Question about a student with ADHD....?

Question

I have a 4th grade student who was in dire need of meds for her ADHD. She was put on meds last year and showed great improvement in behavior and academics. About 6 months into the meds she had a seizure and her parents took her off the meds. This year she has been very difficult to work with. Even when I sit and work with her one to one she is easily distracted. She can stay focused for about 3 min. at a time. Since she had that seizure, her parents refuse to put her back on meds. In the mean time she is regressing, she has no social skills and knows no boundaries. Her father told me I needed to find alternative ways to teach her, but the poor girl is not capable of staying on task. She becomes very frustrated and nervous when it comes time to do any kind of writing assignment, math or reading. I am at a loss as to what I can do to help this girl. Anyone out there have any ideas. I work with her for 3 hours a day, and its getting to be increasingly frustrating.l

Answer 1

It sounds like this girl has more than ADHD. I went to a seminar on autism and there is a disease out there where children at this age start to regress. It is like a childhood Alzheimer's. Also has she been tested by the school. Does she have autism, auditory processing or anything else? The seizure may have done serious brain injury. Your best person to speak to would be the school psychologist and for help with behavior and focusing the occupational therapist can give you idea to help her with focusing. The exercise ball is an excellent example to this.

Answer 2

First of all, your district should be telling you NOT to diagnose any condition or recommend any sort of medication or it will put the district in the position of having to pay for it. Secondly, if you haven't contacted the counselor to set up an ARD, do so immediately. If you haven't contacted her parents, do that as well with a copy to the counselor and building principal. Keep it professional noting behavior, don't speculate on cause or problems because that is not your area to diagnose. Allow the system to work. It's sad that so many parents have a bad experience with medications and then give up. ADHD is a condition that can be helped with behavioral modification as well as medication. I can understand the parents hesitation because at that age, my son was placed on Adderall and had hallucinations. At 18 he is now on Concerta and manages his condition well in college which is the goal for kids like this. Some things you can do in the interim: break down large assignments into small units, praise lavishly for on-task behavior, find alternative delivery systems for material-seek out computer or manipulatives that can help teach key knowledge elements, allow breaks between work periods, never take away recess, engage the student by giving them errands as a perq, which will allow them some self-esteem as well as some movement. For some kids, listening to Ipod's helps them to isolate from the excitement of the classroom. This is especially helpful for classrooms that have multiple activities at the same time. I know it's hard because classes are large, but even the most annoying child deserves a chance to shine. Try to find a way to help her do that because kids like this often develope serious esteem and anxiety problems because believe it or not, the KNOW they are out of control. And they hate it.

P.S. Taking a break periodically will help you keep your patience as well.

Answer 3

this may sound strange, but i have found that having students sit on a big exercise ball instead of a chair increases focus. their whole body is being occupied with balance  instead of other movement, and the mind can be clear to focus on tasks rather than finding activities for the body. good luck!

Answer 4

There is a non-medication program for children and adults with ADD/ADHD.

Read the Gift of Learning by Ron Davis and you will learn methods to use with this student that address her learning style.

The root cause of her ADHD is her thinking/learning style.  She is a picture thinker (aka a visual-spatial learner or non-verbal thinker).

Picture thinkers can use their picture thinking gift to learn how to focus.

Answer 5

I work in special ed.  Some of my students are ADHD, and I do not ever recommend them put on medication.  It takes the life out of a child.  Something you can talk to the parents about is diet.  Many ADHD kids are put on gluten free diets, which have shown to aid in concentration.  As far as working with her, I use something called "toke boards" for children with autism, and it keeps their attention wonderfully.  You can make one yourself.

The basic concept is this:

When working with a student, they get small rewards or reinforcements for each increment of work completed.  The increment can be that of one minute, one math problem, having written one sentence.  When (x) amount of increments have been reached, a larger reward is given.

Example:

A student is working on math problems with me on a dry erase board.  To our left is the token board.  It is a piece of tag board with a strip of Velcro.  The tokens sit next to the board, buttons with a small piece of Velcro on the back of each.  As he completes one math problem, I put one button on to his token board.  As soon as he has finished (x) amount of problems (in this case 10, however you can have as many or as few tokens on your board as you wish.  Maybe start with 5 and work up to as many as 20) he gets the large reward, one skittle.  Yes, one skittle.  You'd be amazed how small the "large" reward is.  It works because the student knows with each earned token, that are one step closer to getting that reward.  It works wonderfully with keeping attention.

Rewards can be like I said, one piece of candy, however I wouldn't encourage giving large amounts of sugar to ADHD kids.  Pretzels?  5 minutes of free time?  Line leader to lunch?  Anything will work, it just has to be something the student likes or enjoys.

I'd be happy to help more, you can email me need be for more information at [e-mail]