ADHD Impact on Academic Performance - Book Report/Review Example

Why does ADHD Impact Academic Performance and what can be done to Support ADHD Children in the Classroom? Introduction Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a phenomenon among the children which is highly associated with poor marks, poor skills of reading and writing and inability to respond instantly in the classrooms. ADHD is also linked with enhanced utilization of services in school premises accompanied by increased level of failures and ejection from the schools. Thus, it gets associated with lower number of graduates and even education during the post secondary sessions. Past studies have depicted that the children who show symptoms of inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness within their areas of activity also depict very low performance within their fields of education and academics. Moreover, problems within the school premises are considered to be the significant characteristic of ADHD (Loe & Feldman, 2006). It is immensely required that the form, relentlessness and perseverance of this phenomenon among the children are studied comprehensively. In order to eradicate a disease, primary diagnosis is quite essential; likewise for reducing the prevalence of ADHD among children, in-depth diagnosis is highly required. In this case, the diagnosis will be carried out through examination of the possible impacts of ADHD upon academic performance of the students. In addition to this, the measures that can be taken up for helping the children suffering from ADHD in the classroom will also be identified (Loe & Feldman, 2006). With regards to the identified area of research within this paper, the following research questions have been framed, the answer to which will be presented in the form of review of a number of literatures: What factors influence ADHD’s impact upon the academic performance of children? What is the relationship between ADHD and children’s academic performance? What assistance can be provided to ADHD children to enhance their academic performance? Sources Surveyed Sources Area of concern National Bureau of Economic Research Finding the factors that guides the impact of ADHD upon the level of academic performance of the children Dr. David Rabiner Factors that distract children affected with ADHD within classrooms D. Daley and J. Birchwood Enhancement of positive relationship between ADHD and educational performance of the students Kevin M. Antshel Assessment of the reasons that lead to academic underperformances among children Janet Currie Evaluation of the impact of various health related problems upon children’s readiness to perform better in school activities George J. DuPaul, Ruth A. Ervin, Christine L. Hook & Kara E. Mcgoey Importance of Class Wide Peer Tutorial in enhancement of academic performance of children affected with ADHD Dr. Rosemary Tannock Importance of changing teachers’ approach towards dealing with ADHD affected students for their academic performance improvement Aubrey Incorvaia Importance of one-to-one tutoring in enhancement of academic performance of the children Factors Guiding ADHD’s Impact upon Academic Performance of Children A report by the National Bureau of Economic Research (2011) has displayed the effects that ADHD has on the educational results of the students. Considering the case of the United States, the most widespread problem among the children with regards to the mental health is that of ADHD. This mental health problem affects around 4 to 5 percent of the children in the US. The authors who conducted this report survey based their decision upon the research data from children with varying age between 4 years to 14 years. According to the authors, the children who mostly belong to the households of the lower income group of the society may be more susceptible to get affected by ADHD than other sections of the society. This group of the children would also be more likely to produce poorer results in their educational courses. For analyzing this aspect precisely, the authors have taken into consideration various factors like income of the family and level of education of the children’s mother. While conducting the research, the authors came across an interesting fact which suggested that children who score such low marks that they would never be analyzed with ADHD may however be suffering from the adverse impacts of behaviors associated with this particular type of disorder. As far as the factor of income level of the children’s families are concerned, the authors have found that although the children belonging to high income group are less expected to be held through grades, otherwise they face akin impacts of ADHD with their counterparts of low income group. The authors’ research in this regard would be of extreme importance towards finding ways to assist the children affected by ADHD for getting rid of it (the National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011). Rabiner (2011) have conducted research upon the impacts that ADHD have upon the way that stories are understood by the preschoolers. The result of the study have provided certain identified factors that strongly influences the impacts of ADHD on educational performances of the children. Presence of various stimuli for distracting the concentration of the children has been identified to be an important factor that influences the ADHD’s impact upon their performance. Conversely, it can also be mentioned that the children affected by ADHD are less likely to remain concentrated within the classrooms. The stimuli that the author identified to be distracting the children are the toys among the few others. But it is also interesting to notice that the students irrespective of being suffering from ADHD were observed to be distracted in the similar fashion. Hence the factors identified by the author cannot be comprehensively considered to be the factors enhancing ADHD’s impact upon the children’s performance in their educational activities (Rabiner, 2011). Relationship between ADHD and Academic Performance of Children For the purpose of identifying relationship between academic performance of the children and ADHD, a research study conducted by Daley and Birchwood (2009) has been considered. The authors have studied various stages of development in the life of the children, starting from the pre-schoolers to adults. The authors have also underpinned upon the factors that give rise to the relationship between ADHD and poor performance of the children. The lack of individual interactions between the children and the tutor has been held responsible by the authors towards generation of educational difficulties for the children suffering from ADHD. The common system of learning for the children has been evaluated to be inadequate towards generating positive relationship between ADHD and educational performance. Rather than providing homework to the children affected by ADHD, it would be fruitful to design customized process of training for those children. The research finding has strong implication for framing effective mode of assisting the children affected by ADHD in order to generate positive results in the case of educational performances (Daley & Birchwood, 2009). The research work of Antshel (2009) have provided basis for the readers through which they can assess the reasons due to which the academic performance of children is affected. ADHD has been predominantly held responsible for the difficulties that few of the children feel during their academic performances. Other than ADHD, the reasons that the author had provided are those of lack of executive performance and pace of performance. The review of the author had adequately focused upon the trend of academic performance among the children. The aim of the research undertaken by the author was to find out the factors that influences and generates negative relationship between ADHD and academic performance of the children. For fulfilling the research aim, the researcher had explored the performance in schools and educational results among the selected population during the time period of the last 30 years. From the research result, the author derived the conclusion that children affected by either ADHD or any other mental disorder diseases are more likely to struggle during depicting good performance during their academic stages. The researcher has also concluded that if the diseases can be handled with caution, the affected children can be effectively assisted to be recovered from the ill effects of the mental stresses. The findings of the researcher have relevant implication towards importance of the present research. The gap that the researcher left in his research arena in regards to the exact process of relieving the ADHD affected children will be sufficiently filled up in the present research (Antshel, 2009). Currie (2004) had depicted high concern about the impact of a number of diseases among the children in the US upon their readiness to perform with excellence during their school activities. The author approached towards achieving her research objectives through exploring the various number of health problems among the school-going children in the US. The research findings suggested that the problems of health among the children inclusive of ADHD have strong implication of affecting the readiness among the children both directly as well as indirectly. However, the author was of the notion that assessment of ADHD prevalence is intricate. This is because proper diagnosis of the disease is even more important than implementing measures for eradicating it. From the author’s implications, it can be evaluated that prevalence of wider scope in the arena of assessing the comprehensive impacts of ADHD upon the academic performances of the children still exists. Thus, the inclusion of this study in the section aimed at reviewing the literatures has enhanced the level of importance of undertaking the present research (Currie, 2004). Assistance to Children with ADHD for Enhancing their Academic Performance The importance of peer tutoring for assisting children affected with ADHD in order to induce improvement in their academic performances has been studied by DuPaul, Ervin, Hook & McGoey (1998). The study was undertaken for measuring the level of children’s performance in respect to their behavior within the classrooms and overall academic performance. Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is the module identified by the authors for the purpose of the research study. The authors concentrated on designing distinctive activities with the module for 10 normal healthy children (both physically and mentally) and 18 children who are affected with ADHD. The activities designed and implemented by the author through CWPT had escorted towards a number of improvements among the children, noticeably among the children affected by ADHD. The children were found to be actively participating in activities related to academic performance enhancement. The number of off-task activities of the participating students also got reduced in this process. Among the ADHD affected students, 50% were found to be depicting improved academic performances. Through these research findings, the importance of various tutorial activities towards assistance of ADHD affected students can be well recognized. Hence, the relevance of the present research can also be validated which is also inferred from the past research findings (DuPaul, Ervin, Hook & McGoey, 1998). According to Tannock (2007), the practices undertaken within the classrooms by the teachers can give rise to a wide difference among the children who are suffering from ADHD. The author notified that in the world, around 5 to 12 percent of the children are affected by ADHD. In order to eradicate this disease, the teachers should be effectively included within the eradication efforts. The necessity of bringing about changes among the activities performed by the teachers has been primarily focused by the author. In this regard, the author has mentioned that the cognitive weight load of educational activities should be reduced and burdening the operational memory of the children should be avoided. Along with this move, the teacher should also be instructed to provide support and induce upon the executive utility. From the findings of the research, it can well be stated that inducement of the activities involved between the teachers and the students affected with ADHD should be undertaken. The inducement process would be able to adequately encourage greater participation from the ADHD affected students. As a result of this inducement, the students would be able to gradually get rid of the ill effects of the massive psychological problem (Tannock, 2007). The research area undertaken by Incorvaia (2009) was concentrated upon the assessment of the effects of one-to-one tutoring upon the enhancement of academic performance of the children affected by ADHD. In the United States, this particular disorder is common among 3 to 12 percent of the children who are into their adolescent periods (Shulman, 2008). Thus, the author had concentrated his sample characteristics into inclusion of only those children who are in their adolescent periods. Hence, the sample size for the study was composite of 581 students studying in grade one and suffering from massive disorders of externalization. The technique of one-to-one tutoring was applied onto the grade one students and the results were found to be of extremely beneficial for the students. The association of ADHD has been mentioned to be with failure of the students within the academic activities and depressing results in the adult hood. However, the finding suggested that with the help of effective one-to-one tutoring activities, the problems of ADHD among the children can be effectively eradicated in the early stages of their lives (Incorvaia, 2009). Conclusion ADHD is such a psychological problem that cannot be diagnosed through any variety of blood test or scanning techniques. It is rather a disorder, the diagnosis of which has to be preceded by huge amount of time spent for recognizing its indications. From the review of the various literatures, it has been established out that there is still huge necessity of conducting research for assessing the symptoms through which prevalence of ADHD can be identified. It is supposed that ADHD is more prevalent among the boys than the girls all around the world (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and American Psychiatric Association, 2011). But from the literature review, it is obvious that until now, not many researchers have concentrated on the aspect as to why the boys are more affected than the girls. Research findings in this regard would be helpful in determining the assisting methods more precisely and separately for the boys and the girls in their adolescent age. Thus, future research can be undertaken towards measuring this aspect for gaining more insights towards this immense disorder among a few of the children all around the world. Moreover, the fact that has led towards undertaking research towards the ADHD among children is the inadequacy of the present researches precisely identifying the factors that actually give rise to ADHD symptoms among children. Thus, it can well be cited that the findings that will be generated from the present research in concern would develop another important dimension in this field. References American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and American Psychiatric Association. (2011). ADHD Parents Medication Guide. Retrieved from http://www.parentsmedguide.org/ParentGuide_English.pdf Antshel, K. M. (2009). ADHD, Learning, and Academic Performance in Phenylketonuria. Molecular Genetics and Metabolism 99 (2010) S52–S58. Currie, J. (2004). Health Disparities and Gaps in School Readiness. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/~jcurrie/publications/Health_disparities_and_gaps.pdf Daley, D. and Birchwood, J. (2009). ADHD and Academic Performance: Why Does ADHD Impact on Academic Performance and What Can Be Done to Support ADHD Children in the Classroom? Care, Health and DevelopmentVolume 36, Issue 4. DuPaul, G. J., Ervin, R. A., Hook, C. L. & McGoey, K. E. (1998). Peer Tutoring for Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Effects on Classroom Behavior and Academic Performance. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31, 579–592. Incorvaia, A. (2009). One-to-One Tutoring for Reading in Grade One: Is it Beneficial for All Students. Retrieved from http://www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu/pdfs/pubpres/One_to_one_Tutoring.pdf Loe, I. M. & Feldman, H. M. (2006). Academic and Educational Outcomes of Children with ADHD. Journal of Pediatric Psychology; Volume32, Issue 6; Pp. 643-654. Rabiner, D. (2011). How ADHD Affects Preschoolers' Understanding of Stories. Retrieved from http://adhd.kids.tripod.com/rabinerpre.html Shulman, S. T. (2008). Attention: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Pediatric Annals, 37(1), 5-6. Tannock, R. (2007). The Educational Implications of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/Tannock.pdf The National Bureau of Economic Research. (2011). The Effect of ADHD on Educational Outcomes. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/aginghealth/summer04/w10435.html Read More