Relaxation and Concentration Exercises for Students with ADHD

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Relaxation and Concentration Exercises for Students with ADHD

In today’s educational world, we are increasingly aware of the challenges faced by students with attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD). These students may experience difficulties concentrating, staying calm, and managing their emotions. This is why it is essential to explore methods that promote relaxation and concentration.

Relaxation and concentration exercises can play a crucial role in improving their overall well-being and academic performance. By integrating these exercises into their daily routine, we can help these students develop skills that will allow them to better manage their attention and emotions. Indeed, these practices are not limited to moments of calm, but they also offer valuable tools for navigating a school environment that is often stimulating and sometimes overwhelming.

In this article, we will examine the benefits of these exercises, as well as several practical techniques that we can implement to support students with ADHD.

Summary

Relaxation and concentration exercises can help students with ADHD better manage their energy and attention.
Regular practice of these exercises can improve students’ ability to concentrate and stay calm.
Deep and slow breathing can help reduce stress and anxiety in students with ADHD.
Meditation can help students refocus and develop greater self-awareness.
Yoga can help strengthen the body and mind of students with ADHD, while promoting relaxation and concentration.

The benefits of relaxation and concentration exercises for students with ADHD

Children with ADHD often encounter difficulties channeling their energy, managing their emotions, and maintaining their attention. Relaxation and concentration exercises represent valuable help to accompany them in their daily school life. Here’s why:

Better stress and anxiety management

Thanks to simple techniques like deep breathing, visualization, or mindfulness, students learn to refocus and relax.
A calm mind allows them to approach school tasks with more serenity.

A reduction in impulsive behaviors

These exercises encourage children to slow down, to become aware of their gestures and emotions.
By training to step back, they react with more reflection and less impulsivity.

Progressive improvement in concentration

By regularly practicing activities that engage their attention, students learn to stay focused longer on an instruction or exercise.
This improves their ability to follow a class, do their homework, or take an exam under better conditions.

Benefits on academic results

Less stress, more attention, and better self-control: these combined elements create a favorable environment for learning.
Students progress more serenely and regain confidence in themselves.

A general calming in the relationship with oneself and others

These moments of calm allow children to better identify their feelings and interact more calmly with their surroundings.

To support this learning in a playful and adapted way, the COCO THINKS and COCO MOVES program is an excellent complementary tool. It offers:

Targeted educational games to work on concentration, memory, logic, or planning.
A sports break every 15 minutes, designed to release tension, let off steam without excess, and come back more focused.

Designed for children aged 5 to 10, this program helps create beneficial routines while keeping the pleasure of play. It constitutes real educational support for children with ADHD, whether at home or at school.

Breathing exercises for relaxation and concentration

Breathing exercises are among the simplest and most effective techniques we can teach students with ADHD. By focusing on their breathing, they can quickly calm their mind and reduce their anxiety level. A common method consists of practicing abdominal breathing, where the student inhales deeply through the nose, letting their belly expand, then exhales slowly through the mouth.

This process helps slow the heart rate and induce a state of calm. We can also introduce rhythmic breathing exercises, where students count their breaths. For example, they can inhale for four seconds, hold their breath for four seconds, then exhale for four seconds.

This type of exercise not only promotes relaxation, but it also helps improve concentration by anchoring the student in the present moment. By integrating these techniques into their daily routine, we can offer them valuable tools for managing their emotions and attention.

Meditation exercises for relaxation and concentration

Meditation is a particularly beneficial practice for students with ADHD. It helps them calm their mind, better understand their emotions, and strengthen their ability to stay attentive.

Here are the main benefits of meditation for these students:

Observing thoughts without judgment

Meditation teaches taking a step back from mental flow.
Students learn not to let themselves be overwhelmed by intrusive or distracting thoughts, but to recognize them without automatically reacting to them.

Strengthening self-awareness

By refocusing on their breathing or on a mental image, children develop better knowledge of their body, sensations, and emotions.
This allows them to identify more quickly when they start to scatter.

Improving concentration

Meditation requires constantly returning to a point of attention (like breathing), which is excellent training for ADHD students.
With regular practice, they become more able to maintain their attention on a school task.

Promoting inner calm

By integrating meditation into their routine, children can learn to calm themselves.
They thus have a simple and effective tool to cope with agitation, frustrations, or stress.

Developing self-confidence

Some sessions include positive affirmations or visualizations that strengthen self-esteem.
This can be very useful for children who often experience school failures or relationship difficulties.

How to start meditation with a child?

By starting with short guided sessions, 3 to 5 minutes.
By using an adult’s voice, soft music, or an adapted application.
By choosing favorable moments: morning before school, after recess, or before doing homework.

By integrating meditation times into their daily life, students with ADHD can gain stability, concentration, and well-being. It’s a small step that can make a big difference, at school as at home.

Yoga exercises for relaxation and concentration

Yoga is a complete discipline that combines movement, breathing, and attention. For children with ADHD, this practice offers a response that is both gentle and structured to the needs of bodily and mental regulation. Yoga allows them to channel their energy, better know their body, and develop attention and concentration capacities.

Here’s how yoga can be particularly beneficial for these students:

Calming body anchoring

Yoga postures help children reconnect with their body, better perceive their physical sensations, and naturally calm down.
This promotes better management of motor agitation.

Active work on concentration

Many postures, like the tree pose, require an effort of balance and stability.
To maintain them, the child must concentrate, stay attentive to their breathing and their supports.

Learning conscious breathing

Breathing deeply, slowly, in synchronization with movement, teaches students to regulate their inner rhythm, a real plus to help them settle in class.

Reducing stress and impulsivity

By putting the body in motion in a fluid and controlled way, yoga helps channel physical and mental tensions.
Less tension = more mental availability.

Strengthening self-esteem

Successfully holding a posture, progressing session after session, provides a real feeling of pride.
Yoga strengthens self-confidence while valuing individual efforts.

How to integrate yoga into the daily life of children with ADHD?

By offering workshops in small groups in schools.
By making short videos available to do at home, with family or independently.
By using simple but effective postures like:
- The tree pose, to work on balance and attention.
- The warrior pose, to strengthen concentration and stability.
- The child’s pose, to return to calm.

COCO THINKS and COCO MOVES can also be valuable support in this approach. This educational and playful program integrates:

Yoga exercises with the Apprentice Yogi,
Physical breaks every 15 minutes, which can integrate movements inspired by yoga to help the child release tensions and refocus.

By integrating yoga into their daily routine, children with ADHD benefit from a calming, structuring, and valorizing framework, good for both body and mind. It’s a concrete tool for better living school and learning.

Visualization exercises for relaxation and concentration

Visualization is a powerful technique that can help students with ADHD concentrate and relax. By using their imagination, they can create calming mental images that transport them to a calm and serene place. For example, we can guide students to imagine they are on a quiet beach or in a peaceful forest, focusing on sensory details such as the sound of waves or bird songs.

This technique can also be used to strengthen self-confidence before an exam or presentation. By visualizing a positive result, students can reduce their anxiety and improve their performance. We can encourage this practice by integrating visualization sessions into our classes or by offering exercises to do at home.

Movement exercises for relaxation and concentration

Movement exercises are essential to help students with ADHD channel their energy while promoting relaxation and concentration. Activities like dance, tai-chi, or even active games can be very beneficial. These movements not only allow excess energy to be released, but they also help release endorphins that improve mood.

We can organize active breaks during classes where students can get up and move for a few minutes. This can include simple stretches or quick games that promote social interaction while allowing students to refocus before resuming their academic activities. By integrating these movement moments into their school day, we contribute to creating a more balanced learning environment.

Integrating relaxation and concentration exercises into the daily routine of students with ADHD

For these exercises to be truly effective, it is crucial that we integrate them into the daily routine of students with ADHD. This can start by establishing a specific moment each day dedicated to these practices, whether in the morning before school or after lunch to help refocus before the afternoon. By creating a habit around these exercises, we help students get the maximum benefits from them.

Moreover, it is important to involve parents in this process. We can provide resources and advice on how they can encourage these practices at home. By working together – teachers, parents, and students – we can create an environment conducive to the personal and academic development of students with ADHD.

Ultimately, our goal is to help these young people flourish both academically and personally through simple but powerful tools that promote relaxation and concentration.