At home, does she prefer to study with music or television on?  I've seen
ADHD students settle right down and focus when they have earphones with
music (their choice, but I suggest instrumental).  My guess is that it
satisfies the body's need to dance J! 

 

We allow the students to use music by choice when working on their
computer-based learning, as long as it helps them.  The credit we give is
based on performance, so there's no incentive to tune out.  I discovered
this with my first student, 10 years ago, who couldn't sit down for more
than 10 minutes.  She brought in her earphones one day, and I noticed the
classroom was particularly quiet.  I looked over two hours later and she was
still sitting, working on her Civics, and had made very good progress.  Both
the Continuation teacher and I, the Adult Ed teacher, have used this method
ever since with solid success.  However, our software also does a good job
of engaging their attention and requires frequent physical responses once
the student can sit still.  

 

In the old days on the farm, I imagine the person who couldn't sit still and
was always on their feet working on something was a very valuable person.
The one who sat around reading would have been considered lazy.   Is it
possible that ADHD is an artifact of our current style of schooling?  Is
there a problem with our expectations that a person will sit and develop
their brain most of the day, rather than developing their skills and
abilities to do things with their hands and their bodies?  Then we all get
out of school and don't know how to change the oil in our cars?

 

When I graduated from UCLA, I moved to a farm and educated my hands
(focusing on becoming ambidextrous) and my body for the next 4 years.  Now I
prefer to spend much of my day working outdoors on the farm, but I listen to
books on tape while I do it.  It's the perfect combination.  Right now my
project is to prune 5 acres of grapes, and I'm listening to Alan Greenspan's
new book (fascinating!) on my I-pod while I work.  If I were to sit down and
listen to this in a lecture, my body would fall asleep within ten minutes.
Last week I fell asleep in between clicks of the mouse in a class on
Powerpoint for JC faculty. (My husband and I both work for SRJC).  I've
never been able to listen and stay awake.  I also don't learn well by
listening while I'm still (sitting or standing).  But I can go into the
vineyard and recall precisely where I was in which story when I was working
in that area last year.  Funny wiring, huh?  I was an A student all through
high school and graduated from UCLA, and was never questioned as to whether
I had a learning disability.  I do know, however, that I was "switched" from
left-handed to right handed when I was a child.

 

So try the earphones with the student's regular work, and require them to
answer comprehension questions frequently and with a physical response.  It
may help.  The music may help stop the depressive thinking, too.  The
physical response, whether is speaking or in writing, may help as well.
Also, it may help to find out where the student's energy is going when
he/she is depressed-ask.

 

Ruth Stadnik

 

 

Eric Stadnik, Instructor

Business Office Technology

Santa Rosa Junior College

1501 Mendocino Avenue

Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Office (707) 527-4815 

     Cell (707) 486-4075

 

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present
are certain to miss the future."

~ John F. Kennedy

 

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