I found this informative article about ADHD in a child as they get older. This also explains some of the effects on the family and community.

http://adc.bmj.com/content/90/suppl_1/i2.full

I tend to keep thinking of the child I had in my classroom all year when I read these articles. I can see a lot of these tendencies that are explained in the classroom as well. In the beginning of the article it explained ADHD in a child who is in preschool, I have never had much experience with ADHD in young children and I think back of working at a preschool for almost two years, remembering some of the children and wonder if they have now been diagnosed with ADHD based on some of the behaviors they showed at school.

As I was reading to the school age child it talks about how mother's with a child with ADHD can become depressed. With all of the conferences and back and forth I have experienced with a particular family this year, I can see how that could happen. The family that I was able to have an experience with this year has stayed VERY positive. I feel they have gone above and beyond for their child and I hope that at home some of these behaviors I have read about don't get them down as a family.

In the classroom if I have a child that is diagnosed with ADHD or if I begin seeming some of the signs that could potentially lead to that, I would be sure to include this child as much as I could and help make them feel comfortable in the classroom setting. I know how it feels to not feel included or uncomfortable and in my classroom, I would make it a point for none of my students to feel that way.

In the conclusion of this article, it states "ADHD is a disorder that may affect all aspects of a child's life." From all of the different information I had researched and from my experience of having a child with ADHD in my classroom, I have seen first hand many different aspects of the child's day that may not be the same as a typically developing child.

At first when I began to search for ways to regulate moods in children with ADHD I thought that I would be finding medications or different dosages of medications. One of the websites I found actually explained various physical things you could do with your child.

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/3268.html

I enjoyed reading these and although they seemed to only be referring to using these techniques at home, I'm wondering if they could be implemented into the classroom as well?

Where they said that parents and adults need to model these for the children are exactly right. How is a child supposed to do these things if you aren't going to do them either? They might believe it really isn't important and not want to control it.

The child that I am familiar with we tried to some strategies with him, but it seemed as if sometimes they would work and other times they did not. One strategy others had even suggested to us was to let him use a stress ball. We wanted to do that, but if he did not have someone constantly watching him or sitting next to him, that stress ball would be torn to pieces. No matter how many directions we gave or told him not to do something, if we turned away or even if we didn't turn away he did it. He has this impulse that he can not control. This is frustrating and interesting to me. I think because at the same time I don't completely understand it.

While I was looking up side effects of ADHD medication in children, I actually came across an article about tips to reduce the side effects of these medications.

http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/reduce-side-effects-adhd-medications

In this article I found some of the strategies to be interesting and wondered how well they worked if you already have your child on a schedule.

Some of these tips I felt would have been useful for the child that I had in my classroom that was on medication. One of the main concerns his mother expressed during conferences were his loss of appetite and how he was losing so much weight and she was worried about his growth. These tips say that the medication should be given right after breakfast, this avoids giving the medication on an empty stomach and they have eaten a substantial meal to start the day. It also said to have a big dinner when the medication is beginning to wear off and I wonder if a child is supposed to take the pill twice a day if they could also take that after dinner as well.

These tips seemed to be easy solutions to avoid some of the common side effects but I'm not sure if this is for all of the ADHD medications or just for some of them. I couldn't imagine all of the various medications to have the same side effects, but maybe similar.

Keeping track of their mood and how it changes seems to be a major concern when on the medication. I also noticed this in a particular child when changing his doses and taking him completely off of it. In this article it states to notify your doctor about this. If the mood changes are important to keep track of to let the doctor know, I wonder what the doctor could do to try to regulate the child's mood?

I will be looking further into that next post...

Initial questions

While working in a 3rd grade classroom for my internship, there was a child in my classroom that has been identified with ADHD. Throughout the year, my mentor teacher and I tried many different strategies that would help motivate him to learn and participate in the classroom. Some of these strategies would not work at all, or maybe for a week or two. 

I've been wondering how medication and how much the dose could affect a child with ADHD?

Are there studies to prove that children with ADHD respond to certain strategies better than others?

How does the family play a part in how the child with ADHD could be successful in a school setting?

Is there more sibling rivalry?

These are just some beginning questions that I will be looking into to find more information that could be helpful in learning more about ADHD and it's affects on more than just the child.