Thursday, September 13, 2012
ADHD/ADD
Since another year of school has started, for us back in August, I have been reminded that a lot of teachers are not aquainted with ADD/ADHD. Sure they have heard of it on T.V. and radio, but most of them are CLUELESS as to how to help a student that has ADD/ADHD. (ADD is where you or a child simply cannot focus, cannot concentrate. ADHD is ADD plus hyper activity thrown in.)
Let me give you the short version of "Our Story". My middle child has ADHD and it's not a slight case where he may day dream through math class. He is in constant motion, always moving, always thinking and most of the time he's not concentrating on what he needs to. Which means he's not focusing and not RETAINING any information. He just can't be still. Even when he sleeps he rolls around and talks.When he was smaller, in pre-k, we had issues with him remembering simple saftey rules. I almost had a heart attack one day at the gas station when he ran OUT INTO traffic because he was excited because he got a slush puppy. Needless to say our motto is "saftey first" and before we go ANYWHERE I remind him of the rules. He just gets so wound up he forgets them. It sounds lame, but it is the truth. We also had issues with behaviour. I mean bad, naughty behaviour that made me shake my head and think, "What in the world was he thinking?". The issue is he WASN'T thinking. He is very impulsive, he thinks it and does it. He doesn't think about the consquences, he just doesn't get that far along into the thought process before he is all excited about whatever. That was a major hurtle for us, but with lots of patients and heaps of getnle reminders and a behaviour system we over came it.
Class work can be a major ordeal for him as well as homework. I have literally spent hours upon hours helping him do a simple sheet of math problems. This equals to him and me being frustrated. Our school system does not share information with the teacher, unless they deem it important enough for her/him to know. So it is left up to the PARENT to fill in the blanks before the rumor mill does. I had issues with this last year. One Nosey Momma of a fellow classmate of my son did that before I realised the school kept information private. I of course had a very long talk with my son's teacher and we kept up an open line of communication all year so we could be a team to help him succeed. It worked great!
She was on-board and even understood what ADHD was after our chat and we had a game plan to amp up his strengths and to help strengthen is weaknesses. He was an honor roll student after that! It made him confident and it made me so happy to see him focused and driven!
This year started out rough. New school equals new everything. Then I learned after the 3rd week of school, after 3 weeks of VERY poor, failing grades what was going on. My darling boy was in a class of 24 students. Disctraction city and the teacher again was clueless. After I met with his teacher and got a classroom game plan and a home game plan things have improved so much. (a different grade means an entirely different set of homework expectations).Instead of getting 30's on tests he's now getting 100's. What's the difference you ask?
Step 1: Talk to your doctor
I talked to our family doctor and got some ADHD medication for my sweetie. Keep in mind our family docotor has been the same for one almost 10 years now, so he is fairly aquainted with my boys. The medication is a stimulant that helps him focus. It does not change is personaility, or slow down his hyperness. It actually can make is hyper behaviour worse if you are not prepared. So we got prepared. (Also chocolate and caffeine are a major no-no while on the med)
Step 2: Try the Medication
Before he took the med on a school day I gave it to him at home to see the effects. He was a live wire. He talked for 12 hours straight! He was bouncing all over the house. The next day he took it at home I made sure we had activies to help keep him focused. That did wonders for him! That's the key to the medicine. He's good as long as he has something to keep him focused.
Step 3: Get a game plan for school and home
This is where my son's teacher comes into play. From my experience as his mother I have learned that a simple daily routine helps keep him on track. From the time he gets up till he goes to bed we have a routine. Everything has a place, from his toys, books, backpack, shoes and everything else. This makes keeping him organized simple which is an issue for people with ADD/ADHD. A simple reminder is all it takes to get him back on track, and it is soothing to him to know what is next.
As for school organization a binder with labeled dividers is all it took to help him sort out his "stuff". The binder I bought him has 2 mesh zip pockets on the outside to hold his pencils and other things that gets lost inside of a desk or a locker. The dividers are labeled for his subjects, spelling, english, math, and of course a section for me. The teacher and school always sends home heaps of stuff for parents every week. Now I'm not reading a crumpled up class newsletters that got smushed in the bottom of his backpack.
His teacher also began a routine at school and posted it for all of the students to see. What's at 8:10 after anouncements? Morning Work. They all know what to expect, and she has it posted on a white board so if they have a special day she can change it! Brilliant! The next step is rewards. If he is good and has good grades or gets caught being good he gets a ticket. After he has collected "x" amount of tickets he gets a trip to the treasure chest!
As for the distractions she has split the class up into groups for learning activities. A group of 4 students may be reading on the rug, another 4 are finishing up class work, another 4 are having computer time, another 4 are in the science center. Brilliant teaching at it's best. And the best thing is that all of the students are benfiting from these smaller groups of learning centers.
The biggest factor for my son is movement. He must move. He will be bouncing in his seat or walking laps around the room. So to aide him in keeping in his seat we use a excerise ball for him to sit on! It gives him a range of motion that he needs and keeps him at his desk to do his work.
All of these small steps keeps him on track and makes life easy for everyone. Nobody is running around like a crazy person in the morning, and in the afternoon we all know what to do when we walk into the front door. If there is a change, like say a fair, I make sure to tell him what we are doing, the when, the where and what I expect of him and it goes smoothly! No more am I looking like the overwhelmed momma with 3 boys and frazzled hair with mis-matching socks. In a small way his ADHD has helped get our family on track. Otherwise I would be a mess, my hair in a sloppy bun wearing flip flops in 10 degree weather because I didn't have time to put on "real" shoes.
The key to having a ADHD or ADD child being sucessful in life is to have a plan and get everyone on board.Plus being calm for those "bad days". Yes, you will not be able to do this for his whole life, but he will pick up on these tools now if you show him how to use them. Then when he is an adult he will know what he needs to be successful. You know what they say, "Give a fish to a hungry man he will eat for that day, teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime".
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