Webinar: building independence

A parenting webinar making the rounds this week is built around a blunt idea: kids do not become independent because adults repeat “be responsible,” they become independent when adults teach the hidden skills behind getting started, remembering steps, and finishing tasks. The session promoted by ADHD Momma points parents toward a practical training on executive functioning and independence rather than a general pep talk. (x.com) (additudemag.com) Executive functioning is the set of mental skills that handles planning, time management, working memory, and self-control. GrowNOW ADHD describes those skills as the internal tools students use to organize actions across home, school, and daily life. (grownowadhd.com 1) (grownowadhd.com 2) The webinar itself is led by Michael McLeod, an attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder and executive function specialist who founded GrowNOW ADHD. ADDitude says his session focuses on why executive function problems show up both in academics and in daily routines at home. (additudemag.com) (adaminc.org) The pitch is specific: stop treating every missed homework sheet or messy backpack like a motivation problem. The event description says the goal is to build the “internal skills that drive performance,” which means teaching the missing step instead of just reacting to the bad outcome. (additudemag.com) That is a shift from behavior management to skills development, and that distinction has become a recurring theme across parent training in this space. Another recent ADDitude webinar frames the same change as moving away from punishment-and-reminder cycles and toward coaching the capacities that make follow-through possible. (additudemag.com) (adaminc.org) In plain terms, a child who cannot start a 20-minute assignment may not need another lecture about effort. That child may need one taught routine for opening the laptop, finding the worksheet, setting a timer, and doing the first two problems before thinking about the rest. (grownowadhd.com) (adhddude.com) That is why these webinars keep centering “scaffolding,” which is the education word for temporary support. CHADD, the nonprofit Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, lists co-regulation, environment, and emotional regulation among the supports that help children grow toward independence instead of being left to “just figure it out.” (chadd.org) The thread running through all of this is that independence is not the opposite of support. The support is supposed to change shape over time, from adult-led reminders to child-run systems, until the checklist, timer, backpack station, or homework routine does the job the parent used to do. (grownowadhd.com) (thrivingstudents.com) That makes this kind of webinar useful to parents because it promises concrete fixes for concrete failures. Instead of asking whether a child “cares,” it asks whether the child can estimate time, hold directions in mind, shift between tasks, and recover after getting stuck. (additudemag.com) (leadingedgeseminars.org) The reason that message spreads so easily online is that it matches what many families see every afternoon: a smart kid who can talk through an assignment perfectly and still cannot begin it alone at 4:15 p.m. This webinar is selling the idea that the gap is often a teachable skill gap, not a character flaw. (x.com) (additudemag.com)