& Family Support Centre
Education
The education environment and how children are managed in this is very important.
Early involvement of the Special Education Service may be helpful.
Some of the following suggestions can assist children with ADD/ADHD:
A calm consistent and structured environment - they like routine, regularity and repetition. A change of teacher can be hard on them.
Classroom style - often helpful to have children seated in the front row away from distractions. Short-term memory is a problem for these children so techniques to assist in helping this could include headings, lists, diagrams and models. Computer assisted learning is also very helpful as the computer is a visual tool that they are able to relate to well.
Style of teacher - Australian ADD specialist Dr Green suggests the teacher needs to be "insightful, predictable, organised and encouraging and firmly in charge".
Communication and Cues - before talking to these children it helps for the teacher to gain eye contact. Avoid long verbal lists of instructions. The use of visual cues is helpful.
Remedial Help - because of associated learning difficulties these children may require remedial help.
Exam Technique - exam sitting can be very difficult for these children. They are likely to misread questions, allocate their time poorly and are disadvantaged because of poor handwriting and spelling. Some children with ADD have been allocated a reader writer scribe for exams because of these problems.
Behaviour Management - a classroom environment that is calm, consistent and structured is helpful for these children. There is some behaviour that it is best to ignore. Reward good behaviours and deal with those issues that matter with short, sharp action avoiding long explanations. Time out, token systems and selecting a specific behaviour you wish to increase are helpful strategies. Remember to look for the real culprit as often these ADD children can be set up by others.
"Stop, think and do" strategies are good for getting a child to focus on what they are doing and the consequences of their behaviour. A visual cue of traffic lights may be helpful for this.
These children are at high risk of failure in classroom environments that are open plan, involve teaching, cluster seating and independent study.
Ref: 2006 Conference Paper: "Our Antisocial Disruptive Kids" by Joy Fairburn and Shennan Brown, Registered General and Obstetric Nurses
The ADD Assessment and Family Support Centre has information available to assist families with educational issues.
Please feel welcome to contact the ADD Assessment and Family Support Centre:
Phone: 04 383 5061 |
Fax: 04 383 5063 | Email: addtrust@xtra.co.nz |