Management Of ADHD In The Classroom

By Dennis Ward


Identifying children with rare disorders like hyperactivity can be very difficult unless one is aware of the condition and is very keen. Having a student with ADHD in The classroom can be challenging for a teacher because he/she will always be on the run to manage this student. This disorder is not very common and affects a population of only five percent. These kids tend to perform very poorly in class work and exams.

This condition is usually classified into two categories which are hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive behaviors. Consequently, a kid can suffer from inattentive or hyperactivity disorders or even have the two of them in combination. The symptoms associated with inattentiveness are failure of being organized, trouble completing assignments, and inability to follow given instructions, making many careless mistakes during class work and overlooking details.

On the other hand, symptoms associated with impulsive or hyperactive behavior are fidgeting, squirming and, problems with staying at one place for a long time. Talking excessively, impatience, climbing or running in inappropriate places. Unable to play quietly, intruding and interrupting discussions, conversations and games, blurting of answers before the end of a question and being super active all the time.

This disorder thus adversely affects the performance of these students in school because they are very inattentive. More so, these students can be so impulsive to the extent of leaving exams as well as tasks unfinished which explains their low performances. Also, teachers that do not know that these kids are suffering may often punish them because they fail to finish tasks or to disrupt the class.

To assist these children, it is important to let the teachers know that your kid or kids are suffering from this kind of disorder. Therefore, these teachers can make sure that they give very brief or short tasks to the students and ask for immediate feedback. More so, the teachers can break apart long projects so that they become manageable by the children.

Also, the children should be given direct instruction by the teachers. Because of their short attention span, the teachers should attend to the kids face to face as opposed to the other children. This will help the child to concentrate more and finish the tasks or assignments before they start squirming or talking too much. More so, their performance may also improve with time.

More so, before the teachers step in the classrooms, they must make sure that they have planned, organized and structured their lesson very well. More so, the lecture outline should touch on all the important aspects. The reason behind this is that the ability of these kids or students to remember and memorize meaningfully structured lessons is very high, unlike unorganized lectures.

To conclude, the students should also be given rules that are precise and well defined. These rules should be accompanied by visual codes that are specific so that they can easily remember. Many other modes of teaching are available for the teachers to use and assist kids who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to help them fit in a normal classroom setting.




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