ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Common Classroom Problems Associated With ADHD
- Being frequently out of the seat at inappropriate times and in inappropriate situations
- Different from what the rest of the class is supposed to be doing
- Not following the teacher’s or other supervising adult’s instructions
- Talking out of turn or calling out
- Being aggressive towards classmates
- Having a short attention span and being very easily distracted
- Bothering classmates, hindering them in their work efforts, or preventing them from concentrating
- Being oblivious and daydreaming
- Losing and forgetting tasks
- Not handing in homework or handing it in late
- Producing work that is incomplete or sloppy
How Therapy Intervention works with ADHD kids:
Behaviour management inevitably plays an important part in the education of kids with attention and activity problems. Kids with ADHD do not tend to do well with repetitive tasks if the task is not stimulating they might get easily distracted. This means that the therapeutic activity should be sharply defined and highly focused.
ADHD kids often have difficulties with sequencing, concentration/distractibility. this can be handled through Occupational Therapy Approach.
Behavioural Intervention
Time-out
This involves the kids being sent to a place where he/she is required to remain for a short specified period (3–5 minutes) when he or she is misbehaving, where he/she will not receive stimulation or attention.
Card Method
The therapist provides a non-verbal card system as part of this approach, whereby a yellow card is shown to the kids or placed on their desk, as a warning that they are beginning to engage in behaviour that might lead to time-out. A red card is then shown, which means ‘go to time-out’.
Token Economies
This involves the giving of tokens, in the form of points, stickers, or other objects, as rewards for positive rule-compliant behaviour.
Group Behavioral Therapy Strategy
For example
When the Therapist asks the group a question kids are to raise their hands if they know the answer and not speak until asked by the therapist.
- The therapist asks the group: ‘Who can tell me the name of an extinct animal?’
- Thara calls out: ‘Dodo!’
- Therapist ignores Thara’s answer and says to Ram, who has raised his hand: ‘Well done Ram for remembering the raise your hand rule. What’s your answer?’
Parental Tips to handle ADHD kids
Complex tasks will be made accessible if they are broken down into a small number of short steps or instructions.
It is important that task instructions are concise and clear with as few sub-parts as possible.
Instructions should be presented in a form that will allow the kids to retrieve them if he or she forgets, such as in writing and/or in pictorial form.
Over time the child with ADHD should be encouraged to tackle tasks of increasing complexity.
Kids with ADHD respond well to praise and rewards, which are applied when they achieve the desired target. Small and immediate rewards are invariably more effective than long-term or delayed rewards.