Combined with in-the-moment feedback and support from families, schools can create exceptional learning environments for all students while offering students with ADHD effective and respectful support.
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Classroom-possible, evidence-based supports for children with ADHD
One of the best researched and most effective interventions for ADHD is medication. However, medication is not an option for every child, and schools can’t require families to seek a diagnosis or a prescription. Since schools generally can’t control whether a family chooses medication as a treatment for ADHD, often the most effective, evidence-based supports for children with ADHD involve “classroom-possible” strategies that are good for all students, yet demonstrate the most benefit for students with ADHD.
- Play-based skills coaching with peers
- Recess at the beginning of the day, and ideally throughout instructional time
- Positive reinforcement paired with clear, predictable expectations for behavior and classroom routines
- Explicit training in organizational skills
No more triangles. No more tiers.
One of my clients is building a system for supporting students’ social, emotional, and academic achievement for the first time. Another is revising their approach to ensure that they are aware of their students’ social, emotional, and academic needs and has already created a system for supporting anything that might prevent student learning. Often, people call this “response to intervention” or “RTI.” Both are accomplishing this work with no triangles, and no tiers.
Self-care action plan
-by Tim Grivois, Ed.D. I recently led a workshop on self-care for an amazing group of caring professionals from Youth on Their Own, YOTO. While feedback from the workshop was positive, participants did ask for more time to work with three specific activities that accompany the Eight Dimensions of Wellness Cards. Below are the activitiesContinue reading “Self-care action plan“
Why Social and Emotional Learning has nothing to do with how students behave.
Social and emotional learning makes sense. Knowing who we are, understanding how our emotions function, and being able to establish and maintain healthy interactions with people supports social, emotional, and academic success as well as improves the quality of life for our students in the future. We can support SEL best by emphasizing the learning and deemphasizing behavior.
Protect your regulated space.
Helping children and youth regulate emotions begins with establishing, protecting, and expanding our own regulated space. This kind of self-care is more than just treating ourselves to something or eating more vegetables. Rather, it’s about being intentional about our own health and wellness so that we can be available to serve others at our best.
On time and ready to learn.
-by Timothy (Tim) Grivois-Shah, Ed.D. Because students only benefit from instruction that they actually receive, being on time and ready to learn is the first requirement for success in school. Compass High School, a client of TGS Educational Consulting, recently took action to improve their students’ attendance rate, and their results inform how schools andContinue reading “On time and ready to learn.”
Digital buddy board recipe
-by Tim Grivois-Shah, Ed.D. Digital Buddy Board is a strategy for integrating social and emotional skills practice into academic instruction. To get started, you’ll need: A way to arrange and rearrange a roster into pairs. Something for buddies to do. A time and a place for buddies to do ‘buddy stuff.’ Here are each ofContinue reading “Digital buddy board recipe”
Build classroom community with digital buddy boards
student in your digital classroom will have meaningful opportunities to experience love and belonging, creating a digital buddy board is a great thing to do right now.
Help staff support students more effectively through digital Check-in / Check-out
-by Tim Grivois-Shah, Ed.D. Check-in / Check-out (CICO) is a relatively simple framework for social, emotional, and academic support. While CICO is typically easy for schools and youth-serving programs to implement, most schools use CICO as an intervention for no more than 10-15% of their enrollment. The basics of CICO are simple. Students participating inContinue reading “Help staff support students more effectively through digital Check-in / Check-out”