5 Great Activities for Children with ADHD and ADD

We at Coordikids completely understand that finding the right style of activities for children with ADHD or ADD can be tricky.

In fact, having a child with ADHD and ADD makes everyday activities challenging, especially when it comes to finding family activities that support your child’s sensory processing disorder needs. So to help you out, we put together a checklist of tried-and-true activities we use with our clients.

We also polled parents of children with ADHD and ADD for their input too. So here it is – our shortlist of 5 fun games for kids with ADHD and ADD that can help strengthen concentration, get some good physical exercise, and boost your child (and your) confidence through family fun.

Why Not All Activities Are Easy For Kids With A “Sensory Processing Disorder”

All it takes to make a huge difference in your child and in your day is 15 minutes of undivided attention every day. But even simple activities can overwhelm a child with ADHD or trigger his or her sensitivity.

Sometimes there are just too many distractions for a child with concentration issues to enjoy. Just imagine being in a room with a thousand TVs on and each TV is showing a different program.

Now try to focus on what’s being said on just one of those TVs. Not an easy task, is it? But don’t worry, we want to help you find something that everyone in your family can enjoy.

Consider activities for kids with adhd that won’t set your child up for failure or loss of progress.

To explain it simply, when a child has ADHD and ADD, they’re dealing with a Sensory Processing Disorder, so they have a hard time connecting everyday sensory information with the required motor skills.

This may lead to your child feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or having ‘meltdowns’. Our goal is to encourage optimal development of sensory motor skills in our children ages 4-12 years.

The best game for adhd kids are some that build confidence and success, burn physical energy, and strengthen the techniques learned in their behavioral therapy are ideal.

Now, let’s turn off the screens and radios, and find a nice distraction-free area to try out some of our favorite activities for kids with ADHD and ADD.

1. Fast-paced or timed card games

Hyper kids with concentration issues do very well with card games that are fast-paced and have simple rules.

We’re talking about games like UNO®, War, and Egyptian War. Each of these requires a lot of focus on simple visuals and involve a lot of rapid reward for winning short rounds. They are perfect for kids with low attention spans.

“My son LOVES it,” said Holly of UNO®. “UNO Attack® is the best game ever for everyone in my family.”

2. Martial Arts & Yoga (Psychomotor Activities)

When it comes to after-school group activities, martial arts and yoga rank highly as some of the best sports for kids across the board with parents recommending activities for kids with ADD and ADHD.

Each of these activities are types of psychomotor activities, which are great for kids with a sensory processing disorder. These types of activities teach children mental focus, self-discipline, and social skills while developing gross motor skills.

“Tae Kwon Do has helped [my son’s] balance and teaches him to respect others,” Annette told us.

CoordiKids courses are designed to include psychomotor exercises specifically shown to help children with ADHD boost their attention, emotional regulation, handwriting, and more!

3. Improvisation and play acting

Improvisational (aka improv) acting is all about creating and acting out spontaneous stories. Improv is fantastic for developing neuroplasticity in children with attention issues.

Kids can practice living-in-the-moment and handling the emotions that go along with the fun and the failures of improvising.

Julie Martin is a Confidence and Presentation coach who uses improv comedy with all ages to develop self-esteem, concentration, and social skills. In an interview on the Miss ADD Talk Show, Julie says,

“Motivation is an important aspect for focus. [Kids who usually have low concentration] find out along the way how much fun it is to hit that stride of comic gold and pure entertainment. It becomes a great motivator for them to play along.”

One of the simplest improv exercises is called Mirroring. Working in pairs sitting face-to-face, one actor mimics everything the other is doing – facial expressions, scratching his head, making animal noises, etc.

Your imagination is the limit, and we guarantee a good laugh. You can also write a few storylines on a slip of paper and put them in a jar (for example, “a princess trapped in a castle tower” or “Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall”).

Select three random items from your child’s room (for example, a stuffed animal, a toy car, and a pillow). For whatever storyline the child pulls from the jar, all of the actors must create a story and incorporate all three of the random objects into the story!

4. Board Games That Incorporate Exercise

Board games for kids with adhd that involve only 2-3 people, incorporates physical exercise, and award recurring positive reinforcement are the best kind to use during family game night for kids who find it difficult to sit still and is a great reward system for adhd child .

For example, Twister® is a classic! Your kids will be practicing balance and focus while twisting into impossible positions until you all fall over with laughter!

Another suggestion comes from Martina, whose son was diagnosed with ADD: “Our favorite family game is Family Scavenger Hunt®. Our son has a blast running around the house to find different items, and I love that he’s worn out afterwards for dinnertime!”

You can even get creative and make your own version of the game at home.

Sturdy Birdy® is a great game suggested by several of the parents we polled that we hadn’t yet discovered. It incorporates funny pictures of birds in yoga-like poses that the kids have to mimic while balancing a bean bag on different parts of their body.

It has everything that kids and parents love in a game – plus it’s great physical exercise!

5. Timed creativity exercises

We’ve found that children with ADHD and ADD have no problems being creative! Sometimes their biggest distractions are the inventive ideas in their heads, so creating an outlet for creativity can be a great activity to do together.

Here are two creativity exercises from designer Justina Blakeney that we love due to the fact that they are very simple and timed – Nature Portraits and Single-line Sketches.

Create a Nature Portrait by going for a 10-minute walk with your child and collecting 10-15 items along the way, such as leaves, sticks, and rocks.

When you get back home, dump out all of your nature items and spend 10 minutes experimenting with arranging them in different ways to create imaginative pictures or portraits.

For a Single-line Sketch, use nothing more than a piece of paper and a pencil. Set a timer for 10 minutes.

Your child must try to draw anything within 10 minutes, but the catch is they can’t lift the pencil off the paper for the whole time! See what you can draw with one single stroke!

Experiment, Add Challenges, and Have FUN with these Activities for Kids with ADHD!

We know every child is different, and you know your child better than anyone! So don’t be afraid to change the rules if you observe something that might work better for your family.

What activities have you tried that just don’t work? Don’t be afraid to give up on those for now. Or experiment with adding levels of difficulty. You can also get input from their teachers, family, and friends – they can be a great support system for you!

What activities do you like to do with your children?

Ours thrive on rewards, so games with short rounds and lots of chances to win are big hits. Also, interactive and hands-on activities without long periods of waiting in between are best.

Look for activities that incorporate physical exercise AND mental stimulation to support the mind-body connection and sensory motor skills.

Pssssst!

These CoordiKids courses are designed to help children with ADHD boost their attention, emotional regulation, handwriting, and more!

All by following 15 minutes a day of specific exercises used in occupational therapy sessions, but for a fraction of the cost of in-office therapy.

The best part? CoordiKids time gives YOU 15 minutes of a break, too!