For busy parents, back-to-school season can come as a blessing in many ways. Your weekdays become slightly more free, and you may no longer have to worry about scheduling activities or a babysitter for your kids while you’re trying to work (or have brunch with your girls). But parents who have children with a chronic condition may find that the back-to-school season also comes with its own set of unique challenges. If you have a child with ADHD, you’re not alone in feeling worried. It is estimated that six million children and adolescents in the U.S. are living with ADHD¹. It can be a struggle for children and adolescents with ADHD to get ready for school², stay focused throughout the day³, or even do their homework⁴.
To prepare for the school year, board certified psychiatrist and paid consultant of Corium, Dr. Ann Childress says it’s helpful to start planning as soon as possible. In fact, you can even start planning for the next school year as soon as the current one comes to a close. While planning may sound overwhelming, doing it early can allow you ample time to make an appointment and speak with your child’s physician without a time crunch. Allow yourself time to think about and reflect on what is and is not working in your child’s ADHD treatment plan before you potentially implement any changes. Below, find five of Childress’ tips on how you can help your child with ADHD prepare to go back to school.
1. Develop a routine and begin practicing it well before the new school year begins.
ADHD isn’t a condition that turns on and off. In fact, the symptoms can start as soon as a person with ADHD wakes. While this may be manageable during the summer holidays, it can set the day off on a bad start during the school year. Childress says that a poor morning routine can lead to children being late to school frequently. “It’s important to develop a routine that you start incorporating a few weeks before school begins, including going to bed earlier and limiting screen time,” she says. This way, you aren’t overwhelming your child with a totally new routine overnight. Starting early allows them to ease into a new schedule.
2. As appropriate, speak with your child’s school and teacher.
Teachers are educated and trained on how to work with students who have ADHD to varying degrees. To help ease the transition into a new classroom for both the teacher and your child, consider setting up a meeting with the teacher before school starts or within the first few days of school being back in session. A live meeting may be more feasible for younger students who only have one teacher. However, if your child has many teachers and a live meeting isn’t possible, try creating a one-page sheet that explains your child’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities. Share that with all of their teachers along with any potential strategies that you know work with your child. If you have the capacity to do so, you can offer to help the teacher in any way. Check in as often as you feel comfortable doing so until you feel that your child has settled in.
For older students with multiple teachers, you’ll also want to make sure that you arm your child with their own tools and strategies that they can use to advocate for themselves. This may help them build confidence, too. For example, they can ask for testing accommodations like additional time or private testing spaces. They can also ask teachers for a schedule of when homework assignments will go out or when tests will be given so that they have ample time to plan and organize themselves.
3. Plan ahead for any medication holidays.
Never heard of a medication holiday? Neither have we. And no, we’re not exactly suggesting that you take a vacation (though we’re not not suggesting it either). Childress explains that a medication holiday is when a person stops taking their ADHD medication for a period of time. This may be a chance for your child to see if other non-medication treatments, such as behavior therapy, can help.
All that said, a medication holiday is not something Childress typically recommends. To help manage symptoms effectively, it’s vital to take medication consistently. Interrupting this regimen may lead to symptom resurgence, which impacts daily functioning and academic performance. If you do decide to take a medication holiday, do so under professional supervision and make a clear plan with your child’s physician. Be sure to schedule it well in advance of school resuming to help ensure a smooth transition back to medication. It’s always important to have regular communication with your child’s healthcare providers, but even more integral during a medication holiday.
4. Employ other resources of support.
It’s always good to have ample support ready at the go before you need it and any potential academic challenges develop. This support can help start the school year out on a positive note. Here are some ideas:
- Continue to educate yourself. This is especially important if you don’t have ADHD. Educating yourself on the disorder can help you better understand it and your child.
- Consider getting a family pet. In case you needed another excuse to add a furry friend to your family, now you have one. Furthermore, Childress is a big fan of the idea. “My dog, Buddy, is in my office everyday as a tool to help soothe my patients,” she says. “In addition to emotional support, dogs provide children with ADHD a sense of responsibility and structure.” If you get a family pet, have your child actively involved in training, walking, and feeding them.
- Be present. Having a person nearby while they are completing a task can help increase your child’s sense of motivation, helping them stay focused on the task at hand. This may not be you all the time, but maybe it’s a friend who you encourage them to schedule study dates with. Perhaps it’s a babysitter or family friend.
- Try brown noise. Brown noise can be the sound of rumbling thunder, rainfall on a roof, or even a running washing machine. That background sound can be used to help tackle inattention in children and adolescents with ADHD. You can buy individual noise machines, or play these sounds from your smartphone or computer.
5. Make an appointment with your child’s physician to review their medication plan.
While you think through the variety of checkups and medical exams that your child will need throughout the year, be sure to make a dedicated appointment with their doctor solely to speak about their ADHD medication. Having an open, communicative dialogue with your child’s physician about how ADHD affects your family can help you work together to identify the appropriate medication and behavioral therapies for your child and your whole family. Childress says that you may even want to involve your child in that conversation. “As age appropriate, give your child a voice in their treatment plan,” she says. “For example, teenagers are usually more vocal about how their medication impacts them so it’s important to let them be a part of the treatment discussion with their doctor.”
Think about which ADHD symptoms affect your child most significantly, and tell your doctor which parts of the day are more challenging for them. Combined, all of this information will give your child’s doctor valuable insight into what the best treatment plan will be for them. By having open discussions with your child about their struggles and how you want to help them feel supported. You can also seek support in the form of medication. AZSTARYS® (serdexmethylphenidate and dexmethylphenidate) is a medicine for the treatment of ADHD in people 6 years of age and older. It can help control ADHD symptoms throughout the day. In a clinical study, AZSTARYS helped improve these three core symptoms:
- Attention
- Hyperactivity
- Impulsiveness
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Abuse, misuse, and addiction. AZSTARYS has a high chance for abuse and misuse and may lead to substance use problems, including addiction. Misuse and abuse of AZSTARYS, other methylphenidate containing medicines, and amphetamine containing medicines, can lead to overdose and death. The risk of overdose and death is increased with higher doses of AZSTARYS or when it is used in ways that are not approved, such as snorting or injection.
- Your healthcare provider (HCP) should check you or your child’s risk for abuse, misuse, and addiction before starting treatment with AZSTARYS. Tell your HCP if you or your child have ever abused or been dependent on alcohol, prescription medicines, or street drugs.
- AZSTARYS may lead to physical dependence after prolonged use, even if taken as directed by your HCP.
- Do not give AZSTARYS to anyone else because it may cause death or harm them. Keep AZSTARYS in a safe place to protect it from theft and properly dispose of any unused medicine.
AZSTARYS is a federally controlled substance (CII) because it contains dexmethylphenidate that can be a target for people who abuse prescription medicines or street drugs.
Who should not take AZSTARYS?
Do not take AZSTARYS if you or your child are:
- allergic to serdexmethylphenidate, methylphenidate, or any of the ingredients in AZSTARYS.
- taking or have stopped taking within the past 14 days a medicine used to treat depression called a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI).
AZSTARYS may cause serious side effects, including:
- Risks for people with serious cardiac disease. Sudden death has happened in people who have heart defects or other serious heart disease. Your HCP should check you or your child carefully for heart problems before starting treatment with AZSTARYS. Tell your HCP if you or your child have any heart problems, heart disease, or heart defects. Call your HCP or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away if you or your child have any signs of heart problems such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or fainting during treatment with AZSTARYS.
- Increased blood pressure and heart rate. Your HCP should check you or your child’s blood pressure and heart rate regularly during treatment with AZSTARYS.
- Mental (psychiatric) problems, including: new or worse behavior and thought problems, new or worse bipolar illness, new psychotic symptoms (such as hearing voices, or seeing or believing things that are not real), or new manic symptoms. Tell your HCP about any mental problems you or your child have, or about a family history of suicide, bipolar illness, or depression. Call your HCP right away if you or your child have any new or worsening mental symptoms or problems during treatment with AZSTARYS, especially hearing voices, seeing or believing things that are not real, or new manic symptoms.
- Painful and prolonged erections (priapism). Priapism has happened in males who take products that contain methylphenidate. If you or your child develop priapism, get medical help right away.
- Circulation problems in fingers and toes (peripheral vasculopathy, including Raynaud’s phenomenon). Tell your HCP if you or your child have numbness, pain, skin color change, or sensitivity to temperature in the fingers or toes. Call your HCP right away if you or your child have any signs of unexplained wounds appearing on fingers or toes during treatment with AZSTARYS.
- Slowing of growth (height and weight) in children. Children should have their height and weight checked often during treatment with AZSTARYS. AZSTARYS treatment may be stopped if your child is not growing or gaining weight.
- Eye problems (increased pressure in the eye and glaucoma). Tell your HCP if you or your child have eye problems, including increased pressure in your eye, glaucoma, or problems with your close-up vision (farsightedness). Call your HCP right away if you or your child develop changes in your vision, eye pain, swelling, or redness.
- New or worsening tics or worsening Tourette’s syndrome. Tell your HCP if you or your child get any new or worsening tics or worsening Tourette’s syndrome during treatment with AZSTARYS.
Before taking AZSTARYS, tell your HCP about all medical conditions including if you or your child are pregnant or plan to become pregnant, because it is not known if AZSTARYS will harm the unborn baby, or are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed, as AZSTARYS passes into breast milk.
Tell your HCP about all the medicines you or your child take, especially if you or your child take blood pressure medicines (anti-hypertensive). Do not start any new medicine during treatment with AZSTARYS without talking to your HCP first.
What are the most common side effects of AZSTARYS?
The most common side effects of AZSTARYS include:
- decreased appetite
- nausea
- indigestion
- weight loss
- dizziness
- mood swings
- increased blood pressure
- trouble sleeping
- vomiting
- stomach pain
- anxiety
- irritability
- increased heart rate
These are not all the possible side effects of AZSTARYS. Call your HCP for medical advice about side effects.
What is AZSTARYS?
AZSTARYS is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant prescription medicine for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in people 6 years of age and older. AZSTARYS may help increase attention and decrease impulsiveness and hyperactivity in people 6 years of age and older with ADHD.
It is not known if AZSTARYS is safe and effective in children younger than 6 years of age.
For additional safety information, click here for Prescribing Information and Medication Guide and discuss with your doctor.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
References
- Melissa L. Danielson, Rebecca H. Bitsko, Reem M. Ghandour, Joseph R. Holbrook, Michael D. Kogan & Stephen J. Blumberg. (Jan. 24, 2018). Prevalence of Parent-Reported ADHD Diagnosis and Associated Treatment Among U.S. Children and Adolescents, 2016. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47:2, 199-212, DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2017.1417860.
- Sallee FR. Early Morning Functioning in Stimulant-Treated Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and its Impact on Caregivers. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2015 Sep;25(7):558-65. doi: 10.1089/cap.2014.0160. Epub 2015 Jul 7. PMID: 26151738; PMCID: PMC4576958.
- Staff AI, Oosterlaan J, van der Oord S, van den Hoofdakker BJ, Luman M. The Relation Between Classroom Setting and ADHD Behavior in Children With ADHD Compared to Typically Developing Peers. J Atten Disord. 2023 Jul;27(9):939-950. doi: 10.1177/10870547231167522. Epub 2023 Apr 11. PMID: 37039105; PMCID: PMC10291114.
- Langberg JM, Arnold LE, Flowers AM, Altaye M, Epstein JN, Molina BS. Assessing Homework Problems in Children with ADHD: Validation of a Parent-Report Measure and Evaluation of Homework Performance Patterns. School Ment Health. 2010 Mar 1;2(1):3-12. doi: 10.1007/s12310-009-9021-x. PMID: 21544228; PMCID: PMC3085461.
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