Teaching Children with ADHD

Anna Jarosz

Anna Jarosz has graduated from the Teacher Training College English Unlimited, Gdansk, Poland. She is interested in psychology and enjoys working with students especially with those who have special educational needs or are disabled. The following article about ADHD is part of her graduation thesis. The observations presented in this paper were carried out in 2005/2006.
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Introduction
Meet the boy
The first lesson
The second lesson
Reflections

I would like to present my observations and describe the behaviour of the student who I was working with. In my description, I will also include some information, which I found out from the boy's main teacher. Some of them can be shocking and may disgust you, however, with this kind of behaviour each teacher can met during the lesson and that is why I have decided to include all of the symptoms and examples of ADHD behaviour which I observed.

He is a student of the sixth class. His education takes place in small groups and the level of his process of learning is accommodated to his abilities.

The boy goes to school very regularly, however, he does not always take part in lessons. Often, he refuses to enter the class or take out school accessories from his schoolbag. He is able to concentrate on a particular task for a very short time. Moreover, he does it with a huge effort. He undertakes doing very short tasks, especially when the beginning and the end is clearly marked.

In this verbal utterance he gives accidental and very often inadequate answers, even if he possesses the required knowledge of this particular subject. He interrupts the other students and usually does not let questions be finished. Every, even the smallest stimulus distracts his attention. Each unannounced change e.g. the replacement of the teacher or necessity of changing the classrooms throws him off his balance and triggers a series of different and negative behaviour patterns. During the lesson he very often stands up, walks or runs around the classroom, displaces tables, talks and accosts the others and goes out into the corridor. He is excessively talkative, he speaks very loudly. Moreover, he often screams or sings. He also comes into conflict with other students, he threatens them, frightens and harasses them in a vulgar way usually claiming that it is them to blame for.

In stressful situations, his statements are often concentrated on sexual matter which is not appropriate to his age at all. I also found out from the teacher that sometimes during the lesson he masturbates. He manifests physical aggression, which is usually directed at the weaker and younger students. It also happened that after a huge outburst of anger (screaming, kicking on walls or doors, throwing chairs in the classroom)he was crying very long and desperately. At such moments, he was talking in a very negative way about himself. He said that everything came to anything and that he did not want to live anymore. At the time he asked for help and admitted that he did not accept his own behaviour.

Taking into consideration his needs the point-token system was elaborated. The consequences of his inappropriate behaviour were established at school. Some of his awards were given to him at school and some of them at home with the agreement of his mother. Being motivated by these awards, which he really cared for, he initially endeavoured to control his behaviour. It was really improved during the first few weeks. However, probably as a result of some complications in his family life, he refused to collect points and his behaviour drastically deteriorated.

In September, 2004 there was a contract signed between him and his mother. At the moment it is being put into practice, however, it still happens that he is not taking part in the lesson and disorganises the functioning of the whole school. His progress in education is not efficient and the level of his knowledge is definitely unsatisfactory.

In the first lesson that I was supposed to conduct, I was establishing the rules with the students. We sat on the floor and I gave them a huge piece of colourful paper. I asked them in what way they think they should behave and discuss each point I was setting the rules on the paper remembering that each of them was supposed to positive. When we finished I asked Ss to draw everything that they wanted on this poster to make it more colourful and visible. Children also treated it differently because they put there a piece of their own work. At the end I gave each of them a pastel. They had to draw a huge stain, put their hand on it and then put their dirty hand on the poster as a stamp, which was the evidence of their accepting the rules.

The next thing was telling students what reward they will get when they behave according to the established rules and what kind of consequences will their wrong behaviour have. I decided to introduce token-point system which mainly relies on collecting points by the student. First of all I prepared a table on the big piece of paper with the table ready to complete. It looked like this:

Figure 1.

Apart from this table, I prepared a poster with a train on it which I also put on each point. I put this poster in a visible place so the student could observe the process of receiving points.

Figure 2

On the second lesson, I decided to introduce a song. The lesson was supposed to last 45 minutes, however, because of the behaviour of the students and many breaks connected with it the lesson lasted 60 minutes with the permission of my mentor teacher. Before the lesson I also discussed each of my steps with the teacher. She gave me lots of useful tips concerning the lesson, my methods of teaching. We also tried to predict the behaviour of the student and the ways how I could react.

Figure 4

My expectations of S'achievements

(Gerngross, Günter, Puchta, Herbert, 2000, p.3)

Before entering the classroom the boy started fighting with his classmate. There was no reason to do that and they did not pay any attention that I was next to them. The boy used very vulgar words and he was saying that without any sense just to make his classmates more upset. He said e. g. 'Damian chodz tu', 'Chodz to mi obciagniesz' etc. This went on even if I told them to stop raising their voices, and it did not work. Only when I came closer, touched his shoulder saying: 'Saying such things to your friend makes him feel upset. And now stop quarrelling with him and enter the classroom, please'. He looked at me in wonder but then he did exactly what I asked him to do.

When he entered the he put his bag on the floor. He was calm, however, he made an impression of someone waiting for something to happen without thinking about the thing he should have done: like putting out his school accessories. He was waiting for my instructions.

The next step was reminding the rules which we established during the last lesson. I showed him stickers, which I had brought to the classroom. I showed him what they look like and he really liked them shouting: 'O! Co to? Dla mnie? Super! 'Then I replied that these are the stickers which I promised to bring him and pointed at the poster with the rules. I asked him to remind me of the rules. When he could not remember them, he became very angry. He jumped on the chair and finally stopped answering my questions. To calm him down and encourage him to go on with his answers I said: 'I am really impressed that you remember all of the rules after such a long time. You did a really good job. Let's start the lesson and not forget about our rules'. After my praising him he felt proud of himself and he got a sticker.. The whole situation was a little difficult because I was his new teacher and children with ADHD do not like any changes as I have mentioned before. In my opinion, he expected me to be angry at him if his answers are not correct and he was very anxious because he wanted to do his best.

The next part of the lesson introduced the subject of the lesson and the explanation of my lesson plan. Because there was no OHP in this school, I had prepared additional copies and gave them to each student. I explained shortly what we were going to do that day and I asked the boy to highlight the most important things. I gave him the highlighter but he did not want to take mine and he took one of his classmates. He did it very fast without permission saying offensive things to that person e. g.'Dawaj to idiotko, ten jest mój, ja chce zielony'. When the girl protested he said: 'Odwal sie wez inny'. I came to him and asked him to show me his notes to be sure that he wrote down everything.

Because the boy started becoming more and more aggressive I said: 'It is high time for a break. You have five minutes to do what you want.' The boy immediately stood up and, prodding his classmates, he ran out of the classroom. After thirty seconds, the boy came back and started interrupting the rest of the students. He took a compass and pricked the person standing next to him. Luckily the break was over so I clapped my hands saying: 'The break is over so sit behind your desks and concentrate on the lesson.' The boy while going to his desk kicked one of the students sitting at his desk and finally sat down.

I took all of flashcards and showed the one with the tiger. I explained that the tiger's name was Willy and we will sing a song with him. I also said that Willy likes doing a lot of exercising like dancing, for example, and showed the flashcard with dancing Willy. I asked students to repeat and the word 'dance' after me. The boy repeated it but he stood up and started dancing around the classroom. The rest of the students started laughing at him. I smiled too because this situation did not mean that the boy did not obey the rules. He just wanted to express himself and release his energy. It was better than pricking his classmates with the compass. I said that he could dance very well and everybody liked it. Then I asked him to come back to his desk and when he did what he was told. I gave him a sticker for obeying my instructions. The boy was extremely happy and he started sticking the sticker on the piece of paper, which was designed for this purpose. However, he was so engaged in this activity that he forgot about the lesson. I had to remind him that this was the prize is for repeating words after me but if he wants to get the next sticker he has to concentrate on the next words.

I asked students to stand up, repeat and show the rest of the words after me while showing the rest of the flashcards. However, the boy was still focused on the sticker. I came to him and knelt down to be on his level and I looked deeply into his eyes. I said with a decided voice: 'Stand up and do as I ask'. I asked him also to repeat my instructions and he did it perfectly. I was a little bit shocked because I thought that he had not been listening to me. I gave him the next sticker. This situation shows that even if he knows what to do he does not do it because he is concentrated on something else.

I started showing the rest of the flashcards and students were repeating after me and showing as well. Nevertheless, after a minute when I said 'clap your hands' the boy banged his friend in his hand and they started fighting. I could not calm them down so the teacher who was with me separated them and the boy went with her to the next room.

He came back after five minutes. I told him that because of his behaviour he would not get another sticker and if he behaves like that he will not have free time during the next break. I told him to come closer to me, in front of the class and with his back to the class. It allowed me to do the activity until the end and the boy concentrated on it while repeating and showing new words. At the end of the activity I gave him the next sticker. I said that because he did the activity very well there would be a five minute break and the boy ran out of the classroom and I did not see him for five minutes. When he came back I turned on and off the light to give the sign that the break was over. He sat behind the desk without my asking him to do that so I immediately gave him the sticker, which he had added to his collection.

I posted the flashcards on the board and asked the boy to come in front of the class. I said that I would say the word for example 'shake your arms' and he has to point at the proper flashcard which showed it. The boy ran to the board and started pointing at flashcards without my asking him to do that. I said that I had not asked him to do it and if he will not be listening to my orders, he will not have the break. Then I said: 'Now point at the flashcard which shows dancing'. The boy did it. I said 'You pointed at the right flashcards. Very good' and I gave him the sticker. He did the whole tasks perfectly. I asked him to sit down. He did it and he got the next sticker.

I said that I will show the flashcard saying the name of the activity. The students are supposed to tell me if I am right or wrong. I showed the flashcard with dancing and I said 'jump'. The boy said 'No, dance'. I replied 'Very good. You deserve the sticker' and I gave it to him. The exercise was going on but after four flashcards, everything was ruined. I said 'sing' showing the flashcard with singing. The boy was a little bit bored and he could not wait for the break so when the girl sitting next to him said 'Yes, it is true' the boy said that it is not true even that he knew that the girl was right. He started quarrelling with her and finally he spit at her. When I saw this I said that because he does not respect his friends and he does not behave according to our rules he will not have free time during the break. He was furious and he threw his bag at the wall. Then the teacher who was helping me took him to the classroom next to mine. The rest of the children had a break in the meantime.

After five minutes, the boy came back and we could continue the lesson. Actually, I had had enough but I knew that I had to deal with his behaviour and not to allow him to provoke me. Luckily the last part of the lesson was not so bad.

I said that I was going to play music and they are only supposed to listen to the rhythm. In the meantime, they can hum if they want or even dance. But I added, looking at the boy and touching his shoulder, that they can dance but they have to do it in such way not to interrupt the others. If I see that they are pushing each other or saying inappropriate words I will stop the music. The boy seemed to understand everything and when I played the CD he behaved very well and he got the next sticker. Then I asked students to listen to the song one more time and try to sing the words. In the meantime, I was showing them flashcards to make the task easier. The boy was showing everything as I asked him and he was singing very loudly. I gave him the next sticker.

As the last thing I asked students if they wanted to sing the song one more time and they said 'yes'. Therefore, I played the CD once more and students had great fun. The boy was singing very loudly, he was dancing and running around the classroom but without interrupting. He was like in his own world. He got the next sticker. I was happy that he was not bored and that he fully participated in the lesson.

Summing up this lesson, it was very hard work and it demanded a lot of patience and concentration from me. Honestly, I did not expect that the boy would use so many curse words. It was odd even that I had found out earlier that such behaviour is normal for him and I can expect worse behaviour like breaking the window with a chair, masturbation etc. However, if we have contact with normal students in our daily life and than we have lesson with the child with ADHD the difference is so huge that it is very hard to get used to this new situation. I personally was shocked and sometimes I even wanted to leave the classroom and run away as far as I could. In such extreme situations like swearing, hitting and offending everybody it is difficult to remember that your student does not do it on his purpose and he really does not want to hurt anybody. The worst thing is that it is so hard to have close contact with such student. You have to put a lot of effort to gain his confidence, to make him aware that you are his or her friend, to make him or her feel secure and confident. These children need it much more than somebody else because when they leave school and go to the normal world everybody makes them feel guilty for damages which they do, they feel worse and they are aware that everything what they do will be ruined and done not properly. So as a result they stop believing in their own strength. They feel like intruders and on every not pleasant comment directed to them, they react with the aggression because we all know that the best defence is an attack.

Coming back to the lesson, I observed many characteristic features of the behaviour, which children with ADHD have. It was easier for him to concentrate at the beginning of the lesson. He was not tired and bored. He was also very curious what types of activities I had prepared. However, when he started doing the exercises he got bored easily and was focused more on the many ways of interrupting other students. After two minutes of doing each task, he was dismissed. He pricked his friends with the compass, he insulted them or spat at them. Because of this, other students were also aggressive to him and behaved in the same way as he did. The worst thing was that all of the students were distracted because of the student's behaviour, so my whole work was ruined and I had to put a lot of effort and patience to make them work again and concentrate on the tasks.

After each part of the lesson, which lasted 15 minutes, if his behaviour was quite good he had a break. During this time he could go to the toilet, to his teacher or have fun in the corridor to release his energy. On the other hand, there were situations in which I did not have choice and I had to give a break because I could not deal with his inappropriate behaviour and I had to sent him to his teacher. Actually he came back after a few minutes but my planned work was ruined again and I had to dissemble that I am not angry and that everything was ok, even if it was not and I was furious. The worst thing for me was that while I was angry with him I had to reward him after a few seconds when he did the smallest good thing.

At the beginning of the lesson, I introduced the lesson plan and explained it step by step so the student was aware of what he can expect during the lesson. I also put it on the OHP to make it more visible so he could look at it every time he wanted. His level of knowledge was very low so I could not even work with a student's book. I prepared my own lesson using the song to give him the chance to move a lot, sing and release his energy. I prepared many colourful flashcards, which reached his attention and made the lesson more interesting. While giving instructions, I used simple and clear language which was easy for him to understand. My instructions were also very short so the student knew exactly what to do and even if he had problems with understanding my commands I repeated them and then I asked him to repeat it after me. All of my commands were positive.

The rules of his behaviour established earlier by the school helped me with keeping the discipline. When his behaviour was not impossible to stand, I could send him to his teacher if I knew that it was the only way to settle him down and relax. I also did not want the other students to see and observe his behaviour because it was distracting for them and they were laughing at him, which made him more furious.

As far as the praising is concerned, I established with the rules of it at the beginning. He knew that when he gathered a proper number of the stickers, which were the prize for his good behaviour he will get the main reward, in this case it was the book. He was very motivated and he tried very hard to get this book. It helped me to work with him and conduct the lesson from the beginning to the end.

I tried to be very friendly and smiling a lot. I had close contact with the student for the whole lesson. When I wanted to put an emphasis on the instruction for the activity or to focus his attention on me so I came closer, touched him, looked deeply in his eyes or made my voice sound more clearly and loudly. However, when he misbehaved I was very strict and he knew that if he was naughty he would be punished. As the result, the boy was not afraid of me and he tried to do everything his best. He liked when I praised him in the front of the class and when I paid attention to everything what he did.

At the beginning of my lesson, the boy behaved very well. He did what I asked him to do and he was quite calm. However, during the third lesson his behaviour got worst. Luckily knowing that I am strict and consequent he behaved well again and he was working through the whole lesson.

In my opinion ADHD is one of the most distracting and interrupting disorders which we can meet while teaching. We as the teachers have the most important role in life of students with this disorder. It is common that very often we are the first to notice symptoms of ADHD, who tell students' parents about it and give a piece of advice what they should do with it. Very often parents do not realise that this kind of disorder is very dangerous to their children and can bring their kids even to committing suicide. More so, there are parents who really do not care about their children because they do not have time or because they have problems of their own. In these cases, we are the only ones who can help students with dealing with this disorder and I can even say that their life is in our hands.

As I have mentioned earlier ADHD can be inherited or acquired. When it is inherited, we cannot do anything to prevent it, however, it is very often the fault of the surrounding environment that the children acquire ADHD. In most cases, it is caused by problems in families or when the children cannot deal with the situations in the daily lives, which make him or her stressed and feel insecure. In this situation teachers are the people who can keep them safe and prevent them from getting into ADHD. If we as the teacher notice that there are some problems at the student's home for example parents are addicted to alcohol or the student is bitten by them we should react immediately by talking with parents or with the child or even by informing chief education officer to take care of this situation. It is obvious that if parents abuse alcohol or drugs we cannot count on them.

When we find that the student has ADHD and we have all of the necessary certificates from the doctor and psychologists we have to take some steps to eliminate the symptoms of ADHD while working with him or her and teaching the student using suitable methods. All of the methods, which I mentioned in my diploma, are necessary while teaching and cannot be omitted. It is hard to use all of them during one lesson but we can never predict what kind of situation or behaviour we will encounter.

Coming back to my practice lessons, I checked almost all of the methods of teaching which I have included in my dissertation. Having such close contact with the child with ADHD was a great experience for me and personally, I think that I would like to cooperate with such children in the future. However, I realise that this is an extremely hard task especially for such young person as I am. Before starting my practice, I read through all of the sources concerning books and the Internet which were describing methods of teaching students with ADHD to find out as many information as I could. Moreover, I have to admit that the teacher who I was working with in this school helped me a lot. She described the behaviour of the students in detail, she told me everything I could expect while teaching him. Thanks to her I was not so frightened as I was at the beginning. I even had the opportunity to observe the lesson, which was conducted by her. It allowed me to met the student better and establish my strategy of teaching him.

During the lessons, I was very stressed but I tried not to showed it. I kept strictly to my lesson plan and the rules established earlier. On the other hand, I did not expect that the boy would like to co-operate with me. I used all of the methods which I had learned about. Starting from the lesson plan and establishing the rules to preparing all of the visual materials preparing the classroom to make the students feel more comfortable. I used positive and clear commands. The tasks were also clear and not complicated. The students participated in every activity, he could sing loudly and move a lot. He had great fun while doing exercises and even if he started misbehaving he stopped doing it when I told him to stop. I also tried to make him more self-confident by praising him and giving the rewards.

I have learned a lot during that practice. I also have to admit that I got used to the boy and missed him. He is a brilliant and very intelligent student. He tries very hard and puts a great effort in each exercise. It is obvious that his behaviour is not always appropriate and it sometimes made me furious and I was very angry at him. But then I tried to calm down and remind myself that it is caused by his disorder and his behaviour does not depend on the student. He was like a prisoner in his own world and it was hard for him to get away from his reality. I really liked this boy and I wanted to help him very much.

Thanks to having contact with the boy and the opportunity to discuss everything with many teachers I noticed that ADHD can be a real obstacle in normal life especially in Poland, a country which is not as tolerant as other countries. These kinds of students are treated as worse and they really experience it every day. Who can help them if most of the teachers have no idea about ADHD? Maybe it is because they are not interested in and they do not feel any need to learn something about this disorder or the whole education system does not care about it. It is really difficult to find some courses which could prepare us to work with these kids. Of course, most of us have classes concerned with this problem, however, only two or three hours is not enough to be well prepared and get on well with ADHD.

As far as the students are concerned, I feel sorry for them. They are not tolerated in Polish society. I could even say they are discriminated against. It is hard for parents to find a proper school for their children and the teacher who will really help them fight this disorder. The classes are too big and the number of teachers is not enough. There is not too many useful materials and teachers have not as much time as they should have for these students.

What is more we have to ask ourselves if we really want to help these children and if we believe that we are able to help them. I once heard from a teacher who has been working only with this type of learners that there is no chance for them, that we as the teachers should tell them at the beginning of their education that no matter how hard they will try they will never achieve their goals. For example they will not pass A-level exam or go to University or College. In my opinion, this kind of thinking is killing the hope in them. They have to believe in their aims and they have to be motivated. Is it a motivation when we tell them that whatever they will try to do will be ruined? Personally, I do not think it is a good idea. There are so many examples of children with many diseases like ADHD, ADD, Autism etc and these children are able to deal with daily life. They have graduated from schools, they have jobs and families. Considering these examples, we have to believe that teaching them has sense especially when we know that ADHD can be reduced to the level where people can start to function in the real world. As the proof of this I would like to say that almost all of the authors of the books which I have read suffered from this disorder in the past and ,thanks to hard work, have defeated it.

References

Gerngross, Gunter, Puchta, Herbert, 2000, Join In, Cambridge University Press, p. 3

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