Practical Strategies

While specific learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders cannot be cured or fixed, with appropriate support and intervention, children can succeed in school, go on to university and become successful adults later in life. In fact, some of the world's outstanding leaders, artists and thinkers, such as Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Auguste Rodin were thought to have learning disorders.

To ensure that a child becomes a successful learner in your classroom, F.O.C.U.S. suggests the following:

• Educate yourself  
• Maintain a close relationship with the parents/guardian
• Learn and use behavioural techniques

Educate yourself :

• What are attentional disorders (AD/HD)?
• What are Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD)?
• What are effective treatment and support strategies?

Maintain a close relationship with the parents/guardian :

Successful management of SLD and AD/HD is a team effort. If you have SLD and/or AD/HD children in your classroom, you are automatically part of the treatment process. Best outcomes will be achieved by maintaining a close "working" relationship with the other members of "the team" (the parents and the student).

This can be achieved simply by:

• Weekly updates on behaviour/work in class (in a written form or simply a friendly phone call).
• Monitoring the playground to ensure that the child is making and maintaining friendships.
• Alerting the parents immediately if you notice any changes in classroom behaviour.

Learn and use behavioural techniques :

• Consistency is the key to helping SLD and AD/HD children.

  Children with AD/HD do not deal well with change, even if it is positive change. They need to have a sense of external structure as they tend to lack a sense of internal structure.

• AD/HD kids have two kinds of time...plenty and none.

  They are usually poor at organizing their time and need you to help them break tasks down into small components.

• Place AD/HD and SLD kids at the front of the room.

  DO NOT LET THEM SIT IN THE BACK OF THE CLASS
  Seat them nearest the blackboard or close to where the teacher gives instruction. If the child is right handed, placing them at the right front of the class minimizes the number of children that could distract them while they write.

• Try to avoid placing children with AD/HD at tables with multiple children.

  This only maximizes their distractability.

• Use colors and shapes to help them organize.

• If possible try to provide a quiet study area, free from distraction, when seat work is required.

• Try to work within the child's attention span.

  Keep changing the type of work frequently and the child can continue to work productively.

• Many of these children are VISUAL learners.

  Try making things more visual or tactile and they may grasp them better. Instead of memorizing words, ask them to "make a movie in their head and play it back".

• Don't worry if you feel frustrated...so do their parents and so does the child.

  Remember that their behavior is not personally directed toward you.

• Encourage creativity.

  Above all, know that these child are (by their very nature) extremely creative. Try to encourage artistic (or musical) abilities. Having said that, to avoid chaos, keep any creative sessions structured.