go. I've talked about that. And then just simple signals for your child. And again, we'll go into more details in the workshop. But those are quick changes, small, quick changes, right. So remember that parent I was telling you about. Her small change was just adding one movement break before school. That's all she did. No complex charts or systems, just a small change that aligned with her child's natural energy. The key is to resist the urge to do everything. You just want to start small, yeah, and let it settle in before adding on another. Okay, let's go to the second C.

Evaluate Impact

Laurie 11:11

Celebrate progress. The ADHD brain needs quick feedback. Every small win deserves recognition. It's not about perfect execution, it's about progress. So let's talk about effective celebration strategies. Quick celebrations right. A little victory dance, high five, special handshake, success, sound effect, a power pose. You could do visual celebrations right. A photo of the moment, a quick drawing, a sticker or stamp something in a journal entry. A progress chart that shows a visual. Quick win is what we want. You could do a rewards-based celebration so they could do extra playtime, a choice of activity, special privilege, bonus screen time or even just quality time together.

Laurie 12:05

Really, really, really important to know that all of these strategies are leading toward you and your child and your family having peace and time together and real, authentic connection, authentic connection, which we talked a lot about last time. So that's a big goal of all of these strategies as well. All right, so remember that when you do these celebration principles, just celebrate immediately. Don't wait. The brain needs that reward. Make it genuine and specific. Match the celebration to the effort right? You don't want to give a huge celebration for a teeny, tiny little effort, right? Or vice versa? Include your child in choosing celebrations. Include your child in choosing celebrations. You could even keep a wins jar for collecting success moments. Lots of options. The key is consistency. Every win, no matter how small deserves recognition.

Laurie 13:15

Okay, let's go on to our next one. E stands for evaluate impact. This is where most parents skip ahead, but it's crucial. We really need to know what's working and why. So here's a simple evaluation framework. Remember I just want to keep this simple for you. So, daily check questions. Ask yourself you know, just do a little check with yourself what went well, what was different from yesterday, when did we see success, what challenges came out and how did our child feel?

Scale What Works

Laurie 13:56

And you can track the time that you spend on tasks, the numbers of reminders that you needed to do, and remember yes, we're going to start small and we're going to have quick wins, but habits take a little while to get into play and, of course, you don't want your child to get bored either, so you don't want to do the same thing over and over and over again. You want to vary it a bit, but the reminders should become less right. The stress levels should go down. They should be able to complete, say, getting dressed, without a lot of reminders, and you should be having more bonding time and more positive interactions with your child. Their energy levels should be regulated in the right place at the right time, as well as their moods. So just track those things, do kind of a mental check at the end of the day, if you need to write them down I've got lots of handouts that I'm giving in the workshop, but if you need to write them down, go ahead and do that. Whatever will help you also feel successful, and this could be. You know, you could write down like rating systems, like stars, happy, sad faces. You could do a quick voice note on your phone.

Laurie 15:16

Pictures are fun, just so you can see over time, right? You know like they always have those weight loss pictures, right? You always take your picture beforehand because it's hard to see when you're in the middle of it. So just try to do that when you go to bed at night or as you're getting up in the morning or something, so you can reflect on the day. Reflection is always important, and whether you want to do it alone or with other family members or with your child, again up to you. It is really important, don't skip it.

Share and Support

Laurie 15:51

Okay, now we're down to our last two S's. The first S is for scale. So you've reflected, now you're going to scale what works. Once you find something that works, build on it, but gradually. Don't again, don't do too much right. We don't want to rush and add more. Strengthen what's already working.

Laurie 16:12

Here's how to scale effectively so you can start with success analysis what worked? Why did it work? When did it work best? Because now you know your kid's triggers, you've tried a few things and you know what's working. Or you'll know that maybe you just need to tweak something a little bit right and then it might really take off. So, was there a lot of support needed or little support? And can it be sustainable? Can you lay out the clothes the night before, every night, for example?

Laurie 16:46

Okay, so scaling, what are things you can do to scale? You can add small time or one small step to extend it to another subject or another activity or another area of the house. We'll go into details in the workshop, but those are some extensions you can do. But here's some warning signs. If you're going too fast, if you're scaling too fast, right, if the resistance is increasing, if the success rate is dropping, if the stress is going up for you and your child, that's not good. If you aren't able to stay consistent. Because it should be quick and simple to set up and maintain, should be quick and simple to set up and maintain. And if enthusiasm is starting to wane obviously with the ADHD brain, like I said, you need to keep it a little bit novel, but don't make it so it's exhausting and you're not consistent and don't keep up with it.

Unlocking ADHD Success One Step

Laurie 17:43

The last S means share and support. Success multiplies when shared. So build your support network, celebrate wins together and remember you're not alone in this journey. So your support system can be family members. Share with them and be excited and have parties and celebrate. Can be your team at school, who you need to talk to as far as the teachers and social workers or whoever the team is at school that your child needs. It can be me and a coach or any other professional support providers, the doctors and any other therapists. Remember, support network is a key part of sustainable success. So you do want to create a support network and I'm happy to talk about that more in future episodes if you would like. That's actually a good topic is to really talk about how all of our, the team, can work for the benefit of your child and, of course, your family and that peace and joy that we are looking for.

Laurie 18:56

Okay, let me give you one concrete action to take today. I told you I'd give you some takeaways. Yeah, choose one challenging moment in your child's day. Apply the first step Spot the strength. Apply the first step, spot the strength. What natural energy or interest is your child showing in that moment? That is your starting point. Okay, let me say that one more time. You're going to choose one moment that's challenging in your day. You're going to apply the first step, which is called spot the strength, and then you're going to think what natural energy or interest is your child showing in that moment? And that's where we're going to start.

Laurie 19:43

So, before we wrap up, though, remember your child's ADHD brain isn't broken, it's just differently wired. And different doesn't mean less at all. It means we just need different strategies. So this success method was made so that it can give you those strategies and give you one small win at a time. I would love to hear your successes at hashtag NeuroNexus and or email me. And also, please, if this podcast helped you or you feel like it would help somebody you know, please forward it along and share with as many people as you can, because I just really want to reach out and help as many people as we can.

Laurie 20:27

So I also hope to see you in our workshop and if it's after the fact, I will set up more workshops, don't worry, this was just our first in a series. So I thank you so much for joining me today. And remember you're not just managing ADHD for your child, you're unlocking their true potential. And it's going to happen, don't worry. It's going to happen One success at a time. And it's going to happen, don't worry. It's going to happen One success at a time, all right. Thank you again so much. I look forward to hearing your WIC wins and seeing you in our workshop. If not seeing you around the internet, all right. Thank you very much and, as always, keep it quirky.