Re: ADHD students?


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Posted by Gary Press on October 22, 2003 at 13:25:41:

In Reply to: ADHD students? posted by lisa on October 22, 2003 at 13:03:53:

Hi Lisa...

First let me say congratulations for being a teacher that really cares about her students. That is one of the single most important qualities to have as a teacher.

Having experienced myself what you have described, I think there are a couple of things that can help you in dealing with students such as these. I have had some "ADHD" students and even some mildly autistic ones too, so these are merely some suggestions based on my own experience.

The first thing I had to realize was that a student's progress is not necessarily a reflection on your value as a teacher or person. That is VERY important to remember. A student's improvement is most strongly linked to how much THEY put into it. As one teacher once said to me, "I won't take all of the credit for your successes, nor will I take all of the blame for your less-then-successes". True, we must often tweak our explanations of concepts to fit the individual student, but sometimes we are dealing with circumstances that we ourselves cannot control.

I found that I had to learn to accept that not all students are necessarily in lessons for the same reasons. I have had some very serious students, some that just wanted to make a little improvement and some that were for other reasons (e.g. all their friends were doing it, just wanted to make Region Band, parents wanted them in lessons, band programs that required they take lessons, etc.). One of my autistic students' parents told me she wanted her child in lessons because she noticed that through working in music it helped her child improve in many other aspects of their lives (school work, concentration, even socially). With students such as those, I found that if I could connect with the student on something...anything that interested them, they were more receptive during the lesson. One student was REALLY into bugs, so we talked about them for 10 minutes and he proved to be much more attentive the rest of the time.

I know these are not real concrete things I'm telling you, but sometimes these extraordinary circumstances warrant extraordinary solutions.

I hope that some of this may prove helpful. Hang in there and stay positive!

Gary



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