Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuro-developmental condition, notable in approximately 11% of children. ADHD symptoms can persist into adulthood in more than ¾ of the cases. The disorder is characterized by hyperactivity, impulsivity and the lack of concentration (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals suffering from ADHD are likely to be successful in life. Nevertheless, delayed recognition and improper treatment, may pose detrimental implications including poor school performance, substance abuse, depression, delinquency, job failure and accidental injuries.
ADHD symptoms mainly develop during early childhood. Symptoms such as excessive motor activity are common during the toddler years, however, ADHD symptoms such as inattentiveness impulsivity and hyperactivity may be difficult to distinguish from normal active behavior among children. Its diagnosis requires the manifestation of at least 6 symptoms in a child; while adolescents above the age of 17 and adults should have five or more the symptoms. ADHD presentations can be classified into hyperactive- impulsive, predominantly inattentive and combined.
Causes of ADHD
The defined causes of ADHD have yet to be determined. Nonetheless, research postulates a strong association between the disorder and genetics since ADHD is identified among families. ADHD is termed a complex disorder, resultant from multiple interacting genes. Environmental factors also increase the probability of ADHD prevalence (Allen & Cowdery, 2015). Exposure to pesticides or lead material in early childhood, brain injury and premature birth weight are linked to ADHD development.
Several factors are not necessarily the causes of ADHD, though they exacerbate the condition including: the consumption of excessive amount of sugar among children, family conflict and traumatic experiences (chadd.org, 2017). The condition’s presentation may be altered due to family conflict, resulting in additional problems like antisocial behavior. Problems in parenting styles may also exacerbate the condition. To check more, consider checking the social behavior sample assignment essay.
Signs when a child has ADHD predominantly inattentive presentation;
ADHD predominantly hyperactive-impulsive presentation
Patient meets the criterion for a combination of hyperactive-impulsive and inattention ADHD presentations.
Treatment options include pharmacological approaches, behavioral approaches and multimodal approaches that are implemented depending on which is most suitable for ADHD child (ed.gov, 2008). Symptoms may change over time, hence children may manifest different presentations as they grow older.
Assessments for eligibility criteria
The instructor is provided with an extensive range of questions on a child’s behavior. Questions focus on the child’s social skills, rationale and capability of adapting to identify behavioral concerns.
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale
It assesses how a child’s skills compare to those of children within a similar age-group .An instructor devises a questionnaire on a child’s abilities in basic areas such as communication, motor skills and socialization. The assessment determines whether a child is experiencing delayed developmental challenges.
This behavioral assessment measures the existence and severity of ADHD symptoms. It also assesses other common behavioral concerns and their impact on school performance. Parents and teachers are asked how often they observe symptoms associated with ADHD and other concerning behaviors. Answers such as “often” and “very often,” enhance the likelihood that the child is suffering from ADHD.
Learning and developmental characteristics of an ADHD student
From the video and research, it is evident that the student with ADHD is unable to focus, and remain attentive for extended periods. This negatively impacts learning because he or she does not listen or even contribute to classroom discussions. Moreover, the child may miss out on several subtle nuances of pronunciation, articulation and language. Instructors are required to implement key modifications considering the student’s disruptive, inattentive and hyperactive nature. The child perceives himself or herself as a behavioural problem, who is challenging to the teacher and who has to incorporate modifications to enhance his or her behavior. This may interfere with child’s self-worth.
Motor skills
In the case of motor activity skills, the child may continually fidget and not concentrate on the intended task. The child may not possess the capability to read, re-evaluate or complete assignments. This may impact their school performance. The instructor may be required to urge the child’s caregivers to encourage him to complete assignments. Notably, the child may be unable to write effectively and his or her sentences and paragraphs may remain incomplete. The child’s grammar, sentence structure and syntax may seem misplaced.
Language
While limited research has been performed regarding the association between ADHD and language, it is postulated that students with ADHD are not at per with their contemporaries in terms of language. More specifically, when children are inattentive and hyperactive, it is possible they do not grasp their instructor’s expressive language (Shaughnessy & Waggoner, 2015). Subtle nuances of language are frequently lost. They may recognize their inability to focus, but never learn specific terminologies utilized in various subjects. For instance, they may fail to comprehend the terms such as numerator or denominator in mathematics or terms such as mole in chemistry. Since the student is generally inattentive, he or she may fail to comprehend the essential components of teamwork. The ADHD student may fail to articulate their emotions and feelings or even describe subtle nuances. Hence, they may require counseling to develop their communication and capacity to engage in conversations.
Emotions
Students with ADHD depict variable emotions. Their medications may disrupt their sleep patterns or stimulate them causing them to be rather irritable. As aforementioned, such students have limited patience and may tend to be less sociable than the rest. Further, they may regularly be alone, with few or no friends. In this case, the instructor may require providing greater assurance and compliments to the child, especially when they complete assignments or tasks. The instructor may also try to make the other students be aware that differing circumstances may cause students to behave differently on different occasions. The probable implication resulting from the varying emotions of ADHD students, is that the instructor’s attention is mainly directed to the affected students. Most often, teachers may have more than one student with emotional or mental instability their classrooms, and other students may not receive adequate attention.
Cognitive
ADHD students lack proper organization skills. During most occasions, other students may help the affected student to organize his or her work. The student may require a list to be reminded of the class materials that are required. With inadequate organization skills, it is probable the child’s cognitive structures are impaired .A student with ADHD may integrate a learning approach that is rather haphazard and chaotic. The manner in which such a student approaches a task may lack rationale and structure. The child may often require an additional set of textbooks for use at home. Moreover, the caregivers may need to implement an organizational framework while at home such that the child can learn when to begin an assignment, how to organize class materials and when to take breaks.
Social
Students with ADHD are impatient .Other students of similar ages may find it difficult to interact with them. Further, such children struggle with articulation and may perceive themselves as a problem, hence they may tend to withdraw from others. Therefore, they socialize less compared to children of their age group and mostly tend to be alone. Teachers may learn that such students may not be willing to share their issues with others and they may fail to express themselves even when they need assistance. Instructors should encourage such students to express themselves and interact with others.
Teaching Strategies
The instructor may enhance the ADHD student’s communication by:
Teachers should promote the completion of assignments and tasks by:
The instructor should observe and communicate with the child as well as determine distractions that prevent the child from being attentive. For instance, the teacher may determine whether limiting eye contact when listening, background music and fidget tools are beneficial or distracting the child’s attention. The instructor may also engage the child’s caregiver on a regular basis to identify challenges or progress. Collaboration between the care-givers, instructor and healthcare providers ensures a supportive environment for the child.
The knowledge gained through the decision –making process enables instructors to foster quality interactions with children to enhance proper development and learning. It further enables them to learn the significance of integrating specific learning activities to promote positive social development and mitigate challenging behaviors (nap.edu, n.d.). Furthermore, it enables the identification of concerns in a particular child and appropriate social support needs and information resources, for specialized assistance.
Use of assistance technology
Teachers can utilize electronic worksheets to assist students in solving tasks with the aid of a computer, whereby numbers can be magnified and read aloud. Teachers may also provide students with alarms and calendars with reminders to help them stay organized. Noise-canceling earplugs can be utilized by students who easily become distracted by external noises. These plugs can enable them to be more attentive. With the integration of assistive technologies, teachers can engage in other tasks while enhancing their students’ involvement in the classroom.
Assessment Methods
The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment-Clinical Form (DECA-C) should be utilized by instructors to assess ADHD children’s social and emotional welfare. The DECA-C enables teachers to promote healthy social and emotional development of students, while minimizing significant emotional and behavioral concerns. Teachers may incorporate the DECA-C to guide in the implementation of interventions when a child may require special services. Teachers may also use the Brigance Screen to easily identify potential learning delays and challenges in any developmental domains. The assessment method is efficient and reliable as it provides quick results.
Observation methods
The instructor may observe the ADHD children in his classroom and adopt a systematic approach of collecting anecdotal remarks as a means to derive conclusions concerning the children’s performance in order to plan learning materials. Areas such as language and literacy, creative representation, music, social behavior and logic may be assessed. Professionals may also use observation checklists in the assessment of children’s behavior in the classroom. They may be able to observe and identify the attention span of children in the classroom, and how this influences their learning abilities. Teachers may observe how their students analyze, synthesize, review, and interpret facts and ideas as well as identify how learning impacts a child’s social and emotional development. Such information may also be utilized in planning future educational interventions.
How to develop home-school connections, learn from families’ observations, and reciprocate effective teaching strategies
Parents should be involved in curriculum matters to strengthen the home–school relationship. Their participation could be influential to their child’s academic progress, and they would be motivated to monitor the early stages of their child’s preschool activities (Okeke, 2014).Home visits are another effective approach of establishing home–school relations because they provide valuable opportunities for teachers and caregivers in being involved with the child’s learning needs. The teacher may learn from observation by identifying how the child behaves at home and making comparisons that are relevant to his school performance. Moreover, through observation, the instructor may identify a child’s social skills by observing how he or she interacts with family member .Through such interactions, early childhood professionals may feel ethically obligated to support societal aspirations to improve children’s health and welfare both in school and at home. These professionals may learn to comprehend the implications of advocacy and public policy on children’s welfare.
Engaging in informed advocacy for young children
Professionals can conduct an extensive qualitative research on child welfare, facilitate community instruction programs, offer community members with newsletters, and consistently reach out to policymakers to implement legislations that address children’s issues. Moreover, professionals can advocate for the allocation of budgets to child development programs. I would engage in childhood advocacy by addressing the needs of ADHD children and others with special needs by requesting the institution and implementation of policies that promote their proper development and well-being.
How I would apply an ideal and principle from NAEYC
The principle on respecting the value, dignity and distinctiveness of each child would be achieved by acknowledging their differences in order to enhance each one’s independence and capability to handle difficult situations (naeyc.org (2005). I would provide each student with an opportunity to express themselves in a manner they are comfortable with. I would base program practices upon updated research in early childhood and related disciplines, and on specific knowledge of each child while appreciating each student’s distinct capabilities and qualities. I will achieve this ideal by utilizing assessment information in the comprehension and support of children’s learning, and in the identification of children who may require additional services.
