Individualized Education for ADHD

You put your child in preschool - and are told he "just won't nap." This is not news to you. He doesn't nap at home, either. The preschool agrees that your child can go out and play with the older kids during naptime because maybe, the teacher thinks, it will help him "run off some of that excess energy."

By age 4, it's clear your child isn't just "active" - he's "hyperactive." By second grade, his child psychiatrist has diagnosed ADHD. You and your school district construct a "504 accommodation plan." Its goal: help your child become better organized and get his schoolwork done.

By 5th grade, the psychiatrist recommends transferring the plan's accommodation to a "stronger document" - a legal contract between families and districts called an "Individual Education Plan."

The IEP spells out the child's needs, educational goals, and what the district will do to "accommodate" the child's "special needs." Parents should resist having their ADHD child labeled SBD - Severe Behavior Disabled. The child can, instead, be designated "Other Health Impaired."

Accommodations to help the child focus should include "preferential seating." Preferential seating means the child is seated in the front row to minimize distractions, such as other students shuffling their papers, passing notes, whispering or dropping pencils.

The IEP should suggest that teachers make a seating chart prior to the first day of school. This will help the ADHD child not feel singled out. Worst is when a child is allowed to choose his own desk. Often, the ADHD child will choose to sit in the back of the room with friends who may encourage "bad" behavior because it's fun to watch the ADHD child get in trouble. The ADHD child may well end up in the front row - but as a "punishment" for being "disruptive."

Deciding who will go to the IEP meeting is of paramount importance. Parents should request that the teacher or teachers who will implement the accommodations be required to attend. The district will ask that the student be present. For younger children especially, this is something parents may want to decline. It's important, though, to make every effort to partner in a positive way with the child's teacher(s). While the law is on the child's side (federal law states that every child attending a school that receives federal funds is entitled to a free and appropriate education), it's to the child's advantage when teachers understand the disability, and want the child to succeed.

Teachers should be encouraged to make eye contact with the ADHD student before an instruction is given. If the child uses an assignment notebook, the teacher can be asked to check it at least weekly to be certain assignments are being recorded correctly. The IEP will require the teacher will initial the checked assignment. The parent will initial it again when the homework is done.

Because ADHD children are easily overwhelmed by big assignments, the teacher can help the child break up such assignments into smaller pieces, and set interim "deadlines" for completion. A common ADHD accommodation is "more time if needed" for long term projects and tests. The IEP can specify that tests be given in a less distracting environment than the general classroom, such as the resource or music room.

To help the ADHD child have opportunities to get up and move around, as well as feel good about him or herself, the teacher should be encouraged to make the ADHD child the "helper" who runs office errands for the teacher.

Teachers will find that ADHD children want to please. Partnering with the "disruptive" child in a positive way, such as putting the ADHD child in charge of collecting papers, will reap benefits for both teacher and child.

Most important of all is keeping lines of communication open between school and home. The child who says "I don't have any homework" may think he's telling you the truth, because he never heard the assignment when it was given. To be certain necessary materials make it home from school, the IEP can specify that the teacher will check the child's backpack at the end of the day to make sure the required supplies are in it. At home, the parent can train the child to put completed homework in the backpack to take back to school.

Some schools have a homework line. More helpful for the ADHD child is direct email communication between parent and teacher. At least weekly, the teacher can let the parent know about missing assignments, and large assignments upcoming. At the beginning of the school year, ask for an extra set of books and worksheets to keep at home, as well as a copy of the teacher's syllabus.

Use the syllabus to record, on a large calendar at home, due dates for reports and projects and when tests will be given, but check with the teacher regularly for any changes. Parents who have the time can help their child by volunteering for after school activities like the Parent Advisory Council or Music Boosters or whatever parent group supports a child's activities.

Most importantly, encourage teachers to be patient with the ADHD child. The child may look "normal" but does suffer from a "hidden disability." Such children are often a trial for teachers because the disability's symptoms - talking out of turn, fidgeting, not paying attention, not getting their work done - come and go. When present, those symptoms may seem as though the child is being "difficult" on purpose.

Teachers should be encouraged to understand that the child has a genuine brain disorder he can't help - and is confused and hurt when adults are angry with him.