When kids with ADHD or other challenges are punished by not being allowed to participate you are doing WAY more harm than good.
No recess!
No PE!
No field trips!
No chance to be successful!
Come on adults, you can do better than this. When are you going to realize that punishing kids for being annoying by taking away the only things in school that are cool sets them up to fail.
Kids with ADHD are the least likely to graduate. Do you want to know why?
As you know I’ve now graduated and no am longer subject to this kind of bullying from school officials but I heard yesterday about 5 kids who were told to stay home from the start of the year field trip.
This can’t still be happening!
Yes, I know you are busy and have a too many kids in your class each with unique challenges and personalities. This is not enough of an excuse to just cut out helping the ones that need you the most.
Here are my 8 strategies to help kids with ADHD you can use right now:
- Ask parents for help. If a kids can’t safely participate in a field trip ask their parents, uncles, aunts, friends or someone who knows the kid well to come along with you.
- Be compassionate not punitive. Nothing good will come of punishing a kid who already has challenges being the way you want them to be.
- Don’t exclude someone because you don’t feel like dealing with them.
- Talk to the student and ask them how the two of you can work together for them to go. Create a contract that they agree to, not just rules you put down.
- Hold each other accountable for being good to each other.
- Build a trusting relationship with the kid every day – it starts with you.
- As the adult, take the high road and lead the way to creating a positive safe place to be in your classroom.
- Do everything in your power to protect the opportunity for kids that struggle to behave to participate.
I realize this can be a tall order especially when it feels like one or two kids get all the attention. If you work on this over the year and build trust eventually even the most frustrating kid will be someone you are really proud to take anywhere.
~jeff
Jeff Rasmussen[content-block title="Meet Jeff Rasmussen" color="orange"]
Age: 18
City: Langley, BC
Diagnosed with ADHD in Grade 7
Biggest Dream: I want to change the world for younger kids like me who are punished daily for having ADHD.
Fave Class: Mechanics "I've got the plans in my head for a motorized scooter with a gas-powered engine that I'm actually capable of building."
ADHD Superpower: "If I'm determined to do something, literally nothing can stop me. Nothing. Not bribes, not bullets... nothing."
Fave Food: Hashbrowns (the kind you buy frozen, in a bag)
Career Goals: Telecommunications Guru
Life-Changing Event: Winning the WDS Scholarship for Real Life
School Achievement: Completing Math & Socials 10 in just 8 weeks this summer. "School's like 99% fluff. Summer school is that, minus the fluff."
Biggest Struggle: Even though I take medication I still have trouble staying on task, doing boring homework, remembering not to swear when I am angry or staying still through assemblies. (That's where some of my strategies come in.)
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[content-block title="An Average Kid with ADHD" color="purple"]
My ADHD has been really bad and given me every bad experience you can imagine for a kid. Before medication teachers took away my recess, my gym classes, they put me in the hall, I have been suspended from school, and I never did my work because even though my tests say I’m “gifted” I couldn’t do it. When I first learned I had ADHD I was so happy that I wasn’t bad or broken, it had a name and an explanation for what was going on.
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