[Catalist] Teaching Science to Students with ADHD

[Bernadine Hunneybun]

Hi Jess,

This worked for some of my foster kids with homework etc. Give them a soft squishy foam/rubber ball (that they can’t damage anything with if you can’t trust them) to manipulate in their non-writing hand while doing the activity. They just squish, move it around, can’t bounce or throw (unless this is convenient for you as a reward when they complete the work). Colourful/texturised works best, they lose it after 1 warning. Be strong on this.  

It gives them an outlet and seems to allow them to settle enough to work. It’s special so they can only use it during these times in your class. Have a basket that they can choose from of 5-6. Balls work best for boys, girls sometimes prefer ‘soothing’ pieces of material to stroke e.g. silk, satin, felt etc but balls work for them too sometimes.

The other thing that seems to work in situations where more discretion is needed are allowing them to manipulate 2 coin like objects in their pocket or on desk quietly. Works for anxiety too.

You get the concept of finding the right object for a student, not something really distracting.

Regards

Bernie

> On 31 May 2018, at 11:19 am, Jessica Van der merwe <jessica.vdm at icloud.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I am new to Catalist. Not sure how it all works but I thought I would give it a got. I am just after some teaching strategies for teaching students with ADHD. I am fairly good at including many activities that get students moving around the room and collaborating with one another. I am also good at clarifying instructions and transitioning students from one activity to another. However, I feel as though I am lacking in parts of the lesson where I need all students to work individually on a written task such as practicing exam questions or answering questions from a text book. I don't always want to be disciplining my ADHD students for disrupting the class during these times or for not doing the work. I would prefer not to have all strategies involving devices. 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Jess Bent
> _______________________________________________
> Catalist mailing list
> Catalist at lists.stawa.net
> http://lists.stawa.net/mailman/listinfo/catalist_lists.stawa.net