Hyperfocus: 7 Practical Parenting Tips

I frequently hear “kids with ADHD can’t focus” and to a large extent it’s true, for many of our ADHD kids the struggle to focus is truly an enormous everyday hurdle; maintaining attention is energy depleting and they can be easily districted by the smallest of things.

Then, hyperfocus enters the room!

Hyperfocus is when your child enters a state of intense concentration, you know those times when they are completely absorbed, even fixated, with what they are doing? It appears as if they have completely disconnected to everything else happening around them and for them, time seems to dissolve – poof!

It is a less common symptom, therefore not every ADHDer will experience it or you may be us; our little person experiences it somewhat fleetingly and sporadically. Personally, I take delight in seeing this happen (for now) but for some parents hyperfocus can be problematic. It can pull their child away from everyday realities and responsibilities, leading to unproductivity and ongoing setbacks.

Regardless of your experience with it, here are some tips on dealing with hyperfocus in kids:

• Identify what your child hyperfocuses on and seek to understand their interest in it.
• Go on the journey together. Openly discuss hyperfocus with your child, explain what it is, how it works and together generate ideas on how to progress forward.
• Create structure around their hyperfocus activity, for example, this may include completing homework or chores first, limiting the activity to 20 minutes a day, not embarking on these activities before school or finishing a hyperfocus activities at least 1 hour before bed (it can often be gaming!). Visual checklists can also be valuable to ensure other tasks are completed first.
• Timing is key, this could mean waiting until the end of a TV episode, once they’ve completed a certain gaming level or once they’ve reached a set milestone with their activity of choice. These clear and predictable markers can be easy ways to set expectations.
• Determine the best way to pull your child out of a hyperfocused state. This could include a verbal time countdown, audio timer alarms, starting a conversation towards the end of the time limit, gentle body contact; like a kiss on the forehead followed by a touch to the arm.
• Praise, praise and praise some more, once they’ve successfully ended their hyperfocus activity, reinforcing what a great job they did finishing the activity and acknowledging how hard it must have been for them before diverting their attention to the next task or topic.
• Finally, explore new interests for them, or with them to add variety and increase their portfolio of interests.

An adult’s ability to recognise hyperfocus (which can sometimes be subtle), implement strategies and structure, help guide the child out of hyperfocus activities and be present to help co-regulate are fundamental in reducing associated meltdowns and outbursts. It's also teaching them some valuable life lessons which can be used outside the home in a multitude of settings.

Inevitably, by implementing workable strategies during our child’s younger years it will help set our little people up for greater success in the future… and as a parent, that’s one of my biggest goals!

We would love to hear what works for you… because every experience shared contributes to another parents’ toolbox (and my goodness, we need big toolboxes!).