Teaching the Child with Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Call her Claudia. Claudia first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 4 student during the 2010-2011 academic year. At the time, her father, Roland, expressed concern that Claudia was not reading well enough for her grade level. Teachers, counselors, and at least one physician also conveyed great concern about Claudia’s difficulty in focusing on academic tasks and about her tendency to exhibit inappropriate verbal and physical behavior. Roland had begun to consider advice deeming that Claudia should take a medicinal drug for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Given the prevailing concerns, I scheduled a one-on-one two-hour weekly academic session for Claudia, reserving for her the same kind of undivided attention that I have for a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. I launched Claudia on a highly aggressive program of skill development. She proved herself to be a very bright girl who responded eagerly to the focused attention that I was giving her. She rose with great speed to full grade level performance in both math and reading, proving quickly that she had all of the latent and manifest academic skills necessary to excel in her grade level assignments at school.

The problem of focus was in evidence at times, even under one-on-one conditions. I came to understand the problem as it occurred in my own sessions with Claudia to be derived from two main areas of concern: 1) certain factors in her biological history and current life circumstances; and 2) certain flights of imagination revealed in the context of the moment. I drew upon my experience with other such apparent attention deficit cases to gather information on Claudia’s personal history and current life at school and at home. I would offer an empathetic ear and advice as appropriate, give her a chance for further comment, allow enough (but not excessive) time for full venting of frustrations and discussion of solutions--- then bring the session back into focus upon the math or reading skill designated for acquisition.

Claudia does most definitely have a biological and environmental history that contributes to her fidgety demeanor. I built strong enough relationships with Roland, Claudia’s mother (Dinah), and other family members that they confided some very uncomfortable aspects of Claudia’s life story. Dinah used crack cocaine at the time that she was pregnant with Claudia. During infancy, Claudia was at times neglected, left for long periods in her crib without timely feeding and diaper changing. Claudia’s parents had already split by the time Claudia was born. She now lives most of the time with Roland, but formally Roland and Dinah have joint custody, so Claudia spends two or three nights a week at Dinah’s house. Both parents are capable of launching piercing verbal invective toward Claudia. There is nothing that I have been able to discern in the current behavior of Claudia’s parent that rises to the level of clinically diagnosable abuse. But Claudia gives evidence of quite a few emotional scars resulting from her personal history and her current situation.

With regard to Claudia’s flights of fancy, I would give them serious attention, treating them as creative observations of and interaction with the world around her. And when Claudia demonstrated a periodic tendency to squirm in her chair and stand up reflexively, I let her do that for a time, then after a reasonable period had elapsed, I would remind her that training herself to sit down as necessary is something that we are working on, because there are times when she must do that at school. Over several weeks and months, Claudia grew much better at remaining focused and relatively stationary in a designated seat.

Claudia came to appreciate the validation that accompanied this approach. Her academic ascent eventually took her above grade level performance, so that by the end of that first year of enrollment in the New Salem Educational Initiative, her Grade 4 year at school, Claudia was performing math operations and reading assignments typically associated with students at Grade 5.

I have a strong conviction that far too many children are now diagnosed with ADHD and, especially, that the resort to medication for treatment of the manifested symptoms is too quick. Classroom teachers have a responsibility to construct an engaging learning environment that captures the attention of those whose ability to focus seems less than ideal. Teachers should also demonstrate caring and patience with children struggling to gain full control over their emotional and physical selves. They should strive to understand enough of a child’s biological and environmental history that they can gain proper perspective on the factors contributing to the student’s behavior. Then, based on the understanding of those facets of a student’s life that have provided daunting challenges, the teacher should treat the child with great sensitivity and high respect. When despite these efforts, the classroom teacher still faces an unruly or uncooperative child, trained personnel should pull the child out for one-on-one sessions of the sort I have described in Claudia’s sessions of the New Salem Educational Initiative. Such one-on-one sessions should continue until she or he is able to return to the regular classroom environment with acceptable demeanor.

In this way, we should severely limit those cases in which medication is administered to the child manifesting symptoms of ADHD. We should try every available strategy to help the child train herself or himself to achieve a level of self-control that will be conducive to academic accomplishment. And in like manner, the child should be taught to negotiate the social environment on the basis of redirected and trained behavioral responses, without recourse to medication.