SED 225

12/5/00

For the past year I’ve been doing observations at a K-4 school. I have been individually observing a student which I feel shows reoccurring symptoms of ADHD. I have had the privilege of being able to observe this student in second as well as third grade under the instructions of two different teachers with two uniquely different teaching styles. ADHD is a learning disability in which a child displays periods of inattention and hyperactivity to a point that becomes developmentally inappropriate.

The second grade experience:

The student showed high levels of inattention. Frequently when asked questions about the lesson immediately after the teacher presented new information the student would be unable to repeat any comprehensive information. For example when given instructions on how to do an in class assignment the student would frequently not know what was required of him to do. He often times wouldn’t even realize he had an assignment until he noticed the rest of his group working on something. Many times his focus was outside activities like birds, trees and leaves, anything distracting in the classroom like rustling papers on walls and such. Many times he would create his own distraction by fiddling with pencils until they fell on the floor, and even then sometimes continuing to make them fall until he received a reprimand. It was during these times that his lack of attentiveness occurred the most often.

There were many occurrences of him being out of his seat when asked not to be. He always seemed to need to be moving, whether it is as simple as swinging his feet under the desk or swaying his arms or to the more extreme getting out of his seat in the middle of class. I witnessed many learned responses with him for instance when he wanted water he realized coughing would initiate the teacher to allow him to get a drink of water. So after he received his drink if he wanted a reason to get up he would begin to fake cough in order to leave his seat. This would continue until the teacher reprimanded him for his distractions.

When he focused on his work he could complete it although it wasn’t always correct I saw that he preferred working when he received more personal attention. He would often complain to the teacher that he didn’t understand the material and when the teacher would come to assist he would show minimal comprehension skills and would do more of a repeating process. He could read and write to a minimal degree. He had basic understanding of math material. There wasn’t much comprehension as he had to have instructions repeated to him numerous time before he was able to complete assignments and even then with minimal understanding.

His social interaction skills in the classroom were disruptive as well. He would often times complain out loud of other students staring at him. Many times these students weren’t facing him. He would cry very often when reprimanded, throw tantrums when upset or having difficulties. Often times he would mildly make physical contact with a student in his group causing the teacher to sometime have him sit away from the group. He showed a good concept of the "give" and "take" relationship. Outside of the classroom he would try to interact with the students, in the cafeteria he would share his food. Very seldom did I see any excessive force on his part with the other students when he was on the playground. He did have difficulties with staying in line wherever they were going.

Third Grade Experience:

He seems to have much more control in the classroom. The amounts of disruptions have decreased although he does still create his own and uses learned experiences as a means to get out of his seat; example getting water. He seems now to want to be on task. However his inattention still exists and often times it prevents him from being able to begin let alone complete his work. He is still in a classroom with grouped seating in which two of his group members are 11 years old. They seem to respond negatively towards him many times because he acts so inappropriate and often times it keeps the group from receiving rewards. He notices that when it immediately happens but after a while some new distraction will present itself and he soon forgets about his group members.

He is still showing serious comprehension problems. While working with him I had to repeat myself four to five times. Each time explaining and using different instructions that were very effective in helping the other students understand easily.

His social interactions have gotten better. He doesn’t make quite as much physical contact as he used to. He is reprimanded often by the teacher, however the crying has ended and he now simply does tantrums but of a milder form. Outside is much the same: he plays well and displays actions similar to other peers during lunch. He still has problems with staying in line.

Journal article 1 Montague, M., & Warger, C. (1997). "Helping Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Succeed in the Classroom". Focus on Exceptional Children, 30(4), 1-16

The first article that I chose was from the Focus on Exceptional Children. The main topic was helping students with ADHD succeed in the classroom. The article began by discussing the current known characteristics of ADHD such as inattention, distractibility, impulse control, and overactivity. There were brief examples of how children with ADHD display behavioral or social problems. One was of a second grade student named Sandra who refused to comply with the teachers requests, and would often respond with a tantrum or begin to cry.

There was a definition stated by Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as follows:

"First, an individual must have exhibited either symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity for at least six months to a degree that is developmentally inappropriate. Second, an individual must have displayed these symptoms prior to seven years of age. Third, the symptoms must be present in two or more situations (e.g., school, home, work). Fourth, the symptoms must be serious enough to cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning."

The article mentions some of the possible causes such as: heredity, prenatal alcohol and drug exposure, lead poisoning, biological conditions, and complications or trauma during birth. Reminding us however that causes are presently unknown.

It goes on to discuss how one would begin to identify a student for possible referral. And the three levels at which it is done. It also talks about using knowledge of ADHD to enhance learning. Some of the strategies for building this knowledge are describing how to conduct a functional assessment, monitor medication programs, organize classrooms, manage behavior, and select implement instructional strategies.

To illustrate one of these strategies the article gives an example of a third grade student named Juan who frequently leaves his seat and wanders around the classroom. The end result being he rarely completes his work. So the teacher conducts a functional assessment, with the help of an aid, during the morning reading period. She watches to see how many times Juan is out of his seat and the length of time he is out of his seat. Once complete instructional strategies are developed to promote desired behaviors.

Other topics discussed were organizing classroom management, Selecting and implementing instructional strategies, and putting it all together in the classroom. This article was filled with useful information and examples that anyone would be able to use and implement in their own classroom.

Journal Article 2 Abramowitz, A. J., & O’Leary, S. G. (1991). "Behavioral Interventions for the Classroom: Implications for Students with ADHD". School Psychology Review, 20, 220-234.

This article summarizes a large body of research dealing with children who are inattentive, impulsive, and overactive. The beginning of the article talks about the structure and setting of the classroom environment and how it plays a major role in keeping the attention of the students. Early ideas such as seating arrangements and cubicles that were studied as a means of "stimulus reduction".

The impact of a number of environmental and task related variables on the functioning of hyperactive children were mentioned. The results were that classroom noise, tasks that are difficult, and tasks that are paced by others as opposed to self-paced all detract from on task behavior.

A major topic of this article was the Contingencies of the teacher and students as individuals and in peer group situations. They discussed the use of praises and reprimands and the effects of using them in the classroom. With regular students studies show that praises seem to be more effective than reprimands. However when dealing with hyperactive students the picture becomes more complicated. The article states "that taken collectively, these studies states that reprimands are delivered at a high rate by behavior management. Further, the role of praise is unclear;" This section goes on to talk about how effective reprimands need to be calm, firm, consistent, and immediate.

Classroom tokens and points was another subject the article discussed. It is believed that this form of reinforcement has great power in motivating children to achieve desirable levels of on task behavior. Kerr and Nelson believe that some reductive techniques are also effective. They describe a procedure where points are taken away for aggressive behavior and earned for appropriate behavior. Group contingencies have also been seen as being effective as stated in an example by Barrish, Saunders, and Wolf in which a classroom was divided into two teams. Whichever team had less behavioral problems was rewarded as a whole.

The article stated the peer-mediated reinforcement could be divided into three types: Interdependent, independent, and dependent. The first behavior of the entire group determines whether the group receives reinforcement, in the second a set of contingencies is placed on the entire group but each child’s behavior determines his or her eligibility. Finally one of several target children decide determines reinforcement for the entire group.

Effects of the time-out strategy were discussed. Exclusionary being isolation or seclusion from positive activities, and nonexclusionary as in the example of Spitalnik and Drabman (1976) that would place orange cards on the desks of two children with mental retardation; the presence of the cards made them ineligible for tangible reinforcers. I found this article to be informative and easy to relate to being that many of the topics discussed I’ve had experience with in my observations.

Journal Article 3 Landau, S., Milich, R., & Diener, M. B. (1998). "Peer Relationsof Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder".Reading & Writing Quarterly, 14, 83-105.

The article's main focus was on the reactions that the children with this type of disorder receive, especially from their peer group. The article stated that the problems that ADHD children face with their own peer group is so prevalent that some investigators have argued that "the phenomenon of disturbed peer relations itself should serve as a defining characteristic of the disorder"(Landau & Moore, 1991; Whalen & Henker, 1991). It went on to state how "some argue that social problems of children with ADHD may be central to understanding the psychopathology of these children"(Erhardt & Hinshaw 1994). An example given was of Jamie a three-year-old expelled from school after frequent fights with other children. The teacher worried Jamie may seriously injure another child asked Jamie’s mother to keep him home.

An important question that was asked was, why should parents teachers, and psychologists worry about the ADHD child’s performance in their peer group, the quality of peer relations, and the importance of social status earned by a child The answers as stated by research conclude that two risk factors have been identified later in life for children with ADHD. The first being poor peer relations deprive the child of a number of important learning experiences, such as being fair or learning to "give" and "take" with others. Second children with peer problems tend to experience higher levels of loneliness. Rejected children tend to be avoided; this stigmatism further diminishes self-esteem and future opportunities for social interactions. Thus, a vicious cycle emerges.

The article went on to talk about social skills training. Mainly focussing on performance problems in peer groups, most SST programs are prescribed for children who seem to be disliked. Talks about how the programs are so varied that it creates a problem in getting a general evaluation of whether they seem to work. States that preliminary work in regards to ADHD children has been disappointing. With socially withdrawn students the outcome was positive, however students with ADHD already present increased rates of approach behavior, conversation initiation, and social interaction to a degree that is annoying. Thus causing SST programs by themselves to be ineffective and not useful to ADHD children.

Controlling anger and aggression was another topic discussed. An example used was taught through coaching, role-playing, and rehearsal. These were mainly used for students with aggressive problems. There was mention of a man named Lochman who dealt with anger-control work. He developed a program designed for elementary school aged children focusing on social cognition’s during frustrating and provocative encounters. This program was described to very intense and best performed in group format because peer group reinforcers seemed to be more productive. I chose this article because I witnessed and felt much of what was discussed in this article during my independent observations and work with the students.

My Summary:

I would use more individual and hands on project oriented activities. He seemed to respond best to having tasks that the teachers were able to work with him individually on. Being in the classroom with two different teaching styles really broadened my view on what’s effective and what doesn’t work as well. When in second grade much of the learning was collaborative group work, especially the math material and he would be extremely interactive with this. I noticed his participation levels increased because of the hands on capabilities. Also he was able to receive help from fellow classmates during these activities so he was able to see how other students could produce correct answers and try and repeat those steps to help him get correct answers.

From third grade the extra attention he is provided from programs such as the SAXONS shows great results. When I worked with him on that I was greatly impressed with his performance and would implement that as something that was used on a consistent basis.

The journal articles I chose were based specifically on events and emotions that I experienced or felt while doing my observations. There were times when I found myself alienating the student as the other students and the teachers did sometimes because he was so difficult to work with. As the Reading and Writing journal article stated, his social interactions can reach levels of annoyance, which was an accurate description of how I felt. And I would say the students as well as the teacher seemed to feel the same way at times.

The knowledge that I now have of being on both sides of the stick, one being the Klutz experience, the other being the observations, have given me a great understanding and value for both. It was probably because of the Klutz experience that I pursued working with this child. My troubles with crocheting were great and I contemplated quitting. I find it amazing that this child still shows desire to want to learn, being faced with all the adversities of his environment. That desire that I see when I’m in that class now no longer looks like tantrums, it looks like the frustrations of an individual trying to persevere, and just like I have my tough times in life he has his in class. Watching him makes me realize he is more gifted than most.

Bibliography of Sources

Abramowitz, A. J., & O’Leary, S. G. (1991). "Behavioral Interventions for the Classroom: Implications for Students with ADHD". School Psychology Review, 20, 220-234.

Landau, S., Milich, R., & Diener, M. B. (1998). "Peer Relations of Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder".Reading & Writing Quarterly, 14, 83-105.

Montague, M., & Warger, C. (1997). "Helping Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Succeed in the Classroom". Focus on Exceptional Children, 30(4), 1-16