Adhd Support
Strategies for supporting a child with Adhd
Throughout my time in Mainstream Education, I worked with several children who had Dyspraxia. For an Ofsted Visit we were due I created some How to help leaflets for various SEN barriers that children may have.
The key features of a child with Adhd are inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Children with Adhd may be higly imaginative and intuitive, with an impulse to get to the heart of the matter as opposed to taking the traditional methodical approach.
Four terms - structure, differentiation, flexibilty and relationships are particularly importnat when developing strategies to teach children with Adhd.
For many children with Adhd medication is an important part of the treatment. These are not given to control bad behaviour but to control the Adhd.
Children with Adhd can :-
- Be inattentive
- Do things when they want to
- Be disruptve to others learning
- Have awful handwriting
- Be off task
- Always be on the go
- Be volatile
- Be restless
- Get bored easily
- Seek attention
- Have problems changing from one task to another
- Have difficulty getting started in a morning.
Some strategies ;-
- Be tough as nails about rules but remain calm and positive.
- Tailor academic work to suit the child's abilities and skills.
- Know when to back off when a child's frustration is reaching its peak.
- Speak clearly in brief, understandable sentences.
- Provide immediate and consistent feedback about behaviour.
- Use ICT facilities for work as the child's attention is then focussed on the screen.
- Remain calm and do not debate or argue with the child.
- Have pre-established consequences for misbehaviour
- Avoid publicly reminding a child to 'take their medication' if on any.
- When setting homework be aware that it takes the Adhd child three times as long to complete a task at home as it would in school.
- Reward more than punish.
- Praise immediately any good behaviour
- Change rewards if not effective in motivating behavioural change.
- Find ways to encourage the child.
- Teach the child to reward themselves. Encourage a postiive self-image (eg 'You did very well staying in your seat today. How do you feel about that/)
- Avoid ridicule and criticism.
Useful websites
No comments