321 Learn! » AHDH

Mom, Sit Here!

Jennifer Wagaman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:55:11 +0000

With the weather warming up, parents should be making a point to get children outside every day. The fresh air and sunshine are invaluable to keeping children healthy. In fact, time spent outside has even been shown to improve ADHD symptoms!

It is important to remind parents not only of the importance of outside playtime, but of the time spent with their children as well. While working in the yard today, my daughter called me over to sit by her and we watched earth worms wiggling about in the dirt together.

Spending time with our children is even more important than spending time outside, so send your kids out to play, and dedicate some play time of your own to spend with them.

Homework Folder: Pockets

Jennifer Wagaman — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:42:15 +0000

After meeting with the parent and child to determine the cause for homework issues, it may be time to implement a pocket homework folder. This is a homework organization tool that many teachers have used and many special education teachers support.

To get started, the teacher will need a pocket folder for each child, or for only the one child having issues. The left pocket in the folder is for homework assignments and the right pocket in the folder is for completed assignments. This keeps everything in one place and allows the child to easily see what homework needs to be completed and what homework has already been finished.

The teacher needs to make sure that all homework is in the left pocket of the folder when the child leaves school. As the child completes each homework piece, the paper is then placed in the right side. This one folder is all that is needed then, to remember to complete and turn in all homework.

This homework folder method works especially well for disorganized or distracted students.

Homework Help

Jennifer Wagaman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:42:05 +0000

Many student have difficulty completing and turning their homework in on time, and this can cause stress for parent, child and teacher. The thing that is different in each situation is the reason behind the homework difficulty.

One child may not have time because of other family obligations such as caring for younger siblings.
Another child may forget to do the homework.
Another child may do the homework but forget to put it in his backpack.
Yet another child may not be doing the homework because he or she cannot understand it.
Another child may not be finishing all the homework because it takes him too long and he runs out of time.

Unfortunately, without understanding the reason behind why a child is having difficulty with his homework, a teacher cannot figure out a solution, and pestering and badgering the child rarely works to change anything. In fact, calling the parent rarely changes anything either. So what can you do?

The first step is to meet with the child’s parent and the child together to find out some answers behind the homework problems.

Stay tuned for more information this week on homework folder solutions. In the meantime, check out this Homework Pad as a great way to organize student’s homework assignments.

Understanding Children with ADHD

Jennifer Wagaman — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:03:58 +0000

Teaching a child with ADHD is difficult. Parenting that child is even more difficult and being that child is the most difficult. It is important to remember, first of all, that the child is not choosing to misbehave or be inattentive. In fact, the very act of focusing or attending to a task may be nearly impossible for the child.

A child with ADHD has trouble focusing. When told to go pack his backpack at the end of the day, he may get lost and find himself over by the pencil sharpener, not sure what he was supposed to do or where he was supposed to be going. This same child may have trouble writing down assignments, completing a simple task or following a class lesson while the girl behind him keeps tapping her pencil on her desk.

Ironically, this same child with ADHD probably does not have trouble focusing in some areas of life. Video games may hold his attention for hours on end without taking a break. This does not lessen the validity of his disability, though, as this is what Dr. Phelan calls a high interest activity.

To jump into the mind of the child with ADHD a teacher has to attend to every sound around her at the same time. She has to also plan dinner, think about what she will do after dinner and day-dream about going for a walk in the woods at the same time. There is so much going on in the head of the child with ADHD and the ability to shut out some thoughts is simply not there.

Remembering this when working with a student who struggles with ADHD may help the teacher have a little more patience. Read some tips for working with students who have Adhd.

Hurricane Names and Social Skills Lessons for Special Needs Students

Jennifer Wagaman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:23:43 +0000

Each year the National Hurricane Center publishes a pre-approved list of names for the season. These names can be a jumping off point for teaching students social skills.

Teachers and parents who work with children who have special needs must be proactive and teach children the proper social cues and responses. Here is one unique way to do that.

Use the current hurricane season to introduce students to what a hurricane is. Show pictures, video clips and read about how a hurricane forms and how it can be so devastating to an area that it hits. Then have students brainstorm emotions and character traits that would accurately describe a hurricane.

Have each hurricane name printed on an index card and pass them out to the students. Here is the list of the 2009 hurricane names:

• Ana
• Bill
• Claudette
• Danny
• Erika
• Fred
• Grace
• Henri
• Ida
• Joaquin
• Kate
• Larry
• Mindy
• Nicholas
• Odette
• Peter
• Rose
• Sam
• Teresa
• Victor
• Wanda

Have each child become a hurricane in turn, acting out the emotions and character traits listed on the board. After the child/hurricane does something, the teacher should call out “freeze!” and everyone has to stop and discuss an appropriate way to handle the situation.

A good way to conclude the lesson is to have a class discussion on how the child who was being the hurricane should have acted/reacted to situations that would have been more appropriate.

This is a great lesson to tie into science class as they learn about hurricanes. They can also work on their writing skills as an excellent follow up assignment could be a journal entry about a situation in which they reacted poorly and how they should have reacted differently.

Attention Deficit Disorder

Jennifer Wagaman — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:37:13 +0000

ADHD, the disorder that tends to effect more boys than girls: is it over diagnosed as a result of poor parenting? Is the child who can’t sit still in class simply disobedient or did he have too much sugar or other food additives?

Some teachers still believe that ADHD is a made-up disorder; an excuse for parents and teachers to use medication to manage discipline problems in the classroom. In fact, ADHD is a very real, very frustrating disorder that effects more students than we probably realize at this time.

This great book: All About Attention Deficit Disorder provides straight-forward honest answers regarding this disorder, the diagnosis and the treatments. Even if you think you understand ADHD, check out this book. You may be surprised at what you learn!

Test to Identify Genetic Defects

Jennifer Wagaman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:07:05 +0000

According to British researchers, within the next year a new test could be used to identify any and all of the 15,000 known genetic defects while a baby is still within the mother’s womb.

This test utilizes karyomapping, which basically looks for any abnormality in the baby’s DNA. Additionally, the test could identify chromosomal defects that would prevent the baby from being able to survive. The test has been used to correctly identify cystic fibrosis in both the UK and in the United States.

While this test is a huge step that would enable parents to know about potential genetic defects that would effect their child, there are concerns that this could be the beginning of a designer baby trend. Parents could theoretically eliminate the possibility of giving birth to a baby that is anything less that perfect, while at the same time, raising the abortion rate.

While it may be helpful to know about problems that a baby will have, where is the line that indicates that medical testing has gone to far? Parents who have children with special needs have often mentioned the blessing that their children have been to them and the life lessons they have learned from raising a child who does not fit the societal norm.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Association will set strict limits on what this particular genetic test can be used to test for. Potential disorders to test for include Huntington’s disease, spinal muscular atrophy and autism. Professor Tony Ruthford, chair of the British Fertility Society says that this test could very well be a Pandora’s box, but reiterated that the protocols allowing for very limited use of the test will remain strict.

For more info: Universal embryo test ‘very near’