ADHD and Behaviour

Roadmap

• Description and Definition of Behaviour Exceptionality

• ADHD characteristics

• Best Practice Strategies

• Other behaviour exceptionalities (ODD, Conduct Disorder) characteristics

How Do We Define Behaviour Exceptionality?

• A learning disorder characterized by specific behaviour problems over such a period of time, and to such a marked degree, and of such a nature, as to adversely affect educational performance, and that may be accompanied by one or more of the following:

a) an inability to build or to maintain interpersonal relationships;

b) excessive fears or anxieties;c) a tendency to compulsive reaction;d) an inability to learn that cannot be

traced to intellectual, sensory, or other health factors, or any combination thereof.

Types of Behaviour Disorders

• ADHD

• ODD

• Conduct Disorder

• Generalized Anxiety

• Others - undefined or associated with Mental Health issues (e.g. PTSD)

Think and Connect

• Personal Story

• Visualize the Student’s strengths and needs

• The student’s strengths can be used to address his or her weaknesses.

• Understanding and noting them is critical to appropriate program development

Strengths and Needs- Creative Thinker

- Kinesthetic Learner

- Expressive Vocabulary

- Impulsive

- Reduce physical contact

- Redirect excessive energy

- Allow for physical movement breaks

- Implement a behaviour modification reward system

- use direct instruction & social stories to teach impulse control

- role-play appropriate behaviour (e.g. waiting one’s turn)

Some Characteristics

Students who have behavioural/emotional disorders may demonstrate behaviours that show

• disregard for social or cultural norms and that deviate in a significant manner from those that are normally expected.

What This May Look Like In Your Classroom

Students who have behavioural/emotional disorders may demonstrate behaviours that show disregard for social or cultural norms and that deviate in a significant manner from those that are normally expected. They may:

• destroy their own, another person’s or the school’s property;• be disobedient, defy authority, test limits, refuse to follow directions, or be

domineering;• be uncooperative, resistive, inconsiderate, or disruptive;• interrupt, disturb, or cause disturbances for which others are blamed;• be apathetic, exhibiting a “don’t care” attitude;• fight, hit, or assault others;• intimidate, bully, or threaten others;• be restless, boisterous, or noisy;• be untrustworthy or dishonest, lie, or steal;• use profane or abusive language and gestures;• demonstrate delinquent behaviour or vandalism;• be truant from school.

What This May Look Like In Your Classroom

Students who have behavioural/emotional disorders may demonstrate behaviours that tend to be impulsive or compulsive and that negatively affect learning. These students may:

• speak out;• disrupt classroom activities;• display temper tantrums;• repetitively demonstrate the same behaviour;• have difficulty thinking before acting, or be impulsive;• become distracted or inattentive, or lack focus;• daydream or appear preoccupied;• demonstrate a short attention span or poor concentration;• demonstrate an extreme resistance to change (secondary

consideration).

What This May Look Like In Your Classroom

Students who have behavioural/emotional disorders may demonstrate behaviours that show poor interpersonal relationships and low self-esteem. They may:

• be uncooperative in groups, argumentative, or passively noncompliant;

• seek attention;• depend on others for direction and require constant

reassurance;• be hypersensitive, easily hurt or embarrassed, or easily

flustered;• lack self-confidence;• demonstrate inappropriate sexual activity.

What This May Look Like In Your Classroom

Students who have behavioural/emotional disorders may demonstrate behaviours that are injurious to themselves, such as:

• withdrawal;• nervousness;• hypersensitivity;• anorexia or bulimia;• self-abuse;• substance abuse.

ADHDers are great at multitasking. To a certain extent…

ADHD

What is ADHD?

Three possible types:

1. Inattentive

2. Hyperactive

3. Impulsive

Strict Guidelines

• DSM-V has strict guidelines to determine a diagnosis

• Behaviours must appear early in life• Must be more frequent or severe than

normal age group• Create an obstacle or interferes with daily

living in at least two areas of a person’s life (e.g. school, home, work or social settings)

Strict Guidelines Cont’d…

A child with some attention problems but whose school work or friendships are not impaired by these behaviors would not be diagnosed with ADHD.

Nor would a child who seems overly active at school but functions well elsewhere.

Typical Characteristics

Signs of inattention include:• becoming easily distracted by irrelevant sights

and sounds • failing to pay attention to details and making

careless mistakes • rarely following instructions carefully and

completely • losing or forgetting things like toys, or pencils,

books, and tools needed for a task

Typical Characteristics

Signs of hyperactivity and impulsivity are: • feeling restless, often fidgeting with hands or

feet, or squirming • running, climbing, or leaving a seat in situations

where sitting or quiet behavior is expected • blurting out answers before hearing the whole

question • having difficulty waiting in line or for a turn

Let’s Take a Different Perspective…

All Dogs Have ADHD

Research Continues

• Research suggests the disorder is biologically based

• This means that there are likely chemical and/or structural problems in the brains of people with ADHD that inhibit their ability to focus, plan ahead, finish tasks, and so on.

Whether or not Diagnosed…

Observe students in the following areas:

1. Mental Energy

2. Processing

3. Production

Mental Energy

The first attention control system, mental energy, regulates and distributes the energy supply needed for the brain to take in and interpret information and regulate behavior. Children whose mental energy is not working effectively may become mentally fatigued when they try to concentrate, or have other problems related to maintaining the brain energy needed for optimal learning and behavior.

Four Mental Energy Controls

The first is alertness, a state of mind in which a child can effectively listen to and watch information being presented. Children who experience difficulty with alertness can appear to be daydreaming.

Four Mental Energy Controls

The second mental energy control is sleep and arousal balance. This control affects the ability to sleep well enough at night to be sufficiently alert during the day. Children who are experiencing trouble with sleep and arousal may find it difficult to get to sleep at night, or they may sleep poorly. They then have trouble getting up in the morning and may appear tired in class.

Four Mental Energy Controls

The third mental energy control is mental effort. This control initiates and maintains the flow of energy required for a child to start, work on, and complete a task. Mental effort is particularly important when children are faced with tasks that may not be especially interesting or personally motivating. Children who have difficulty with mental effort can benefit from having tasks broken down into smaller, more manageable parts.

Four Mental Energy Controls

The fourth mental energy control is performance consistency. It works to ensure a reliable, predictable flow of energy from moment to moment and day to day. Children who have trouble with performance consistency don't have problems all of the time. Sometimes they can concentrate and perform well, while other times they cannot. Their work output and behavior may be impossible to predict.

What Does it Mean?

A student: • has difficulty concentrating; may complain of

feeling tired or bored • does not seem to be well rested and fully awake

during the day • has inconsistent work patterns that negatively

impact quality and quantity of work • shows overactivity and fidgets -- especially

pronounced when sitting and listening

Whether or not Diagnosed…

Observe students in the following areas:

1. Mental Energy

2. Processing

3. Production

Processing

The second attention control system is called processing. This system helps a child select, prepare, and begin to interpret incoming information. Children who have difficulty with processing may have a range of problems related to regulating the use of incoming information.

There are five processing controls.

Five Processing Controls

The first is saliency determination. It involves selecting which incoming information is the most important. Children who have difficulty with this control may be distracted by things that aren't relevant and miss important information being presented.

Five Processing Controls

The second processing control is depth and detail of processing. It controls how intensely children can concentrate on highly specific data. It enables them to focus deeply enough to recognize and remember necessary details.

Five Processing Controls

The third processing control is cognitive activation. This active processing connects new information to what has already been learned through prior knowledge and experience. Children who are inactive processors are unable to connect to prior knowledge to assist their understanding of new information. In contrast, overactive processors are reminded of too much prior knowledge, making it difficult for them to maintain focus.

Five Processing Controls

The fourth processing control is focal maintenance. This allows a child to focus on important information for the appropriate period of time. As Dr. Levine explains, "It isn't so much how long your attention span is, as it is how well-matched the duration of your attention is to the target at hand." Some children who don't concentrate long enough on certain things may concentrate too long on others.

Five Processing Controls

The fifth and final processing control is satisfaction control. This control involves a child's ability to allocate enough attention to activities or topics of moderate or low levels of interest. "Insatiable" is a term used for children with poor satisfaction control who may be unable to concentrate on activities that are not exciting enough.

What Does it Mean?

A student: • processes too little or too much information; can't

distinguish between what is important and what isn't • focuses too superficially or too deeply on information

presented • has difficulty connecting new information with information

already known • only pays attention to exciting information or highly

stimulating activities • focuses for too brief a period • has problems shifting focus from one subject or activity

to another

Whether or not Diagnosed…

Observe students in the following areas:

1. Mental Energy

2. Processing

3. Production

Production Output

The third attention control system is production. This area governs output -- including what children generate academically, behaviorally, and socially. Children with production control problems have a range of difficulties related to regulating academic and behavioral output. They may do things too quickly without thinking, planning, or previewing outcomes.

There are five production controls.

Five Production Controls

The first is previewing. It involves considering more than one action or response and anticipating the likely outcome of a particular choice. Children who have difficulty with previewing may plunge into activities instantly and react too quickly.

Five Production Controls

The second production control is facilitation and inhibition. This is the ability to exercise restraint and not act immediately, to consider multiple options, and to choose the best one before acting or starting on a task. Children who have trouble with facilitation and inhibition frequently act impulsively and may appear to be doing only the first thing that comes to mind. These children may blurt out answers before being called upon in class.

Five Production Controls

The third production control is pacing, which means doing tasks or activities at the most appropriate speed. Pacing difficulties often show up in children's reading. Their reading pace may be so fast that they skip over words, have difficulty with multisyllable words, and show little reading comprehension.

Five Production Controls

The fourth production control is self-monitoring. It allows children to evaluate how they are doing while performing and after completing a task. This control allows children to regulate their attention and take corrective action.

Five Production Controls

The fifth production control is reinforceability. It allows children to use previous experience to guide current behavior and approaches to current tasks. Often called hindsight, this ability enables children to make use of precedent, experience, and prior knowledge to guide their decision making and actions.

What Does it Mean?

A student: • fails to preview the effects of statements or actions or to

predict the outcomes of tasks or activities • has difficulty coming up with the right strategy or

technique to accomplish a task • does not monitor quality of work or the effectiveness of

strategies • does not use past successes and failures to guide

current behavior, actions, or strategies • is apt to do too many things too quickly and some other

things too slowly • has a poor sense of how time and how to manage it

Remember

• It is important to note that students who have attention difficulties (e.g., attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are not willfully inattentive. It takes inordinate effort for some of these students to keep themselves on task.

What You Can Do In Your Classroom

• seat the student in an area of the classroom that will minimize distractions;

• locate the student to maximize the positive effect of role models in the class;

• establish a private cueing system to remind the student to attend;

• provide immediate, specific feedback on learning and behavioural progress whenever possible;

• break instructional learning periods into smaller units of time with the intention of increasing on-task behaviour;

• allow the restless student opportunities to change focus or tasks;

• judiciously assign a ‘job” that requires the student to move away from the problem situation (e.g., ask the student to run an errand).

Strategies and Suggestions Related to Lesson Presentation

• teach the student the skills necessary to manage instructional materials;

• pre-teach important vocabulary;• provide a structured overview of the lesson before

beginning instruction;• use visual aids, demonstrations, simulations, and

manipulative materials to ensure that the student understands the concepts presented;

• include a variety of activities for the student in each lesson;• help the student enhance his or her memory by teaching

specific learning strategies such as mnemonics (e.g., cues, rhymes, codes);

• review with the student the process required to complete the task.

Strategies and Suggestions Related to Assessment

• make expectations explicit;• break down large tasks, which can quickly overwhelm the

student, into small tasks, and provide reinforcement as each part is completed;

• simplify instructions, choices, and schedules;• provide models of completed tasks, so that the student can

visualize a completed project;• provide instructions visually and verbally;• pair students to check each other’s work;• provide checklists, outlines, and advance organizers, to help

the student complete assignments;• permit student to demonstrate his or her understanding in

various ways (e.g. oral presentations, displays, dramatizations, and demonstrations);

• Reduce workload;

Conduct Disorder (CD)

“a persistent pattern of conduct in which the basic rights of others and major age-

appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.”

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

“...a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behaviour without the more serious violations of

the basic rights of others that are seen in conduct disorder.”

General Features of ODD• Persists over time (at least 6 months)

• Characterized by at least four of the following behaviours– Losing temper

– Arguing with adults

– Actively defying or refusing to comply with the requests or rules of adults

– Deliberately doing things that will annoy other people

– Blaming others for his or her own mistakes or misbehavior

– Being touchy or easily annoyed by others

– Being angry and resentful

– Being spiteful or vindictive

• Significantly impairs normal functioning socially or academically

Classroom Strategies

Does and Don'ts Student

– DO use the student's name

– DO remove the audience (if possible)

– DO use humour to de-escalate the situation

– DO double your distance

– DO minimize the discussion (this is not a teachable moment)

with an Angry

– DON'T place your hands on the child (unless there is a safety concern)

– DON'T raise your voice

– DON'T threaten consequences (talk about it when the student is more relaxed

– DON'T point your finger

– DON'T crowd the student

1) Recognizing the stages of angerirritation agitation loss of control resolution

2) Careful Communication

• Body– Personal Space

– Posture

– Eye contact

– Facial expression

– Gestures

• Mind

– Listen for the student's point of view

– Limit your verbiage and avoid over reacting

• Mouth

– Calm voice

– Slow cadence

END