Can you imagine the most difficult environment for a child who had difficulty sitting still, difficulty paying attention, and loved talking to other children? Imagine that this child had to enter this environment every day and he was expected to function successfully in this environment.
When you think about it, it is the classroom environment that is a difficult environment for these children. There are many distractions, but they are told to sit still, not to move, not to talk, to pay attention to boring worksheets, and to stay on task until the job is done. None of these things are easy for kids with ADHD. But day after day, they go to school.
Many children with ADHD “hit a wall” at school as the school year progresses. Each week they fall further and further behind, until they are so far behind that it is impossible to catch up. They lose their homework assignments, even after they’ve spent hours working on them. And they study hard for tests only to do poorly the next day. They just fall further and further behind with each passing week.
The disorder is most often recognized and referred for treatment in the third degree. This is when kids hit the “academic wall” most often. In third grade they are expected to do more and more work on their own, and they are also given more homework to do. We also see many references in seventh grade, or when the child leaves Primary to go to Secondary, with several classes and several teachers. Many children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who found ways to compensate in elementary school are totally lost in high school.
How can we help these children be more successful in school? Get started by learning more about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the ADHD Information family of websites. This is one of our featured websites with over 500 classroom interventions to help your ADD ADHD student succeed.
