ADD A to Z: Your Guide to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Download Your Copy Today

If you are a teacher, then you know the extent of challenges in the school system today. Then when you add into the mix the growing number of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), things become even more of a challenge. The good news is that the right instructional strategies and ADHD are a working combination. In this article, we wanted to address some of the things you can do as a teacher to handle children with ADHD with proven and solid strategies. After all, you are faced daily with large student loads, limited time, and curriculum mandates. With this, adjusting your teaching methods can be touch but considering that up to 5% of all school age children have ADHD, necessary. Just remember, typical kids are going through massive changes in life, dealing with home problems, puberty, confusion, peer pressure, and more.

Unfortunately, some teachers find shortcuts that make teaching easy for them. However, these shortcuts often mean the real needs of the children are not being addressed, especially when it comes to ADHD. Today, teachers must know several subjects inside and out, meaning they must be accomplished educators to survive and reach the kids. For instructional strategies and ADHD, you have to have expertise in your students. That means understanding the age group you teach so you can approach your teaching method effectively and appropriately. Your students will require opportunities to learn about them, have structure and clear limits, learn confidence and competence, and develop meaningful and healthy relationship with peers and adults. By understanding the children with ADHD in your classroom, you have the opportunity to adjust content and create activities that will connect.

The next aspect of instructional strategies and ADHD is becoming an expert in the subject being taught. By fully understanding the subject you are teaching, you can create an environment for all your students, including those with ADHD, where things seem logical. This means creating your curriculum in a manner that the students will find interesting, helpful, and that makes sense. For students with ADHD, a common challenge is loss of concentration and of course, the hyperactivity. Knowing your subject allows you to make it interesting and interactive. With this, you see the child with ADHD wanting to participate instead of drifting off, only to become a distraction in class.

Then for instructional strategies and ADHD, you must be an expert in cognitive theory. The bottom line is that you can teach and teach all day long but unless you understand how your student’s minds work, you will struggle. For kids, they need tangible objects related to the subject so they remember it longer. As an example, if you were to write things on the board, they might learn but the next morning, most or all of the information will be gone. Instead, if you are teaching about gravity for example, use objects, actually dropping them to show gravity. Especially for the child with ADHD, this visual method has a huge impact. For instructional strategies and ADHD in the cognitive area, you almost need to role-play, creating scenes for the kids to follow.

Finally, instructional strategies and ADHD should involve you becoming the expert in differentiated instruction. This means you need to be flexible and know how to teach any subject in more than one way. If your current practices are ineffective, the students will not learn. Children with ADHD do not learn the same way as a child without ADHD. Therefore, you need to get creative, embracing differentiated instruction. With this, you can take every student, with or without ADHD, on an incredible journey that will truly influence his or her life. Your goal is to make lessons in the classroom compelling while remaining respectful of the special needs of the ADHD child. Teaching children with ADHD is tough but by changing the way in which you present the material, it can be much easier and more successful for both child and you.
 

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