I teach at an after-school English classroom and soon we might have a new 2nd grade student with ADHD. I would just like to learn about some of your experiences and how you handled them. Any advice on how to better teach these kids would also be highly appreciated.
P.S. The student isnt enrolled in any special care services in and outside of his shougakkou.
7 comments
Assuming you teach a usual 50min lesson, it would be your best interest to make him/her busy every 5 minutes. He/She may be smart and absorb everything you say but the moment there’s a lull in the lesson he/she will become bored or restless.
It will be tiring for you in the beginning but you’ll start to flesh your lessons out better. Don’t do worksheets, don’t do kiddy songs. Do role play, Total Physical Response, get him or her out of their chair 2-3 times during that 50min lesson.
In doing so, students will say they had fun, parents will be happy and you’ll get paid.
I agree with the first comment. You gotta keep them busy! Some tricks might be getting them to stand whenever they sing a song. Maybe have the kids clap everytime you turn the page in a book (only when turning not while you’re reading of course) switch locations in your lesson have times sitting at a table, just on chairs no tables and times sitting on the floor. If you do worksheets make sure you have a puzzle or something extra that’s a little more fun as a reward if they finish early (they will a lot of the time as they won’t be able to maintain focus to work at the same time as everyone else so if they’re happy they’ll zoom through everything)
Not sure if the student is a boy or girl, but ADHD can look very different depending on gender. Lots of boys struggle with hyperactivity, but girls have attention deficit (ie zoning out and “daydreaming”). This isn’t a hard & fast rule but it often is the case. So you’ll have to adjust based on the students symptoms.
Lots of kids with ADHD (regardless of gender) have special interests or fixations, things like media or hobbies. For example a kid with ADHD in my 1st grade class is obsessed with One Piece. If you can, find out what their special interests are incorporate it into your classes, I find it really helps.
Honestly, you can make the most boring task interesting for an ADHD kid/any kid, if you incentivise.
People with ADHD don’t have a normal reward center. Like imagine you have a to-do list and you tick off an item. You get a warm and fuzzy dopamine hit right?
ADHD doesn’t have this.
You have to CREATE the warm and fuzzy feeling. Or find what gives them that warm fuzzy. (But careful cause too much of one type it fuzzy giver will kill it.) Typically with something physical and concrete they can see or, if they respond to it, acknowledgement. For extrinsic motivation? Stickers, stamps, etc are golden. Especially ones they are interested in or a set.
You know what will make some people with ADHD hyper focus? Collecting things they are interested in.
You can create this in the classroom by making tasks linked to rewards. I.e., you do c, you get y. But then link things to degrees of difficulty too. Higher difficulty, higher reward. Because then you get a read for the students TRUE capabilities.
So start at a low level and if they find that easy, praise them and then increase the level gradually, or, if they are getting annoyed, a bit quicker.
DONT JUMP TO FAR THOUGH.
This is crucial.
Sometimes too big a jump will literally shut their brains down. And I mean completely shut them out of the entire subject because it’s “too hard, I’ll never be able to get it”.
You want to do it like a step ladder. But that step ladder may get climbed very fast.
You have to keep the repetition up though. Because they might be able to demonstrate the task easily when you first explain it, but they might not be able to recall and repeat the information. Repetition is key. And they will struggle to do that independently due to malfunctioning executive function.
Anyway, I hope that’s a step in the right direction. Biggest take away is build a relationship. That’s more critical than what you actually do in the class. Then from that relationship you can create meaningful learning.
Drawing activities and any games that allow them to move around the classroom will help keep them engaged.
As lifelong, mature ADHDer, dealing with ADHD is like trying to fix a nice machine that breaks down easily – When it’s good, it’s good. But when it goes bad (and it does easily), you’re pulling out your hair. There are common features, but each case is bad in its own special way.
ADHD of course affects attention (it’s in the name!) but a lot of it is emotional, too. A lot of people with ADHD are emotionally sensitive. The upside is that they’re often empathetic and fun-loving; the upside is that they are very easily hurt. Don’t be surprised if you think an innocent comment makes a child cry or get angry because they perceived it differently. As children, people with ADHD tend to lash out in response to real or perceived exclusion. Be nice – I know it’s obvious but we all forget this at times.
People with ADHD are like those with autism in that they have special interests that can punch through their problems and bring out their best self. Relating things to their special interest can be a great strategy.
Stimulation is really good for most things. Activities engaging multiple senses are great. However, if they **need** to concentrate, it goes the opposite way. In that case, you want to reduce stimuli as much as possible.
They will get up, fidget, and move around. They will do things that are completely illogical and that they know will make you angry because it will make a response. This is partly because their brains are dopamine-starved and partly because other factors we haven’t elucidated yet. Breathe, don’t get angry, don’t blame. Stay jovial and direct them towards the right things.
I **know** that ADHD looks like selfishness, but please trust me when I say that people with ADHD are some of the most self-loathing and introspective people on the planet. If I had a dime for every time I felt bad and thought “Why the hell did I do [stupid thing]?” I’d probably be able to buy a decent car.
I had a student who loved origami.
He was in a mixed level class that had to go online during the pandemic.
Even when we were doing online games, the waiting time was boring for him. I asked him to fold origami when he was free and in the end of the lesson I would ask him to do a little presentation. That made him very happy, because he was not bored and he was able to show off his origami skills. If there is some type of activity they can do on the side while you talk to other students, that might help.
I teach at Eikawa, so it might have different rules, but I usually don’t ask my students to sit down unless they are doing something dangerous. I had 2 boys who would casually do classes standing up. That made them less agitated.