ADHD: What's going on in their heads?

OK, welcome back! I'm so glad you returned to learn more about ADHD! I have so much to share that I want you to learn about and understand!

Today I want to talk about the brain. Specifically the brain inside a person with ADHD. So let's not waste time, shall we?

I'll start with giving you some key points to remember about how ADHD affects the brain. In ADHD brains, there is a 10-12% reduction of the size of key brain areas. Brain activity show abnormal patterns, and, this one is seriously important and significant, there is a THREE YEAR delay in brain maturation! Let's look at this implication. For first grade teachers like me, you've got 6 year old children with brains that, in some areas, function like that of a 3 year old! Fifth grade teachers, you've got 11 year olds with the coping skills of second graders... and middle schoolers with the needs of elementary kids. That's BIG!

The good news about the maturation is this, they DO catch up! When kids with ADHD become adults, their brains do catch up with them and mature on up. Adults still have many of the struggles and difficulties because of their ADHD, but some of the symptoms can and do improve. But overall, despite what some may think, you do NOT grow "out" of ADHD. Instead, some symptoms change, some improve, and the older you get, the better the coping skills.

ADHD is also linked to a 30% developmental delay, this of course is because of that delayed brain maturation, so naturally certain skills take some time to develop and appear. Let's look at a special case with my own son, Joshua. He is your poster child, and I do not mean that lightly; he is THE poster child for ADHD. *smile* He is also intellectually gifted. (more on that later) When he was a youngun, between the ages of 15 and 28 months, I felt a mother's concern because he was not learning speech as well as he should have been for his age. We taught him sign language, as is common in children, and I was almost wondering if it was keeping him from speaking. Then I worried about his hearing, as when I was a child, I had some problems with my ears and my hearing. Had him checked out, all good. They could find no physical reason why my son was not learning normal speech. He started speech therapy to help him develop his speech. A little after 2, he grew out of the program he was in, and I couldn't get him into the other available one because his cognitive abilities were too high, it was simply his speech that was delayed. The therapy he was in did help, but still slow going. But, his speech did come, and he had no slur, impediment, or anything. It just came late. And the way he talks now, you'd NEVER know that he started talking late. *smiles again*

Ok, so the point is, many skills that you would expect children to have could be delayed because of ADHD. Most of you I'm sure just don't know, or think about that. Now maybe you will. :)

Now, like many other disorders and diseases, ADHD occurs in varying degrees, depending on the level of brain activity and delay. There may be mild, moderate, or severe cases of the disorder.

Let's talk about the executive function again, which I mentioned in my last post, the conductor of the orchestra, if you will. Let's talk about some of the key brain functions that are controlled by executive function. It controls many aspects of the brain, such as working memory and recall, activation, alertness, and effort, problem solving, analyzing, organizing, planning for the future, ability to "self-talk," control of emotions,  and transitioning and inhibition.  Students with executive function deficits have limited working memory space, which basically means that they can't handle as much as others can when working. While your "average" student can read a word problem, think about the pieces, the numbers, the question, and the steps they need to take to solve the problem, your ADHD child is still trying to figure out how what the question is. To make a child successful, we have to limit the demands on this limited working space. More good news here, these deficits in executive function will continue to grow and develop well into the ages of 30 and 40.

Well, I think I've worked your brain enough tonight learning about the ADHD brain, so I'll stop for now. Next installment I'll discuss other disorders that commonly occur concurrently with ADHD and medications. Have a good night!

I want to give some acknowledgements about this and future installments. The information I am delivering to you has come from a variety of sources. A great deal of it came from an organization called CHADD, which I encourage you to check out on your own. I credit the book CHADD Educator's Manual on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Dr. Mabe at Georgia Regents' University, my son's private doctors, and my own ongoing research and experiences, all of which help me learn more and more about this complex condition, in order that I may share it with you.

ADHD: A working definition for educators

ADHD- These letters stand for "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It is defined by Dr. Thomas Brown as "a neurobiological disorder that is characterized by inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity, and for some, hyperactivity." In other words, it starts in the BRAIN. It is an actual disorder in which chemicals in the brain are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. PET scans actually show significant differences in the brain function and activity of a person with ADHD and a person who does not have the disorder. You may be surprised to learn that the brain of people with ADHD is actually performing less activity than the brain of their "normal" counterparts. But people with ADHD are so active you say... some of them are, and what is really happening is these people are trying to cope; they daydream, fidget, squirm, all in attempts to activate areas of the brain that are not functioning properly, or at all.

ADHD deals largely with a neurological concept called executive function. Executive function is like the "conductor" of the orchestra. It tells all the other parts of the brain what to do and when. In adults and children with ADHD, the executive function of the brain is malfunctioning, or ceasing to operate altogether. Picture an orchestra with no conductor. The flutes are playing one melody while the clarinet pipes out another. Meanwhile the drums are playing faster than the saxophones, which are playing slower than the tubas. It's musical chaos, pain to the eardrums, and by no means a musical performance you'd like to hear. This is what the brain of someone with ADHD is like. Take myself for example. While I'm cooking supper, trying to figure out what to add to the pan I'm frying pork chops in, I'm also thinking about what I taught in math this morning, what Johnny and Sue were arguing about, how I forgot to get milk at the store, what I might see on tonight's episode of Bones, AND that I still have to take a shower. I'm thinking these things ALL at the SAME time. I can't just focus on one thing at a time. It's like I'm thinking about everything at once. That's what a deficit in executive function will do to you. It makes it difficult to focus on just one task at a time and give all your energy to it. I'll talk more about specific problems that are associated with executive function later. First of all, let's look at the three categories, if you will, of ADHD.

           **ADHD Predominately Inattentive- this person experiences more difficulty in the area of attentiveness, meaning he/she
                        - doesn't pay attention to details, and often makes careless mistakes
                        - has a hard time "staying on task"
                        - seems like he or she doesn't listen
                        - doesn't complete tasks that are started
                        - is disorganized
                        - avoids work
                        - loses things
                        - is easily distracted
                        - is forgetful
            ** ADHD Predominately Hyperactive/Impulsive - this person exhibits major difficulties in experiencing hyperactivity and impulsivity, meaning he/she
                       - often can't sit still- is fidgety or squirms
                       - runs or climbs, is always moving
                       - has difficulty playing quietly (this doesn't mean impossible)
                       - acts as if "driven by a motor"
                       - Talks a lot and often loudly
                       - shouts out frequently
                       - can't seem to wait his/her turn
                       - interrupts or pushes way into conversations
                       - is reactionary - IE acts before thinking of results, think of running into the road without   looking

            ** ADHD Combined- this one is obvious; this person experiences symptoms of both ADHD Inattentive and ADHD Hyperactive/Impulsive.

Ok, so that is your introduction in to the world of ADHD. I have given you a fairly working definition and some basic symptoms of the disorder. Is it starting to sound like a student or adult you know? I'm sure at least one comes to mind. ADHD is much more prevalent that you may think. Right now, I have not one, but 4 students in my class who have the condition. It's something to think about...

In my next installment I will discuss more in detail about some of the things that your students with ADHD have going on in their head, so you can really understand what they are battling each and every day in their lives, and hopefully this will help you to understand why coping in the regular classroom is such a tremendous job for them.

I want to give some acknowledgements about this and future installments. The information I am delivering to you has come from a variety of sources. A great deal of it came from an organization called CHADD, which I encourage you to check out on your own. I credit the book CHADD Educator's Manual on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Dr. Mabe at Georgia Regents' University, my son's private doctors, and my own ongoing research and experiences, all of which help me learn more and more about this complex condition, in order that I may share it with you.

ADHD: My pledge

Ok, so I have been absent for a little while. Ok... a long while, life gets way busier than it ever should be. But I'm going to try to do better. Promise. *key word try :) *

I've decided to go in a second direction with the blog, and not just talk about the cool things that I do in class. This afternoon I was working on a presentation I will be doing at a local University. Every year they have a conference for up and coming and current teachers to share learning and teaching strategies to improve student learning. Well, I have been given a whole 55 minutes to teach about my topic, which is generally how to accommodate for students with ADHD. Well, truth be told, there is no way on earth I can share everything I want to share about ADHD in an hour's time, so I had to strategically pick points I wanted to cover in the time I was given. This frustrated me greatly, namely because of my passion for educating the masses about ADHD. So as I was cutting, and cutting, and trimming, from my presentation, I remembered this blog that is in the corner gathering dust. I was like, HEY! I will use the blog to share my passion, which really was part of my original intention for the creation of the blog, but as I said, life got in the way. I am going to do my best to dedicating a bit of time, as often as possible, to sharing facts and information about ADHD, and then strategies and accommodations in working with children with the condition. So I will blog a bit at at time, giving valuable info about a condition I live with and work with every day. I hope to gain some followers in this way, and I encourage you who do follow to post questions in the comments section about my posts, especially about things you would specifically like to know about in dealing with ADHD, and I will try to address them as I blog. I would like for it to start out informational, and then continue as an interactive forum, which allows me to help all teachers, and parents, who work with children with ADHD.

So there it is. My pledge to teach as many as I can about ADHD. I am going to go feed my family, then come back and do my first post, to give some definitions and descriptions of the disorder. Happy following!

Give them digital or give them death!

I know, I know... I'm bad at keeping up. It is still my goal to get better! This is my first blog and it takes some getting used to, that is to say, I have to get used to kicking my butt on here to blog!

     So here it is. I had a recent experience with my kids that just threw me completely off my mark. Mind you, this isn't the first time this had happened, but the first time, I thought it was a fluke. :) What happened, you ask? Well let me tell you. I told my kids I was going to read them a story. *Dramatic pause* Big news right? Their reaction was... they groaned!!! Tell me now, when you were in the first grade, didn't you LOVE it when your teacher said, "Class, put your pencils away and come to the rug, I'm going to read a story." We jumped for joy! (I know, all of you just had flashbacks *wink*) So anyway, it soon dawned on me that it wasn't the actual story that threatened to bore them to tears, but rather, the presentation they thought it would take. My kids love reading; they can't wait to go to the library most days, but I guess they just thought I was going to read, well, in a boring way. These kids are surrounded by digital media, computers, television, Iphones, and Ipads. The stories they get "read" come in the form of flashy pictures, music and on-screen narration. Heaven forbid someone actually sit with them and read a book! Or at least, this is the way I took it. While I was thoroughly disheartened by their reaction to my simple statement, "I'm going to read a story," it did remind me of the dramatic way the world has changed in such a relatively short period of time. When my mother was a child, she had 3 television channels and a computer was unheard of. When I was a child, we had 60-100 TV channels, and I didn't get a "home computer" until age 12. My own son, age 9, has 200 channels of TV delight, and got his first laptop at age 6. Then, I watch a friend of mine's son, age 2, swipe his finger on an IPad like he knows exactly what he's doing, and he does!! He reaches out for mom's Ipad and says "Netflix!"
We are in a day and age where children shout "if it isn't digital, it isn't fun, or right, or good..." insert adjective of your choice. I'm not dissing or dismissing technology,  (I LOVE my promethean board!) but what I am saying is that maybe we over-utilize it. It is a GREAT thing, but it's not the ONLY thing. I, for example, still get out a book, an actual book, and read to my son every night before he goes to bed, and I have since he was 3. Result? He always has at least 3 books in his book bag at all times. No lie! And he actually reads them! On his own! I actually have to make him take some out, lest he look like the hunchback of Notre Dame before age 12.
I did find myself stuck in this rut last year, partly, I'm sure, due to the fact that I was SOO excited to get my promethean board. I did EVERYTHING on it. I learned all the ins and outs, the tricks of the trade, scanned book pages, took pictures, and put it all on the promethean. I have a flipchart (many unfinished) for just about every topic I covered last year in class. This year, however, I've come to a poetic balance. I took a professional learning on foldables, did some "pinteresting" research, and have been pushed into the CCGPS, so that the results are LOTS of hands on stuff with my kids this year, and I've go to tell you, so far we've had a blast! Many of the things I was scared to try, worried it would be too much work or too difficult, wasn't actually that bad, and the kids really benefit. As I continue to kick myself into continuing this blog more diligently, I will share many of the things I have done with my kids that create amazing fun and serious learning.
What's the moral of this story? I did read my kids that story. And they loved it. ( I am... by the way, an awesome story teller *grin*)  I'm still reading them stories, and I won't stop.

The Power of Art

I am so sorry I have kept you, my limited public :), waiting! I have been so busy with our new school year and I've been having a blast! I love my babies! Have I told you that yet? :) Ok, so let me tell you about something great I do with my kids that they love and I love. Some teachers in the younger grades have "Fun Fridays," where they spend the last 30-45 minutes of the day doing something fun to break up the monotony and hard work of the week. Well, I do it too, but our "fun" is art! We are not lucky enough to have an art teacher or an arts program at our school. We do have Music, thankfully, but no art. So, I do the art teaching. Art is so important to a child's education because it teaches that creativity does not always come in the same package. It allows students to develop of love for art and learn about the many different ways to express themselves.

Ok, so there is my short version speech about why I think art is so important in school. Here's what I do. When Fun Friday rolls around, I have picked out an artist for us to study. I introduce the students to the artist, tell them who it is, where he/she is from, about when he/she lived, and talk about the artist's style. I will then show them samples of work created by the artist. Usually I limit the art samples to the style I want to focus on that day. For out very first artist study, we looked at Piet Mondrian. We talked about his style, the word "abstract," and how he used thick and thin lines to create boxes of different sizes, and only a few colors. I showed them several samples of his paintings, the ones that included only primary colors as well as some others which used a sampling of other colors as well. After the study, we created our own art in Mondrian's style. I gave each child a ruler and markers. ( I was not ready to dive into paint yet :) ) I let the students draw lines on their paper, as many or as few as they wanted, both vertically and horizontally to make boxes like Mondrian did.  Then they traced the lines with black markers, making some of them thick if they wanted to. Then I told them they could only pick out 3 colors or less, and then choose which boxes to color. The kids had a blast! They loved every minute of it. I will say again what I said last school year when I started doing artist studies on Fridays; It doesn't matter who is your class, one who is super well behaved or one is off the wall, regular ed or special ed, when we do art, everyone is there. All the students are into it, all the students are performing, all students are learning, all students are having fun, and you have the most well behaved class in the world. That, friends, is the power of art. It makes every kid proud and engaged.

Ok, next week comes around and another Fun Friday comes. Who did we study? Henri Matisse! But wait? didn't he do some not so child friendly art? Some, yes, but he also did some spectacularly child friendly art, particularly in his later years. I taught my darlings about Matisse, told them about his life, showed them some of his early works and talked about that style, the focused my attention on the meat of my lesson, his cutouts. We looked at a bunch of his cutout artworks, which were as diverse in pattern and style as my kids are. The kids really liked looking at them and talking about what they thought his pictures looked like. Then it was time for them to get to work. I had all this scrap construction paper that I was "saving" but never used. (C'mon, you know what I'm talking about, you've got a box too!) Well, I don't anymore. I placed a bucket of scrap construction paper at each group and let them go to town. The kids love that I tell them art has no rules when it comes to creativity, they can make whatever their hearts' desire! You would not believe the different pieces of art that came out of this activity. I am going to get the picture of the finished products and post them. They are so diverse, not a one is alike. I was so proud of my babies!

Aren't they having a ball!! They loved it!

This last Friday we studied Andy Warhol. The kids loved seeing Marilyn Monroe in different colors. (even if they have no clue who she is) We talked about pop art, what it was, and saw several examples of it. Then I gave students a blank piece of paper and had them divide it into 6 sections. In each section, they drew the same basic image, then colored each one with different, bright colors, just like Andy. Of course, they loved this activity too. I just love art! And so do they! This is the power of art my friends, and I encourage you to find its power as well! It is not nearly as hard as you might think to start teaching art in your class. Don't let it scare you. In the words of Ms. Frizzle, "get messy and have fun!"

Teaching my kids about "Fairness"

OK, I know it's been a minute... or two, since my last post. I have been working hard on getting the school year together. And just when I did, and was ready to post, my internet failed me for several days. But I'm back and hopefully to stay!

    So, we are in the fourth week of school now... yeah, that's right. Gotta double check myself! ;) I went from a class full of sardines, at 26 darlings, to 24, to 23, as I just had my first withdrawal today already! Just from these first few weeks, I can tell you what, even 24 is a challenge. It is so hard to keep that many 6 year olds all on task at the same time. No wait, it's dang near impossible! But I'm working it and we are going to make it. Definitely supports small groups instruction, I tell ya what. I have been trying to teach centers since the first week of school so they get it down pat, then when I do get my small groups going better I will not have any problems. I introduce a little more each time we do it, a new center, a new activity, a new procedure for small group time. They are actually doing pretty good with it. I am impressed. They seem to do better than any group I've had in the past, or maybe I'm just getting better. Let's go with that. :)

    I did the "fairness" activity with my kids, which I learned about on Pinterest the other day. It was too funny and they really did understand. Ok, so the activity was about fairness, and how being fair doesn't mean that I'm giving everyone the same thing. I told all the kids to make-believe they had some "boo-boo" they needed a band-aid for. First of all, just my saying "boo-boo" the way I did had them rolling. So anyway, I would call them up one at a time, and enthusiastically gave fake sympathy, and with much flourish, place the band-aid on their upper left arm, regardless of where their "boo-boo" was. At first I got some laughs, and some funny looks. It took a few kids for them to realize I was putting the band-aid in the same place every time, and a couple of kids tried to stop me or say something, but I just kept on with my exaggerated flourish and "healing" of their "boo-boos." At the end I proudly announced that I took care of everyone's boo-boos and did a great job. Of course, through grins and giggles my kids were like "no!" and "nu uh!" To which I replied by asking why I didn't do a good job. They pointed out my "mistake," of putting everyone's band-aids on the same place instead of on the correct boo-boo area. By this point half the band-aids were off and stuck somewhere else on their person, but that was ok. This reply from them was exactly what I wanted of course, and used it to explain that not everyone needs the same things all the time, and that I would treat them fairly, not the same, to make sure that every child always gets what they need to be a winner. ( I say winner because of the sports them. I'm always telling them how they are winners.)

   We also did our first art activity last Friday for our "Fun Friday." I love the arts and there is just not enough of it in school anymore. So what I do is spend a few minutes teaching the kids about an artist, teach them about his/her style, and show them some of the artist's works. Then, we create art in the same style as the artist. This past Friday we studied Piet Mondrian, an artist from the Netherlands who painted many abstract paintings. The ones he became famous for were largely made up of straight black lines, sometimes of various thickness, that criss cross over each other. Then, some of the squares and rectangles that are made are colored in with colors. Mondrian used mostly primary colors, though sometimes used other colors instead. All in all though, only a few colors were used in repetition. So, I gave my kids a piece of cardstock, a ruler, a black marker, and a choice of only 3 or less colored markers. Then they drew as many or as few black lines as they wished, and colored in some of the shapes created with their chosen colors. They really enjoyed this and colored boxes until it was time to go home. I wish I had taken some pictures, but quite honestly I just forgot.

So, there is more we have said and done, but I'll leave that for another day. I still need my 2 more stools, though (grin) and I still plan to do my ADHD posts, but for tonight I'm going to put it away. My son wants to watch Pinocchio, and how can I say no to that. Half the kids in my class probably have never heard of him, bless them. So I bid you all adieu! See you soon!

Week Two and What to do?

       Well, it's the first day of the second week of school. I still have 26 little darlings in my class and when I tell you we are packed in like sardines I am not kidding! I do really like the seating arrangement I created, with my stools in the center for materials tables. I still need two stools though! *pouts* I'm still holding out for some friendly donations from friends who clean out their garages! The kids seem to be a really good group, they are learning the routines quickly and trying to follow procedures in class. I tell you two things that I think they love so much, the hallway song and Molly. For those of you who don't know the hallway song, I found it on someone else's blog, through Pinterest. I will find it and give the person credit for it so you can see it too. But... it's a short, catchy song that gets them ready for the hall.  It goes "My hands are right beside me, I'm standing straight and tall, my hands are right beside me, I'm ready for the hall!" Then, they "catch a bubble" by closing their mouths like they have filled it with air. They love it; it keeps me from preaching, and it really does remind them about appropriate hallway behavior.  This year, I am really trying to model hallway behavior by following the same rules myself. Of course, it is important for students to understand that adults earn more privileges then children, but since the reason for quiet hallway behavior is to keep from disturbing other classes, it seems appropriate that I should follow the same rules as the children when it comes to the hallway. It's harder than you think, as adults, teachers, walking down the hallway and not speaking. Firstly, you want to fuss at a child who is out of place. Or, another teacher comes by and you suddenly remember you need to speak to him or her, or want to say hi. It's a true test in self control. I have handled this with two simple strategies. First I have my hallway sign. I made it with a ruler, cardboard, card stock pictures and key rings. (I will post the picture later) It has four different signs I can flip as needed. One is a reminder to stay quiet, one is a reminder to stay in line, and then I have a sign for "stop" and "go." 1st graders can't read yet! You say... no problem! I have pictures and words on the signs, which, after using it with my kids, has proven TOTALLY worth it. The kids figured out instantly what each sign was for, and through the context of the pictures, even knew what the words were. The second problem was handling my own urge to speak to other adults and not appearing rude to them for not speaking. So, I wave, and if the need to speak arises, I simply hand them a slip of paper instead, which I store in a small pocket on the back of my hallway sign. The note is short, sweet, and to the point. It says:

                  Forgive me for not speaking, I'm not being rude. I'm simply modeling appropriate hallway              behavior for my class.. I'd love to speak with you later!

It's great. I'm really excited about my hallway plan, and so far it is working wonderfully. 

The other favorite of the class is Molly. Remember her? I showed you her picture and the voki I made for her. The kids can't get enough of her. And get this, they tell her about what they are learning! Without me prompting them! The other day, we made a graph, and when Molly came out, the kids were like, "hey Molly, guess what? We made a graph!" And so Molly looked at it, and got so excited about it for them. When we reviewed the months of the year, they asked Molly if she could do, so of course, she did, by cheering them of course! I am so thrilled I got Molly and look forward to using her more. I'm improving my ventriloquist skills while I'm at it too! *laughs* 

I will tell you what, 26 kids is definitely testing my management skills, which was always the hardest thing for me. I am too nice and too fun! *laughs* I've been working on it for years and I'm getting much better at it. Thanks to the things I've learned on Pinterest, through experience, and planning, I think I'm in a good place. We have our baseball management board, my token system, and my smart beads for academics. So far, so good. As anyone knows, and we always tell each other, consistency is the key. And of course, as easy as it sounds, it is more difficult to do. But, practice makes perfect, and with sardines, it is essential!! So I'm trying to be consistent, reviewing rules daily, rewarding good behavior and offering consequences and corrections for improper behavior. We'll keep on trucking, constantly pray, and see how it goes! Let's make this post interactive, comment on this post by telling your most successful behavior management strategy or your class's favorite activity or "thing!"