Adhd In Our Education System
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Every young child walks into education with some type of willingness to learn. A factor in learning though is how we see and react to things. At certain times the process of teaching, may take a few sittings for say a five year old. Naptime is required; at least two recess to let them enjoy themselves. When the teachers finally do have their students sitting down and being quiet for the time being, there is a slight possibility the teacher will lose a few of the student’s attentions. This is an example of one of the symptoms that are noticeable in a child schooling that has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. Losing a kid’s interest in class is only apart of ADHD. ADHD is a disorder that shows up in both males and females, but not every student will have the show the symptoms or know how to handle their ADHD. It all comes down to one thing their brain’s are unique just like every other person. Many ADHD specialists are starting to move away from calling this a disorder and beginning to call it a “mental dysfunction.” In a patients eyes this makes it seem that it is not looked down upon as being the persons fault, but instead they look at how that person reacts to their surroundings and their actions. There are many ways to deal with ADHD in the school system, such as medication and placement in the classroom, periodical grade checks and even a school agenda can be helpful. Over the years, studies have shown that ADHD is a disorder that is becoming more and more noticeable in schools and physicians have discover different ways to deal with this disorder.
According to Parenting a Child With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Dr. Melvin Levine, M.D., Director of Clinical Center for Study of Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, say’s that ADHD does not make a person stupid he say’s that their brains are just “wired differently”(Boyles, Contadino screen 4). It has been estimated that. Just to break that down in to terms that are more understandable, in a classroom of 25 to 30 children there is a chance that one of children has a possibility of having ADHD. In the earlier years of a child’s school that looks out the window and daydreams might be over looked as showing signs of ADHD, but in reality this child could very well be ADHD.
According to the Attention Center The ADHD the brain works in a very unique way and the easiest way to understand how it works is by breaking it down into these characteristics: Hyperfocusing, Distractibility, Overstimulation, Understimulation, Hyperactivity, and Impulsivity.
In young children the characteristics that appear the most are hyperactivity, which is when a child brain is searching for something interesting and their brain urges them to get up and start moving around to find something interesting. An example is a student always trying to grab what’s in your hand or just walking around the classroom touching different things. For younger children another characteristic that goes hand and hand with Hyperactivity is impulsivity, or they seem unable to take the time and think what their going to say before they react to a certain situation. Consequences are things that don’t seem to be thought of as much with some one that struggle’s with impulsivity problems. Taking turns in games or group projects is not something done easily, because when they want something done they want it now. Many times these are the children that might struggle socially with other people (Attention Center).
When schooling younger children something that is always uncomforting to run into is losing their attention, this is not always their fault. Kids that are what called inattentive may have a hard time focusing on any one thing; they may get bored with a given task only after a few minutes. For the tasks or recreational activities that they enjoy paying attention is not any trouble at all. Learning something new or organizing can be difficult for students that show characteristics of inattention. The Mayo Clinic says that people who suffer with inattentive are easily distracted by sounds and movement, not paying attention to the details and making careless mistakes, Rarely following instructions carefully and forgetting things such as pencils books and tools needed for tasks, skipping from one uncompleted activity to another are all signs inattention(Mayo). Studies have shown that children diagnosed being predominantly inattentive type of ADHD are rarely impulsive or hyperactive, what they really struggle with is just paying attention. At the young age it seems as if their always day dreaming or easy confused. Students who suffer with being inattentive might have difficulty processing information quickly and accurately as say some of the other children in their class. Many times when a teacher giver instructions the student might have a hard time understanding what they are suppose to do leading in making the same mistake over and over again. Many time’s in schoosl these are the students with ADHD that are over looked they might get along better with other kids more than the children that lean to the more impulsive side of ADHD. (Attention Center)
When ADHD children start to find things that they have a great deal of interest in they can start Hyperfocusing or focus to the point that every thing outside what their focusing on is blocked out. In reality this means that every thing that goes on around that student they do not see or hear unless it directly involves the subject that they are focused on. Hyperfocusing can come in handy and can be used as a talent; you just have to make sure it is used at the right time. When a person is not hyperfocusing on something that person’s brain is looking for something interesting, once the brain finds something interesting it wants to hyperfocus on that subject. In certain instances such as the class room Hyperfocusing on something that is not what their talking or dealing with is called being distracted.
At times a student can overstimulate themselves by constantly looking for anything interesting in their environment at a certain point in doing this the students mind can become overwhelmed and lead to what Dr. Romereim likes to call “snap attacks”(Attention Center). Along with an ADHD student’s mind being overwhelmed with their environment many students can become easily bored or and at that time their brain just tends to shut down, in our country we call this sleeping. Studies have shown that many ADHD people can fall asleep almost in any environment even on the back of a roaring motorcycle, these are characteristics of Understimulation.
A characteristic