I am in teaching maths (brain development in children) & just need some help/ info?

Question

I have two kids are are seriously falling behind. I have picked up that the one is ADD & the other the mother has approached me that her child does have ADD & they were going to have it evaluated.

Is there anything that I could do to help these kids apart from constant reinforcement of the work?

Answer 1

You can make the periods of work shorter so as to make the most of their attention span.

You could also use some sensory/physical activities to reinforce the concepts.

For instance if you are teaching the children to count or add you can draw a number line or square on the ground.

The children then jump the required number of dots or blocks. This will also work with new concepts.

You can use things like matches or icy-pole sticks to help them understand times and division.

You could also try maths based computer and board games.

Most of these activities will work with all the children you teach not just the children with ADD.

Answer 2

You might try differentiation. Find out what makes these kids tick- are they into football, cars, music, TV? Then see if your gear your particular maths topic to that. It might help them to stay focused and do the work!

Another thing is to think about learning styles. They may focus better if they are doing more kinaesthetic approaches, or maybe having visual aids to remind them of the task to do. I would certainly ensure they have any task written down on paper in front of them, as they may well forget what you've told them 5 minutes later :)

And of course remembering to reward any task completed in whatever way you think they will get positive reinforcement from!

I would also talk to your SENCo for some advice about ADD and any resources/ideas of what to do. If you are a sec.school then ask some of the kids other teachers about what they do.

Good luck, hope that helps :)