Nothing here is treatment, and nothing here is a substitute for talking to somebody who knows your child. This is only about how reward systems tend to land, which is a question parents ask constantly and rarely get a plain answer to.
The one thing that changes
Delay. For most children a prize at the end of the week is a reasonable thing to work toward. For a child with ADHD the same prize can be effectively invisible by Wednesday, and that is not a matter of caring less. Something right now, however small, does far more work.
| Design choice | Why it matters more here |
|---|---|
| Something earnable today | A week-long horizon does very little. A same-day one does a lot |
| Immediate acknowledgment | The gap between doing it and it counting is where it evaporates |
| Nothing ever taken back | Impulsive mistakes are frequent, so a losable total goes negative fast |
| Short, finishable tasks | "Tidy your room" is several tasks wearing a coat |
The thing that gets it wrong most often
Assuming the problem is motivation. A child who wants the prize badly and still does not get there has not failed to want it enough. The gap is between intending and starting, and that gap does not close by making the prize bigger. It closes by making the first step smaller and the acknowledgment faster.