Edge Foundation Blog

Edge Foundation is pleased to announce it has joined with Global Scholar to provide coaching services for their clients.  Global Scholars is one of the web’s leading online tutoring businesses. Edge Foundation’s ADHD coaching support is now being offered on Global Scholar’s College Finder and School Finder resource pages.

Students with ADHD often need more than tutoring help to stay on track with their goals. Many times ADHD students struggle not with learning, but instead with managing time, staying organized and persisting in completing assignments.  Life coaching can actually boost graduation rates for high school students.  So we are excited by this partnership which will help more ADHD students find the resources they need to be successful in school.

It’s not too late to sign up for the 2009 ADHD Family Summit. And now is a good time to do it because this Wednesday, June 17, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern (8:00 Central, 7:00 Mountain, and 6:00 Pacific) Edge Foundation Executive Director, Sarah Wright, will be talking about how coaching can help your ADHD teen be successful in school, at home and in life.  Did we mention that it’s FREE?

The ADHD Family Summit is organized by Rory Stern, a passionate advocate in the ADHD community. The teleseminars will be held throughout June on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 9:00 pm Eastern, and include access to a 24-hour replay line for people who aren’t able to listen in live.

Sign up today!

In case you missed the paper on Sunday, Parade Magazine ran a story about an innovative program that helps reduce the high school dropout rate.

Chilling facts about the U.S. high school dropout rate

• Only 71% of all American high school students will end up graduating.
• The current generation of teens are less likely to earn a diploma than their parents.
• Each year dropout students cost taxpayers $320 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity.

Innovative program boosts high school completion rates

The state of Georgia has been experimenting with providing what they call “graduation coaches” to at-risk teens.  These “coaches”, who function a lot like social workers, keep on top of teens to ensure they complete enough credits to graduate.  Early results are very promising.  In South Atlanta, the graduation rate has jumped from a shameful 35% graduation rate to an above-average 74%.  That’s progress to be proud of!

ADHD Coaching takes “graduation coaching” to the next level:  life coaching

The power of someone paying attention and caring that kids are actually in class and passing courses is clearly amazing. Students with ADHD need more than attention to help them be successful.  They need life coaching.

Life coaching provides accountability the same way graduation coaching does. But it also helps ADHD students gain self-awareness, self-mastery and self-advocacy.  A coach can help students identify their goals, create action plans to accomplish these goals, and practice skills to monitor their progress towards achieving their goal.

In most cases, after just one year of ADHD coaching, most students have internalized these lessons and are able to carry on successfully without a coach.

Just one year of coaching can turn a disorganized student into a successful person who is able to achieve whatever they set out to accomplish. The Edge Foundation is in the final phases of a ADHD coaching pilot study which will demonstrate how coaching helps college students be successful.  Look for results being announced later this summer.

Now is the time to find a coach who can help getting ready to head off to college in the fall.  For more information visit http://www.edgefoundation.org/students/sign-up.

Dear coach,
My boss just wrote me up for lateness.  I really want to get to work on time, but I just can’t seem to make it.  How do I make my boss understand I’m trying?
Signed,
Better Late Than Never

Dear Late,

Yes, being chronically late can be a problem when you have ADHD.  Instead of focusing on getting your boss to understand why you are tardy, it’s more useful to consider ways to get yourself to work (and school) on time.  You can do it!  It just may take a little experimenting to find what works best for you.

There are three main reasons people with ADHD are usually late.

1.  Getting up late.

Yes, getting out of bed on time in the morning can be hard.  Especially if you are cutting your self short by falling asleep later at night than you should.  (For tips on how to get to sleep on time, see ADHD & Sleep.)  Here are a few things to try:

• put your alarm clock across the room so you have to get up to turn it off.
• use two alarm clocks, so you won’t be tempted by the snooze alarm.
• set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier than you think you need.  It may be that you are just underestimating how much time you need to get out of the house.

2.  Getting sidetracked

Do you jump out of bed with time to spare and still find that you are late out the door? Pay attention to what you are focusing on.

• Keep a checklist of everything you need to do before leaving the house.  And don’t turn on the TV, phone or internet until you get these things accomplished.
• If you take medication, take it first thing out of bed. That way it will start working before you leave the house.
• Set reminder alarms to keep you on track.  Figure out how much time you need to dress, eat and get organized.  Then set alarms to remind you that you need to have that task completed.  Use your phone or buy one of those reminder watches so your alarms are always nearby.
• Add in 5 or 10 minutes to your commute time so you have room for the unexpected.

3.  Being disorganized.

Do you walk out of the house only to realize you forgot your lunch or phone?  Do you spend needless minutes hunting around for your keys or shoes?

You need a “launch pad” by your exit door.  Set aside a special place near the door.  Collect all of the things you’ll need in the morning the night before.  If there are things like lunch that you’ll need to make in the morning, leave yourself a note at the launch pad, so you remember it in the morning.  Then at night, put everything there — keys, sunglasses, phone, purse, briefcase etc.  So they’ll be ready for you to grab as you run out the door.

You may have already tried all of these things, but are still late.  That’s where time with a coach can come in handy.  A coach can give you outside perspective about what’s not working and how to fine tune your routine to make it work for you.  ADHD and lateness often go hand-in-hand, but they don’t have to.  With a few simple tweaks to your routine, you can become a punctual person.

Do you have a question for the coach?  Send it to info@edgefoundation.org.  We’ve love to hear from you.