“Why did you do that?” can be frustrating and hard for a child with ADD/ADHD/Autism to answer.
Have you ever had a student or child do something and you ask “Why did you do that?!” and they stare at you or say “I don’t know”?
This usually prompts a frustrated “you do know” or the student making up a story when they honestly DON’T know.
So, I teach my students two answers. The first one is “I honestly don’t know but I’ll do better next time.” This is the answer you give when you know what you did was wrong, and acted on impulse. You say this phrase if you are really going to try to do better.
The second one is “I don’t know. I acted on impulse.” This is when you do something unexpected, you’re not sure why you did it, and you’re not sure you can’t do it again.
For impulsive kiddos sometimes “I don’t know” is the answer even if it is not the one the adult wants to hear.