Managing Students with ADHD in the Classroom - Coursework Example

Managing Students with ADHD in the classroom Abstract Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a developmental disorder that afflicts more than three million children in America. This disorder is associated with lack of interest in repetitive tasks and an almost incessant attention to a succession of activities. According to the American Psychological Association, “Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity” (Harlacher 2006); those who suffer from ADHD can not stay still and find it difficult to focus their attention on one thing for a long time. This has become a problem for many teachers who require quiet and attention so that they can impart knowledge to their students. Many teachers feel that instead of devoting their attention to what they do best, which is teach, they have become more or less like doctors’ assistants at best, advising parents on how to control their children or perhaps at worst, babysitters, who spend endless hours monitoring the behaviour of the children in the class. While there are numerous interventions for ADHD, including medication, there are indications that teachers can learn various techniques that can help make life in their classrooms, in spite of any ADHD children present, one of calm and fruitful learning. Introduction More and more children are being diagnosed with ADHD in America and in other parts of the world. Children with ADHD may appear to people without knowledge of this disorder as spoilt children, who simply want to get attention by causing problems. Among the symptoms associated with ADHD are impulsive behaviour, lack of attentiveness, and susceptibility to distraction (Walker 1996). Children with ADHD find it difficult to sit still or wait until it is their turn. In a classroom for example, they might blurt out their answer and they will get into other people’s games without permission. “They say and do things - hit, kick, spit, fight on the playground, defy parents and teachers, engage in risky behavior -with a frequency far beyond what other children would dare” (Walker 1996). This kind of behavior is unlikely to make these children many friends, thus exacerbating their feelings of failure and rejection. Children with ADHD are a menace at both home and school. Teachers are being increasingly called upon to deal with ADHD children. While this may seem daunting there are indications that with the proper dosage of the right medicine these children can considerably increase their chances for success in school. Actually, a slew of interventions have been developed to help children with ADHD, which means that teachers are not alone in the struggle to help these children get a semblance of normalcy in their lives. For teachers, the behavior of children with ADHD can be unnerving because they can introduce disturbances into the classroom for which the teacher may not be adequately trained to handle. The result may be that the teacher spends an inordinate amount of time dealing with one or two such hyperactive children while the whole class suffers. In recent decades, ADHD has become a matter of great concern in America because it is not just a few children who suffer from it. It apparently affects as many as three to five per cent of people; for every three boys affected, one girl is affected (Walton 2005). The very real possibility that a teacher will deal with someone with ADHD has increased considerably and necessitates that educators pay close attention to the issue. But as Harlacher et al. point out, interventions in the school setting may be able to help individual children with ADHD to cope but this is usually time-intensive. Rather than focus on individual children with ADHD some new models of intervention recommend the use of classwide interventions because in addition to being cost effective they are efficient because the benefits accrue to all students rather than just those with ADHD needs (Harlacher 2006). Management of ADHD children in the classroom According to Dr Margaret Weiss, an expert on ADHD and acting director of an ADHD Clinic in British Columbia, October is the time of year when troubles with ADHD children usually begin but often the teachers do not know this because, in some cases, being new to the class the teachers do not know who has this problem and who does not. As the weeks and months pass teachers begin to get frustrated, wondering why some students cannot follow very simple tasks. As Dr Margaret Weiss points out, the frustration of teachers will grow when they realize that some of the children in their classes cannot follow the simplest of instructions such as putting up their hands. Even though teachers increasingly have to face children diagnosed with ADHD there is little effort put into helping teachers to identify, understand or deal with the problem. (Stainsby 1996 C6). The kernel of an idea for successful management of ADHD students in the classroom can be found in the comments of Dr Weis. After all, if teachers do not have a good idea of what they are dealing with how is it that they can put forth the proper effort or interventions that would allow the children to function There has been such a spate of ADHD diagnoses in North America that some people have begun to express scepticism about the problem, wondering if doctors and psychiatrists have merely found a way to make extra money by classifying bad behaviour as a disorder. It is interesting that in one Canadian study, while as many as 99% of the teachers had had no training in ADHD techniques two-thirds of them nevertheless had to deal with ADHD students in their classrooms. With regards to diagnosis, however, Dr Weiss advises parents and teachers not to take the word of the first doctor who makes a declaration that a child has ADHD. A second opinion is always a good idea. One recommended way of dealing with children with ADHD is to change their learning environment and to make it more interesting. With more opportunities for stimulation the children are likely to feel that they fit right in. “The third step is medication…This is one of the best studied treatment areas in psychiatry…There have been over 350 double-blind trials and it’s extremely well researched in long-term follow ups” (Stainsby 1996 C6). Be that as it may the idea of using medication to control such behaviour rubs some people the wrong way. As such, a number of non-medication based interventions have been developed to help teachers cope with this growing problem. In fact, with this very idea of over-medication in mind a Colorado congressman convened a panel of experts to discuss the issue of the increasing use of prescription drugs such as Ritalin by children diagnosed with ADHD. As one member of the Colorado School Board, Patti Johnson, stated at the panel discussion, “I think we’ve over-analyzed these children and gotten away from common sense…We want them to sit there like little adults. They don’t need to be analyzed, we have to get back to the job of teaching” (Kugler 2000 5). This, however, begs the question of how teachers can teach if the children, ADHD or not, are not going to sit still long enough for a teacher to drive home his or her point! In the article “Education center makes teachers the students,” Venessa Santos-Garza describes a popular workshop given by a diagnostic specialist to teachers so that they can be better prepared to deal with the issue of ADHD. In the program run by Clare Jones, the diagnostic specialist, positive reinforcement is the key to controlling the behavior of ADHD children. In one case highlighted to show the power of positive reinforcement Jones said, “she once knew a teacher who set out daily a few M&Ms on each student’s desk. If they screamed during his lesson, he ran up to the disruptive students’ desks and popped one of their candies in his mouth…I don’t know what that teacher looked like by the end of the year, but talk about positive reinforcement,” Jones said” (Santos-Garza 2005 B1). In the classroom setting, two intervention models have emerged. These include behavioural and academic. In terms of behavioural interventions contingency management, which involves the use of positive reinforcement, has emerged as one of the more popular ones among educators. Under this model, when a child behaves appropriately, there is a positive benefit such as giving the child more play time. The expectation, of course, is that the child will want more of those benefits and continue to exhibit the positive behaviour. Some teachers prefer to give students tokens or stickers. In other cases, the teacher keeps the reward a mystery and chooses from a range of appropriate benefits. There are indications that use of such behavioural strategies, “has produced positive results, as students displaying ADHD symptoms have increased the time on task [Anhalt, McNeil, & Bahl, 1998); the amount of work completed (Coles et al., 2005; Anhalt et al.); and the accuracy of academic responses (Ayllon, Layman, & Kandel, 1975; cited in Harlacher 2006). Other researchers have found that the use of such interventions have made children with ADHD more attentive and less prone to exhibiting disruptive behavior (Harlacher 2006). In some cases, teachers have enlisted students to monitor their own behavior and to record them. After coming to an agreement on which behaviors to monitor such as work completion or talking out the student is presented with a form on which to record the incidence of these behaviors, often using a Likert type scale which shows the degree to which they engaged in the undesirable behaviors. Peer monitoring has also been touted as having some benefits but having children “spy” on each other may not go down well with all teachers though having a sort of leader or prefect in class who takes the responsibility of monitoring undesirable behaviour may not seem out of step. In terms of academic interventions, one of the more popular ones is peer tutoring. With this kind of intervention, two students work together on a task. Having a student with ADHD work with another student might temporarily keep the ADHD student on task especially if the partner is chosen with care. Choosing another student with hyperactive behaviour may not be the best in such a situation so care should be taken by the teacher in matching students up. Another strategy that some teachers use is that of instructional modification, which involves changing an assignment so that it can best serve a child’s academic or behavioural needs. For example, instead of giving a child an assignment that requires long stretches of time, the instructor could break it up into two or three so that the child does not have to remain tied to the project for inordinately long periods of time (Harlacher 2006). For teachers already feeling the burden of having to shoulder too much, the assistance of other professionals could be quite useful. In addition to classroom aides some districts provide schools with the assistance of occupational therapists who bring their own unique sets of skills and knowledge to the task of dealing with ADHD children. In a study conducted by Yana Tserkun, which sought to find out the extent to which occupational therapists collaborated with teachers to deal with ADHD issues in the classroom, it was found that, “The strategies that received the highest frequency and effectiveness rate were enforcing routine and structure, preferential seating and assignment modifications. The strategies that received the lowest effectiveness rate were sensory modulations, allowing for major break times, self-monitoring behaviour and time-out” (Tserkun 2003). The increasing concern with the use of medication such as Ritalin, mentioned above, and others such as Dexedrine, stem from the possibility of adverse reactions as well as side effects from their use. Other interventions besides medication include diet control. For example, “Elimination of sugar in all forms (including fruit juices), foods with dyes and preservatives (Luncheon meats, hot dogs, salami) foods containing wheat and yeast (most breads, cakes, cereals), carbonated beverages and dairy products often will dramatically reduce ADHD symptoms. Foods containing salicylates (apples, oranges, plums, berries of all types, cherries and tomatoes) and fast foods in general also need to be eliminated” (MacCallum 2000 1D). If teachers are going to do their part in controlling the behaviour of ADHD children it seems that parents ought to do their part. The parents of children who have been diagnosed with ADHD need to be informed about dietary choices so that they can do their part in minimizing the problems of the children before they get into the classroom. In the classroom itself, in addition to some of the interventions mentioned above, other forms of assistance are recommended. For example, Depending on the severity of the problem, those accommodations could range from seating the student close to the teacher, to using student tutors, aids, teacher consultants or school psychologists...report recommends teachers make a variety of changes to help the student. Among them: breaking lessons into short segments; using teaching techniques that require more participation and less listening; allowing students extra time to organize books and papers; allowing oral or untimed tests, or allowing breaks during exams.” (Ambrose & Murray 1992 B3). Other suggestions include having small classes but this is not generally in the hands of the teacher. For some educational districts, rather than keeping children with ADHD separate from others such children are being placed in the regular classrooms with teachers given the appropriate training to effect whatever interventions might be necessary to have a manageable classroom. In conclusion, teachers in North America today, and possibly in other parts of the world, have to deal with an issue for which many of them are not trained or prepared, and that is the increasing incidence of ADHD among the children in the classroom. For some people, the disruptive or inattentive behaviour associated with ADHD is nothing to worry about. In effect, what do people expect children to do other than fidget and play around as children are supposed to do. Whether children are being children or not the classroom setting requires a certain measure of order so that the teacher can do his or her job. If many normal children are being diagnosed as ADHD sufferers and being plied with medication then society is not doing these children any favours. For teachers who need a quiet classroom the range of interventions available, in particular those that do not require medication, may prove to be useful. After all, before ADHD became part of the American lexicon generations of teachers managed their wards without wondering about whether the children had taken any medication or not. We may be living in an overmedicated world and it is encouraging that there is still room for such methods as the use of positive reinforcement and rearrangement of seats to get unruly children to perk up and pay attention to the teacher. References Ambrose, Jeanne & Murray, Dave. Nov 16, 1992.:Report urges mainlining attention-disorder pupils. The Grand Rapids Press, B3. Harlacher, Jason E. et al. Nov/Dec 2006. “Classwide Interventions for Students With ADHD: A Summary of Teacher Options Beneficial for the Whole Class.” Teaching Exceptional Children, 39.2, 6. Kugler, Sara. Sep 30, 2000. Behavioral drugs debate/Panel discusses how to manage kids who act out. The Gazette,:5. MacCallum, John. Apr 4, 2000. Diets, nutrients may help manage attention disorder.” Charleston Daily Mail, 1D. Santos-Garza, Venessa. April 11, 2005. Education center makes teachers the students. Corpus Christi Caller-Times, B1. Stainsby, Mia. Oct 28, 1996. Attention focused on problem children. The Vancouver Sun, C6. Tserkun, Yana. 2003. Classroom strategies used by teachers of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Touro College, AAT EP14910 Thesis. Walker, Theresa. Jan 11, 1996. Disorderly Conduct. The Orange County Register, E01. Walton, Gloria. Sep 28-Oct 2, 2005. ADHD signs and symptoms. New Pittsburgh Courier, 96.41, B5. Read More

This kind of behavior is unlikely to make these children many friends, thus exacerbating their feelings of failure and rejection. Children with ADHD are a menace at both home and school. Teachers are being increasingly called upon to deal with ADHD children. While this may seem daunting there are indications that with the proper dosage of the right medicine these children can considerably increase their chances for success in school. Actually, a slew of interventions have been developed to help children with ADHD, which means that teachers are not alone in the struggle to help these children get a semblance of normalcy in their lives.

For teachers, the behavior of children with ADHD can be unnerving because they can introduce disturbances into the classroom for which the teacher may not be adequately trained to handle. The result may be that the teacher spends an inordinate amount of time dealing with one or two such hyperactive children while the whole class suffers. In recent decades, ADHD has become a matter of great concern in America because it is not just a few children who suffer from it. It apparently affects as many as three to five per cent of people; for every three boys affected, one girl is affected (Walton 2005).

The very real possibility that a teacher will deal with someone with ADHD has increased considerably and necessitates that educators pay close attention to the issue. But as Harlacher et al. point out, interventions in the school setting may be able to help individual children with ADHD to cope but this is usually time-intensive. Rather than focus on individual children with ADHD some new models of intervention recommend the use of classwide interventions because in addition to being cost effective they are efficient because the benefits accrue to all students rather than just those with ADHD needs (Harlacher 2006).

Management of ADHD children in the classroom According to Dr Margaret Weiss, an expert on ADHD and acting director of an ADHD Clinic in British Columbia, October is the time of year when troubles with ADHD children usually begin but often the teachers do not know this because, in some cases, being new to the class the teachers do not know who has this problem and who does not. As the weeks and months pass teachers begin to get frustrated, wondering why some students cannot follow very simple tasks.

As Dr Margaret Weiss points out, the frustration of teachers will grow when they realize that some of the children in their classes cannot follow the simplest of instructions such as putting up their hands. Even though teachers increasingly have to face children diagnosed with ADHD there is little effort put into helping teachers to identify, understand or deal with the problem. (Stainsby 1996 C6). The kernel of an idea for successful management of ADHD students in the classroom can be found in the comments of Dr Weis.

After all, if teachers do not have a good idea of what they are dealing with how is it that they can put forth the proper effort or interventions that would allow the children to function There has been such a spate of ADHD diagnoses in North America that some people have begun to express scepticism about the problem, wondering if doctors and psychiatrists have merely found a way to make extra money by classifying bad behaviour as a disorder. It is interesting that in one Canadian study, while as many as 99% of the teachers had had no training in ADHD techniques two-thirds of them nevertheless had to deal with ADHD students in their classrooms.

With regards to diagnosis, however, Dr Weiss advises parents and teachers not to take the word of the first doctor who makes a declaration that a child has ADHD. A second opinion is always a good idea. One recommended way of dealing with children with ADHD is to change their learning environment and to make it more interesting. With more opportunities for stimulation the children are likely to feel that they fit right in. “The third step is medication…This is one of the best studied treatment areas in psychiatry…There have been over 350 double-blind trials and it’s extremely well researched in long-term follow ups” (Stainsby 1996 C6).

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