Raising ADHD: Real Talk For Parents & Educators

ADHD School Behavior Problems: Why Nothing's Changing and the Framework That Will

• Dr. Brian Bradford & Apryl Bradford • Episode 24

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Your child's behavior card comes home negative every day. It's not a character issue—it's a design issue. Learn the REACT framework that actually works.

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It's 3:07 pm. The dismissal bell rings. And somewhere across town, your phone lights up with the same behavior report you got yesterday. Had difficulty staying in seat. Called out repeatedly. Before you even open it, your stomach drops—because nothing is changing.

Here's what no one is telling you: if the same behavior is being corrected every single day with no improvement, that's not a kid problem. That's a systems problem. And the research on what actually works for ADHD kids in the classroom? It's not thin. Teachers just haven't been trained on it.

In this solo episode, Apryl breaks down the REACT framework—a simple, research-backed system that organizes everything we already know works for ADHD behavior at school. Then she walks you through exactly how to apply it to two of the most disruptive classroom behaviors.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Why daily behavior report cards fail when used the way most schools use them
  • The core reframe: ADHD is a performance regulation disorder, not a rule-knowledge problem
  • How to apply the REACT framework to shouting out and bothering classmates
  • The "parking lot notepad" strategy that reduces blurting without suppressing your child
  • Why constant frowny faces mean the task is too hard—not that your child isn't trying
  • Specific questions you can bring to your child's teacher (without it feeling like an attack)
  • How to scaffold behavior in baby steps that actually build real skills over time

You'll walk away with a framework you can share with your child's teacher this week and finally replace that broken loop with something that works.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Free Workshop: You Love Your Child, But You Don't Love Who You're Becoming – Live workshop on breaking the yelling cycle and creating a calmer home

REACT Framework Download – RaisingADHD.org/school


Apryl:

It's 3 07 p.m. The dismissal bell has rung, backpacks are open, folders are being shoved inside, and somewhere in that classroom, a teacher is typing a note that looks almost identical to the one they typed yesterday. Had difficulty staying in seat, called out repeatedly, struggled keeping hands to self. Then she hits send, sends the kid home, and across town, a parent's phone lights up. Before the app even loads, there's a pit in the stomach. Because this is not new information. This is a pattern. The same behaviors, the same corrections, the same report every single day. And if you're the parent in that kitchen staring at that notification, looking at that behavior card, you're not just frustrated, you're confused. Because if he's being corrected, or she's being corrected all day long, if he's losing recess, if he's coming home with frowned faces, why is nothing changing? Is he not trying? Is the school not trying? Or is the system itself missing something? Today I want to talk about that. Not from a teachers are wrong place, not from your child is broken place, but from a systems place. Because when the same behavior repeats daily with no measurable improvement, that's not a character issue, that's a design issue. And we actually know what works. We just aren't consistently doing it. So today I'm going to give you a framework, not theory, not Pinterest tips, a framework that organizes what the research already supports. And then we're going to apply it to two of the most disruptive classroom behaviors because this isn't just about venting, this is about replacing a broken loop with something better so that we're actually teaching our kids the skills that they need to succeed. 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, Dr. 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 break down the misconceptions, answer your biggest questions, and share real tools you can use right away at home and in the classroom. So if you're ready to feel more confident and less overwhelmed, you're in the right place. Hey there, welcome back to Raising ADHD. If you are returning, welcome, friend. I'm so happy to have you back. And if you're new here, hello, my name is April Bradford. I am usually the co-host of this podcast. Usually I have my husband, Dr. Brian Bradford, with me. I today he is not here with me today. I'm flying slow solo today. I am a former elementary school teacher. I am a wife and mom, two ADHDers, and like I said, co-host of this podcast. So before we dive into what actually works for our kiddos at school, I want to invite you to my upcoming workshop. If your house is chaotic, if you go to bed at night feeling guilty for yelling too many times again, if you are starting to resent motherhood, if you're starting to resent your child, this workshop is for you. I built this workshop from the space that I was about four years ago, four or five years ago, where our house too was full of way too much yelling, way too much chaos. And it was one night that I realized how my yelling and my reactions were not just causing chaos in our home, but it was also starting to become my daughter's identity and what it was doing to her self-esteem. So that's what I built this workshop for. In this workshop, we are going to talk about why yelling isn't a willpower or patient's problem, what's actually happening in the brain and body on hard days, and why shame makes reactions worse, not better. And then I'm going to teach you the method to protect your relationship with your child tonight and protect their identity. So if that sounds like you and your home, something you need, join me. Like I said, it's free. You can register at raisingadh.org. I can't wait to see you there. Okay, so let's dive in to school. I know this is a big topic. This is something that so many people are struggling with. I see constantly in the Facebook groups, this is not working anymore. I'm thinking about homeschooling my child, or my child's been kicked out of school and I don't know what I'm going to do. They're suspended again. All the things, right? So this one's a tough one, but what we are going to talk about is what the research proves. And like I said in the intro, this is not like there's only a few studies on this. This has we have a lot of research of what works with these kids in the classroom. The problem is, and I say this as a former teacher, teachers are not trained to deal with these behaviors. I will say that again. Teachers are not trained. So it's not that they're not trained to help your child. It's not that they're trying to make your child the bad child. I say that in quotes. And it's also not that they don't like your child. They literally just have not been trained on how to deal with behavior. This behavior. I will say I was very good at classroom management. I knew that for my students to learn, I had to be able to manage a classroom first. I that was what I focused on my first few years, was like, how do I manage a classroom? And I was a really good classroom manager. And I had some really hard kids in my class throughout the years. And looking back, there are key kiddos that knowing what I know now, I would do so much better by them. And that's why I am recording this podcast. Because I wished I would have had this podcast episode. So, parents, please share this with your child's teacher because it will help them. Okay. So let's dive into the daily behavior report cards, the app notifications, the color charts. Please tell me we're not using the color charts anymore. That is so shaming. And the question that follows it if this is happening every single day, why is nothing changing? Why am I getting the same behavior card? Like literally, it just comes home. And eventually parents just quit looking at it because it's like, yep, get all frowning faces. Great. What am I supposed to do? That's their parents are just as frustrated as teachers. Teachers are frustrated. We're all frustrated, and that's why we have to figure out and know what works for these kiddos, right? So if your child is shouting out every day, fathering classmates every day, getting corrected every day, and nothing improves, that is not just a child problem. That's a systems problem. And here's what I want you to know clearly. The research is not thin on this. Like I said, the research is not thin. We actually know what works for ADHD behavior in the classroom. But what works is not what is consistently being implemented. So today I'm going to walk you through a simple framework that I have put together that organizes all the research of what we already know and supports all the research. I've just put it in a way that it's easy to remember. And this framework is called React. React, okay? So that's the word you have to remember is React. And we're going to going to apply it so you can see how this works in real life to two of the most disruptive classroom behaviors when it comes to our ADHD kiddos, shouting out and constant talking and bothering classmates, poking, touching, interrupting. Those two, we're going to look at those two, okay? Because I don't want this to just stay theoretical. I want you to be able to use this. And parents, I want you to be able to talk to the teachers and say, hey, can we try this? I think that we might see better improvement in our kiddos' behavior if we try this. Can we try this for a time? Okay. So before we get into the behavior, CDHD is a performance regulation disorder. Hear that again. I'm guessing if you're a parent listening to this, you probably already know this. You know that it's not just hyperactivity attention deficit disorder. That's such a bad name for what this disorder actually is. It is a performance regulation disorder. Your child or your student usually knows the rules. They know what they're supposed to be doing. Where the struggle is, is at the point of execution. They struggle to execute it at the point of impulse. Punishment teaches rules. Punishment teaches rules. Yes. But regulation requires environmental support. So when we see daily correction with no improvement, it's often because we are correcting harder instead of regulating better. And that's where React comes in. So let's talk about behavior one, okay? So behavior one is our shouting out constantly, kiddo. They're constantly talking, they're talking to their neighbors, they're talking while they're working. I mean, they're even just talking to themselves, they're just making noise, just talking, right? Let's start with this kiddo, okay? This can be one of the most frustrating behaviors in a classroom because it disrupts instruction constantly. So, how does this look in React? Okay, so React, the R is regulate the environment. Here is the first question. We want to look at this environment and see how is the classroom environment increasing the impulse load? So for this situation, it's increasing the impulse to want, to talk, and shout out and shout out answers, right? If students are sitting passably for long stretches, that can be part of the problem. If wait times are too long, here's something that with our ADHD kiddos, their thoughts, they seriously lose them very quickly. And so it's like, oh, I've got to say this right now or else I'll forget it. And so they shout out, right? Because they're not being called on soon enough because they can't they literally can't hold it in their head and they're excited to get the answer out. So if wait times are too long, you're gonna see this. If there are limited opportunities to respond, then we are asking a child with impulse regulation deficits to suppress verbal impulses for extended periods of time. That's neurologically expensive. Okay, so what how can we help this, right? What can we implement to make this regulation adjustment? That might include reducing wait times. So if we are working on a shouting out, that's the behavior that we are going to have on the daily behavior report card. Research shows that these daily behavior report cards actually work really well when implemented correctly. Okay. So we have to implement them correctly. So our behavior that we're working on that would be on our daily report card would be shouting out. Okay. Now, we can't just put that on a behavior report card and expect this kid that we're like, nope, you're still shouting out, you're still shouting out, and not do things to help improve the behavior. It's just like a toddler, right? If we were to teach them something new, you wouldn't expect them to just do it. So say we're wanting potty training. That's a great one. Potty training. You wouldn't just be like, okay, at the beginning of the year, I know in the classroom we teach the rules, right? Here's the rules. Now we expect you to do them, but I'm not gonna teach you how to do them. I'm just gonna expect you to do them because you should know. You've you're in third grade now, you should know how to raise your hand, right? So, same thing with the toddler. You've seen us go to the bathroom, you have seen you know how to use the bathroom in your diaper. Here's the toilet, use the bathroom, right? Like you wouldn't expect that. You'd be like, okay, okay, let's give some rewards, let's have a potty chart, right? Let's make this fun, let's put some things in place. Like, you're going to not just be like, okay, here's underwear, go at it, and like we're done. No, you'd put things in place. Same thing here. So for our talking out loud, we put that on the behavior card. We are only gonna have three maximum. Russell Barkley actually says you can have more than that, but I'm gonna go with three because it's a lot, it's a lot for the teacher to monitor, it's a lot for the student to monitor and try to control, and it's a lot for the parents to keep up with too. So let's go two to three behaviors to start with. And then as behaviors are getting better, you can add an extra one on there, okay? But we're gonna start with two to three. Our behavior is shouting out. Now, we can't just, like I was saying, can't just put it on there without doing things. So the R, we're gonna regulate the environment for this behavior that's on our behavior card, our daily behavior report card. So we might do things like reducing wait time. When you see this kid raise their hand, they're gonna be the one that you call on right there. I don't care. This was me. Again, please forgive me because I did not know better. But sometimes these kids would just drive me crazy because I didn't know better. And they're like wiggling and like waving their hand in the air and you know, like just going crazy. And I'm like, no, they need to learn how to raise their hand quietly, like the rest of the kids, right? And so I'd call on like the kids around them, thank you for raising your hand quietly, you know, don't do that. They raised their hand for crying out loud. I don't care if they're wiggling and waving it like crazy, call on them. Okay, they raised their hand. So reducing that wait time, increase choral responses. I'm trying to think. I used to use, I can't remember who it was. He was out of California, but he his teaching method, it was we would turn and talk, and we would like our rules and stuff. Like if I saw kids breaking the rules, it'd be like, raise your hand for permission to speak. Like the whole, like we would choral things out loud, do choral responses so that these kiddos are able to talk and not just sit in silence using whiteboards, right? Whiteboard responses are great because then they don't have to wait to raise their hand, they can write down their answer. Like I said, the turn and talk moments. So, okay, share your answer with your neighbor, turn and go, right? And this, I wish I could remember the name of it, but it would be like teach, like I would say teach, and the kids would say, Okay. And then they would turn and talk to their shoulder partner, we call them shoulder partners or face partners if they were their partner that they looked at, like across the table, and they would talk to them, make these more available in the classroom. This is that regulated environment for this behavior. And then giving this child a parking lot notepad for ideas. So if it's like, okay, you can't, like I was saying, they have a very hard time keeping ideas in their head, give them a parking lot. And even if it's like a whiteboard at the carpet, they can have that too. Or they just have like a little notebook on their desk, they're writing down their ideas so that they can remember their ideas. Now, parents, if you, you know, you're getting these behavior report cards home, and it is one of the problems, behaviors that they're targeting on here, and nothing's changing. A question you could ask the teacher is are there structured opportunities for him to respond so he doesn't have to suppress verbal impulses the entire lesson? Now, anytime that we are asking the teacher questions, we want to make sure that we are doing it in a way that it's not an attack. We are a team. We are a team. We both want what's best for this kid. I promise you, the teacher wants what's best for your kiddo. If the teacher is struggling, they literally just don't know how to help. So asking this question, and they were like, and if they're like, I'm not certain what you're asking here, then you can give support and help and be like, hey, here's some ideas that I think would help in this situation. Okay. Again, it's collaborative, it's not confrontational. So that's the R. We're going to regulate the environment for that behavior. We're going to make it so that the behavior is mitigated because of what we've put in place. Do you see how with this talking out loud, how that works? We have R, now we have E, which is externalize expectations. So if the rule lives only in the memory, it will fail. Our kiddos struggle with keeping things in their memory. So instead of repeated verbal reminders, externalize the rule. So for example, you could have a desk card that says hand up, wait, speak, or a visual cue near the teacher, or a pre-lesson rehearsal of expectations. This reduces working memory load. Now, I want to say this with a caveat here. You need to know your students and you need to watch them. Because with ADHD, some of these kids also mask. So there may be things that we do that they don't seem like it's affecting them, but then they go home and they like melt down to their parents because they're so embarrassed because their teacher has a visual cue of them that the whole class knows about, right? So you've got to be careful with some of these kiddos. Some of them are like, cool, I have this card, great, you know, right? So you've got to know your kiddos. But some of these too, like the pre-lesson rehearsal of expectations, we can do that with the whole class. These are things that aren't going to hurt anyone. Our typical, you know, neurotypical kids, it's not gonna hurt them either. So if you have an answer to your question or you have an idea, please write it on your parking lot. The whole class can have a parking lot. That's okay. Or please write it on your whiteboard. Make sure you raise your hand. I will call on you, right? Those are the things that we're going to do. Now, here is a parent question you can ask for this situation for the E. Is there a visual cue at the point of performance to support hand raising? Do you hear the most important part of that? Is the point of performance. We don't want it so that there's just, you know, the classroom rules that have been up there since 1980, and you know, they're like sunbleached, and the kids never even notice them. That's not the type of rules we want. We want, you know, like the visual cue card or with the your projector, you project, like, okay, here's our expectations. Sometimes in my class, it was okay to shout out answers. Like it depended on what we were doing. Like if we were doing games or something, there was sometimes okay, like, yeah, shout out the answer, please. Like, we're doing this fast, it's fun, it's, you know. And then other times it was no. This time we're going to raise our hand. Wait, raise your hand, write it on your parking lot. You can literally create, you know, a PowerPoint slide for the different types of responses that you want. Shout out the answer, raise your hand. This time it's turn and turn and uh teach. So you're gonna rate, wait for the whatever your cue is for turn and teach, right? Talk to your neighbor. So create those visual cues. Again, you can do them for the whole classroom. It's gonna help the whole class, not just this one or two kiddos. So that's the E. A in React is anticipate hot spots. So if blurting increases during transition or high energy lessons where they just, you know, or get so excited, open discussion, or that end of day fatigue where they're just exhausted from trying to hold it all together, and you notice that the shouting out goes up more during that time, or maybe it's like right before recess because they are just so full of energy they have got to get out, but they can't yet, right? It's not. Recess time yet. So look for those hotspots. And when you know these are your hotspot times, during this block, we are going to have a very specific goal of things like your goal is to raise your hand three times, and this is gonna earn you your point. With behavior report cards, we want to start with rewards. It is all positive. This is what the research shows work. It shows that works. We want it all positive. So you go up to the kid before the lesson or before, you know, if you're like it needs to be quiet during working time, whatever, then you go up to them and you're like, okay, for the next five minutes, I need you quiet, working quietly for five minutes or three minutes. If you're seeing we did a five-minute block and they couldn't do it, and we've tried this over and over. Here comes the multiple frowny faces where nothing's changed, then we're gonna change it. The task is too hard for them. If the frowny face is showing up every single day, the task is too hard, or we're not implementing these things to make it easier for them. So then we change the expectation. We're gonna work quietly without talking to our neighbor for three minutes. Or during this math lesson, I want to see you raise your hand three times. This is what earns the point. Then it becomes also like a game to them, and they are going to know, like, okay, this is the expectation of me, right? And it's also that reminder for them. We are priming them for success when we do that. So have that quick discussion with them before the lesson begins or before the transition begins, as we're walking down the hall. I want to see you walk quietly from this door to this door, right? And if they can do it, that is a smiley face for that point on the behavior card, right? If if they can't do that over and over, I'm gonna say it again. If they can't do that over and over again, you're frowny, frowny, frowny, then we need to reduce the expectation. But we're gonna have that that conversation with them to remind them in these hot spots. We're gonna choose these hot spots. So we're gonna choose the behavior, choose the hot spots that we're noticing these things are happening. These are the things that we're tracking on these behavior report cards. Okay. The parent question here that you could ask is before discussion blocks, are expectations previewed and reinforced? So are you going over the expectations of what you expect with this child before this begins? Okay. All right, number C, catch and reinforce. And this is where most classrooms collapse. Correction alone is not going to reduce the behavior. It's not gonna reduce the blurting out, okay? You can tell them a million times, stop shouting out. Raise your hand, stop shouting out, raise your hand, right? You're probably nodding your head going, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So the replacement behavior must be reinforced immediately. So the second that hand goes up, you call on them. You give specific praise and you do a real-time token. Now, again, this may be depending on your kid, depending on the age, you're not gonna be like, you get a point, right? Or whatever it is that you're working on with this kiddo, give them that specific phrase or praise right then. You call on them instantly that you see them raise their hand. That's number one, reinforcement that you're seeing it and calling on them. And then, hey, Johnny, thank you so much for raising your hand. What do you think is the answer to this? Or, you know, tell us what you're thinking. If correction outweighs reinforcement, the system fails. Let me say that again. If correction outweighs reinforcement, the system will fail. So you have to catch and reinforce. That is the C. Catch and reinforce. And here is the parent question for this one. What is that is being reinforced when he raises his hand? Or whatever it is your behavior you're working on, right? That shifts the entire conversation. Then we can talk about okay, are we reinforcing the correct behavior or are we reinforcing the negative behavior? When we see that they are not raising their hand and we say, Johnny, raise your hand, that is in a way a reinforcement because it's still getting the attention, right? We want to ignore the behavior that we don't want to see. I think I said this in one of the past episodes. I know I've said it somewhere. It's kind of like training dogs, which our kiddos are not dogs, but it is kind of that. When you give the attention to the behavior, you're going to see more of that behavior. So, whether it's the good behavior you want to see or the behavior you don't want to see, whichever one you give attention to, you're going to see more of it. Think about that. Keep that in your mind. So, reinforce, catch and reinforce. That is your C. Now the T. Tweak the system. This is the most important part. We don't want to send frowny faces home every single day for 180 days of the school year. If blurting or said behavior, whatever your target behavior is, is not decreasing, then we need to tweak the system. Here are some things you can do. Number one, increase the reinforcement frequency. Sometimes these kids need a lot of positive reinforcement. So increase that. And you're going to start to see the behavior change. Now, I know that teachers go, This is a lot of work. Well, the opposite is also a lot of work, too, right? Fighting the behavior and trying to get the kids on task and trying to get the classroom under control when this kid has shouted out something is a lot of work as well. Choose your battle. Okay. So we're going to increase reinforcement frequency, shorten instructional segments. So whether that is actual teaching time or whether that is, okay, I'm going to look for this behavior. Like I was saying, you know, walking down the hall from this door to this door. Well, they can't do it. We're getting frowny faces. Well, then let's try from this door to this corner, which is half the distance, right? And then we're going to notice and we're going to reinforce right away. And then once they get that shorter distance or that shorter time of not blurting out, then we are going to increase that over time. And eventually, guess what? They're just going to do it. It's again just like training a dog, right? So another thing you can do is increase structured participation. This is for our shouting out. So those choral answers, the turn and teach, the turn and talk, those types of things, increase those because it's going to uh satisfy that need to talk. And then adjust seating proximity. This does not mean move the child's desk next to the teacher's desk for the for really any given time. And I am totally guilty of this. Again, please, please learn from my mistakes, but adjust the seating proximity to the front of the classroom, to a place where they're less distracted. You know, you have the kids in your classroom who are more mature that don't feed into the energy from this child. It's not their bestie who they're gonna get riled up together, right? So adjust the seating to where they're going to be able to succeed and not shout out or talk to their neighbors as much. Okay. Escalating punishment rarely fixes impulse regulation. Adjust the system before escalating consequences. Okay? Adjust the system before escalating consequences. We've got to make this sometimes it's gonna feel like are you serious? You can't do this. It has to sometimes be like such a baby step. But if we can give them that win, when we can give them those baby step wins, then guess what? We add another baby step, and we add another baby step, and pretty soon we've got a big chunk that now we can do it. That's what we're building here. Okay, let's do another run through of a behavior through the React system. This one is bothering the classmates. This is where the behavior that really worries teachers. We've got kids who just can't keep their hands to themselves. They're poking their neighbors, they're touching their talking to them during instruction, all the things. First, let's reframe this behavior. This is often sensory seeking, social impulsivity, or the discharge of dysregulation. Like they're just completely dysregulated and you're seeing it come out. Okay. So it's not always defiance. A lot of times it's not defiance. These kids just don't know how to control themselves yet. So let's run this through React R. Again, regulate the environment. So ask the ask yourself, is this child under stimulated? A lot of times these kids are understimulated. Are movement breaks too frequent? Are movement breaks too infrequent? So if they are just constantly moving, poking, bugging, they may need more movement than the rest of your kids. Guarantee they probably do. Is seating unstable? The research shows that when our kids are not at 90, 90, 90, so um from at the waist a 90 degree angle, knees 90 degree angle, and ankles 90 degree angle. This was so interesting to me because think of our little kiddos whose feet can't touch the floor, right? This can cause dysregulation. 90 90-90. Is the seating unstable? Look for that 90-90-90. Maybe you need to put like some books under their feet or something to make it so they're at that 90-90-90. And also, are they sitting next to their highest interest peer? As a teacher, I'm sure you already know this. You're probably like, yeah, no, you're not sitting next to that kiddo, right? You know this. Um, but just double check. All right, so regulation support for this type of behavior might include, like I said, stable seating with the feet supported, movement breaks every 10 to 15 minutes. And for some of these kiddos, again, just like last or what I was talking about before, it may be baby steps. It may be work for five, move for two, work for five, move for two. And it might just be, hey, get up, go get a drink, or go sharpen your pencil, something like that. And you might notice that these kids are the ones who are getting drink, sharpening pencils, doing all the things. They may really need just, they just need to move. So movement breaks every 10 to 15 minutes. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on age and depending on the kid. Strategic seating near low reactivity peers, just like with the talking out, right? Kids who don't react. Um, the classroom job that channels energy. Maybe they're your mailman and they take messages to the office, or they take things to the teacher next door, or they're the ones who lift the heavy textbooks that you hand out to the classroom, right? Heavy lifting is also a really, really good way to help with the sensory needs. Or maybe they can stand or wobble options. They may need to just like sit on one knee and then half stand, half sit, so they can like wobble and move. They need movement. Their brains need movement. So, a question the parent can ask when you're getting can't sit still, can't stand seat, can't keep hands to themselves, the frowny faces on this one. How is the environment structured to reduce social impulse triggers? Okay. E for this one, so the externalized expectation expectations, what does that look like? Instead of vague, keep your hands to yourself, make the replacement visible. Desk card, hands to self. Visible boundary on desk space. You might even put tape on every kid's desk so that this kid doesn't feel, you know, like targeted. But for the most part, if you're putting desks together, then it's like, okay, this is the desk line, don't cross it. If they're at tables, you may need, you know, you can even get cute, colorful tape. If it's like this is your section, do not cross this section and do it for all the kids. Clear, rehearsed, three-step social rule that it's like hands to self, feet to self, I don't know, pencils to self, papers to self, whatever it is. So give three-step social rules. And then the parent question here is Is the expected behavior visible during instruction? So can they see? All right, the A again, anticipate hot spots. So social disruption usually increases during independent work, boring tasks, long lectures, and again, the end of day or end of block fatigue when these kiddos have just tried to hold it together all day long. So before independent work, let them know your goal is hands to sell for five minutes. That's gonna earn you a point. Okay. Again, if it's constant frowny faces, we're gonna reduce it to three minutes. If you they can't even do three minutes, we're gonna reduce it to two minutes. And we are going to reinforce, reinforce, reinforce, reward, reinforce, positive reinforcement here until we can get up to, you know, that 10, 15 minutes of working without bothering people. We're going to have a short cycle and very clear target, right? Here's what I expect from you. Here's the time. And most people have some sort of watch, or you know, there's so many smartwatches now, or the phone in your pocket, or whatever. Set a timer, you can do a repeated timer, and you're gonna go tell the kiddo, hey, great job. You kept your hands to yourself. Here's your token, right? Here's your point, whatever it is that your behavior system is that you're working with for them. And the parent question here is before independent work, are specific behavioral targets being set? So are we telling them, here's my goal for you? And again, when we're talking our daily report cards, our daily behavior report cards, we want these very clear always. We're working on keeping hands to self. And during independent work, right now we are working on five minutes of working with keeping our hands to ourself. And we should start to see throughout the you should target this behavior a few times a day so you can see it. And then you should start to see improvements. It should not be complete frowny faces constantly, forever. The C, catch and reinforce. If the only time attention is given is when the child pokes someone, remember the behavior you pay attention to is the behavior you're going to see more of. So that behavior will persist if that's the only time you're giving attention to this. So we're going to reinforce. Like I said, the five minutes or the three minutes of hands to self, completing work without peer contact, appropriate social requests. We are going to catch and reinforce. Great job, you kept your hands to yourself. Great job, you got this done, and you didn't bother anyone at your table. Fabulous, right? The parent question here would be what reinforcement is in place for keeping hands to self? And then our T for tweak the system if behavior isn't improving. Like I've said, like I keep saying, shorten work intervals. With these kiddos who just can't seem to hold still and keep their hands to themselves, we are going to need to increase movement frequencies. Like I said, it may literally be five minutes of independent work, a minute, or even 30 seconds of like get up, wiggle, move. But in that time, you can't bother a neighbor, right? Adjust seating, may need to adjust their seating, increase the reward magnitude, and then increase adult proximity in high-risk blocks. So if there are times you know that this kiddo just cannot control himself or herself, then you know, I'm thinking like, okay, during independent work time when I'm working in small group instruction, that's a struggle time. Okay, well then their desk is going to be placed next to my kidney table where I meet with small groups. That's like their desk is always just gonna be close to that proximity until they can prove otherwise, right? We're just gonna keep them there. It's not that they're being pulled out and have, you know, their desk isn't like a lone island. No, it's just close to where I'm working. And again, adjust the system before escalating punishment. That is key. So when you run behaviors through React, the question shifts from how do we punish this harder to how do we regulate this better? If nothing is changing, that does not mean nothing works. It often means the system hasn't been aligned with how ADHD brains function. And the alignment is possible, it's just not going to happen overnight, it's not gonna happen perfectly. But if you put in this effort, this meaningful effort, you are going to see the rewards. That's the work we're doing here. We're teaching these skills, we are rewarding, and like I said, it may have to be such small baby steps, but it will work over time. And imagine if every single teacher, so starting in kindergarten or pre-K, when this kid is starting in school, if they are working on these skills in this type of way, instead of just sending home frowny faces every single day for the whole year, if a teacher was doing this one whole year, what changes would you see in this kiddo's behavior? But then they're moving on and they're successful in these different executive functions and these behaviors. Yes, they may have more behaviors, but gosh, they have these two down and it's fabulous, right? That's what we're working for. We are working on teaching these skills. And remember, these kiddos are 30% behind their peers. So we need to remember that when we are on those frustrating days when it's like you should know better, they may not, they may not be emotionally to the developmental level that everyone else in the class is. So, to end this episode, I want you to know number one, daily behavior report cards are actually proven to be very beneficial for our ADA kids. However, when they're not used appropriately, then they're not beneficial. And the way that I've seen them be used for the most part is not beneficial. If you are a teacher or you are a parent and the report card is consistently negative, negative, negative, frowny face, frowny face, frowny face, then we know that the skills are not being taught. The skills are not being not even just taught, but the skills are not being scaffolded to the point where our students can be successful. That's the point of intervention, and that's the point where we're going to see behavior change, is when we put scaffolding in place to help these kiddos be successful. And that is where the React system is going to be so beneficial for you and your. Students and your child. Teach this system to your teachers, to your child's teacher. Send them this episode. React. Let's go through it again very quickly. The R in React is regulate the environment. Regulate the environment for the behavior you're targeting. The E, externalize expectations for the behavior you're targeting. Make it obvious. Make it visual for what you expect. A anticipate those hotspots or battle zones. I like to call them battle zones. Anticipate where you are going to see this. You probably already have a lot of data. Or maybe not. Maybe you're just like, this kid just shouts out all day long or just does this behavior all day long. Start noticing the hot spots. Take record of this is when it's happening most. And that is when you are going to put this scaffolding in place and start targeting that behavior and start regulating the environment, externalize those expectations, right? Then you're going to catch and reinforce. We're going to catch the behavior we want to see and reinforce the behavior we want to see. Remember, when we give it attention, we're reinforcing it. So whether that's the negative behavior, you're saying, stop shouting out, raise your hand, stop shouting out, don't do that, stop that. That is reinforcing. Is that the behavior you want to reinforce? Catch the behavior and reinforce the one that you want to see. And then T is for tweak the system. If it is not working, it is not, it's not easy enough yet, or there's not enough scaffolding in place yet to make this possible. And I will say one last little note here. If you're seeing smiley faces, smiley faces, smiley faces, that's fabulous data too. We can then again tweak the system in the opposite direction. Maybe it's we can go longer periods of time. Maybe it's, you know what, they actually have this behavior down now. Let's keep this one on, you know, but we're just gonna say, okay, the whole day or for the first half of the day, this, yes, it was a smiley face, right? You can tweak this system so that we are scaffolding them out of it. Just like scaffolding on a house, right? We don't keep scaffolding up forever. We slowly take it down as we don't need it anymore. And the same is true here. So we can tweak the system if it's too hard, if we're getting frowny faces, we need to take very baby steps. So, so small till we start seeing positive and reinforcing that positive. If they're growing out of the scaffolding, we can slowly start taking that away and tweak the system in that way. So, react. That's what we're going to do when we have these behaviors. We are going to react with the react system. Okay, I hope this was helpful. Send this to your teachers. Like I said, I will create a download for this at raisingadh.org forward slash class. Next week, we are going to be talking all about lying. If your child lies, we're going to talk about why and what to do about it. We'll see you next week. Same time, same place.

Brian Bradford:

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.