Show Notes
If your ADHD kid is coming home from the first weeks of school completely fried, melting down over things that seem small, unable to do basic tasks they were handling fine in June, this episode is for you.
Season 2 of The Behaviour Coach Podcast opens with a full back-to-school arc, and this first episode is about why the transition itself is so hard. Erica walks through the enormous executive function load of "new" for an ADHD brain, what the first weeks of regression actually are (spoiler: it is not regression), how to take load off at home during September, and how to help your kid's new teacher see them clearly in the small window at the beginning of the year.
She also introduces a free resource for parents: the Support Profile, an editable Canva template you can give to your kid's teacher, plus one-pagers on ADHD and autism.
FREE RESOURCE Grab the Support Profile here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sOhSMxXwJSzk4uMHgXbj6pz5_47iXxNv/view?usp=sharing
Or head to Instagram @behaviourcoach and comment THRIVE on any post for the same resource, plus ADHD and autism info sheets.
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If meltdowns are part of the back-to-school picture, check out my Meltdowns Mastery audio course. Pay what you can.
If friendships are on your mind for the school year, The Belonging Blueprint course is for you. Pay what you can.
More from The Behaviour Coach Podcast
Advocating for your ADHD kid at school is one of the most important jobs you have as their parent, and one of the most emotionally exhausting. In this episode, Erica reframes advocacy as bridging, not fighting. She shares the story of a high school student whose grade jumped two full letter grades from one small accommodation (his science teacher started emailing the lesson slides one day before class). She walks through a quick primer on IEPs, 504 plans, and informal support plans, plus her favourite categories of accommodations for the classroom environment, learning and instruction, transitions, emotional and behavioural support, and home-school communication. And she shares what to do when the school pushes back on an accommodation.
If homework in your house is a nightly battle, if the 20 minute assignment somehow takes 3 hours, if your kid was fine at school and is now falling apart at the kitchen table, this episode is for you.
For years, I thought I was just an anxious parent around water and cars. I now know I was not anxious. My neurodivergent kids were baseline less safe. That knowing changes everything.
Summer is harder for ADHD families than we are told to expect. The structure just left. Your kid is burnt out from a school year of holding it together. You are too. Now it's two depleted nervous systems trying to navigate 10 weeks together without the scaffolding of school. If summer is hard in your house, you're not failing. This season is genuinely harder for our families. This week's episode walks through the five things that actually help: decoding what "I'm bored" really means, building boredom infrastructure that quietly does the work all summer, a real summer screen plan, how to prep summer camp counsellors so your kid can succeed, and downtime, for your kids and for you. Next week: travel with neurodivergent kids.
I'm joined by Fayth Caruso, who has spent 15 years working with rebounding as a tool for the body, with people of all ages and abilities, including a lot of neurodivergent kids and adults.