ADHD

Characteristics and Needs:

Educational Characteristics:
 Limited close attention to details
 Makes careless mistakes
 Difficulty maintaining attention
 Appears not to be listening
 Does not follow instructions
 Trouble organizing tasks and activities
 Avoids tasks that require sustained mental effort
 Loses or misplaces things easily
 Easily distracted
 Forgetful
 Easily distracted by auditory stimuli
 Easily distracted by visual stimuli
 Sits and doesn’t begin or complete assignment

Educational Needs:
 Proximity control
 Highlight most important material
 Implement incentives for task initiation/completion
 Break assignments into smaller segments
 Teach student to self-pace using a timer
 Involve student in designing lesson incorporating preferred response modes
 Vary educational activities

Social/Behavioral Characteristics and Needs:

 Cannot sit still
 Runs or climbs where it is not appropriate
 Unable to participate in leisure activities quietly
 Always on the go
 Talks excessively
 Blurts out
 Trouble waiting his or her turn
 Interrupts or intrudes on others

Social/Behavioral Needs:
 Provide a step-by-step checklist using self-check process
 Reinforce positive behavior with praise
 Set up a contract for behavior change
 Teach self-monitoring and appropriate social interaction

Article Summary:
 Students with ADHD need to have several practices set into place in order to be

successful. To ensure the success of students with ADHD, gen ed classroom teacher will have to

create and implement a number of supports for the child. The educational, social, and emotional

success of the student will depend on modifications, differentiation, and fidelity. The

recommendations made by Russell Barkley will help to make students with ADHD successful in

the classroom.

In the article, “Classroom Accommodations for Children with ADHD,” by Russell

Barkley, he details a list of recommendations that educators can use to help manage students with

ADHD in school settings apart from, or in addition to, medication. In the article Barkley set out

nine principals that need to be considered for the planning and management of programs for

children with ADHD.

 Principal #1- rules and instructions provided to children with ADHD must be clear, brief,

and often delivered through more visible and external modes of presentation.
 Principal #2- consequences used to manage the behavior of ADHD must be delivered

swiftly and more immediately than is needed for children without ADHD.
 Principal #3- consequences must be delivered more frequently, not just immediately, to

children with ADHD.

 Principal #4- the type of consequences used with children with ADHD must often be of a

higher magnitude.
 Principal #5- an appropriate and often richer degree of incentives must be provided

within a setting or task.

 Principal #6- those reinforcers or particular rewards that are employed must be changed

or related more frequently.

 Principal #7- anticipation is the key with ADHD kids.
 Principal #8- children with ADHD must be held more publicly accountable for their

behavior.
 Principal #9- behavioral interventions, while successful, only work while they are being

implemented and require continued monitoring and modifications (Barkley, 2008).

Dr. Barkley has many great suggestions. These recommendations can easily be incorporated into

daily schedules within the gen ed classroom. These principals are in addition to other behavior

plans and/or ADHD medications. If used with fidelity, these principals should ensure

educational success for students with ADHD.

Instructional Strategies, Accommodations, and/or Modifications needed for successful

progress in the General Curriculum:
 Use various hand signals
 Show students pictures that remind them of appropriate behaviors
 One sentence hints for students
 Provide written instructions with oral instructions
 Provide preferential seating in most distraction reduced area
 Use private signal to cue student to stay on task