Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder

by Edward M. Hallowell

Tips for the Coach At the beginning of treatment there should be brief (ten-to-fifteen-minute) daily check-ins with the coach, in person or over the phone. The discussion should focus on the practical and concrete—what are your plans? what is due tomorrow? what are you doing to get ready for tomorrow?—as well as on the abstract—how do you feel? what is your mood? These questions can be organized by the initials H.O.P.E. as follows: H—Help: Ask the person you are coaching, what kind of help do you need? Begin by getting an update and seeing what specific assistance is needed. O—Obligations: Ask specifically what obligations are upcoming and what the person is doing to prepare for them. You must ask. If you don’t ask, the individual may forget to tell you. P—Plans: Ask about ongoing plans. It is very helpful to remind people with ADD of their goals. They often forget them, quite literally, and so stop working toward them. If they say they don’t know what their goals are, try to help them define them. Goals function as a kind of guard against aimlessness, drawing the individual through time toward a desired place. E—Encouragement: The most fun part of the coach’s job. The coach should really get into it and not be embarrassed to be rah-rah. The coach is joining a battle against chaos and negativity; the more affirmative he or she can be the better. Don’t be daunted by cynicism. It takes a while to undo a lifetime of negativity.