ADHD

By: Arielle Nelson

Learning Targets

1. Students will be able to define ADHD

2. Students will be able to describe how it feels to be a student with ADHD

3. Students will be able to identify the best ways to help students with ADHD

What is ADHD?

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with executive function issues within the brain, thus making it harder to prioritize, remember details and pay attention. There are three subtypes of ADHD: inattentiveness, hyperactivity/impulsiveness, and combined (Low, 2021). Most people assume that hyperactivity/impulsiveness is the most common subtype, but they'd be wrong because the combined subtype is the most common. Hyperactivity happens to be the least common subtype.

ADHD is often managed through behavioral therapy and medication, but doctors are quick to prescribe medication over recommending treatment most of the time. The psychostimulants of dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate are said to be the "most effective and safe option" for treating ADHD (Felt et al., 2014). But even those medications come with some adverse side effects such as anxiety, decreased appetite, irritability, and headaches (Low, 2021).

Boys are more likely to be diagnosed than girls because their symptoms are often externalized as running and impulsivity. While on the other hand, girls' symptoms are internalized as inattentiveness and low self-esteem, so their difficulties in school are often ignored because people typically associate ADHD with only hyperactivity (Kinman, 2016). This plays a role in why boys and adolescents are "more likely to be seen as threatening or dangerous" than girls and younger children (Lebowitz).

According to the data from the 2002's National Stigma Study-Children (NSS-C) analyzed by Lebowitz (2016), they found that adults saw ADHD in children as less serious and not requiring the use of treatment. But around 31% of those adults believed that children with ADHD were far more dangerous than those who got in trouble daily (Lebowitz, 2016). This saddens me because I don't think that children with ADHD are dangerous at all. If they had better access to things and positive people that could help them, they'd have a better chance at success, but it makes it even harder when adults group everyone with ADHD under a troublemaker label.

How Does it Feel to be a Student with ADHD?

It can be very difficult for children living with ADHD because they are often labeled as lazy, dumb, or troublemaking kids in school when they are not. Instead, they are just children that learn a little differently from everyone else.

ADHD makes it harder for children in school, relationships, and development because it makes it difficult to cope with their emotions (Low, 2021). Discussing their feelings may seem like it's not essential to the topic of school, but it is. When people with ADHD feel emotions, they feel them more intensely and much longer than others (Brown, 2021). So all these different emotions of frustration, restlessness, disconnection, confusion, and feeling out of control can carry on into their lives (Low, 2021). Thus making it easier for them to give up, become overwhelmed, and avoid interactions with other people in school.

What is RSD? And How Can it Affect Students with ADHD?

"RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) is extreme emotional sensitivity and pain" often found in people with ADHD. It is triggered when a person feels they've been criticized or rejected by significant people in their lives or when they cannot meet their own standards or the expectations of others (Dodson, 2021).

I know you're probably thinking, why does this even matter when rejection hurts us all, even those without ADHD? Well, these experiences are way more severe for people with RSD than for neurotypical people (Dodson, 2021).

When these emotional responses to rejection are internalized, a person can go "from feeling perfectly fine to feeling intensely sad," and this sudden change often ends with suicidal ideation. Since this change is so sudden, it is often misdiagnosed as a mood disorder because physicians fail to realize that these changes result from the emotional changes that go hand in hand with ADHD and RSD. But on the other hand, when these responses are externalized, a person will take out their anger on the person or situation that had harmed them (Dodson, 2021).

Two Main Ways that People with ADHD Cope with RSD according to Dodson (2021):

They become people pleasers

They focus so much on pretending to be someone they're not to please everyone else to the point that they forget what their purpose is.

They stop trying

They'd rather avoid the pain of falling short by no longer taking the risk to participate in activities they are not 100% sure that they will succeed in.

Living with ADHD

*Note: I'm sorry this was really difficult to write*

I used to love school when I was in elementary school, but once I transitioned to middle school and got stuck with this label of having ADHD over my head, things started to change and not for the better either. It's like everything, and everyone was speeding up around me, and I was the only one who could see it. While on the other hand, the only thing speeding up to everyone else was me.

I'd constantly get yelled at for everything I'd do:

"Arielle, stop shaking."

"Arielle, could you please stop."

"Arielle, stop tapping your foot."

"Arielle, stop moving so much."

"Arielle, you're distracting the class."

"Arielle, stop moving your pencil."

"Arielle, if everyone else can sit still, then so can you."

"Arielle, maybe if you were actually trying, you'd get it."

"Arielle, if you'd just listen, then I wouldn't have to repeat myself."

It wasn't even okay for me to ask questions if I missed something. Why do you ask? Because I should've been paying attention. Whenever I'd ask, I'd be laughed at and lectured in front of the entire class, or I'd just be asked to leave. It got so bad to the point that I just let myself drown in my assignments because I'd rather suffer in silence than be ridiculed every single time I'd ask for help. So I gradually withdrew myself and stopped caring about any and everything that had to do with school.

But I had one teacher who wasn't going to let me drown that easily. She happened to be one of those teachers who could understand me without me having to say a word. Anytime I'd start fidgeting or I'd stopped paying attention, she'd hand me a sensory toy, and that would make it easier for me to listen without distracting everyone else. So that's why I have a bunch of sensory toys to this day because they help me not only with my ADHD but also with my anxiety. After all, they give me a way to keep myself actively doing something so that I'm not so overwhelmed with the task of sitting in one place for a lengthy period of time.

I really wish that I had other teachers that allowed sensory toys inside of their classrooms because looking back on it, I feel like I wouldn't have been "so distracting" if they allowed me to have something to do. But most of my teachers didn't understand ADHD and thought that I just wanted an excuse to be lazy, play with a toy, and not listen to them at all. So this made it pretty much impossible for me to succeed.

My Experience with ADHD in Comic Strip Form

Painful Words People Had Said

To Me

When I

Was A

Child

If you were smart, then you wouldn't need any extra time

Maybe if you worked harder, you'd make better grades

Why did I end up being stuck with the defective one?

The world would be so much better off without you

There is no way you can be successful with ADHD

Why can't you just be normal like everyone else?

ADHD is just an excuse for you to be lazy

Without that medication, you're nothing

You are and you will always be worthless

No one would miss you if you were gone

What are you retarded or something?

You're making my life so much harder

Why can't you just pay attention?

You should just give up now

It's not that hard to sit still

You used to be so smart

You're a waste of space

What are the Best Ways to Help Students with ADHD?

The best way to help students with ADHD is to make accommodations for them so that they feel welcome in your classroom. Often, teachers believe that scolding and punishing students is the best way to rectify behavior, but this tends to do more harm than good for students with ADHD because it can lower their self-esteem and negatively impact their emotions. So here are some ways to help students with ADHD:

Being Open to Repeating Instructions

Children with ADHD often forget instructions, so it's better to respond to them asking you to repeat yourself positively rather than yelling at them because it can cause them to be hesitant to ask questions when they don't understand things.

Keeping Sensory Toys in the Classroom

Since most children with ADHD learn best from a hands-on approach having sensory toys in the classroom can help them focus and calm down.

Helping Students Find a Way to Learn in a Way That Works Best for Them

Once children with ADHD find a way to learn in a way that works best for them, they can stick to it, and it can help them prepare for the next level of learning, so they are aware of the things that strengthen versus the things that weaken their learning environment.

Giving Them Breaks

Giving students with ADHD breaks allows them to return and be more productive because the longer they work on a task, the less productive they are. So giving them a chance to get up and physically do something gives their brains a break.

Keeping a Good Attitude and Having Rewards Set in Place

Children with ADHD feed off your attitude, so when you have a bad one, it negatively affects their learning. That's why you must make sure that you always keep a good/positive attitude. And something as little as having rewards can motivate students to keep on succeeding.

(Segal & Smith, 2021)

Writing Down Assignments on the Board

Writing down assignments on the board is better than just saying them because it gives students with ADHD a visual and a chance to refer to it later if their concentration is elsewhere.

Reflection & Conclusion

According to Segal and Smith (2021), Teaching Students with ADHD, children with ADHD often "pay the price of their problems in low grades." Since they get distracted so often, they cannot grasp what everyone else is learning in the classroom, leading them to feel frustrated and discouraged to continue trying to learn. This is why it is so important to continue to find more ways to reach and motivate them so that they don't give up on themselves. Children with ADHD require teachers who will make sure that they learn to manage their feelings so that when those emotions take over, they won't get frustrated quickly and behave reactively.

Questions

What is the most common subtype of ADHD?

a) Combined

b) Hyperactivity/Impulsiveness

c) Inattentiveness

d) Intrusivity

If a student in your class with ADHD is fidgeting, what is the best thing that you can do to help them?

a) Ask them to leave the room

b) Give them a reward

c) Hand them a sensory toy

d) Let them have a break

Answers

References

Brown, T. (2021). Adhd and emotions. Understood.

https://www.understood.org/articles/en/adhd-and-emotions-what-you-need-to-know.

Dodson, W. (2021). How adhd ignites rejection sensitive dysphoria. ADDitude

https://www.additudemag.com/rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-and-adhd/.

Felt, B. T., Biermann, B., Christner, J. G., Kochhar, P., & Van Harrison, R. (2014). Diagnosis and management of ADHD

in children. American Family Physician, 90(7), 456-464.

Kinman, T. (2016). ADHD symptoms differ in boys and girls. Healthline.

https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adhd-symptoms-in-girls-and-boys.

Lebowitz, M. S. (2016). Stigmatization of ADHD: a developmental review. Journal of Attention Disorders, 20(3), 199-

205.

Low, K. (2021). What is adhd like for children. Verywell Mind.

https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-children-with-adhd-20686.

Segal, J., & Smith, M. (2021). Teaching students with adhd. HelpGuide.org.

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/add-adhd/teaching-students-with-adhd-attention-deficit-

disorder.htm#.

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