I have a child with ADHD in my class...

[Cies]

and I'd like some tips and advices from parents or teachers on how to "deal with" him.

I teach English as a second language in Spain, and give after school classes to small groups of kids. I've never had a SN child in my class, and have had no training for this.

In class he is constantly up out of his seat, trying to get my attention, showing me a toy or drawing on the board etc. I would love to be able to harness all this energy for language learning, but am unsure how.

My gut instinct is that he would benefit from short activities, change of focus, change of pace, being given a little responsibility (eg cleaning the board) etc. Am I right? Is there anything else I should consider?

If anyone has any input on this I'd be really grateful. It's only 2 hours a week, but since he joined the class I've had really think on my feet to help him learn and to prevent him from disturbing / annoying the other students. He's 11yo btw.

Nobody?

@ advices. I'm picking up the worst of my students! It was a typo, honest .

Hi

Your ideas are really good. It may be that he might learn better kinesthetically - so while gently throwing and catching a ball with a partner - each saying a colour or body part or whatever as they catch.

I would set very firm ground rules with him and stick to them. Also clear this with the parents first and anyone else. This will depend on how old he is as well. His attention will be very limited so giving him signals as to the amount of time he is to spend on something such as via an egg timer (I would keep it out of reach though!). I would give him chance to have some sort of rest break - possibly by allowing him to get up and move about. However, incorporating this without support and in a class room can be tricky but perhaps they could stand and play a type of 'simon says' game. This will also build his ability to follow instructions.

Hope this helps.

i think the only advice i can offer is: only give one instruction at a time; keep instructions short, clear and to the point; never get 'riled' it will only set him off too, so keep calm and relatively quiet; try and keep activities short and tactile - writing words in a sandbox instead of on paper helps. giving him frequent excuses for getting out of his seat jobs to do, will aleviate the seat leaving problems. TBH sounds like you have it under control .

ooh sorry flyingmum cross post!

thanks, it's really helpful to know I'm on the right track.

Anything else?

With my ds we use a reward based system to encourage good behaviour. He can earn a certain number of stars/stickers/points for good behaviour during the class. We do it by splitting the session into 10 or 15 minute slots and he can earn one star for each bit. At the end of the class we tot up how much he has earned and he gets a reward based on that. For ds it is time on the PS2 - 15 mins earned for every 15 mins well behaved in class. When he first started using this system we found it helped for him to have a chart and physically put stickers on it but now he can generally wait until the end to be told how many he has earned.

Try using an activity box for him to use when he gets 'bored' or 'distracted'. There could be items related to his learning subject in the box he needs to match up or build eg: picture and word match or dominos style bricks with letters on the side and he has to make words out of them.

Let him know this box is for him and him only and he gets to use is when you 'think' he's doing well. Actually what you are doing is giving him 'time out' and a break. 'he should only use the box if he feels he wants to.

Don't worry about the other students being jelous, they are not the ones with a problem and you should never treat all students the same as they are all individuals.

Good luck!!

mummyofboys, I love that idea! My DD was recently diagnosed with ADHD so I've been learning what I can do to help her more I do find also that keeping directions short and simple helps a lot.