Do kids with ADHD make messes?
Hassie Walker
2025-06-20 15:27:53
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Kids with ADHD are notoriously messy, and it can feel like no amount of asking, pleading, cajoling or yelling seems to make a difference. No matter what you try, that laundry is still on the floor. Why Your Child With ADHD Has Such a Messy Room explains how to help kids with ADHD build skills and manage mess. This can help parents understand why ADHD and mess go hand in hand, and how parents can help kids learn the skills they need to best the mess, get organized, and feel more confident and in control.
Tyler Wintheiser
2025-06-19 07:18:08
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My daughter, Natalie, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is an ADHD-inspired mess-maker extraordinaire, and her propensity for creating chaos drives me absolutely crazy. The connection between children with ADHD and poor organization is twofold. For one, Natalie has a need for stimulation, for something to see, feel, and do that is so strong that the thought of not having it gives her anxiety. This propels her to grab whatever is within reach as she leaves the house to climb into the car, for example. The second ADHD connection is attention related. Say she’s playing with Legos and then decides to work on a puzzle instead. As soon as her brain registers puzzle! that becomes her one and only focus. The Legos simply cease to exist. How could I expect her to clean up something that, in her mind, isn’t even there? Besides that, cleaning up is just plain boring. She’s much too busy. And she knows she doesn’t have to. Nine times out of 10, she knows that what she doesn’t pick up, Mom will.
Sid Ferry
2025-06-09 16:00:24
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Some people are naturally neat. But many kids and adults with ADHD are the opposite — they’re messy most of the time. And it can cause problems at home, school, and work. For example, kids might miss a field trip because the permission slip got lost in their overflowing backpack. People with ADHD who have a hard time keeping things tidy usually aren’t being lazy or thoughtless. They have trouble with a group of skills needed to tackle cleanup tasks and stay organized. These skills are known as executive function. The constant messiness can be annoying for others and embarrassing for the mess maker.
Sarina Kertzmann
2025-05-29 10:05:33
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: 16
A common feature of both inattentive and hyperactive ADHD is a messy bedroom. Messiness can feel like a natural state for an ADHD kiddo, a home page to which they unconsciously always return. Without many slots in their working memories, ADHD kiddos put down one thing and pick up another without remembering to follow through and put that first thing away. Impulsivity can cause a child to toss something quickly towards the trash, rather than carefully place it inside. Hyperactivity can create a tornado of a mess even from a small art project. ADHD kids with inattention may zone out simple directions and not even grasp what chore was being requested. Once again, it is worth repeating: messiness is a natural symptom of ADHD.
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