Pony Of Prey Blog

Thank you to all of our professional educators who dedicate themselves to our children! We know how difficult it can be working with ADHD children, so here are your teacher tips for the week, brought to you by the ADHD Information Library and ADDinSchool.com. This is a sampling of over 500 classroom interventions for your use at http://www.ADDinSchool.com.

Here are some tips on improving social skills with your ADHD students. Remember, the best interventions are the ones that will help all of your students be more successful, not just the ADHD students.

Give your ADD ADHD students a break once in a while. Know the difference between big things and little things, and don’t confront attention deficit students on each little thing. It is hard for ADD ADHD students to control themselves all of the time.

Students with attention deficit disorder experience many difficulties in the social area, especially with peer relationships.

ADD ADHD students tend to experience great difficulty picking up other’s social cues, and often act impulsively. Attention deficit stuents usually have limited self-awareness of their effect on others. They are likely to over-personalize other’s actions as being criticism. They tend not to recognize or respond well to positive feedback. In fact, ADHD may be directly related to a deficit in recognizing rewards.

Students with Attention Deficit Disorder tend to get along better with younger or older students when their roles are clearly defined. ADD ADHD students tend to repeat self-defeating social behavior patterns and rarely learn from experience.

In conversations ADD ADHD students often ramble and say embarrassing things to peers.

Students with ADD ADHD tend to get into the most trouble during times with little structure or little supervision.

Enlisting the support of peers in the classroom can greatly enhance the ADD ADHD student’s self-esteem. Students with good social awareness and who like to be helpful can be paired with the attention deficit student. This pairing can take the form of being a “study buddy” while doing activities/projects. Cross-age tutoring with older or younger students can also have social benefits. Most successful pairing is done with adequate preparation of the paired student, planning meetings with the pair to set expectations, and with parental permission. Pairing expectations and time commitments should be fairly limited in scope to increase the opportunity for success and lessen the constraints on the paired students.

Students with ADD ADHD tend to do well in the cooperative group instructional format. Small student groupings of three to five members, in which the students “sink or swim” together to complete assignments/projects, encourage students to share organizational ideas and responsibilities, and gives an ideal setting for processing interpersonal skills on a regular basis.

Hopefully these will help the ADHD students in your classroom to be more successful. You can learn more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder at the ADHD Information Library.

Douglas Cowan, Psy.D., is a family therapist who has been working with ADHD children and their families since 1986. He is the clinical director of the ADHD Information Library’s family of seven web sites, including http://www.newideas.net, helping over 350,000 parents and teachers learn more about ADHD each year. Dr. Cowan also serves on the Medical Advisory Board of VAXA International of Tampa, FL., is President of the Board of Directors for KAXL 88.3 FM in central California, and is President of NewIdeas.net Incorporated.

1. A calendar is an essential organizing tool - start the year with one that works for you! And whether you use a paper or electronic version, using Post-it® notes as reminders will help you “stick” to your resolutions.

2. Identify a specific goal for getting or keeping in shape - 10 minutes a day (yes, professional trainers say a small amount of time can make a big difference!) or three times a week. Share your commitment with someone else - a professional trainer or a friend — that also wants to exercise more.

3. Take steps to make it easier to eat healthy. Keep a shopping list of healthy food, and make sure there is always good food easily available. Whenever possible, go to restaurants that specialize in healthy food, but when you can’t, order a baked potato instead of French fries. If you eat junk food for lunch, forgive yourself, and plan a healthy dinner.

4. Design a yearly plan for spending time with family and friends. Booking airline travel well in advance will save money and ensure your commitment to your plan. Plan a once-a-month event with friends. Keep a Post-it® Note list in your calendar or on your computer of the potential invitees.

5. Plan a yearly budget. Learning to controlling the way you spend your money is a lifetime investment. If you’re not sure how, check out your local college for a continuing education or start reading on the subject. The longer you wait to learn, the more difficult it will be.

6. Make a commitment to volunteer your services to an organization that makes other people’s lives better. One evening or Saturday a month won’t take a lot of time out of your life, but can make a big difference to someone else. Make it a family activity.

7. To minimize the stress of daily family life, and make it easier to put things away when company is coming, put all like things together - e.g., photos, bills, love letters and give- always - and label them boldly. Post-it® provides a variety of colorful options. Store items according to where and how often you will use them.

8. Keep only those things that you know to be useful, think to be beautiful, or love. Put a box in an easily accessible place in your closet — with the lid off, so you don’t pile other things on top of it. Label it “Give Away” and donate the things you don’t use to someone who needs them.

9. Establish an effective filing system at home and at work. File information according to how you will use it, not where you got it. Always keep Post-it® Notes handy, and jot down key words for filing papers as you accumulate them. This will save filing time later. Keep a File Index (a list of the names of your files) handy, so you won’t make a file for “car” when you already have “auto.”

10. Don’t expect perfection from yourself in carrying out your New Year’s resolutions. Remember you are in this for the long run. Use Post-it® notes to remind yourself of your commitments, and have the best year ever!

© Barbara Hemphill is the author of Kiplinger’s Taming the Paper Tiger at Work and Taming the Paper Tiger at Home and co-author of Love It or Lose It: Living Clutter-Free Forever. The mission of Hemphill Productivity Institute is to help individuals and organizations create and sustain a productive environment so they can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives. We do this by organizing space, information, and time. We can be reached at 800-427-0237 or at www.ProductiveEnvironment.com