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July 18, 2022
Is it ADHD or is it Something Else?
July 18, 2022
by Dina Schachtely and Clifford Brugman
If you are privileged enough to be in education, whether as a teacher in a general classroom, special education, Hebrew, Judaic Studies, or other area, you likely have taught one or both of the following two types of students.
The first type of student just cannot sit still. You are always asking them to “pay attention” or “focus” more. They oftentimes will get up out of their seat and move around without permission. When you look at them, they do not look comfortable in their own bodies. These students are intelligent; however, for some reason they are not doing as well in your class or in school overall as you know they are capable of. You spend nights lying awake in bed asking yourself, “How can I help this student realize their full potential?” You have tried a multitude of different strategies and the students still have not met your expectations, and you begin to find that your patience with them is wearing thinner and thinner.
The second type of student seems to always be paying attention, sits still in class, and makes eye contact with you while you are teaching them. However, when it comes time to work on an assignment or project that deals directly with the material you just taught, these students have no clue about what they should do. You get frustrated that you have to go over everything with those students again so they can complete the assignment. Oftentimes even after you review what was taught, they are still confused and will not pay attention to the details of the assignment. You know this student is very intelligent and is capable of producing better quality work, yet just like with the first type of student, all the strategies you try do not seem to work and your patience is wearing thin with these students.
Although both of the student types described have different issues, they both more than likely have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) says that 5 percent of American children have ADHD. That means if you have not yet worked with a student with ADHD you are more than likely to soon. How do we arm our students who are diagnosed with ADHD with the strategies and tools to succeed, not only in school, but to function and thrive as young Jewish adults?
We work at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School as student coaches. In our school, a student coach is a teacher who works with students who need extra help in areas ranging from executive functioning issues, behavioral issues, social/emotional needs, and, of course, ADHD. Our job is to help them develop strategies to be successful while also helping content teachers adopt those strategies in classroom settings. We also advocate for our students and work with their teachers and families to ensure they are set up for success.
At our school, the staff and students live our school’s core values every day.
Empathy – We use empathy to guide our interactions with each other and our students. We try our very best to understand what a person is going through and what their point of view is before jumping to conclusions. We all end up learning from each other and helping each other grow as individuals through the use of empathy.
Wonder – Wonder is also at the heart of what our teachers do in the classroom. We empower our students to ask questions and find answers to their questions through inquiry and group work. Professionals at our school use wonder by trying new and innovative things in their classrooms and are not afraid to fail, reflect, adapt, and try again.
When working with students with ADHD we believe that the first two core values, Empathy and Wonder, are of utmost importance to help our students who are diagnosed with ADHD thrive and survive in school and beyond.
Empathy
We understand empathy as being directly tied to the Jewish value of “B’tzelem Elokhim.” If each of us is created in the image of God, we all have inherent value just as we are. We treat all of our students with empathy, yet importantly, the students who struggle – like students who have ADHD – deserve to be seen and treated with kavod (respect). These students need our understanding and patience, and they need to know that we understand that their struggles in school are often not completely under their control. As educators we need to make sure that students with ADHD understand that we care about them and respect them. If we can establish that type of relationship with our students who have ADHD, that builds trust between teacher and student. This makes it easier to teach students with ADHD the different strategies they can use to thrive and survive at school and in their Jewish lives outside of school.
The second way we use empathy as part of our intervention strategy with our ADHD students is to help the teachers who are still at the beginning stages of showing empathy. We help them see situations where empathy would have helped them with their relationship with students. As we referred to earlier it is a perfectly natural response to start to get frustrated with students when you feel like they are not meeting your expectations and you know they are capable of more. As student coaches we take the responsibility of being advocates for our students very seriously. When we see that a student who has ADHD is not being treated with empathy and understanding we use that opportunity to have a critical conversation with the teacher. This helps the teacher understand that instead of getting frustrated in that situation, this is an opportunity for them to show empathy and kindness to that student. It goes a long way in helping both students and teachers. It shows the student that the teacher understands them, and it helps the teacher because now the student trusts that teacher more. With that trust being established the teacher can feel comfortable pushing that student a little harder and also help the student apply the strategies that the student coaches have worked on.
Wonder
The core value of wonder is where the strategies, modifications, and interventions we try with students with ADHD come into play. There is no one size fits all approach to helping a student with ADHD. One strategy, intervention, or modification that works for one student may not work as well for a different student. We use wonder to research and try different strategies, modifications, and interventions with our ADHD students and to come up with the best combination to help each of our students with ADHD navigate school and feel successful and confident.
There are three main categories of strategies we use when helping our students with ADHD.
- Accommodations – One of the accommodations that is most useful is seating. Since students who have ADHD struggle with focus, teachers should make sure they are sitting in places in their room that are mostly free of distractions. They should also have seats in the front of the class, which allows the teacher to frequently check in with the students to ensure they are focusing and understanding what is being taught in class. In addition, seating also includes making sure students have quiet places to take tests and quizzes.
- Modifications – There are three subcategories that fall under modifications. The first subcategory is modifying how we deliver information to students with ADHD. Since students with ADHD learn differently, we must make sure we deliver information to them in a way that they understand and that will help them the best. Our teachers make sure to deliver directions one at a time and teach students to repeat the directions back to them. In addition, some of our students benefit from teachers using visual aids such as charts and pictures to present information. Also, the use of graphic organizers to help students take notes and organize their thoughts as our educators teach is an effective modification.
The second subcategory is modifying the work we give students with ADHD. For example, modifying the amount of work the teachers assign is helpful. Next, giving more white space on their papers helps students with ADHD feel less overwhelmed but still allows them to practice the concepts learned in class. Another useful modification for student work is when our students with ADHD have long term projects and assignments, we break those down into smaller more manageable pieces and set mini deadlines for each part.
The third subcategory is helping students with ADHD stay organized. We work with our students to come up with a system of recording and keeping track of assignments. Sometimes our students will write things down in a paper assignment notebook, while other students feel more comfortable using a digital assignment notebook where they can type down their assignments instead. We also help our ADHD students learn how to use lists to help them remember what they need for each class. Another very useful strategy that helps with organizational skills is the use of check-ins at the beginning of the day and checkouts at the end of day. The check-in is used to make sure the students have their homework from the day before and knows what classes they have that day, while the checkout is to help the students make sure they have all the materials needed to do their homework.
- Behavioral Interventions – These are ideas that help curb the disruptive behavior some students with ADHD can have. One of the most successful behavioral interventions we use with our students is allowing them to take brain breaks as needed. These breaks are 5-7 minutes, when the students are allowed to leave the classroom and go for a walk or get a drink of water. Most of the time when they return to class, they are more focused and less disruptive.
What happens when the disruptive behavior has already occurred and students with ADHD do not realize they are being disruptive? There are several interventions that we have found to be effective. The first intervention is meeting with the students and coming up with a nonverbal signal teachers can use to help the students know when they are being disruptive without calling out the student in front of their peers. This could be a hand signal, a shoulder touch, or even a sticky note the teacher places in front of the student. The second intervention when disruptive behavior occurs is if a teacher needs to talk to the student about the behavior making sure this is done privately and not in front of the rest of the class. Finally, just instructing our teachers to ignore the disruptive behavior if it is not interrupting the lesson has helped tremendously.
Thriving
What happens to the students when they leave the safety and comfort of the walls of their school? Do the strategies, interventions, and modifications we use truly help them thrive outside of the classroom as citizens and as members of the Jewish community? We believe the answer is yes. First and foremost, if our students have a positive experience with their Jewish education due to the strategies, modifications, and interventions we use, they are more likely to truly engage with their Jewish community outside of school. When they know they have the tools to help them thrive in the classroom, they can apply those same tools to Torah study, synagogue attendance, and interacting with their Jewish community in a positive way. The key is to teach these strategies to students so eventually – with a gradual release to self-responsibility – they are able to apply and use them independently.
In closing, students with ADHD deserve the same quality education of all children. Rather than be inhibited by ADHD-related behaviors, it is vital to help students learn coping and management skills. Of utmost importance is also empowering our educators with abilities to support the students to succeed both in school and in the world as young Jewish adults. Empathy and wonder, two of the core values of Milwaukee Jewish Day School, directly support this success.
Ms. Dina Schachtely is a student coach at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School in Milwaukee, WI. She began teaching in 2001 and has held such roles as classroom teacher, reading specialist, and educational consultant. Ms. Schachtely holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cardinal Stritch University. She also has certificates in areas such as autism awareness, diversity training, dyslexia, and behavioral challenges. dschachtely@mjds.org
Mr. Clifford Brugman is a physical education teacher and student coach at Milwaukee Jewish Day School in Milwaukee, WI. He has been a teacher for 8 years and has been teaching at MJDS for the last 6 years. Mr. Brugman holds a MS in education with an emphasis on literacy from Cardinal Stritch University. cbrugmam@mjds.org