Documents and LEarnings related to ADD and ADHD
Here is the write-up I did for my course as well as some interesting excerpts from colleagues posts
The assignment asked, "Write a one-page pager outlining your top six strategies and reflect on the ease and challenge involved in applying them to your practice."
Here are my 6 strategies for assisting in inclusive education in the classroom:
Create consistent routines and specific/achievable goals:
According to both resources, creating understandable and concrete goals is the paramount strategy when working with students with ADHD. For me, I think this is universal design strategy. I think that all humans/ animals feel comfortable and function best when their environment is structured and they understand what expected of them. For students with ADHD I think this is especially important because if they understand and can predict what their day will be, they will have one less point of anxiety or distracter. Further by setting behaviour and educational goals, ADHD students can work towards specific things. These goals can encompass long-term or short-term expectations. It can be as simple as “Today you will raise your hand.”
Provide a stimulating environment:
For me the idea of a stimulating environment incorporates Gardener’s multiple intelligence theory. We know for certain that students do not learn in one way and so we must appeal to the different preferences. Further the resources I used discussed a higher need of stimulus for ADHD students. According to the resource I consulted, teachers who used a variety of stimulus (audio, visual, written, and physical) had more success with student with ADHD. Further the resource reports that technology and technological resources aided in the learning amongst students with ADHD.
Provide hands on learning and inquiry-based learning:
This strategy falls within the universal design paradigm. Active and physical connection to learning benefits all students. In particular, students with ADHD benefit from working and learning with their full body. In the chapter “Chapter 3. Strategies to Empower, Not Control, Kids Labeled ADD/ADHD,” by Thomas Armstrong, he discusses the importance of allowing students with ADHD to transform that need to move and “fidget” into a positive thing.
Provide instruction and objectives in several formats:
Often students who have ADHD have trouble focusing and thus require multiple reminders of tasks/instructions. To combat this, I try to use written instruction reminders for them to reference. Also, I think that it is important to allow students to see the task in action. When teaching, I think it is important and suggested by the resources to scaffold all activities by having models, or enacting the activity.
Help develop organization skills. From my own experiences, I believe important skills that students with ADHD need to develop is organizational habits and the ability to self-regulate. The two documents I consulted suggested creating personal agendas, teaching time-management skills (in and out of the classroom), and posting in-class calendars that clearly show dates and classroom schedules. These strategies help ADHD individuals with life-long learning strategies.
Create positive and workable relations with parents/guardians. Again an idea which falls into the UD category. Learning happens in the class and outside. Further, the focus of education is the student. Therefore, it makes sense to develop a working relationship with parents, with the end goal being mutual and beneficial support of the student. For ADHD this is particularly important as parents can help facilitate in-class strategies and visa versa.
Here are some ideas I enjoyed:
D. Page
Stretch Breaks/Yoga
In my classroom now, it is pretty easy to tell when my students are getting antsy. We have discovered this wonderful site called, “Go Noodle” which helps my students dance, breathe and take a break from their work. This helps students with ADHD and ADD because sitting for long periods of time leads to a lack of focus and a risk for behaviours to come out. There are so many different resources available for teachers struggling to come up with quick breaks for their students. I also ensure that I set a timer and I stick to it. If I call out that we are having a five minute break I tell them this, set the timer and also call out minute marks as well as a thirty second mark. My students know that everything needs to be cleaned up and packed up in that time or we will not have those toys or that activity for the next break.
F. Jiwani
Help student with organization – Organization is important for any student. I think if a student with ADHD excelled in organization skills, they would feel less overwhelmed when it came to their schoolwork and assignments. Show the student how to successfully use their agenda and get the most out of it. Make sure that all students are not leaving the school day without writing their homework and important dates in their agendas. Get the teacher and the parents to both sign off everyday to make sure that things are getting done and being read
S. Kaur
ADHD: Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
What is ADHD?
(ADHD) affects children and teens and can continue into adulthood. ADHD is a neurological condition that negatively impacts a person’s ability to remain attentive and increases a person’s hyperactive and impulse behavior.
5-12% of children worldwide are affected by ADHD…
How does ADHD affect student behavior?
Teachers should provide reminders and cues about what tools are needed to start and complete the activity- for example, "you need to have your math notebook and a pencil."
Ease and challenges of applying these strategies:
For me I don’t see any challenges in applying strategies 1-4. However, strategies 5 and 6 may be more difficult due to external factors. These external factors include: a large group of exceptional students who need individual assistance with agendas and parents who can’t or won’t support a positive relationship with the teacher.
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/tannock.pdf
Additional resource:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/199273/chapters/Strategies-to-Empower,-Not-Control,-Kids-Labeled-ADD~ADHD.aspx
The assignment asked, "Write a one-page pager outlining your top six strategies and reflect on the ease and challenge involved in applying them to your practice."
Here are my 6 strategies for assisting in inclusive education in the classroom:
Create consistent routines and specific/achievable goals:
According to both resources, creating understandable and concrete goals is the paramount strategy when working with students with ADHD. For me, I think this is universal design strategy. I think that all humans/ animals feel comfortable and function best when their environment is structured and they understand what expected of them. For students with ADHD I think this is especially important because if they understand and can predict what their day will be, they will have one less point of anxiety or distracter. Further by setting behaviour and educational goals, ADHD students can work towards specific things. These goals can encompass long-term or short-term expectations. It can be as simple as “Today you will raise your hand.”
Provide a stimulating environment:
For me the idea of a stimulating environment incorporates Gardener’s multiple intelligence theory. We know for certain that students do not learn in one way and so we must appeal to the different preferences. Further the resources I used discussed a higher need of stimulus for ADHD students. According to the resource I consulted, teachers who used a variety of stimulus (audio, visual, written, and physical) had more success with student with ADHD. Further the resource reports that technology and technological resources aided in the learning amongst students with ADHD.
Provide hands on learning and inquiry-based learning:
This strategy falls within the universal design paradigm. Active and physical connection to learning benefits all students. In particular, students with ADHD benefit from working and learning with their full body. In the chapter “Chapter 3. Strategies to Empower, Not Control, Kids Labeled ADD/ADHD,” by Thomas Armstrong, he discusses the importance of allowing students with ADHD to transform that need to move and “fidget” into a positive thing.
Provide instruction and objectives in several formats:
Often students who have ADHD have trouble focusing and thus require multiple reminders of tasks/instructions. To combat this, I try to use written instruction reminders for them to reference. Also, I think that it is important to allow students to see the task in action. When teaching, I think it is important and suggested by the resources to scaffold all activities by having models, or enacting the activity.
Help develop organization skills. From my own experiences, I believe important skills that students with ADHD need to develop is organizational habits and the ability to self-regulate. The two documents I consulted suggested creating personal agendas, teaching time-management skills (in and out of the classroom), and posting in-class calendars that clearly show dates and classroom schedules. These strategies help ADHD individuals with life-long learning strategies.
Create positive and workable relations with parents/guardians. Again an idea which falls into the UD category. Learning happens in the class and outside. Further, the focus of education is the student. Therefore, it makes sense to develop a working relationship with parents, with the end goal being mutual and beneficial support of the student. For ADHD this is particularly important as parents can help facilitate in-class strategies and visa versa.
Here are some ideas I enjoyed:
D. Page
Stretch Breaks/Yoga
In my classroom now, it is pretty easy to tell when my students are getting antsy. We have discovered this wonderful site called, “Go Noodle” which helps my students dance, breathe and take a break from their work. This helps students with ADHD and ADD because sitting for long periods of time leads to a lack of focus and a risk for behaviours to come out. There are so many different resources available for teachers struggling to come up with quick breaks for their students. I also ensure that I set a timer and I stick to it. If I call out that we are having a five minute break I tell them this, set the timer and also call out minute marks as well as a thirty second mark. My students know that everything needs to be cleaned up and packed up in that time or we will not have those toys or that activity for the next break.
F. Jiwani
Help student with organization – Organization is important for any student. I think if a student with ADHD excelled in organization skills, they would feel less overwhelmed when it came to their schoolwork and assignments. Show the student how to successfully use their agenda and get the most out of it. Make sure that all students are not leaving the school day without writing their homework and important dates in their agendas. Get the teacher and the parents to both sign off everyday to make sure that things are getting done and being read
S. Kaur
ADHD: Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
What is ADHD?
(ADHD) affects children and teens and can continue into adulthood. ADHD is a neurological condition that negatively impacts a person’s ability to remain attentive and increases a person’s hyperactive and impulse behavior.
5-12% of children worldwide are affected by ADHD…
How does ADHD affect student behavior?
- Increased aggression and non-compliance
- Difficulty interacting with peers
- Potential for lower than average academic performance
- Disorganization
- Distractedness
- Forgetfulness
- Inattentiveness
- Excessive talking, fidgeting and interrupting
- Tendency to move around the classroom
- Seems to be in their own world
- Create and maintain a stable, predictable, structured instructional regimen. Creating a written instructional regimen involves:
- making a written schedule of daily activities with the day being divided into blocks of time
- post it on a designated spot where students know where to find it
- and most importantly, MAINTAIN this daily routine
Teachers should provide reminders and cues about what tools are needed to start and complete the activity- for example, "you need to have your math notebook and a pencil."
- One effective technique is the use of response cards where students are given cards to indicate a response. They can be in any form: yes/no, ABCD, or they can be related to a specific subject being taught.
- Designate a portion of the lesson, or at different intervals, where students are questioned and can use their response cards to answer.
- What this does, is allow ALL students to participate, rather than the one-at-a-time method. Instead of having one student talk while all the others sit passively, every student has the opportunity to be engaged in the lesson.
- Students with ADHD work best when they are provided with frequent feedback on their performance. The following are two effective ways a teacher can cue themselves to monitor behavior and provide feedback:
- Place some coins in one pocket and transfer a coin to the other pocket each time you monitor the student’s behavior and provide feedback
- Use a timer and set it at random times during the day- when it goes off, it's a cue to monitor the -student’s behavior and provide feedback.
- Praise alone will not be effective- reprimands also need to be issued if the student is exhibiting inappropriate behavior. Here are some tips on how to communicate these reprimands:
- Provide reprimands in a calm, unemotional manner (preferably in private)
- Give reprimands as soon as possible after the inappropriate behavior occurs
- Increase the effectiveness of reprimands through close proximity and eye contact
- Once the student's behavior begins to improve, reprimands will gradually fade and may no longer even be necessary. However, the teacher still needs to be able to convey clear and effective directions. Let's look at some ways this can be done.
- Get the student's attention before giving directions- use proximity, eye contact and touch
- Keep directions short, to the point
- Be specific about the type of behavior you want the student to perform
- Give directions in parts
- Check for understanding: Ask the student to repeat the directions
- Ensuring quick transitions is important for students with ADHD because they typically can be a source of disruptive behavior. Here are some techniques to consider...
- Set aside certain times when transitions, such as sharpening a pencil or getting a drink, should occur
- Establish an expectation that students should move from one activity to another quickly, and reinforce them for listening
- If a student with ADHD has to sit for too long, he or she may start calling out or exhibit other inappropriate behaviors. Use high-participation formats for lessons- they provide more opportunities for responses and increase engagement.
- It is important that breaks are highly structured for the student, and that they are awarded after the work that has been asked of them is completed
- Reduce the length of written assignments
- Homework should be kept to a minimal- too much homework doesn't give the student with ADHD enough time to 'decompress' after an entire day of school
Ease and challenges of applying these strategies:
For me I don’t see any challenges in applying strategies 1-4. However, strategies 5 and 6 may be more difficult due to external factors. These external factors include: a large group of exceptional students who need individual assistance with agendas and parents who can’t or won’t support a positive relationship with the teacher.
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/tannock.pdf
Additional resource:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/199273/chapters/Strategies-to-Empower,-Not-Control,-Kids-Labeled-ADD~ADHD.aspx
Resources relating to ADD & ADHD
http://www.caddac.ca/cms/page.php?124
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/tannock.pdf
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/tannock.pdf
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