Classroom Behavioral Support for Students with AD/HD

Contents of this article are excerpted from:
Rief, S. The ADHD Book of Lists. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (a Wiley publication), 2003.

• Ensure that the classroom is a well-structured, physically and emotionally safe environment with: clear guidelines and boundaries; a nurturing climate that is respectful, caring, peaceful, and mutually supportive of all; has high academic and behavioral expectations; and constantly improves upon students’ skills of self-management (without being punitive to those who struggle in this area and, therefore, require a great deal more tolerance and assistance).

• Students with AD/HD typically have a history of receiving a disproportionate amount of negative attention and corrective feedback from teachers. What unfortunately tends to capture the teacher’s attention and elicit a response (often one that is emotionally charged) are the student’s misbehaviors. It is critically important to make a conscious effort to change and redirect focus to the positive.

• Greatly increase your positive interactions with and focus of attention to the student when he or she is engaged in appropriate behavior. Notice, acknowledge, and utilize positive reinforcement when the student demonstrates self-control, remembers to raise his/her hand before speaking, is sitting and attending to task, and so forth.

• Increase the immediacy and frequency of positive feedback and encouragement.

• Use a diagnostic perspective to try determining what are the functions of the student’s behaviors (e.g., escape/avoidance of something aversive, access to desired activity or object), and what may be the antecedents/triggers to problematic behaviors. Be proactive in trying to identify and alter the antecedent conditions in support of students with behavioral challenges.

• Interventions that address and adjust aspects of the environment are among the best supports. Examples include: change of seating away from certain individuals and/or areas of high stimulation and distraction; providing more clearly defined areas of the room and personal space; visual and auditory signals for transitions (e.g., music, timers, bells); seating for easy access to assistance and monitoring; cushioning against excessive noise (use of headphones); access to other seating options and tools (e.g., beanbag chair, seat cushion, individual desk, ‘office area’, privacy boards); and so forth.

• Provide numerous visual cues and prompts for routines, behavioral expectations, procedures, and so forth. Always maintain a visual schedule of activities and routine, and refer to it frequently – pointing out changes when they must occur.

• Watch for warning signs of the AD/HD student becoming overly stimulated, upset, frustrated, agitated, restless, or beginning to lose control – and INTERVENE at once. Divert and redirect (e.g., send out of the room on an errand), provide cueing/signaling, change the activity/expectations, lend direct support, employ calming techniques, and remind about rewards/consequences. Provide the student time and a means to regroup, regain control, and avoid the escalation of behaviors.

• It is often helpful to provide an area that a student can access briefly as a preventive (not punitive) measure before behaviors escalate to a higher level. Such an area (‘take a break zone’, ‘cool down spot’) can be equipped with items such as a fish tank or lava lamp to look at, stuffed animals, books, calming music on tape recorder with headset, stress ball, and perhaps a rocking chair.

• Build in numerous opportunities for movement in the class (stretch, ‘brain breaks’).

• Many times children are better able to remain seated, pay attention, and control behavior when they are allowed to doodle/draw/color and touch or hold objects in their hands while listening.

• Establish a close partnership with parents of students with AD/HD. Win their trust and demonstrate your willingness to do whatever you can from your end to help their child to be successful. Encourage frequent and open communications, and collaborative efforts. For example, use of home/school monitoring forms with joint reinforcers are often quite helpful.

• Set up behavioral charts or contracts specifically focused on improving one or two behaviors that are important for the student to be successful in class, such as increasing on-task behavior or raising hand to speak (instead of calling out). Set goals together with the student that are reasonable and within reach of success, and reinforcers that are clearly motivating enough for the student to maintain the effort to achieve the goal.

• Build in self-monitoring practices into the curriculum and routine such as: self-evaluation of work (rubrics/guides for self-evaluating work according to specific criteria), organizational checklists (Am I prepared and organized?), behavioral monitoring (How am I doing? Was I on/off task?), and so forth.

• Teach social skills and strategies for anger control, relaxation, conflict resolution, dealing appropriately with frustration, problem solving, goal setting, and other self-management skills for life. Practice these strategies frequently. Talk about and model their use in various situations/contexts.

• Make sure independent seat work is developmentally appropriate and within the student’s capability of doing successfully without assistance, and provide access to peer assistance as needed.

• If a student is taking medications, be very aware and observant of changes in behavior and factors such as time of day when he/she is experiencing more difficulty, complaints of hunger, fatigue, and so forth. Communicate your observations or concerns with parents, the school nurse, or physician.

• A common antecedent for misbehavior among students with AD/HD is being given work that is tedious or boring, offers little student choice, and is perceived as irrelevant and non-meaningful. Students (even with severe AD/HD) generally exhibit minimal behavioral problems during lessons/activities that are interesting, keep them actively involved, and incorporate a variety of engaging, multi-sensory strategies. Teachers who have the most success with ALL students are those who: pace their lessons to maximize attention and interest, tap into the needs of students to utilize/showcase their strengths and be social (work with/talk with peers). In addition, they know how to alleviate the stress-factors by creating a classroom environment where students aren’t fearful of looking/sounding foolish or ‘dumb’ and are willing to take the risk of participation.

 

 

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