My son has learned systems, strategies, processes for completing academic work. His school explicitly teaches the strategies and is very structured. He does well with this - once he has a system, he is happy to use it. For both my children, I encourage exercise and movement breaks to help keep them alert and engaged, and I remove all distractions like facebook and cellphones. The later being more of a problem for my HS daughter. Both kids do better if the work is broken into chunks - with breaks in between work sessions. Both require extra time to complete work and benefit from clear expectations and mental or physical images of the end product. I try to keep instructions brief and get confirmation that they understand and have fully heard me - my daughter is especially good at "selective hearing" ! Everything has a place - and although neither kid is consistent with this idea, I hope it will take root some day. Otherwise, they lose and forget things on a daily or hourly basis. My daughter does not take medication - the exercise and structure seems to be enough for her.
