Any tips on getting our 6 year old to dress himself?
Honestly....is it worth the battle? Our 7 yr old (soon to be 8 in a week) still doesn't dress himself unless he's fully medicated. On the weekends when he is able to lounge around longer until his meds kick in, he dresses himself just fine. During the week, when we have a morning schedule to stick to in order to get out the door for school, hubby dresses him right out of bed. His meds don't fully kick in until about the time we're ready to leave for school and we struggled for a long time with him dressing himself...took him forever!! Finally we just decided it's not worth the battle and things are much better now that hubby just does it for him. DS doesn't have the focus to do it himself and doesn't mind that Daddy does it for him, so it works. I actually brush his teeth for him during the week also, otherwise he would just stand in front of the mirror and gaze at his toothbrush in his mouth while he made faces and the teeth would never get brushed! Some of these simple things are just not simple for our ADHDr's and if we can make life easier for everyone by doing it for them, I don't think it hurts anything. Obviously at some point they will become more independent and their maturity levels will hopefully catch up with them but until then...keep it simple. Believe me...I am one to make my children to be responsible for themselves and it is a real struggle for me sometimes that our 4 yr old is more capable of some independent things than our 8 yr old ADHD'r, but it's not about me or how I want things to go...it's about doing what is best for him and making things go smoothly for him cause he has enough struggles as it is. Just my thoughts....What worked for our son (who is also six) is a little timer. We made a game out of it and let him set the timer for 2 minutes. Then I told him I was leaving the room and to see if he could get his pants on before the timer went off. Of course, I made a big deal out of it when he accomplished it. Then we gradually progressed to underwear and pants, underwear, pants, and socks, and so on. After about a week he was dressing himself completely. Now, if I could only get him to learn to tie his shoes!!!
I've always waited until ADHD meds have kicked in before expecting him to get dressed or brush teeth. Have you tried this?we lay out all clothes in the am, book bags are in the car and shoes by the door. I wake up son, I make his bed for him if he goes to the bathroom by himself and brushes teeth ( I can see from the bedroom). Then I leave him to dress. After 5 minutes, I stand in room until he is done. If still not done, we take the clothes down the stairs in the am. He finishes then and puts on shoes. If time runs out, then, he doesnt get breakfast. This is his consequence. I run it to the mninute like a drill sargeant and since he knows what to expect, he fell into line quickly.