by Dr. Deborah Bauers

Created on: June 23, 2009   Last Updated: May 20, 2012

Engaging the ADHD student in your classroom begins with time you spend getting to know him by interacting one-on-one. Every child will naturally pay closer attention to a teacher who is relational and seems to genuinely care for his students. Taking a few extra minutes each day to build a relationship helps the ADHD child feel a sense of alliance with you. If he feels connected, he is less likely to experience sustained levels of frustration in your classroom. This means that he will also be less apt to intentionally act out.

Just working on building a relationship with him, however, is not enough to overcome the potential learning challenges that he may encounter in your classroom.

Imagine that it is the first day of school. Now visualize yourself standing in front of thirty new faces in your classroom. As you look at each of them, tell yourself that statistically, at least one of these students will have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. How do you spot the student who has ADHD? What can you do to head off potential problems in the classroom that will distract from the positive learning environment you hope to create?

Your school administration will have identified students in your classroom with special needs. In the beginning, you will only know them by name and, perhaps by their educate plans called "Individualized Education Plans" (IEPs.)  As you observe, however, you will notice that certain students will exhibit a number of the following behaviors:

1. Leaving their seats without permission

2. Interrupting when you or other students are talking

3. Responding to your questions with statements that have little to do with the subject at hand

4. Having difficulty keeping their hands to themselves and invading the space of others

5. Blurting out answers without remembering to raise hands

6. Spacing out, becoming distracted by movement outside of windows and infrequently making eye contact. 

7. Responding to changes in routine with outbursts and negativity 

8. Engaging in attention-seeking behaviors

9. Exhibiting less emotional maturity than peers

10. Frequently becoming the center of negative attention

Why does a student with ADHD behave in these ways? It isn't because he doesn't want to learn or because he is deliberately defying you. The ADHD student is unable to self-regulate. This means that his brain is in a fairly high state of arousal a significant amount of the time and that he is simply being overly stimulated by what he sees

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