When Miss Higgins looked up from her desk, there was Sara�again! Whenever work was assigned, Sara would spend most of her time playing with work materials or simply leaving her seat for a drink of water or a trip to the bathroom. At other times, like now, she would approach Miss Higgins with claims that her second grade work was just too hard for her to complete. She would use a whining, babyish voice to Miss Higgins as she complained about task difficulty. To Miss Higgins, the sound was worse than chalk squeaking on a blackboard. These behaviors continued until Miss Higgins was able to provide her with some individual assistance with her work. In fact, Sara rarely completed any of her assignments unless she received the individual support and attention from her teacher. In a class that included twenty other children, including several with special needs, this was no easy task for Miss Higgins.
At Sara�s first parent-teacher conference, Sara�s mother, Diane, experienced waves of anxiety and worry as she listened to the concerns described by Miss Higgins. Sara�s progress report had taken an unmistakable turn for the worse. Sara�s teacher described an unexpected increase in Sara�s off-task behavior in the classroom. Sara was not performing well academically especially in the area of language arts. As a result, her grades were now falling below a �C� level.
Diane felt even more startled when Miss Higgins suggested that Sara�s off-task behavior could be an indication of attention deficits. Perhaps a possible evaluation for ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) might be in order. Diane was already aware of her work avoidance and off-task behavior during homework periods, but she largely attributed this to her immaturity and desire to have her mom help her with her work.
In fact, Sara began to struggle with work completion in the middle of her first grade year. As a result, Sara�s parents decided to move her into a private school where she might take advantage of a smaller class size. Diane now knew that their strategy for Sara had not proven successful. According to Miss Higgins, it was now time to consider an entirely different kind of intervention for Sara. That�s when they approached me to do an ADHD evaluation.
My practice exclusively involves evaluating children with potential ADHD. As a result, I see scenarios like Sara�s all of the time. Frequently, when a capable student fails to demonstrate high academic achievement, teachers and parents will turn to the possibility of ADHD as a primary interference. The demands of our performance driven society tend to consider average or low average academic achievement as unacceptable for any student in the classroom. In the absence of glaring learning or cognitive weaknesses that may explain a student�s lower academic performance, they next consider the most convenient solution: ADHD.
While ADHD was certainly a potential problem in Sara�s case, I wanted to be cautious and evaluate other potential explanations for academic under-performance. It was important to note that Sara�s production improved when she was offered additional explanation and support for assigned tasks. I also noticed that her work avoidance increased when tasks specifically involved language arts assignments. Although she demonstrated reasonable cognitive abilities, she still struggled to comprehend what she read especially when abstract concepts were involved.
Although her learning weakness may not have been severe enough to qualify Sara for special education support, it still remained critically important to identify her learning strengths, weaknesses, and learning style that would best help her to learn in the classroom. Identifying a learning weakness provides classroom teachers with the opportunity to incorporate differential instructional strategies to assist the student daily in the classroom.
Despite Sara�s off-task behavior and inattention with selected academic tasks, I could not interpret her inconsistent inattention as ADHD. Instead, I thought renewed emphasis needed to be placed upon questions surrounding her academic struggle. Continued difficulty in the area of reading comprehension and written language suggested learning weaknesses that needed to be systematically evaluated. The parents could decide either to approach the learning assessment team at their neighborhood public elementary school, or to locate a team of private evaluators who would test Sara�s achievement skills as well as her cognitive abilities.
A positive behavior contract in the classroom reinforcing her for on-task behavior and work completion would allow the parents to be involved in her interventions by rewarding her at home on a daily basis. It is possible that Sara will need private tutoring on occasion to assist her with challenging academic assignments. I suggested that Sara�s parents might choose to analyze their interaction with Sara. Her over-dependency on adults might be interfering with her development of age-appropriate social interaction skills. A final suggestion was made to include Sara in a friendship building group offered at her school to help develop more mature socialization with classmates.
Sara�s parents were relieved to be able to dismiss ADHD as well as the possible use of stimulant medications to help her to succeed in school. They also knew, however, that they had a more challenging task ahead of them in discovering the best learning strategies available to help their daughter. Yet they still left the ADHD evaluation with a sense of confidence as to how to proceed. Their next step would be to schedule an information sharing meeting with Sara�s school to discuss her educational programming.
At youADDitup.com youADDitup.com, visitors will find a wealth of information on ADHD history, symptoms, and evaluation. Short Story and ADHD Library sections offer readers personally authored articles by Dr. Gallegos. Also available on the website is his PDA. the Pre-Diagnostic Assessment, designed to help parents determine if a comprehensive evaluation for ADHD is necessary for their child.