How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

From

1. Taking all of your time and energy away from the other kids

AND

2. From zapping all of your energy and love of teaching

Yeah it's going to be QUITE A YEAR

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

hang in there Kathleen!

does this kid have an IEP? is he diagnosed ADHD? i also have ADHD and ED kids in my class... let me know if i can help you with some strategies or behavior mod. plans.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

I don't know how old this child is but if he/she is young enough try a behavior chart with them. I've seen kids try as hard as they can for the reward. Good luck.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Have you tried giving him a koosh ball or a stress ball something that he can manipulate with his hand to help him sit still but still allow him to 'move' at the same time.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Have you met with his mom in person yet? You might want to keep anecdotals so you can mention specific incidents to her and build a case. You might be able to build a behavior plan with her (something tells me she has probably heard it before). If he is not a new admit you might also want to talk to last years teacher and ask her what she/he has done and what has been said to the mother. I agree with the stress or koosh ball thing. It might help. It is really frustrating because you know in the back of your mind he can't help it and behavior plans are tough with ADHD kids because they simply can't help themselves. However this doesn't comfort you when the constant distractions ruin everyones concentration. I hope it gets better for you.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Don't let him drain your energy. It's not fair to the other 30 kids in the class. It's just not. As hard as it is, and as much as it's not what he needs, you have to ignore him 95% of the time. Part of what he's doing is screaming for attention. Yes, he deserves the attention, but not at the expense of the education of 29 other children.

Parents who don't have their kids evaluated for lots of reasons - sometimes it's denial; sometimes it's the stigma of being put in "special ed"... and it's so hard to talk parents into it when they don't want it. Good luck!

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Posted by MrsPetro2B

Have you met with his mom in person yet? You might want to keep anecdotals so you can mention specific incidents to her and build a case. You might be able to build a behavior plan with her (something tells me she has probably heard it before). If he is not a new admit you might also want to talk to last years teacher and ask her what she/he has done and what has been said to the mother. I agree with the stress or koosh ball thing. It might help. It is really frustrating because you know in the back of your mind he can't help it and behavior plans are tough with ADHD kids because they simply can't help themselves. However this doesn't comfort you when the constant distractions ruin everyones concentration. I hope it gets better for you.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

If mom admits there is a problem- perhaps you should mention she might want to talk to her pediatrician about doing an evaluation.

Do you all have an intervention team at your school that you can bring up your *problem* students too? We have a KidTalk team and that's when we meet to discuss issues like this and develop "Response to Intervention Plans."

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Then I'm assuming an intervention strategy wasn't developed to help you- that sucks. What was the outcome?

Lemme guess- you need to just "collect data"....

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Wanted to add- at my school (which has a HIGH SPED) we don't make recommendations for evals, but we do make informal suggestions to parents to contact PEDS when we feel evaluations should be conducted....

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

ugh - we're having a similar situation.

Some quick-fix strategies we're using...

1 - student knows that if they are having a 'moment' that they can do 20 jumping jacks in the hall and come back in.

2 - assigning lots of roles and tasks. We've also made checklists for students. Everyday they get a checklist with a list of things that they HAVE to accomplish before they leave the class (our 'do-=now' when they walk in, copying class work, participating in group work, giving in the 'exit-slip' at the end of class). They are responsible for checking each item off before they leave class. Otherwise we give a consequence. Promotes being responsible for your own actions, time management, and self-control.

Otherwise, we're stuck too. For us, the parent is in denial....

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Message edited 9/21/2008 3:10:40 PM.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

How many more days til Christmas break?

I think your best bet is to keep making noise to your team/admin. There needs to be SOME sort of plan developed to help you.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Posted by Porrruss

How many more days til Christmas break?

I think your best bet is to keep making noise to your team/admin. There needs to be SOME sort of plan developed to help you.

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

I have one of those on my caseload as well. His former speech therapist was almost giddy with excitement that she was losing him. I have him 2x a week for 30 minutes at a time. I can't IMAGINE having him for a whole day while trying to teach a whole class. Even in a small group setting (3 kids) he needs CONSTANT redirection.

I have no advice, but wanted to give you support.....

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

this is the hardest part of the job. I would try as much as you can to reinforce when he is actigin appropriate. Perhaps to earm something rewarding to him. The tough thing is to find a good reinforcer. Its so hard when you have 30 other kids to handle. Most of the time I would also reinforce the other kids for doing the right thing, so they dont get any ideas!!!!

Re: How the hell do you keep an overactive child with behavior issues..

For one thing, I think the kid might still need some time to adjust. Not an excuse, I know. Secondly, keep up the positive praise. Try public praise and private reprimand. Give him little jobs like running an errand or passing papers. The boy I have loves to organize and straighten things...he's a boy after my own heart so yesterday, after he FINALLy copied homework, I sent him to another teacher for a few minutes to help her clean.

My principal knows and has told me that whenever he gets crazy, to send him to her and she'll let him run in the gym. Honestly, that isn't the answer but it is helping us. I just have to catch him before he escalates. That's the biggest thing.

I heard about a system in another school that I would LOVE if my school used. Basically, if there is a kid who is going bonkers, the teacher takes a piece of paper and puts an X on it, folds it and hands it to the kid to take to another teacher. The second teacher opens it, sees the X which is a signal that this kid needs some out of the room time and he or she can get it without disruption or embarrassment.

I also hate to say this but half the time, the kid is just a PITA whose parents are wayyyy to lenient, the other half of the time, the kid REALLY has a problem and he can't help it. For the first kid, you need a behavior plan. For the second kid, you need coping strategies because the behavior chart doesn't work in that case.