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ADD and ADHD: approaches to learning
School versus home
In some ways, school is the worst place for children to be if they have problems with ADHD. School classrooms (especially primary classrooms) are busy, and the child’s senses are bombarded by background noise, chatter, displays on the walls, people moving about, things happening in the corridor outside the room, a bird flying past the window, the ‘feel’ of their clothes against the skin, the sensation of sitting on the chair … it goes on and on. The child has an impaired ability to screen out the multitude of sensory impressions that are registered by the brain and this makes concentration virtually impossible.
Learning at home has advantages which are seldom found in primary schools. You can create a calming environment which removes the multitude of sensory impressions which intrude upon the child’s consciousness constantly. It’s good to have a specially prepared, clear, quiet, uncluttered area where you can spend some time doing peaceful activities.
Learning at home
The child may have a pattern of times in the day when they are more inclined to be receptive. This might be after food or first thing in the morning. Watch for these opportunities and aim to spend some time together on an educational activity. This may only last for a few minutes at first.
Particularly if your child is hyperactive it’s good to build in regular opportunities to work on short-term behavioural objectives including improving listening skills, playing memory games and following instructions. This is a gradual process that helps them to learn to control impulsive behaviour. Make sure, too, that they have really heard you: gently get them to look at you so that you can see that they have registered what you are saying.
If possible, consider involving someone else with the child’s education on a regular basis. Some parents find that the child behaves very differently when they are working one-to-one with another adult.
Working with the child
Very short, focused tasks are needed and larger tasks may be broken down into manageable ones. When you work together, make sure that the child knows exactly what you want them to do.
Cue-cards
Some children respond well to visual cue-cards with simple pictures representing different activities. These are easy to make and some children like to be involved by drawing the pictures to go on the cards. It’s best if they draw the pictures on paper so that they can be cut out and stuck on when they are happy with their efforts (otherwise you might get through the cards quite quickly!).
An internet search for ‘visual cue cards primary age’ yields a huge variety of images which will provide ideas, and some of them can be printed for home use. There are also ready-made sets available. Playing-card sized blanks can be found cheaply on eBay, Amazon and many craft sites and it’s worth having a stock of these. They are very useful for presenting a short task to a child because their small size helps the child to focus on the activity without becoming overwhelmed or feeling threatened by it.
Materials for learning
Choosing (and making) suitable materials becomes second nature after a while once you learn to go with the way your child’s mind works. A child may panic, become fidgety, uneasy and angry or run out of the room if they see the extent of an activity all at once. For example, if you have a list of maths questions and you put each one separately on a card and present them one at a time, they may complete all of them without difficulty. Encouragement, praise and small rewards (even raisins!) all help too.
Variety is important – as well as repetition – and some children need very stimulating material with immediate feedback in order to keep them interested. Good educational computer software may be useful to engage the child’s attention and this may be a useful motivator as well.
Books need to be chosen carefully. Many books and magazines cram far too much information on the page together with pictures, diagrams, little cartoon figures and fact boxes. Strong background colours with pale text may also cause problems. This type of layout can be really troublesome for the child who can’t concentrate and should be avoided. Covering up part of a page with plain card may help the child to keep focused for long enough to absorb some information.
Helping them learn
The child will probably have a tendency to rush through books superficially and miss a lot, and it’s a long term objective to try to help them to slow up and deepen their responses to printed material. You won’t change the way their minds work, but you can help them to develop strategies for effective learning. Reading with them is essential so that you can draw their attention to material that they would otherwise have missed. They soon tire of things and they thrive on variety, but they need to be encouraged to see the point of returning to books as many times as possible to find out what they’ve missed.
Writing: the challenges
Writing presents particular challenges and it may be necessary to be a scribe for them, perhaps by negotiating a limited amount of writing for them to complete so that they develop their skills. This may be a slow process; avoid battles over handwriting at all costs. They don’t help in the long run, no matter how concerned you may be at the time. Don’t forget that there is simply no need to attempt to produce the same amount of written work that pupils do in school.
Being active
Sometimes it helps to mix physical activity in with work that requires concentration. For instance, 11-year-old Wendy used to jump on her bike and ride vigorously round the block every time she had completed a learning activity. As any home educator will tell you, there are innumerable opportunities for practical activities at home and informal learning may be of real benefit to children who have problems with ADD/ADHD.
The need for routine
Many parents find that it’s important to have simple routines and patterns in daily life which are clearly defined. Regular exercise is very helpful as part of the daily routine and physical activity relieves tension and anxiety. The focus may be on physical fitness rather than on competitive sport, and running and swimming are activities which are usually easy to arrange.
Table tennis, badminton, football, tennis and other sociable sporting activities may be played with a sympathetic adult at first in order to develop the child’s skills and self-confidence. Later on it may be possible to introduce the child to a group sporting activity. Most people are sympathetic to a child’s difficulties if they know about them beforehand. Older children may also benefit from yoga, gymnastics or martial arts which help them to develop self-control.
Informal education
Can the experience of mainstream schooling really suit these children? They seem to respond better in informal settings, as ex-headteacher Patience Thomson observes: ‘These children live for the holidays. Recently, I was walking in the Alps with a hyperactive boy. He was interested in everything: the glacier, the eagles overhead, the flowers, the shrieking marmots and the apollo butterflies. He ate his lunch while damming a mountain stream. He asked many questions and delighted in having my full attention. He had a happy and rewarding day. I think he learnt something, too.’
Mary, London