Dealing with Disruptive Classroom Behavior

To head off behavior that takes time from other students, work out a couple of warning signals with the student who has ADD/ADHD. This can be a hand signal, an unobtrusive shoulder squeeze, or a sticky note on the student’s desk. If you have to discuss the student’s behavior, do so in private. And try to ignore mildly inappropriate behavior if it’s unintentional and isn’t distracting other students or disrupting the lesson.

Classroom accommodations for students with ADHD
As a teacher, you can make changes in the classroom to help minimize the distractions and disruptions of ADHD.

Seating

• Seat the student with ADD/ADHD away from windows and away from the door.
• Put the student with ADD/ADHD right in front of your desk unless that would be a distraction for the student.
• Seats in rows, with focus on the teacher, usually work better than having students seated around tables or facing one another in other arrangements.

Information delivery

• Give instructions one at a time and repeat as necessary.
• If possible, work on the most difficult material early in the day.
• Use visuals: charts, pictures, color coding.
• Create outlines for note-taking that organize the information as you deliver it.

Student work

• Create a quiet area free of distractions for test-taking and quiet study.
• Create worksheets and tests with fewer items; give frequent short quizzes rather than long tests.
• Reduce the number of timed tests.
• Test the student with ADD/ADHD in the way he or she does best, such as orally or filling in blanks.
• Show the student how to use a pointer or bookmark to track written words on a page.
• Divide long-term projects into segments and assign a completion goal for each segment.
• Let the student do as much work as possible on computer.
• Accept late work and give partial credit for partial work.

Don't Judge, Adjust