Billy is so Distractible! How can I Teach him to Listen to Others?

I have worked with children who are very distractible, such as Billy, who truly could not sit down to work with me. Here are some of my notes upon meeting with Billy for the first time:



“Billy rarely maintained eye contact, which I think was a factor of his activity level. While he was walking around, as he did the entire time that he was with me except for a few fleeting moments, he certainly could not make eye contact. Even when he was sitting talking to me, he stood up next to the chair most of the time, and did not make eye contact. The only time that he was focused was when he was drawing. While he did so, he sat and completed the drawing. The moment that he finished, however, he became extremely distractible again.”


“Billy talked and talked. When I tried to talk to him about a topic, he continued talking and barely stopped to hear what I had to say.”


Billy’s distractibility was truly frustrating. I have so many skills that I need to teach these children, but if they cannot sit down for more than a few seconds, and if they talk so excessively that they cannot listen to what I have to say, then what I can teach them is very limited. Therefore, what do I do?


I have discussed previously giving children with ADHD who are very distractible Wikki Sticks, stress balls and Legos to manipulate while I am working with them. I am the first to admit that these manipulatives do not work with all children with ADHD. What I try to do is to find something that is within the child’s interest area with whom I work, so that I can get them to hyperfocus.


For example, I need to see what I can do with Billy to diminish his distractibility even for five minutes. I need to facilitate a conversation with him in order to teach him how to listen to others, instead of doing all of the talking. His distractibility is immediately apparent when he walks into the room, so trying to sit down to talk with him does very little to settle him down.

He is interested in making videos, and scripts scenes extemporaneously as he videotapes. Pretty amazing, right? So, how can I use that interest to diminish his distractibility?


I would skip the typical introductory conversation and immediately show him a DVD on social skills that would be interesting to him. I have a DVD entitled “Fitting in and Having Fun” that can be ordered from http://www.tdsocialskills.com/. It follows a child throughout his school day, so he will learn positive social skills. I typically show the child with whom I am working a chapter from the DVD, in this case, the chapter entitled “Taking Turns Speaking.” This topic might give me an entry point for beginning to help Billy to listen to another person, instead of monopolizing the conversation.


I will try this technique this week when Billy comes to see me. I will let you know if using a visual intervention worked in terms of increasing Billy’s attention. I will also let you know if the topic of the DVD helped to facilitate conversation between Billy and myself, so that I was able to succeed in teaching Billy how to converse in a way so that other children will want to talk to him.