Originally published at: Watch: time-lapse of a student with ADHD watching a math video versus watching Star Wars | Boing Boing
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I would remove parents from that conclusion. We already had a pretty good idea this is what’s going on. Teachers are the party that needs to be educated on ADD and ADHD. They still punish the kids for “being disruptive” unless the parent has a 504 in place. We shouldn’t have to resort to implementing these plans (they’re really meant for kids with much more serious conditions), but lots of us end up doing so just to protect our kids from being targeted by bad teachers for frequent and unfair punishment.
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I would like to see the same video with a non spinning chair.
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I was impressed he can sit through Episode I, because I can’t. Then I read it’s the podrace scene…still impressed.
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I would not remove parents from that conclusion.
As a parent to two, one with ADD, one with ADHD, and as a spouse to an educator, from both experiences (being a parent and watching her) I can tell you that both need to work on and understand the underlying systems that drive the behavior. My wife has had to talk to parents about kids and their behavior and (now that she’s got experience) recommend that they consider having the child evaluated. Parents often miss the symptoms for a variety of reasons. We did with our 1st, but after having the experience, we were better able to recognize the signs.
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This has been known for about 25 years.
It is still massively common for Neurotypicals to label people like me as lazy, unmotivated, zero ambition, directionless, and a slacker.
Growing up with everyone making sure to tell you that’s what they think about you, you end up believing it.
Feels great to constantly be told I never achieve my potential at fucking everything. Especially at stuff I don’t and CAN’T give a fuck about but apparebtly matters hugely to everyone else.
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How do you even list an excuse from “being disruptive” on your 504/IEP?
Like teachers can claim anything disrupts them.
“LDoBe was jiggling his leg in the back of class and it distracted his classmates. That’s why I sent him to detention 5 times.”
Really what’s important is to never let authoritarians have control over your ADHD kids. They will ruin their confidence and teach them that they should only ever tell adults what they think they want to hear.
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A friend of mine has a kiddo who has ADHD and is on the spectrum. Smart little guy, but he’s struggled in school. They managed to get him into a middle school that is specifically designed for kids on the spectrum, and it seems like it’s made a world of difference. For the most part, he’s had a much better time at this school and more effectively able to get his work done and be happier doing it.
Schools not being safe spaces for all kids is not an unsolvable problem. It’s just a problem that too many people don’t want to solve. I suspect that if we made schools that worked for kids with ADHD, were on the spectrum, or the like, those same schools would work for all kids.
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This is where I confess that I was bored shitless by every Star Wars movie I’ve ever seen, but am often riveted by math videos on YouTube
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I don’t get all the love for Star Wars either, but I’d never say so around here.
Oops!
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I may be in a bit of a better spot district wise, but I absolutely can call out any “extra” movement as part of what teachers have to accommodate in his 504, and I DO. We had an absolute nightmare of a teacher in 3rd grade that pushed us to file a plan. I found out later that other parents of ADD or ADHD kids pulled their kids from that class because they already knew that teacher was a nightmare. As in, we’re pretty damned sure she called CPS on us after she tortured our son into hitting himself (because he was so frustrated at being singled out constantly for punishment).
How you were treated was very wrong. As a parent of an ADD kid, my heart absolutely goes out to you. We’re doing the best we can for our son, and his doctor (very fortunately) has a lot of experience with ADD and ADHD kids. My hope is that kids in the future can come through school without so many parents having to file plans because their kids are wired a smidge differently.
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I was teacher’s pet most of the time. It was one teacher, and the solution was to move me into a different class.
But I also had an IEP that was very generic and we never invoked, cuz nobody cared to observe me in class. My mom took me to the child psychologist one day, and they asked me what I needed help with when I was 12 years old. I couldn’t think of a single concrete example on the spot. And that’s how it got put together.
(reading from DSM-IV) “may need extra time. May need fewer questions…? May need to take medication during lunch and at recess.”
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There was nothing cognitively demanding in the prequels. Nor emotionally engaging.
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Our son was identified by his Kindergarten teacher for evaluation. She was, by all accounts, the absolute best K teacher in the district (and sooo did not need to work, her husband was a neurosurgeon, she just really loved working with the little kids). His evaluation came back “highly intelligent, very ADD”. The hyperactive component hasn’t really been dominant with our son, otherwise I likely would have caught it first.
Total side conversation…I don’t ever recall having been distracted by other kids “moving too much” in elementary school, but absolutely recall teachers losing their shit at kids for reasons that baffled the rest of the class. Could it be that young kids don’t find ADHD and ADD kids “distracting”, but adults do?
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Glad to hear you guys have taken such good and early action. My parents did try, but were often misled, and are religious funides.
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Yeah. Apparently when I was in school (1970-1983) nobody had any idea about ADD. My first grade teacher called me the “Absent-minded professor”, and as for the rest of it, well, I graduated and there’s not much more to say than that.
I was diagnosed just before I turned 50.
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After an hour into one of those prequels, I told my BF, “I don’t care about any of these people, and I don’t even like any of them. They still haven’t shown me why I should. I only like BB-8, and we’re not seeing it nearly often enough.” He popped out the disc, and we watched something else. He finished watching it later, on his own.
Mom and I saw the original film in a V crowded theatre when it first came out. It was being shown when mom went to the ticket booth, and she had to buy tickets for two showings later. That had never happened to us before. We got the crowd booing and hissing the villains, and cheering the good guys! It was wonderful fun.
I had a very hard time sitting thru movies as a kid - ADHD - and the first time I managed it was during The Greatest. It’s a biopic re: Muhammad Ali, the GOAT playing himself. It featured a George Benson theme song that everyone mistakenly thinks was originally done by Whitney Houston.
Being hyperkinetic made school extremely difficult. Ritalin was prescribed early in 2nd grade, and I was drugged every school day until halfway through 9th. I’d grown out of the more troublesome aspects by then: my mind still wandered, but I no longer wanted to tapdance on my desk. Sure, I could mostly function like a good little girl, but my hands and head shake, doubtless b/c taking speed for seven years.
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I don’t even have ADHD.
Joking aside, though; maybe I should get an evaluation, as I’ve got zero application.
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I know so many exceptional people that would love to be teachers in this space… they have skill, knowledge and experience in abundance yet there is a systemic problem of matching these teachers with their students.
I’m hoping that the institutions transform into something more utilitarian… useful for us folk.
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The type of adult who takes it as a personal offense that not every single student is sitting perfectly still in quiet reverence of their superior teaching.
If you think I’m being hyperbolic, we’ve all known a teacher like that.
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