How do Some Teachers Respond to Children with ADHD?

Children with social skills deficits may behave in a very annoying manner to both their peers and adults. They may talk excessively without realizing that they are doing so or they may

talk so infrequently that people do not even know they are in the room. Their parents seemingly do not like them; their teachers seemingly do not like them; and other children do not like them. I felt so sad hearing one of the mothers describing her child in such negative terms. I guess she was being realistic, but even so.

How do some teachers respond to children with ADHD, especially those children who are hyperactive? Michael had ADHD-combined type. Belinda spoke about the difficulty that Michael had experienced in school, specifically in terms of one of his teachers’ attitudes:

“And it was a battle. He was in her classroom I think, for four

months, because after four months of he’s not getting it, there

was no action from her to do anything. Um, I had him moved

to a different classroom; I went and met with the principal.

There were several incidences that made me very unhappy

throughout the school year. And I told the principal that at this

point, he does not need to be in her classroom. He needs to be

put into a different class, which they did, and he seemed to be

doing better. But we still had the old he doesn’t like to write,

and if something gets tough, you know, the head itches, I need

a drink, I need to go to the bathroom. It was a vicious kind of

cycle. Nobody wanted to take the time to help. Nobody wanted

to help figure it out. Nobody wanted to make a difference. They

all just wanted to be the one to say ‘He’s not getting it. There

is a problem.’”

Mary Ann told me a similar story about her son Billy’s experience

with his gym teacher:

“But also in the classrooms that were somewhat chaotic, [sic] a

loud gymnasium where all sounds are coming in loudly, and it

seems that there is chaos. He’s had trouble finding, finding his

focus when it seems like everyone’s running around crazy. So,

even though the teachers in gym felt like they were in control,

in his perspective, in what he was seeing, which is crazy, so he’s

going to add to it, and run around crazy. So he was having to go

to detention, actually for his behavior in PE. . . . It would be that

he’d mess up on Thursday, and he would have to wait for the

next Wednesday to go to detention. And she even talked about

in-school suspension for his behavior in PE. And that type stuff

was really starting to weigh heavily on me. I’d worry about him

every PE day.”