The past decade has witnessed a sudden spurt in the awareness of special needs and the usage of related vocabulary – Dyslexia and Learning Deficit (LD), to name a couple of them. With at least one movie a year on special needs and various media sources, most of us have a reasonable, if not accurate idea of what these terms mean. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition in much debate today, with symptoms innocent enough to joke that you and I may have it. While in some cases ADHD is serious enough to be treated medically, some other opinions don't classify ADHD as a severe special need.
A search for the term ‘hyperactive' on Google, Wikipedia and the classic Oxford dictionary gives results such as ‘abnormal/ exaggerated activity'. It is interesting however that parents often use ‘hyperactive' to qualify how ‘active' their child is. ADHD is often confused with some associated conditions such as Learning Disability. An analogy would establish and differentiate the conditions well.
Imagine the brain to be a house with many illuminated rooms. A Learning Disability darkens/turns off one or two rooms in the house, while others are still bright. However, ADHD dims all the lights in the house to a certain extent. A student with both ADHD and a Learning Disability will have the lights dim throughout the house, with one or two rooms significantly darker. In addition to medical help, some strategies have proven effective to handle ADHD.
Short Lessons / Activities
Most students have enough trouble focusing on lengthy assignments and activities. ADHD multiplies this problem, making short lessons/activities the key.
Seating
Children with ADHD should not be seated near the door or the window. This will increase distractions. The best placement is in the front of the room or all the children around the table in a classroom.
Directions
Completing assignments often becomes difficult for a child with ADHD because they have missed the directions. This problem can be avoided by 1) keeping the directions simple and 2) having the child repeat the directions back to the instructor.
Short Breaks
With ADHD, the child cannot stay focused for extended time periods and require frequent breaks.
If the child starts losing attention, a short break should be allowed, instead of disciplining them and continuing with the lessons. During the break they can stretch, walk around, or even have a small snack. Planning few short breaks in a session will help the child stay focused during the lessons.
Play way review
Making a game of the last lesson/activity they did, is a great way to redirect their attention to the lesson, when the break is over. It will also give the child the feedback, to see if they are doing their work correctly.
Let the child help
Ask the child what subjects they would like to learn for the day and the order in which they would like to learn them. This gives them partial ownership of their schedule. If the child starts to misbehave during study time, gently remind them that they chose their schedule and suggest small modifications, if required.
Interactive activities
Activities that keep a student's hands busy help to keep their mind focused on what they are doing. These activities do not need to use expensive materials. One could incorporate household activities such as baking (which uses measurements) into a math lesson.
Organisation
Children with ADHD are often engaged in off-task behaviour. When they cannot find their assignments, paper, or pencils, it can start the day off on the wrong foot. Therefore, having an assignment notebook that includes paper and pencil tucked into it can be a life saver for the day. Organisation should be extended to every aspect of an activity.
“What if Albert Einstein had been prescribed Ritalin?” dramatically goes to say that ADHD in different persons cannot be treated similarly. Likewise, any recipe of strategies/treatment to handle ADHD in different people needs salt added to taste.
As humans have evolved from hunters to farmers, some tend to retain dominant hunter characteristics, proposes the ‘Hunter vs. Farmer' theory on the origin of ADHD. This leads to an interesting and optimistic perspective that persons with ADHD may be more adept at searching and seeking than at staying put and managing.
