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64: Why October Is the Hardest Month for ADHD Kids & What To Do About It

SHOW SUMMARY:

In this interview, Dr. Jennifer Dilts and Dr. Nerissa Bauer talk with Sarah Kesty, an executive function and ADHD coach, author, speaker, and founder of Brain Tools School. Sarah shares practical ways parents can communicate with teachers and schools, especially when executive functioning challenges are showing up more clearly in the fall. The conversation centers on collaboration, specificity, and self-advocacy. Parents will come away with concrete language, timing tips, and a calmer approach to school communication that helps protect the parent-school relationship while still advocating strongly for their child.

Key topics

  • Sarah shares how she first became interested in executive functioning through teaching special day classes and an autism training that introduced her to the concept.
  • The group discusses why October and November are especially hard for kids with ADHD as demands rise and energy drops.
  • Sarah explains the gap between a child’s capacity and the school’s expectations, especially when adults mistakenly interpret executive dysfunction as laziness or lack of effort.
  • Parents are encouraged to respond to frustration by identifying the missing executive function skill instead of jumping straight to shame-based language.
  • Sarah recommends meeting kids’ “mammal needs” first, including hydration, rest, novelty, and other capacity-building supports.
  • The conversation covers how to help children practice self-advocacy at school in a neutral, age-appropriate way.
  • Sarah suggests that by junior and senior year, parents should shift into more of a consultant role while teens practice speaking for themselves.
  • The panel talks through how to handle a teacher who does not believe in ADHD, including when to involve school leadership.
  • Sarah offers ways to get more useful teacher feedback by asking specific questions instead of broad ones like “How is my child doing?”
  • The discussion closes with the idea that teacher ratings and parent ratings often differ because school provides structure, masking, and peer modeling that can temporarily support ADHD symptoms.

SHOW NOTES: