How to Create Structured Indoor Activities that Keep ADHD Kids Calm and Focused
- Beth Skaret
- Jan 30, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
Have you ever been caught off guard by a snow day or the babysitter cancels on a rainy day and suddenly your ADHD child is without their normal structure?
They’re restless and can’t seem to settle in on something to do.
You don’t want to allow endless screen time, but they’re driving you crazy!
What can you do?
I’ve got you covered.
In this post we dig into how to create structured indoor activities that keep ADHD kids calm and focused. You’ll find out exactly what makes an activity work for ADHD kids and you’ll get some awesome free ideas to run with right away.
In case you are new to the Jesus Me & ADHD blog, here are some other popular posts for you to check out:
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Let’s dive in.
#1 Indoor Activities for Kids with ADHD need to be: Structured
Kids with ADHD crave structure. They need to know what is coming next, what to expect and how they are supposed to act in each situation.
When the structure of their daily routine is altered by a school cancellation or illness or whatever it is, there is suddenly this big giant day filled with unknowns.
What will I do? Where will I be? What is okay for me to say or do?
You need to provide that structure for them in the form of structured activities.
So, how do you do it?
Well, a structured activity has:
a clear explanation of what is to be done,
Identifies what materials are to be used,
Tells how to know if you’ve accomplished the task - what the conditions are for success.
For example: Rather than saying to your child, “Go play with Legos,” You could say, “build a castle out of legos that has 3 different colors and is as tall as this water bottle.”
With the first suggestion, Go play with Legos, is open ended and requires your child to come up with an idea.
While many people enjoy room for creative expression, that open endedness is exactly the kind of thing that drives kids with ADHD to the point of frustration.
The second suggestion: Build a castle out of Legos that is 3 different colors and as tall as this water bottle.
provides a specific task: build a castle
It defines the materials: out of legos.
It specifies the conditions for success: has three different colors and is as tall as this water bottle.
(It’s to restrict the conditions to no more than 2 or 3 terms to avoid frustration).
#2 Indoor Activities for Kids with ADHD need to be: Multi- Sensory
Multi-sensory activities allow for the use of more than one of the 5 senses at a time.
In our Legos example above, we’ve engaged both the visual (colors, measuring height) and touch - building with Legos.
So, let’s start with the 5 senses:
Sight
Sound
Smell
Touch
Taste
Try to brainstorm some activities for each of these sense and then look for some overlap:
Sight - watching tv, video games, reading, coloring, building, drawing, climbing, riding bike, walking - pretty much anything you need to do with your eyes open, right? (A little caution - Limit sceen time. Most health professionals will say limit it to 2 hours / day. My personal opinion and experience say limit it to 15 min at a time with no more than 1 hour/ day. WHAT?? I know... more on that in a later post which I will link here when it's live.).
Sound - watching tv, video games, listening to music, following directions, having a conversation, memorizing and reciting, dancing, etc.
Smell - cooking, matching smells to containers, scented play dough, scented stickers, scented markers, etc.
Taste - edible play dough, games with m&ms or skittles, building things with pretzel sticks and marshmellows, identifying sweet, sour, salty, flavor match, cooking, etc.
Touch / Movement - active games (walk, jump, run, skip, hop, balance, dance, climb) as well as activities that utilize movement to accomplish the task (reach, feel, build, stir, grab, etc). Unless it is a stationary single input activity like reading, it will likely involve some touch/ movement component
Now what activities can use more than one sense? Most of them do. Let’s look at some that are easily accessible:
Board games: sight, sound, touch & movement
Cooking: sight, smell, taste, movement
Play dough: sight, smell - if scented, taste - if edible, touch & movement.
Coloring or drawing: sight, touch, smell- if using scented markers
Active games like Twister, balloon volleyball, obstacle courses, building a fort with sheets and clothes pins, etc: sight, movement, sound if working with others.
#3 Indoor Activities for Kids with ADHD need to : Allow for Movement.
Now, that seems to be obvious when we just talked about the 5 senses, but this point takes it a bit further.
We all know kids with ADHD are not typically prone to sit still for hours at a time unless they are asleep or hyper focused.
When creating structured indoor activities for kids with ADHD we want to make sure that they are moving around at least every 15 minutes or so.
Why?
Their bodies need sensory input to help them maintain focus.
That is why they tend to fidget, rock or swing their legs when they cannot move around. Whatever the activity is, it shouldn’t restrict their gross motor movement for more than 15 minutes.
Also, movement improves circulation in the body and promotes oxygen flow in your system. Think about when you are working on something and your brain starts to get cloudy.
It gets hard to focus, right?
So what do YOU do?
You get up and stretch, go get some water, step out for fresh air.
That cloudiness is a result of sitting still too long.
That same cloudiness makes kids with ADHD feel frustrated because it is harder to focus.
Make sure your activity allows for movement.
This may mean that things like:
Going to the movies or watching a television show or DVD at home may NOT actually be a good idea for a kid with ADHD.
#4 Indoor Activities for Kids with ADHD need to: provide for what to do next.
Ideally, a good indoor activity for kids with ADHD will be able to be repeated or revised and repeated multiple times before they get tired of it.
There are a few ways to do this.
1. Extend the original conditions for success.
For example, with the Lego project. Once they have made the castle, now they can add a village or a moat with a drawbridge to it.
The idea is to continue in the same activity, but deliver the instructions in steps so they don’t get overwhelmed.
Instead of just saying from the start: “Build a lego city with a castle”, you’d break it down into steps delivering each new step with the completion of the previous step.
If you are really into it, you could have it end where the created project, once finished, could be used for imaginary play - “Now that you’ve got your castle, moat and village, pretend that there is an evil king trying to take over the castle and your lego guy has to defend it.”
2. Set new goals for games.
For example, when playing Candyland, you can make the second round a little more challenging by trying to win without landing on any blue spaces. Or you can assign number values to each color card: red =1 space, yellow = 2 spaces, etc.
(caveat - if your child is a stickler for rules, this probably isn’t the best idea for them).
3. Set a purpose for the activity that can be carried out at a later time.
For example, have all of your kids each draw two pictures that can be made into a coloring book. You can then make copies and use them for the next snow day, give them as a birthday gift, etc.
Now that you know what goes into creating structured indoor activities that keep ADHD kids calm and focused, you can go ahead and come up with some ideas of your own.
But to get you started and inspired...here are some suggestions:
Group Activities:
Scavenger Hunt
Obstacle / Challenge Course
Hide & Seek / Sardines (variation)
Hot / Cold object seeking.
Charades
Pictionary
Individual Activities:
Bake cookies
Play dough - scented or edible
Building with various objects (legos, pretzels, pillow fort, cardboard boxes)
Play with snow indoors (on a cookie sheet or tarp)
Crafts - make them purposeful
Make a doll house, dog/ cat house out of a cardboard box.
Calming Activities:
Listen to audio books
Kids Yoga
Purposeful drawing (provide conditions & purpose - what does it need and how will it be used).
Play dough
Help cooking / baking
Singing
Exercises for ADHD / Active indoor activities:
Obstacle / Challenge course
Dance a thon - see who lasts the longest or try to learn a choreographed dance & then perform.
Balloon Volleyball (or just keep the balloon in the air)
Balloon Baseball (use balloon and wrapping paper rolls)
Balloon Golf (same tools, different game).
Empty Soda bottle bowling (Empty soda bottles and a small soft vinyl ball)
I hope you’ve found this helpful. Now go and create and email me (beth@bethskaret.com) a picture of what you came up with!
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Check out the rest of my website and blog for more practical ideas to deal with daily ADHD issues and to find encouragement and support in this Journey: www.bethskaret.com
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