Parents: Your Child and School

It is the time of year when ADHD kids start to "hit the wall" at school. Are you seeing this in your home?

Imagine the most difficult environment for a child who has difficulty sitting still, difficulty paying attention, and loves to talk to other children?

Imagine that this child has to go into this environment every day, and is expected to perform successfully.

This describes your child's classroom setting. There are a lot of distractions, yet they are told to sit still, don't move, don't talk. They must pay attention to boring worksheets, and keep on task until the work is finished. None of these things come easily to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids. But day by day, off to school they go.

Many ADHD kids "hit a wall" in school as the school year progresses. Every week they just get a little farther and farther behind, until they're so far behind that it's impossible to catch up. They lose their homework assignments, even after they have spent hours working on them. And they study hard for tests only to perform poorly the next day. They just slip farther and farther behind with each passing week.

ADHD is most often recognized and referred for treatment in third grade.This is when kids usually hit the "academic wall" for the first time, and the parents search for some help. We also see many referrals when the child leaves Elementary School for Junior High School, with several classes and several teachers. Many ADHD kids who found ways to compensate in Elementary School are totally lost in Junior High School.

How can we help these children to be more successful in school?

Begin by learning more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from the ADHD Information's family of web sites.

ADDinSchool.com is one of our ADHD web sites. It has over 500 Classroom Interventions to help your ADHD Student succeed. It is time to check it out!

Anti-social behaviors are common with ADHD individuals. About 60% of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids are also oppositional or defiant. Some are even getting in trouble with the law.

Impulsive-Hyperactive ADHD kids are the most likely to get into trouble than are the Inattentive ADHD kids, as they tend to crave the stimulation of anti-social behaviors, and impulsively "act-out". Because they are impulsive, they don't plan their crimes well, and are usually easily caught.

Teens untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADD ADHD - average two arrests by the age of 18. About 20% of teens untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADD ADHD - will be arrested for a felony, versus only about 3% of teens without ADHD.

As many as 50% of all men in prisons have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and were untreated as children or teens for ADHD.

As many as 50% of all teenagers in juvenile facilities have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder but were untreated for ADHD.

I know that the "Stop and Think" movement in ADHD treatment has lost some momentum lately, but I still believe that the basic strategies and techniques are still worth teaching your children. After all, problem solving skills are important for everyone to have, whether ADHD or not. In fact, many marriage researchers agree that if married couples had basic problem solving skills better mastered that many marriages would be happier and many divorces averted. So problem solving skills are important for everyone.

Its easy to teach your child this five-step problem solving strategy. My favorite version of this simple skill goes something like this. . .

1. Ask yourself, "What is the problem?"
2. Think up three possible solutions (options) to the problem.
3. Look at each option for a minute. Ask yourself, "Is this a good move or a bad move?"
4. Pick what you think would be the best option or solution.
5. Try it out and see if it works.

I use Checkers to teach this formula. It is a great way to practice without it effecting anything in the "real world." I use this formula to teach the skills in Checkers: