What is it with these kids???
I have a question: Why is it that kids with ADHD have such difficulty keeping their hands to themselves? Case in point. No, three cases in point.
Case #1: Yesterday in class, there was student playing with a candy wrapper. Now, it is one thing to tinker. But, here was this student, folding and crinkling the wrapper - audibly and in full view of me and other students. I had had enough; I took away the wrapper and threw it in the trash.
Case#2: Yesterday, in the same class, another student was sqeezing on his water to the point that it made that crinkling sound that I despise. Again, I had had enough and asked the student to put the bottle to the side.
Case #3: About a year or two ago, a student sat in my class, and during a presentation, proceeded to rip the clear plastic covering from his notebook - you guessed it - audibly and in full view of me and the other students. Boy; you’re good! Anyway, I asked the student why he would do something like that during class, during a lesson? He said he didn’t know. I took the notebook away from him. Since he found no other use for it other than to rip it apart, I figured he really didn’t need it - at least, not for my class.
Is there a connection between ADHD and self-awareness? It’s as if they are so focused with whatever it is with which they are tinkering that they seem to lose all consciousness of the world around them. I know that kids with ADHD can be taught to self-regulate. So, why don’t the parents know? Or, is it just too much effort to teach kids with ADHD these skills?
To me, ADHD is not an excuse for not developing the skills for managing oneself.
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I have great difficulty sitting still for any length of time and find that I constantly squirm. I think it’s because I have all kinds of fidgety energy, and I see the same things with the kids I teach.To deal with the fidgety energy, I have my students either doodle while they listen to me,(doodling helps me focus on what someone is saying. It drains the urge to fidget) or I have them squeeze those little stress ball that I buy at the local dollar store. When I first heard about these strategies at an ADHD workshop , I wondered. But, they work. I’ve even writtenthe strategies into IEPs because they work. The strategies help kids deal with the desire to fidget and helps the teacher to stay sane. I also send kids on errnds so that they get to move around and get rid of that energy. Sometimes we need to think outside the box.
Elona Hartjes - April 24, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Elona, thank you for your comment. I’ve tried the stress balls, with mixed success. In most cases, they end up becoming a toy, somehow having “gotten away” from the student who should be using it. So, I don’t use them anymore.
Re: Thinking outside the box: I agree with you, except to say that such thinking should not always have to emerge from the teacher. Again, parents with kids with ADHD need to teach their kids how to control the excess energy. I’m sure they see it as much as I do, unless they’ve chosen to ignore it. However, the child doesn’t benefit. I realize that I filter a lot of what I experience with kids in the classroom through my own lens; my parents would not have allowed me to carry on the way I see so many kids carry on. They would have taught me how to manage it, or have gotten me some trainng, which is the point of my post. The parents of the kids I teach have far more resources than my parents ever had, and yet, they are unable/unwilling to deal with the situation.
missprofe - April 25, 2008 at 12:02 am
Children are evolving, and adapting to the bombardment of sensory (over) stimulation via electronic media. Unfortunately, we try to teach them utilizing 100 year old classroom techniques and structure.
When classical teaching techniques were developed, students were from agregarian backgrounds. They have sped up. We haven’t.
Elona touches on something that has worked for me, as well. Giving a high energy child a task (for the boys, I characterize it to them as a “challenge”
seems to engage them in several ways:
-physical activity coupled with change of static environment
-switch in their perception of relationship from adult/child to peer/peer
-sense of accomplishment when completed, self-esteem boost
Now all we have to do, is figure out a lesson plan that engages 30 kids simultaneously!!
Michael - April 25, 2008 at 12:28 am
We too have a number of students who are either ADD or ADHD; I get e-mails from parents at the start of the year telling me about their student’s disorder. I do suspect a great number of students have this disorder; I also suspect that due to our family income level here, many cannot accept that their child might not be as gifted or as motivated as they (maybe). Thus some (I have heard this) will take their student to as many doctors as it takes until one says yes.
Could it be the TV/Video game world in which we (even adults) must have constant movement? Internet gives us constant non linear motion too.
Edward Carson - April 26, 2008 at 9:27 am