Teaching the ADHD and ADD child

More about my own experiences as both a student with ADHD and a teacher of other students with ADHD and ADD.

Students with ADHD and ADD are annoying.

We are. I'm sorry, but we annoy teachers, we annoy each other, we even annoy ourselves. To make things worse, schools are the worst environment for students with attention deficit. We are bombarded by constant stimulus and forced to sit still for long periods.

What I find most hypocritical about teachers is their own behavior. I've always wanted to tape teachers at meetings. They would sit there grading papers (instead of sitting up with their eyes focused on the speaker), they would talk to people next to them (instead of being quiet), and genuinely exhibit all the ADHD behaviors they spent their day complaining about. I once had a teacher pull a student with ADHD out of class because he was "drawing" during her lecture. It was impossible to make her understand that by drawing he was actually able to focus his attention better than if he wasn't.

I also frequently got in trouble during college for what was considered "off task" behaviors. I learned that by doing crossword puzzles, I actually focused on lectures better than if I tried to sit and listen. I explained this to teachers and encouraged them to call on me in order to prove that I was listening. The teachers understood; other students-who ironically were in class to learn to be teachers-didn't. They would tell me I was being rude or shoot me dirty looks. I learned to shrug it off. I knew the teacher understood and besides, I was getting A's in the class. If that wasn't proof I was pay attention, I don't know what would convince them.

Hopefully, teacher will check out Part 1 and Part 2 of my series on strategies for schools. I also urge parents and students to check them out. Perhaps you'll find something that works at home or something you can suggest to your teacher. Communication is the key to any situation and it is always better to work with a teacher than to work against them.

Darcy Andries