Teaching for ADHD: Effective Behavioral
Intervention Techniques.
When teaching ADHD students, effective teachers use a number of
behavioral intervention techniques to help ADHD students learn how
to control their behavior. Perhaps the most important and
effective of these ADHD teaching methods is verbal reinforcement
of appropriate behavior. The most common form of verbal
reinforcement is praise given to a student when he or she begins
and completes an activity or exhibits a particular desired
behavior. Simple phrases such as “good job” encourage a child to
act appropriately. Effective ADHD teaching includes praising
children with ADHD frequently and looking for a behavior to praise
before, and not after, a child gets off task.
In some instances, children with ADHD benefit from teaching
instruction designed to help students learn how to manage their
own behavior: These behavioral ADHD teaching techniques include
_ Social skills classes: Teaching ADHD children appropriate social
skills using a structured class. For example, you can ask the
children to role-play and model different solutions to common
social problems. It is critical to provide for the generalization
of these skills, including structured opportunities for the
children to use the social skills that they learn. Offering such
classes, or experiences, to the general school population can
positively affect the school climate.
_ Problem solving sessions: Discuss how to resolve social
conflicts when teaching ADHD students. Conduct impromptu
discussions with one student or with a small group of students
where the conflict arises. In this setting, ask two children who
are arguing about a game to discuss how to settle their
differences. Encourage the children to resolve their problem by
talking to each other in a supervised setting.
For many children with ADHD, functional behavioral assessments and
positive behavioral interventions and supports, including
behavioral contracts and management plans, tangible rewards, or
token economy systems, are helpful in teaching them how to manage
their own behavior. Because students’ individual needs are
different, it is important for teachers, along with the family and
other involved professionals, to evaluate whether these practices
are appropriate when teaching ADHD students. Examples of these
techniques, along with steps to follow when using them, include
the following:
_ Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA). FBA is a systematic
process for describing problem behavior and identifying the
environmental factors and surrounding events associated with
problem behavior. The team teaching the ADHD child exhibiting
problem behavior (1) observes the behavior and identifies and
defines its problematic characteristics, (2) identifies which
actions or events precede and follow the behavior, and (3)
determines how often the behavior occurs. The results of the FBA
should be used to develop an effective and efficient intervention
and support plan.
_ Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). This
method is an application of a behaviorally based systems approach
that is grounded in research regarding behavior in the context of
the settings in which it occurs. Using this ADHD teaching method,
schools, families, and communities work to design effective
environments to improve behavior. The goal of PBIS is to eliminate
problem behavior, to replace it with more appropriate behavior,
and to increase a person’s skills and opportunities for an
enhanced quality of life.
_ Behavioral contracts and management plans. Identify specific
academic or behavioral goals for the child with ADHD, along with
behavior that needs to change and strategies for responding to
inappropriate behavior. Work with the child to cooperatively
identify appropriate goals, such as completing homework
assignments on time and obeying safety rules on the school
playground. Take the time to ensure that the child agrees that his
or her goals are important to master. Behavioral contracts and
management plans are typically used with individual children, as
opposed to entire classes, and should be prepared with input from
parents.
_ Tangible rewards. Use tangible rewards to reinforce appropriate
behavior. These rewards can include stickers, such as “happy
faces” or sports team emblems, or privileges, such as extra time
on the computer or lunch with the teacher. Children should be
involved in the selection of the reward. If children are invested
in the reward, they are more likely to work for it.
_ Token economy systems. Use token economy systems when teaching
to motivate the ADHD child to achieve a goal identified in a
behavioral contract. For example, a child can earn points for each
homework assignment completed on time. In some cases, students
also lose points for each homework assignment not completed on
time. After earning a specified number of points, the student
receives a tangible reward, such as extra time on a computer or a
“free” period on Friday afternoon. Token economy systems are often
used for entire classrooms, as opposed to solely for individual
students.
_ Self-management systems. Teaching ADHD students to monitor and
evaluate their own behavior without constant feedback from the
teacher; In a typical self-management system, the teacher
identifies behaviors that will be managed by a student and
provides a written rating scale that includes the performance
criteria for each rating. The teacher and student separately rate
student behavior during an activity and compare ratings. The
student earns points if the ratings match or are within one point
and receives no points if ratings are more than one point apart;
points are exchanged for privileges. With time, the teacher
involvement is removed, and the student becomes responsible for
self-monitoring.
This guide on teaching the ADD child, provided
by the U.S. Department of Education, provides an
overall educational strategy
for successful instruction, academic instruction tips on
introducing lessons,
conducting lessons, providing
individualized
instructional
practices for math and
language arts,
organizational and
study skills, effective
behavioral techniques and techniques designed to
encourage
positive behavior,
along with
classroom
accommodation tips. To order a hard copy of this ADD teaching
report, e-mail edpubs@inet.ed.gov or call (877) 433-7827.
