Let me make it clear here that I do NOT believe that ADHD should be used as an excuse by these teenagers. However, one of the most typical symptoms of ADHD is being forgetful. Unless those teenagers with ADHD are taught strategies for remembering to do certain things, such as completing their homework and handing it in to the teacher, they arguably will continue to forget to hand their homework in to the teacher.
I have a teenager with whom I work who has come a long way since I first began working with him, in terms of both social and academic growth. However, he is in ninth grade this year, and is always behind in his work, both class work and homework. This could be part of the immaturity that accompanies his ADHD, or it may be that even though he knows that assignments should be handed in, unless the teacher specifically asks for his homework, he does not give it to them.
I explained to him the other day that teachers are very busy and may not always ask for his homework. Because he is in ninth grade, his teachers probably assume that he will place his homework in the homework file each day, like his classmates do.
When the teachers see that he has not handed in his homework day after day, however, even though he clearly did it and it is in his folder in his book bag, they begin to wonder if he was lazy and simply did not do it.
Teenagers with ADHD may expect teachers to be flexible, in terms of due dates for their assignments. However, these teenagers MUST go halfway and show their teachers that they care about their schoolwork, by trying to design strategies for remembering to do their homework, as well as handing it in on time.
Teachers need to know that teenagers care about the material they are learning and therefore, behave responsibly by doing and handing in their assignments on time. Teenagers with ADHD need to understand that they are responsible for doing their homework and handing it in on time. Those teenagers also need to understand that if they do not complete their homework and hand it in on time, their teachers may very well think that the reason that they have not done so is because they are lazy.
ADHD doesnt exist. All children are different. Some have more energy than others, and all children learn differently. Instead of spending time to work with children(no one wants to do that these days), our society just drugs them into submission.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with children of all learning stages, and each one passed, as teachers spent time with them, and knew exactly what and how they learned.
When my son was four years old, his first junior kindergarten teacher called a meeting to tell me that my son had ADHD or a learning disability, and proceeded to show me a finger painting he had done, and this is how the school diagnosed him. I told them to jump off a short pier. Suffice it to say, my son never took medication and is in college today with 98%.
With my second son, I battled with the schools for the same issue, and again, I refused to medicate my son, and yet, he breezed through school with great grades. Of course, every year, the school called a meeting and sat me down to explain why he needed to medicated. Personally, I think they need to start teaching. Perhaps they should take lessons from the retired teachers. These new ones dont seem to have a clue.
Some doctors claiming that laziness of a child is one of the symptoms of ADHD but is not yet proven. click here for more info.
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