Introduction
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is an immensely significant problem for the suffering children in the domain of education. This psychiatric disorder hurdles the learning of an adolescent by negatively impacting on the capacity to concentrate or focus during the process of learning. Children with ADHD find it difficult to cope up with the lecture or any teaching delivered in a class in contrast to normal children in schools and classrooms. Teachers treat each student on a similar scale based on which the student has ADHD if a student has not been identified as a patient of ADHD suffers. This paper focuses on the explication of the observation of a classroom in which children with ADHD were being taught. It also provides a brief overview of ADHD and presents briefly analyzed summary of some journal articles regarding ADHD in children.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHD is a common neurobehavioral disorder, which typically incurs in early childhood, and it could continue to have an impact until adulthood. Children who have ADHD find it significantly difficult to remain attentive in the class or any activity that requires attention. These children mostly trouble controlling impulsive behaviors and also find it hard to get control over their elevated level of activity. A child suffering from ADHD could exhibit certain behavioral differences such as poor memory, daydreaming, excessive talking, and inability to understand risks associated with certain actions, unsocial attitude, and even squirming. These are symptoms, which are commonly associated with children having ADHD. The common causes of this neurobehavioral problem are found to be present in the genetics of a child. Other than genetics, injury in the brain, premature delivery of a child, and low weight on birth is considered to be the main causes of ADHD in children. This disorder is normally treated with a combined treatment of medication and behavioral therapy (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013).
Observation Report
For this observation report of a classroom where children with ADHD were thriving to learn with concentration and focus by the assistance of teachers and management was observed and analyzed, which will be described in the following lines. During the whole period of observation, there was a total of 17 children from which 6 of them were females, and the remaining 11 were boys. It has been observed that the average age of these children was nearly ten years. Moreover, amongst these children, the youngest child was eight years old, and the oldest was 11 years old. 13 children of 17 were diagnosed with ADHD, from which eight children were male. There were 5 hours of academic timings for the students from which they attended 4 hours in learning the theoretical subjects, the half-hour was for food, and the remaining half hour was associated with sports or other physical activities by which these students can be reenergized.
Each student in the classroom was dealt on the individual level due to the specially trained teachers to help children having ADHD. Each teacher of the classroom was specially trained with an especially designed behavioral course by which their teaching skills became well concordant to the needs of children having ADHD. The use of visual aids in most of the conceptual learning was tremendously helpful for children in addition to their attention and attraction towards the topic. To help them focus on the studies in the classroom, the environment of the classroom was deliberately more interactive than a normal class. It is understood that the interaction between teachers and students could lead to a better understanding of problems and ways to deal with them. The interactive environment of the class also increases the intensity of concentration of children with ADHD in the classroom, which they feel trouble within any normal classroom.
The use of multimedia and large projections was also observable because these aiding instruments play a significantly important role in teaching children with ADHD in a controlled environment i.e., classroom. Each student had a distinct mental level based on which teachers were dealing with every student on an individual level in an extraordinary polite manner. Another important observation in the classroom, which is not very usual in orthodox classrooms, is the arrangement of seats on which students were present. The sitting arranges of students was organized in a circular manner, which made each student have a clear and direct look at the teacher. With the help of sitting arrangement in a circular way, which seemingly resembled a conference hall, each student acted in a more attentive manner towards the teacher and subject being taught.
The over-talkative nature or it must be said that an extremely effective strategy tackled symptoms by teachers. Teachers were delivering information about the topic in an immensely amicable manner, which created a free of stress environment of the classroom. This amicable environment could be a distraction for children having ADHD in their process of learning. Still, the active way of discussion, which was constantly posed towards students by teachers, kept the students attentive and discussions helped them to cope up with the urge to talk sufficiently. Lastly, there was a 30 minutes session each day in which a therapist used to treat the children with ADHD with the help of behavioral therapy. In addition to this, teachers were also aware of the medical condition of children based on which they were told to medicate students if they require in cases such as hyperactivity leading to a fight between two students. Children with ADHD often distracts more than normal children. The amiability of environment and interactive sessions proved to harm students. However, the training of teachers and their involvement in strategy formulation with a focus on students with ADHD can yield better learning in the classroom.
Review of Articles
Peer Victimization in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
According to a study, which was conducted in 2009, children with ADHD suffer victimization frequently more than normal children. Amongst children having ADHD, female children are the most frequently victimized students in schools. Victimization is comprised of several types in which verbal victimization, physical victimization, and relational victimization are the most common types (Wiener & Mak, 2009).
There were 104 children who were chosen for this study, and 52 children were diagnosed with ADHD. The data was collected from children, their parents, and teachers. The analysis of data proved that children with ADHD are more likely to be victims or bullies or both in contrast with normal children (Wiener & Mak, 2009). The study and observation report signifies that separate schools with specially trained teachers and staff are important for better growth of children with ADHD.
Children with Attention Deficits Concentrate Better After Walk in the Park
There is research which was conducted in the year of 2009, which shows that a twenty-minute walk in a natural setting or environment like parks is significantly useful for children with ADHD. This one week experiment shows that environments have a definite positive impact upon attention not only in normal children but also in children with ADHD (Taylor & Kuo, 2009).
Seventeen children were subjected to this study, and these children were professionally diagnosed with ADHD. Three types of environmental settings were utilized, from which two were in an organized urban setting, and one was a city (Taylor & Kuo, 2009). This research provides the grounds for the observation of school in which half-hour between the academic hours are associated with physical activities that help children with ADHD to focus and concentrate.
Distractibility in Attention/Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): The Virtual Reality Classroom
A study about distractibility in children with ADHD was conducted in 2009. This study was based on finding the impact of virtual reality classroom on the distractibility of children having ADHD. A total of 35 students were sampled from which 19 boys were diagnosed with ADHD, and the remaining sixteen male children were normal. These two groups were compared in a virtual reality classroom for a continuous performance task (Adams, Finn, Moes, Flannery, & Rizzo, 2009).
The results showed that children having ADHD were significantly more affected than the control group, which was consisting of normal children. The virtual reality classroom was proved to be more distractible for students with ADHD (Adams, Finn, Moes, Flannery, & Rizzo, 2009). However, the use of multimedia as a visual aid to teaching children with ADHD helps increase their focus and attention towards the topic, as mentioned in the observation report.
Impact of Sleep Restriction on Neurobehavioral Functioning of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
A research was conducted in 2011, which showed that restriction of sleep or voluntary sleeplessness negatively affects the neurobehavioral function of children having ADHD. The study was conducted on 43 children from whom 32 children were normal and were assigned to a control group, whereas 11 children were diagnosed with ADHD. Sleepiness, sleeping logs, and sleep of children were measured to collect data (Gruber, Wiebe, Montecalvo, Brunetti, Amsel, & Carrier, 2011).
The sleep of children with ADHD is immensely important for the betterment of their neurobehavioral function and this neurobehavioral disorder. However, children are responsible for the sleep pattern and sleep fulfillment of children having ADHD. Sleeping of children is significantly important for the successful treatment of ADHD in children (Gruber, Wiebe, Montecalvo, Brunetti, Amsel, & Carrier, 2011).
Empathy and Social Perspective Taking in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Another research regarding children with ADHD was conducted in 2009. This study was based on the psychological impacts of ADHD on children. The study was aimed to evaluate empathy in children suffering from ADHD and their social perspective. Ninety-two children were subjected to this research, where 50 were diagnosed with ADHD, and the remaining 42 were controlled sample groups (Marton, Wiener, Rogers, Moore, & Tannock, 2009). Parents of children were interviewed to collect their opinions regarding empathy, and the data showed that parents of children having ADHD believed that their children are less emphatic than normal children. However, the study proposed similar results in which children with ADHD had a lesser level of social perspective than normal children. Female children were found to be more emphatic than male subjects (Marton, Wiener, Rogers, Moore, & Tannock, 2009). The interactive environment of observed classroom signifies the importance of socialization for children with ADHD.
Conclusion
This paper presented an observation report of an experiment in which children with ADHD were taught in a special environment under the supervision of trained teachers and management staff. It also signifies some key aspects of ADHD in children under the light of several works of research.
Reference List
Adams, R., Finn, P., Moes, E., Flannery, K., & Rizzo, A. (2009). Distractibility in Attention/Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): The virtual reality classroom. Child Neuropsychology: A Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence, 15 (2), 120-135.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Web.
Gruber, R., Wiebe, S., Montecalvo, L., Brunetti, B., Amsel, R., & Carrier, J. (2011). Impact of sleep restriction on neurobehavioral functioning of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Sleep , 34 (3), 315–323.
Marton, I., Wiener, J., Rogers, M., Moore, C., & Tannock, R. (2009). Empathy and Social Perspective Taking in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37(1), 107-118.
Taylor, A. F., & Kuo, F. E. (2009). Children with attention deficits concentrate better after walk in the park. Journal of Attention Disorders, 12 (5), 402-409.
Wiener, J., & Mak, M. (2009). Peer victimization in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Psychology in the Schools, 46 (2), 116–131.