Reflective Conversations

Those with ADHD, oftentimes have a hard time remembering and acknowledging different times where they have succeeded at something and what they did to get there. This is where a reflective conversation can come in as a powerful tool as we try to help create a positive mindset.

Parents can help bring examples of positive situations to the front of their child's memory. A great way to work through it is to remind them of how they felt and also ask them what they did to help them be successful in that situation. The first time that Heather did that with her daughter Emily, Emily really struggled to answer her. After they had been through this program for 10 weeks, which is the amount of time that it took them to see a major turn around with how Emily showed up and felt about school, they were able to have a reflective conversation.

Emily and Heather had a conversation about what the results were looking like in regards to how many missing assignments she had, her grades in each class, and overall how she felt about what she was doing. Once they kind of went through this a little bit, Emily was able to respond. When Heather and Emily had this kind of reflective conversation about the first quarter of Emily’s school last year, Emily was able to come back and say, “You know what I'm most proud about how I showed up in math, because I worked really hard.” And Heather said, “Well what happened differently?” Emily said, “I started taking notes.”

With this reflective conversation, Emily was able to identify what she did differently than what she had done in the past. As a result, she was able to see how that had positively impacted how her grade looked and how she felt about how she showed up.