October 1st is ADHD World Awareness Day, and in observance of that day, NeuronUP recommends cognitive rehabilitation activities for children with ADHD. The following exercises are mainly focused on executive functions and attention.

Cognitive rehabilitation activities for children with ADHD

1. Let the Games Begin!

This first activity is a game in which children must sort the soccer balls on one side and the basketballs on the other, and all while the balls are in constant motion! It is an ideal exercise for training planning, selective attention, sustained attention, hemineglect, and processing speed.

2. Hide-and-Seek with Letters

This cognitive stimulation activity for children with ADHD targets selective attention in particular. Children must search for a given letter among a group of letters. They can’t leave any letter out!

3. The Magic Word

Word search puzzles are a classic in cognitive rehabilitation since they are perfect for training selective attention in a dynamic and entertaining manner.

In this particular case, NeuronUP provides a customized word search for kids in which the words can be adapted to the individualized needs of each child.  In the example above, we have created a customized word search with the names.

4. Program the robot

A major emphasis continues to be placed on attention tasks. With “Program the robot”, child clients must mirror the position of the bulbs as they appear on the model. By practicing this activity, children with ADHD will train sustained attention, selective attention, hemineglect, spatial relations, and processing speed.

5. Moving Drawings

This activity involves memorizing the place where different pictures are and reproducing them afterwards by changing their position according to the instructions. We train working memory and spatial relations.

6. Find the Different Picture

This exercise targets processing speed in particular. The therapist urges the child to identify the picture that is different from the others in a series. For example, in the image above, you have to pay close attention to the details of each of the children.

7. Organize the Farm

In this NeuronUP activity, children must fill the empty boxes with missing animals by row, column or area but without repeating them. An entertaining Sudoku adapted to kids to train working memory, flexibility, planning, and reasoning.

8. Mixing Numbers

This cognitive rehabilitation activity is especially designed to develop reasoning skills. Children have to classify a series of numbers according to their numerical value.

9. Mixed Images

This activity consists of images completely out of order that children must move the blocks in an orderly manner until the required image is achieved. The therapist uses it to train planning skills and spatial relations in children with ADHD.

 10. Step by Step

“Step by step” is the last activity we are covering today, and it is very useful for the cognitive rehabilitation of children with ADHD. This is a sequencing exercise aimed at breaking down daily activities into steps. In this particular case, setting the table. Do not forget it: All daily activities can be divided into steps!

We also remind you that all NeuronUP activities include several levels of difficulty so that they can be easily tailored to every patient’s age and capabilities.