What Can Teachers Do To Help a Child with AD/HD?

by Mary Fowler

Whether your child receives services under IDEA, Section 504, or another program designed to help students with special needs, it is important that the intervention be tailored to meet your child's individual needs. One size does not fit all. Work with the school to identify the nature of your child's special needs and to design an educational program suited to those needs.

In addition to the core interventions described in the previous section, there are a number of other educational interventions that can potentially help students with AD/HD. This section looks at some of the more common interventions, modifications, and adaptations.

Select a Supportive Teacher

Try to place the student with teachers who are positive, upbeat, flexible, and highly organized problem-solvers. Teachers who praise liberally and who are willing to "go the extra mile" to help students succeed can be enormously beneficial to students with AD/HD.

Adapt Curriculum and Instruction

Provide more direct instruction and as much one-on-one instruction as possible.

Use guided instruction.

Teach and practice organization and study skills in every subject area.

Lecture less.

Design lessons so that students have to actively respond-get up, move around, go to the board, move in their seats.

Design highly motivating and enriching curriculum with ample opportunity for hands-on activities and movement.

Eliminate repetition from tasks or use more novel ways to practice.

Design tasks of low to moderate frustration levels.

Use computers in instruction.

Challenge but don't overwhelm.

Change evaluation methods to suit the child's learning styles and strengths.

Provide Supports to Promote On-Task Behavior

Pair the student with a study buddy or learning partner who is an exemplary student.

Provide frequent feedback.

Structure tasks.

Monitor independent work.

Schedule difficult subjects at the student's most productive time.

Use mentoring and peer tutoring.

Provide frequent and regularly scheduled breaks.

Set timers for specific tasks.

Call attention to schedule changes.

Maintain frequent communication between home and school.

Do daily/weekly progress reports.

Teach conflict resolution and peer mediation skills.

Provide Supports to Promote Executive Function

To support planning:

Teach the student to use assignment pads, day planners or time schedules, task organizers and outlines

Teach study skills and practice them frequently and in all subjects

To increase organization:

Allow time during school day for locker and backpack organization

Allow time for student to organize materials and assignments for homework

Have the student create a master notebook-a 3-ring binder where the student organizes (rather than stuffs) papers

Limit number of folders used; have the student use hole-punched paper and clearly label all binders on spines; monitor notebooks

Have daily and weekly organization and clean up routines

Provide frequent checks of work and systems for organization

To improve follow through:

Create work completion routines

Provide opportunities for self-correction

Accept late work

Give partial credit for work partially completed

To improve self-control:

Prepare the student for transitions

Display rules

Give behavior prompts

Have clear consequences

Provide the student with time to de-stress

Allow doodling or other appropriate, mindless motor movement

Use activity as a reward

Provide more supervision

Memory Boosters

To assist with working memory:

Focus on one concept at a time

List all steps

Write all work down

Use reading guides and plot summaries

Teach note-taking skills-let the student use a study buddy or teacher-prepared notes to fill in gaps

List all key points on board

Provide summaries, study guides, outlines, and lists

Let the student use the computer

To assist with memory retrieval:

Teach the student memory strategies (grouping, chunking, mnemonic devices)

Practice sorting main ideas and details

Teach information and organization skills

Make necessary test accommodations (allow open book tests; use word banks; use other memory cues; test in preferred modality-e.g., orally, fill in blank; give frequent quizzes instead of lengthy tests)

Attention Getters and Keepers

For problems beginning tasks:

Repeat directions

Increase task structure

Highlight or color code directions and other important parts

Teach the student keyword underlining skills

Summarize key information

Give visual cues

Have the class start together

For problems sticking with and finishing tasks:

Add interest and activity to tasks

Divide larger tasks into easily completed segments

Shorten overall tasks

Allow the student choice in tasks

Limit lecture time

Call on the student often

Reprinted from National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY) Briefing Paper, Revised Edition, April 2002. Contact NICHCY at P.O. Box 1492, Washington, DC 20013-1492; phone: 800/695-0285 or 202/884-8200 (Voice/TT).