Education Of ADHD Students Demands Accountability From Teacher, Student

6-17-97

University Park, Pa. -- All teachers encounter the noisy, fidgety student who disrupts the classroom with a careless, almost cheerful abandon. To the harried teacher, that student is the ultimate discipline problem.

"The odds are good that many of these `discipline problems' suffer from a neurological condition called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)," says Dr. James Levin, director of the Academic Advising Center in Penn State's Eberly College of Science. "This explains why these students, often intelligent and otherwise likable, seem so little in control of their own self-destructive behavior."

Most experts agree that 3 to 9 percent of the general population meet the criteria for ADHD, Levin adds. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed for ADHD by a factor of three to one.

"No one would deny that working with ADHD students represents a considerable physical and mental drain for the teacher," says Dr. John Shanken-Kaye, instructor of classroom management with Penn State Continuing and Distance Education.

Levin and Shanken-Kaye are co-authors of the recently published book, "The Self-Control Classroom: Understanding And Managing The Disruptive Behavior Of All Students Including Students With ADHD" (Kendall/Hunt). Levin is also a member of Penn State's College of Education graduate faculty, while Shanken-Kaye is a therapist with the Bucks County Juvenile Court.

"For optimal teaching of ADHD students, both students and teachers have to be accountable for their actions in class," Shanken-Kaye notes. "The teacher must make clear to ADHD students that, even though they suffer from a neurological disorder, they are still responsible for their behavior and its impact on fellow students."

At the same time, teachers should realize that ultimately they can control no one's behavior but their own. When they understand that, they can adjust their teaching methods accordingly in dealing with ADHD students.

"In classroom management of ADHD students, teachers need to schedule frequent activities that require movement, choose these students to run errands or simply allow students to stand at their desks and stretch," Levin says. "This will decrease the likelihood that students' hyperactivity is expressed in disruptive behavior. In addition, management interventions need to be delivered in a manner that provides students with opportunities to learn to control their own behaviors.

"ADHD is believed to be a hereditary condition affecting certain areas of the brain which control impulsivity, arousal, and sensitivity to rewards and punishments," Levin says. "People are born with ADHD. It is not the result of poor parenting, TV, MTV, sugar, environmental allergies, yeast infections, fluorescent lighting, caffeine, mothers working outside the home, single-parent families, poor schools, or ethnic or racial background."

Some might think that, if ADHD students cannot always control their behavior, they should not be held responsible for it. Levin and Shanken-Kaye reply that neurology is a mitigating circumstance, not a "get out of jail free card."

"The classification of ADHD is not a license to get away with anything, but rather an explanation that will lead to legitimate help," Shanken-Kaye says. "We do students with ADHD no favors, if we suggest that they are incapable of learning self-control."

At the same time, teachers should realize that how they feel about students will have a direct impact on how they treat those students. Thus, they should monitor with particular care their attitudes toward the ADHD student.

"If teachers believe that ADHD students are intentionally willful and defiant, they will be likely to become frustrated and impatient with those students," Levin says. "They will be more inclined to impose harsh, retaliatory discipline that, in the end, will be counterproductive for teacher and student alike."

Levin is a former mathematics and science teacher at the secondary level in inner city, suburban and residential schools for disruptive youth. Both Levin and Shanken-Kaye have provided inservice education to thousands of parents and teachers on the topics of classroom management, the causes of disruptive and delinquent behavior, self-esteem and motivation.

**pab**

EDITORS: Dr. Levin can be reached at (814) 863-3889 (office) or at jl7@email.psu.edu by email. Dr. Shanken-Kaye can be contacted at (215) 345-7868 (office).

Contacts:
Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 867-1126 (home) pab15@psu.edu
Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-1221 (home) vyf1@psu.edu