your situation

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your situation
By J/IA

I also can totally identify with your story. I have a class of 23 fifth graders, and 6 have been diagnosed ADD. Of those 6, 2 are medicated, one just last week. A third starts Monday. I have had this group of kids the past
two years, and it has been a real learning experience. I have a few thoughts.
**If a child is ADD, there may very well be ADD tendencies in one or both parents at home. You have to remember that when you deal with this mother, and not get bent out of shape or take it personally when she acts as such.
**You can only do what you can do, and from the sound of it, you've done a lot. Unfortunately,

the bottom line for this kid lies with what is going on outside of school and the responsibilities lie with this mother. You have to try to let go a little. My experience with kids with ADD is that without significant lifestyle modifications, some counseling, maybe medication, all the reward systems in the world will not make a lasting difference with this child's patterns.

**Does your school have a Child Study Team or some other group that meets to address children of concern? Hopefully so--that resource has to be available to you somewhere. This case isn't something that should be left for you alone to handle. It is unfair to your other students the time and attention this child is taking away from them. Ask the team what they recommend. Put some of this on their shoulders. Ask your principal what s/he advises. Do you have a school psychologist assigned to your building? My most disruptive ADDer sees her once a week as part of his intervention plan. He still struggles big time, but I see him get emotional relief from that talk therapy. Do you have a guidance counselor? Ask him or her to start a focus group for children with attention problems, kind of a support group. They don't even need to be diagnosed.

**Try the old 1-2-3 Magic type thing. Give a one on the first interruption or off task moment, a 2 on the second, and on 3, send him to the office or somewhere out of the room with his work and tell him he is welcome to return when the work is done. If he wants to be off task, fine, but it is totally unfair for him to pull you or anyone else off task.

**Don't feel bad about isolating this child. Give him a new chance regularly, but if he can't handle it, move him!

**As for retention, let's remember this is just elementary school here. He obviously is capable of the work, so retention really would only serve to punish, and surely that's not what you're after. Document your concerns and what you've tried for his file. My students head off to middle school next year, so I have that to bring up repeatedly with my parents, but believe it or not, 3 of these parents still don't want to hear it and think there are other things I can do or more modifications I can make. The reality is that the older they get, the more responsibilities will be placed on the kids' shoulders. Especially if there isn't an academic concern, these kids will be totally overwhelmed when they leave the security of elementary school. Statistically, the kids like this who don't get appropriate medication will end up "medicating" themselves.

I know this is long, but this is something I've been dealing with pretty intensely for almost 2 years, so I have a lot of thoughts! I sure don't have all the answers, but know that you are not alone, and these can be very challenging students to work with. My husband has ADD as well, so it is something I deal with out of school too. ADD is manageable, but you can't deal with it if you're in denial. Also, it doesn't go away.