Elementary School and ADHD:
Can you imagine the most difficult environment for a child who had difficulty sitting still, difficulty paying attention, and loved to talk to other children? Imagine that this child had to go into this environment every day, and was expected to perform successfully in this environment.
When you think about it, it is the classroom setting that is this difficult setting for these kids. There are a lot of distractions, yet they are told to sit still, don't move, don't talk, to pay attention to boring worksheets, and keep on task until the work is finished. None of these things come easily to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids. But day by day, off to school they go.
Many Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids "hit a wall" in elementary school as their school year progresses.
Every week they just get a little farther and farther behind, until they're so far behind that it's impossible to catch up. They lose their homework assignments, even after they have spent hours working on them. And they study hard for tests only to perform poorly the next day. They just slip farther and farther behind with each passing week.
ADHD is most often recognized and referred for treatment in third grade. This is when elementary school kids most often hit the "academic wall."
In third grade they are expected to do more and more work on their own, and they are given more homework to do as well. We also see many referrals in seventh grade, or when the child leaves Elementary School for Junior High School, with several classes and several teachers.
Many Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids who found ways to compensate in Elementary School are totally lost in Junior High School.
How can we help these children to be more successful in elementary school?
Begin by learning more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from the ADHD Information's family of web sites. |
