With patience and a few tried-and-true strategies, you can help your student harness their enthusiasm and energy in the classroom while minimizing blurting. Use these ideas to spark your next brilliant behavior plan or classroom-management strategy.

1. Try planned ignoring. During a classroom activity, acknowledge students who raise their hands and wait to be called on. (Be sure to repeat this expectation prior to and during the lesson.) When a student who was previously blurting is now raising their hand, call on that student right away, and praise their enthusiastic efforts to contribute while following classroom expectations.

[Get This Free Download: The Daily Report Card for Better Classroom Behavior]

2. Three nods and a deep breath. For students who struggle with waiting their turn to contribute to a conversation (especially when it’s an exciting one that relates to their interests), encourage them to work and refine their patience muscles with a quick exercise: When the urge to blurt comes up before a friend has finished their statement, slowly and slightly nod three times and then take a deep breath before jumping in. Even if the student does end up blurting, it’s the practice of mindfully waiting that counts. This exercise also teaches students to be active listeners.

3. Use self-monitoring tools. Sometimes, students are unaware that they are blurting and how often they engage in the behavior. Self-monitoring tools can raise their awareness (without causing shame) and help control its frequency. My favorite way to use self-monitoring in the classroom is for both student and teacher to track the student’s blurt count for a lesson/period and compare results.

If the blurt tally is the same, then the student gets to pick from the big prize box for recognizing the number of times they blurted. (If the tally is off, you should reward the student anyway for making progress, perhaps by allowing them to pick a smaller prize.)

Over time, once the student’s baseline number of blurts is established, you can set clear goals around limiting those interruptions. If five is the average for a lesson, then aim for the student to blurt no more than three times a lesson. Praise and reward the student, perhaps with additional time for recess for the whole class.

[Read: Impulse Control Strategies for School and Home]

4. Do an environmental check. Thinking critically about the environment in which our students learn is essential to maximize their learning and make sure everyone is on the same page with respect to the classroom rules.

• Review classroom expectations frequently with your students. Make sure that the rules are clear and easy to understand, and write them on the board or keep them on a poster hanging up for all to see. Ensure that students understand when it is okay to talk softly to friends in their desk pod and when it’s time to be absolutely quiet, like during tests.
• Consider seating. Put a student who blurts near your desk or away from other students who also blurt. Consider creating a designated space in your classroom that students can go to if they need to self-regulate to control blurting and other impulsive behaviors.
• Don’t overlook the importance of a clutter-free space. Where is my notebook? Pencil? Last week’s homework assignment? A cleaner environment can reduce these questions, which may come out as blurting. During transition times, have your students take a few minutes to do individualized environmental check to keep organized.
• Check noise levels. Soft music may calm some students, which helps with impulsivity, while others need absolute silence to avoid being “activated.” Think of what works for your students and consider using noise cancelling headphones for students who need quiet.

How to Stop Blurting: Next Steps

• Free Download: Solving Behavior Problems Rooted in Executive Function Deficits
• Read: Disruptive Behavior — Solutions for the Classroom and at Home
• Read: Behavior Problems at School —  A Complete Problem-Solving Guide for Parents

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Executive function (EF) skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus our attention, remember instructions, stay organized, and successfully manage our time. These skills are crucial for student success, but many children with ADHD, learning differences, and co-existing conditions lag behind in EF.

We will provide educators with the tools they need to teach these skills through an academic lens. Integrating these strategies in a classroom helps all students, those with and without ADHD and co-existing conditions.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Implement clear classroom expectations and routines
• Set up learning management system portals to decrease student questions and limit confusion
• Manage and follow student accommodations (504 Plans and IEPs)
• Incorporate movement in your classroom to improve focus—while avoiding chaos
• Teach students how to advocate for themselves through role play

Watch the Video Replay

Enter your email address in the box above labeled “Video Replay + Slide Access” to watch the video replay (closed captions available) and download the slide presentation.

Download or Stream the Podcast Audio

Click the play button below to listen to this episode directly in your browser, click the  symbol to download to listen later, or open in your podcasts app: Apple Podcasts; Audacy; Spotify; Amazon Music; iHeartRADIO.

Executive Function Skills for Students: More Resources

• Self-Test: Could Your Child Have an Executive Function Deficit?
• Read: A Classroom Exercise That Teaches Self-Advocacy and Celebrates Differences
• Get: The Ultimate Executive Function Guide
• Read: The Misconceptions That Stifle Students with ADHD

Obtain a Certificate of Attendance

If you attended the live webinar on February 22, 2024, watched the video replay, or listened to the podcast, you may purchase a certificate of attendance option (cost: $10). Note: ADDitude does not offer CEU credits. Click here to purchase the certificate of attendance option »

Meet the Expert Speaker

Brandon Slade is the founder and CEO of Untapped Learning, an executive function coaching organization. Slade was diagnosed with ADHD at an early age, but it wasn’t until college that he fully recognized his brain did not work like those of his neurotypical peers. Since then, Slade’s goal has been to better understand the ADHD brain. After teaching special education for 12 years, he started Untapped Learning. Untapped’s mission is to help students with executive function challenges to develop the skills they need to succeed academically and beyond.

Listener Testimonials

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For the “project,” she gave each student an index card with a set of unique medical symptoms. The task, due in a week: Research your symptoms and identify the diagnosis. The following week, the teacher had her students quickly read out their symptoms and their diagnostic guesses. Her job was to play doctor and prescribe treatment for each student’s condition.

One student began: “My arm bone is jutting out. There’s swelling and bleeding at the spot. I’m in intense pain. I must have a bone fracture.”

The teacher: “Yes, that’s right! Take an aspirin and come back in a week if you don’t feel better.”

She hurried to the next student, ignoring the confused looks around the room.

[Get This Free Download: 5 Steps to More Forceful ADHD Self-Advocacy]

“I have a really bad headache, a fever, a runny nose, and a sore throat,” said the other student. “I think I have the flu.”

“Correct,” the teacher said. “Take an aspirin and come back in a week if you aren’t feeling better. Next!”

On and on the teacher went, assigning the same treatment, no matter how nonsensical, to the students’ varied conditions and ignoring their objections.

After a few moments (and an uproar across the classroom), the teacher stopped. Now came the time to reveal the real purpose of the project.

[Read: Putting Kids in Charge of Their Learning Needs]

“Here’s the deal,” she said. “Like your index cards of symptoms, each of you has a unique set of strengths and needs. And just as your symptoms require different treatments, each of you needs different things from me to succeed. And my job is to be fair to each of you individually.”

Some people think that fairness, she noted, is giving everyone the exact same thing. But was it fair, she asked the class, to prescribe aspirin for a bone fracture? The class, of course, said no.

Fair, she emphasized, doesn’t mean that everyone gets the same thing. It means everyone gets what they need to be successful. Some may need more support than others, but the result should be the same: Success in the classroom.

“Now, I’m not a mind reader,” she said to the class. “I can’t help you be successful if you don’t tell me what you need. You’re going to have to help me with this.”

Try this simple project with your classroom. In doing so, you’ll cultivate a classroom culture where individual strengths and needs are normalized, not stigmatized, and where students of all abilities feel comfortable advocating for their varied needs to thrive.

Self-Advocacy Activities: Next Steps

• Free Download: 4 Secrets to Motivating Students with ADHD
• Read: Teaching Strategies for Students with ADHD — Ideas to Help Every Child Shine
• Read: 8 Confidence Builders for Kids with ADHD

The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude webinar titled, “Avoiding & Recovering from 2e Burnout: Support for Gifted Students” [Video Replay & Podcast #467] with Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D., which was broadcast on August 17, 2023.

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Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve learned to sew and knit mittens, bake bread, bake sourdough bread (a completely different process), decorate cakes, cook and preserve a variety of foods, make candles, craft homemade lip balm and lotion, and edit with Photoshop. I volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, ran four half marathons and three full marathons, did a triathlon, and a (maybe ill-advised) mountain race, all as I earned a master’s degree.

I’m on a side quest right now. I am writing a biology unit even though my school doesn’t currently offer a biology class. Should I devote my time to other lessons? Probably. But I tend to plan my lessons as they come to me. I’ve learned that my best work comes when I follow my creative instincts. Even if I forced myself to work linearly, I know it would result in subpar lesson plans.

[Read: Why the ADHD Brain Chooses the Less Important Task]

I don’t list these side quests, many of which I consider accomplishments, to brag, (I am not particularly good at any of the above) but to emphasize that if anyone knows about ADHD side quests – the good and the not-so-good parts of them – it’s me. I can’t tell you how many times I’d set out to do something, like clean my kitchen, only to spend that time doing anything but, like perfecting my baking skills. As frustrating as it is to stray from my intentions (I ended up with yummy bread and a dirtier kitchen), I firmly believe that all the side quests I’ve embarked on have served me in the long run. I also know that this breadth of learning is only possible when I lean into my ADHD.

What’s Life – and Learning – Without Side Quests?

While funny, the ADHD meme suggests that side quests and non-linear paths are ultimately wasteful. It’s a mentality I see in the field of education, which is quick to discourage and even punish side quests and non-linear approaches. Students are largely taught to complete the main quest using only a handful of accepted procedures, without room for detours. It’s a mentality that negatively affects students who learn differently, including students with ADHD, who come to learn to view their condition as an impediment to academic success.

Side quests, I say, are not wasteful. Even within video games, you can earn rewards for playing side quests and gain skills that eventually aid in completing the main quest. If you shut off the game after finishing a handful of side quests, without so much as attempting the main quest, you would still consider it a success, if not a good time.

How can we bring this approach to learning? I have a few ideas.

[Read: Stifled Creativity and Its Damaging Impact on the ADHD Brain]

1. Recognize that success and learning come in many forms. Point A to Point B may work for some students, but some of us need to stop at Points C through F, with a layover at stoichiometry and a quick detour to the American Revolution.

2. Provide opportunities to go down the rabbit hole. We should encourage students to take tangents and scratch those exploratory itches. My students get two days at the end of each term for digging deeper into a topic that was particularly interesting to them and then sharing with the class. It’s an opportunity to hyperfocus that also increases engagement, and it teaches students to view tangents and side quests in a positive light.

3. Reframe mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning. Mistakes and snags are part of learning (we can even consider them as side quests of their own), but it’s not always pleasant to brush up against them, whether they happen on side quests or the main quest. Take a page from video games, where failure doesn’t really exist and mistakes aren’t the end of the world. You may lose the round, but you’re allowed to play and play, using what you’ve learned until you get it right and move on to the next level.

How to Engage Students: Next Steps

• Read: “How Teachers Can Initiate and Promote Inclusive Education”
• Read: “Why Curious, Questioning Students are Highly Underrated”
• Read: How to Encourage Creativity in Children with ADHD

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Help your 2e student avoid burnout by learning its early warning signs and creating systems that reduce their day-to-day overwhelm. Here’s how.

Gifted Kid Burnout: Why It Happens and How to Spot It

The distance between 2e kids’ strengths and challenges is vast. These students may feel incredibly smart at times, like when they master a concept much faster than their peers. But dread and panic set in when dyslexia, ADHD, anxiety, or symptoms of another condition seem to hijack their academic progress.

As twice-exceptional kids navigate this complex, exhausting combination of polar-opposite attributes, their self-concept suffers and imposter syndrome may set in. They may think, “Maybe I’m not so smart after at.” Even comments from parents, teachers, and other adults — “You could achieve so much if you just applied yourself,” or “I know you are capable of so much more” — can fuel self-doubt and stress in these kids.

[Read: Lost, Late, or Burnt Out?]

As school demands inevitably pile up and become more complex, 2e kids need specific and anticipatory supports. Without appropriate supports, the demands outstrip a student’s capacity to cope, and the burnout pattern begins. Signs of 2e burnout include the following:

• withdrawing and closing off from others; moving into a “safe zone”
• irritability and impulsivity; lashing and acting out
• rigid, inflexible thinking; unable to “go with the flow”
• feeling overwhelmed
• feeling trapped and helpless

How to Avoid Burnout: Strategies for Gifted Kids

Look for Patterns

Help your child recognize situations — times, tasks, subjects, and settings — that cause them to feel overwhelmed. This way, they can plan ahead, lean on their strengths, and reduce their chances of burning out. Ask your child questions like the following to increase their self-awareness:

• What time of day do you feel your best? When do you feel your worst?
• Which skills do you enjoy using?
• Which classes and subjects do you enjoy the most? Which ones do you find most challenging, and why?

[Read: How to Teach Emotional Regulation Skills]

Build and Practice Coping Skills

As your child begins to recognize their patterns, encourage them to ask, “How might I respond when I’m in a stressful situation? How can I be flexible when things don’t go as expected? Which coping strategies would help me the most?” Possible coping strategies include the following:

• practicing mindfulness, trying breathing exercises, and observing feelings
• taking breaks, especially during challenging tasks or moments
• saying a positive affirmation
• asking, “If I had a friend who was experiencing this, what advice would I give them?”
• asking parents, teachers, and/or friends for help (social connections are key for promoting resilience)

Coping skills are virtually impossible to learn while stress is unfolding, so help your child practice these skills often. Remind your child that identifying and applying the right coping skills during moments of stress is a process of trial and error that requires patience and persistence.

Create Daily Structure

Visual schedules and routines provide 2e children with the predictability they need to feel in control, conserve resources, and manage stress. Scheduling starts with a bird’s-eye view of important dates — like tests, project deadlines, music recitals — and tapers down to what’s happening on a weekly, daily, and hourly level.

• Color-code must-dos, should-dos, and want-to-dos that comprise your child’s schedule. Viewing to-dos like this can help your child readily adjust plans and make time for what really matters. Downtime and fun time are vital, so be sure to help your child make room for non-academic pursuits and passions.
• Review weekly and daily schedules with the goal of anticipating and reducing stress. At the beginning of each week, ask your child to mark which days ahead might be stressful, and what can be done about it, like practicing coping skills or changing plans to avoid an overloaded schedule. It might be difficult for your child — as is the case for many bright, motivated kids who want to do it all — to drop plans. Remind your child that more is not necessarily better, and that the goal is to reduce stress so they can thrive.
• Develop routines that align with your child’s rhythms. When do they hit their stride? When are they typically hungry? When do they need downtime? How many hours of sleep do they need? What do they need to successfully transition through activities? Build these daily patterns into your child’s schedule.

Provide Supportive Physical Environments

• Establish zones for major tasks — studying, playing, eating, etc. — with all the supplies your child would need for a given activity.
• Declutter spaces to help your child focus in a distraction-free environment.
• Everything has a home; put high-use items, like sports equipment and backpacks, in the same place each time to avoid the unnecessary stress of looking for misplaced items.
• Help your child sort, clean, and repack their backpack as often as needed, whether daily or weekly. Together, create a “clean and ready backpack” checklist.
• Decorate your child’s spaces. Add visuals, sounds, and smells that help your child feel calm and happy.

Maintain Motivation

• Task analyzing — or breaking down a task into smaller steps and incorporating breaks — is an important practice to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed especially if your child’s first reaction to big projects or difficult subjects is, “There is no way I can do that!”
• What does your child want to accomplish? Help them identify small and big, short-and long-term goals — academic and beyond — that matter to them.
• Use a reward system to help your child stay motivated as they display effort and persistence toward a goal, use their coping skills, and show other desired behaviors. Help them identify rewards of all kinds that genuinely interest them, and assign point values to small and large rewards. Check in often to make sure previously selected rewards and goals still matter to your child.

Gifted Kid Burnout: Next Steps for 2e Kids

• Free Download: 20 Learning Strategies Designed for Students with ADHD
• Read: “I Grew Up Gifted and Autistic — and Suffered the Burnout of Twice Exceptionality”
• Read: “My Gifted Teen Has ADHD — and So. Much. Frustration.”

The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude webinar titled, “Avoiding & Recovering from 2e Burnout: Support for Gifted Students” [Video Replay & Podcast #467] with Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D., which was broadcast on August 17, 2023.

References

Coleman M. R. (2016). Recognizing young children with high potential: U-STARS∼PLUS. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1377(1), 32–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13161

Kirk, S. A., Gallagher, J. J., & Coleman, M. R. (2015). Educating exceptional children (14th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage.

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

I clarified: “Do you assume, for example, that the student’s learning difference may add to your workload or disrupt the class in some way?”

A few teachers reluctantly raised their hands.

Then I asked, “And how many of you, upon finding out that you will be teaching a neurodivergent student, readily think, ‘This is great! I’m going to be able to really take advantage of some of the strengths of their brain.’” Cue lots of bowing heads and sheepish looks.

As a teacher of 24 years, I know that less-than-favorable unconscious (and sometimes conscious) attitudes absolutely exist within the education system toward students with learning differences. To be clear, I also know that the majority of teachers have benevolent intentions and want the best for their students.

Still, the longstanding approach in education systems has been that there is a core group of students that educators teach, and then there are “others” who require differentiated learning materials to accommodate their separate needs. This bolt-on-not-built-in approach (a term coined by Margaret Mulholland, an education inclusion specialist) can only ever lead to one way of thinking: Most kids learn in a similar, typical way, and anyone who doesn’t demands extra work – an inconvenience.

[Read: The Simulation Exercises That Expand Educators’ Understanding of Neurodivergent Students]

What Drives Negative Attitudes Toward Individuals with Learning Differences?

Years of attention-grabbing headlines – particularly those written about ADHD – have fueled myths and negative conceptions about neurodiversity and learning differences that have seeped into our subconscious and created a bias that was never of our making. The idea of ADHD not existing and instead being an excuse for a lack of discipline and poor parenting, for example, is still rampant.

It’s also generational. When I was in school in the ’80s, the term “specific learning difference” didn’t exist, let alone the more positive term, “neurodivergence.” Children who displayed traits that we now recognize as learning differences were regarded as unintelligent and troublesome, their traits only inspiring irritation or sympathy from teachers. (Even the latter can be damaging to self-esteem if a child senses that an authority figure is taking pity on them.)

The Consequences of Negative Teacher Bias

Such negative, often implicit biases against these students means potentially disastrous outcomes for self-esteem and future educational success. A UK report found that institutions of higher learning have been slow to provide inclusive educational environments in large part because of negative attitudes from staff toward students with learning differences.¹ This included teachers not believing that a student had a disability or difference, and even questioning if a neurodivergent student was capable of studying at their current level.

Crucially, we must consider intersectionality here and how the overlap of race and gender with learning differences may create further discrimination or disadvantage, as evidenced, for example, by a teacher holding lower expectations of a child who has a certain skin color and a learning difference, or enacting harsher consequences. According to the Bellwether Report, Black students with disabilities account for just over 2% of the total U.S. student population, yet they make up nearly 9% of all students suspended.²

[Read: Why We Must Achieve Equitable ADHD Care for African American and Latinx Children]

We Need to Revolutionize Teacher Training

One in every five of us is said to be neurodivergent³, so it is the rule and not the exception that teachers will educate students with learning differences for the entirety of their careers. Still, educator training to support students with learning differences using inclusive practices, including increasing awareness of implicit biases, remains inadequate or largely unavailable, despite increasing calls for these components to become a core part of teacher training.

A strengths-based, inclusion-focused pedagogy whereby teachers fundamentally believe that all students, regardless of ability, can thrive when their needs are met can dramatically change learning outcomes for the better. One study showed that, compared to teachers with negative inclusive educational beliefs, teachers who believed that inclusive education is an effective way to teach provided greater positive feedback to students, felt less frustrated, and held lower expectations for future failure.⁴

In my role as a learning support specialist, I have collected many anecdotes from neurodivergent students about times when a teacher delivered instruction in a more inclusive manner, surely with learning differences exclusively in mind, that ended up making the lesson much more accessible to the entire class, to the delight of all students. Known as the curb-cut effect, it demonstrates that inclusive teaching can benefit not just a target group, but all students.

Apart from teacher training on inclusive practices, we also need more neurodivergent teachers who, by virtue of living with a condition or learning difference, will understand the experiences of students with learning differences and approach instruction in a more empathetic manner.

It’s possible that there are more neurodivergent educators out there than we know. They remain in the shadows because of fears related to disclosing a learning differences and being judged negatively. The unfortunate consequence of stigma is that it leaves a distinct lack of neurodivergent role models for students. If educational institutions start to actively recruit, support, and learn from neurodivergent teachers, then schools as a whole will be more inclined to look positively upon their neurodivergent students.

I feel instinctively that the tide is turning. It may be slow, but I’m heartened by how much societal awareness of neurodiversity has grown. I’ve observed that teachers and students are becoming more open about their differently wired brains. In my lifetime, I hope that all teachers will walk into a classroom and immediately feel nothing but delight and excitement – never dread – at the prospect of teaching students with wonderfully neurodivergent brains.

Implicit Bias in Education: Next Steps

• Free Class: The ADHD Learning Series for Educators
• Read: There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Slow’ or ‘Lazy’ Brain
• Read: Students with Learning Differences Need Outspoken Champions

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

Sources

¹ Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education – The Department for Education (2017)

² Hinds, H., Newby, L., Korman, H. (2022) Ignored, Punished, and Underserved: Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Education Experiences and Outcomes for Black Children with Disabilities. Bellwether & Easterseals.

³ Doyle N. (2020). Neurodiversity at work: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults. British medical bulletin, 135(1), 108–125. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldaa021

⁴ Woodcock S. (2021). Teachers’ beliefs in inclusive education and the attributional responses toward students with and without specific learning difficulties. Dyslexia (Chichester, England), 27(1), 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1651

The longer I’ve spent in this field, the more I’ve come to realize that the strongest educators are skilled at ignoring mildly inappropriate behaviors from students. This is a different tune from approaches of the past that emphasized, for example, trying to get students to face forward and not move a muscle while in class. Today, many teachers understand that as long as a student is learning and producing work, it’s okay if they have to stand or squirm around a bit during class.

As far as ignoring behaviors in some students, an educator put it to me this way: Fair doesn’t always mean equal.

[Get This Free Guide: Solving Classroom Behavior Problems]

The reality is that there will always be some students who are going to need more or different approaches to help them achieve the same goals that all students are being asked to achieve. This applies to students who struggle with behavioral challenges due to ADHD and/or other conditions that affect learning.

Children with ADHD are more likely than their neurotypical peers to be on the receiving end of commands, reprimands, criticisms, and negative comments because of ADHD-related behavioral challenges. These experiences add up, causing low self-esteem, academic underachievement, and other functional impairments. This is what makes a positive learning environment especially important for students with challenging behaviors. They need much more praise than probably all the other students in the class combined to counteract all the negatives that are dumped on them. These students don’t need further negativity, and that’s where planned ignoring comes in.

Keeping things positive for children with challenging behaviors — by focusing on the good and ignoring minor behaviors here and there, especially if the behaviors are attention-seeking — will help keep them motivated to continue to produce and succeed in the classroom.

Besides, if you maintain a positive environment for the entire classroom — liberally praising and encouraging all students — then every student is getting their fair share of positivity, which is what matters most.

Planned Ignoring for ADHD Behavior Problems: Next Steps

• Free Teacher Training: The ADHD Learning Series for Educators
• Read: The Good Behavior Game Is a Hit with Students — and Teachers
• Read: “My Student’s Daily Report Card Isn’t Working!”

The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude ADHD Experts webinar titled, “ADHD Understanding and Services in School Settings: An Evolution in Education” [Video Replay & Podcast #461] with Gregory A. Fabiano, which was broadcast on June 28, 2023.

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

Students with ADHD thrive in a positive classroom environment, and peer interactions and relationships play a big role in shaping that learning experience.

Teaching your students to be kind and supportive of their fellow classmates, including their peers with ADHD and learning differences, starts with you, the educator. A positive classroom environment is one where praise and encouragement are liberally doled out to students — and where commands, demands, and reprimands are used sparingly.

[Sign Up for the ADHD Learning Series for Educators]

Constantly correcting or negatively commenting on a student’s challenging ADHD-related behaviors only opens the door for other students to do the same. So be sure to set a tone of collegiality and respect in the classroom. Create an environment where all of your students feel valued and appreciated for their contributions. Saturate your class with positive comments and don’t hold back on praising students for their efforts to collaborate and work well with each other. Say to your students, “I’m so proud of the way that you helped out your friend.”

Teaching Kindness to Students: Next Steps

• Free Download: What Every Teacher Should Know About ADHD
• Read: “Neurodivergent Kids Are My Favorite Students”
• Read: “Students with Learning Differences Need Outspoken Champions”

 The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude webinar titled “ADHD Understanding and Services in School Settings: An Evolution in Education” [Video Replay & Podcast #461] with Gregory A. Fabiano, which was broadcast on June 28, 2023.

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

The Good Behavior Game is one of many classroom behavior interventions — backed by research — that inspires better behavior from students.¹ It’s a simple game that doesn’t cost a single penny to set up, and it increases your ability to teach students in an engaged, disruption-free classroom.

How to Play the Good Behavior Game

To set up the game, start by identifying a few behaviors you’d like for your students, who will be split up into two (or more) teams, to work toward. You can set a goal, for example, of no more than three interruptions while you’re teaching a lesson.

[Get This Free Download: The Daily Report Card for Better Classroom Behavior]

The teams who meet the goal earn a reward at the end of the lesson. Rewards can range from a quick game of freeze dance to free reading or drawing time — anything that motivates your students to want to win.

Communicate the goal and rules of the game to the class, and then write them down for all to see for easy reference. Use a chart to mark and display each team’s progress toward the goal.

Benefits of the Good Behavior Game

Apart from imparting lessons in teamwork and camaraderie, The Good Behavior Game effectively encourages good behavior through the school day. If a team doesn’t win during one lesson, they will have another opportunity to play and win in the next lesson. Another advantage of the game is that it changes the focus of peer attention. Rather than laughing at a fellow student who may be breaking a class rule or otherwise being disruptive, students instead turn their attention to winning the game.

The game improves behavior in the long run. Compared to other first graders, students in classrooms that implemented the Good Behavior Game were rated less shy and aggressive by teachers at the end of the school year.²

[Read: Positive Teaching Strategies to Uplift Students with ADHD]

What About Behavior Games for High School Students?

Do behavior games work for older students? Absolutely. Here is one game that has proven effective for encouraging better behavior in high school students:³ At the beginning of class, set a two-minute countdown timer. If the timer goes off without a single disruptive or off-task behavior from any student, the class earns a point, and the timer is reset for another chance to earn. But if a negative behavior does occur, the timer is reset, and no point is earned. The goal is for the class to arrive at 17 points — or 34 minutes of no disruptions — so that they can win free time at the end of class. Teens are highly motivated to win the game because it cuts a lesson short by about five minutes, and they can use the time to talk with their friends, which is really important to them.

Play the Good Behavior Game with your class — and spread the word so that all students in your school can join in on the fun.

Classroom Behavior Games: Next Steps

• Free Download: How to Solve Behavior Problems Rooted in Executive Function Deficits
• Read: The No-Punishment Guide to Stemming Misbehavior in the Classroom
• Read: Impulse-Control Strategies for Students with ADHD

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Sources

¹ Barrish, H. H., Saunders, M., & Wolf, M. M. (1969). Good behavior game: Effects of individual contingencies for group consequences on disruptive behavior in a classroom. Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2(2), 119-124.

² Dolan LJ, et al. The short-term impact of two classroom-based preventive interventions on aggressive and shy behaviors and poor achievement. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 1993;14(3):317–345.

³ Christ, T. J., & Christ, J. A. (2006). Application of an interdependent group contingency mediated by an automated feedback Device: An intervention across three high school classrooms. School Psychology Review, 35(1), 78–90.

Daily report cards are among the most powerful evidence-based tools that educators have to encourage better behavior in students. A strong report card system has a few key elements that make or break its effectiveness.

1. Well-Defined Goals

Your student’s daily report card should list a few clearly defined target behaviors. The following are some examples of well-defined daily report card goals for students with ADHD:

• Follows class rules with no more than three reminders per class
• Completes assignments within the designated time
• Completes assignments with 80% accuracy
• Complies with teacher requests with no more than three instances of noncompliance per class
• Engages in no more than three teasings per class
• Follows lunch rules (<3 violations)
• Follows recess rules (<2 violations)

Avoid listing vague goals like “I was well-behaved in class today” or “I had a good day today.” The daily report card should be clear so that everyone — educators, parents, and the students — understands what’s expected.

[Read: Behavior Problems at School — a Complete Problem-Solving Guide for Parents]

2. Well-Calibrated Behavioral Goals

You know you have a well-calibrated report card when the student has earned more Yeses than Nos on it at the end of the school day. If the student is getting mostly Nos and failing to meet goals, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Even if the goals that are currently on the report card are well-defined, the point is to set goals that are reasonably attainable for the student now. These goals can become more challenging once the student has demonstrated that they can consistently achieve them.

Bear in mind that, when starting a new behavioral support plan, it’s not uncommon for a student’s behavior to get worse before it gets better. A behavior analyst may be able to identify additional strategies to decrease instances of challenging behaviors.

3. Immediate Feedback

You should praise and compliment your student for demonstrating desired behaviors, but you should also provide immediate feedback — privately — if they break a rule reflected in the report card. If rule-breaking happens, say, “This is your first reminder for following class rules.” This framing works because it keeps students on track. Once a student gets close to the limit, they typically button down and really focus on following the rule.

4. Parent/Caregiver Involvement

Caregiver accountability is by far the most important aspect of the daily report card. Daily report card review will help parents or caregivers notice patterns to their child’s behaviors and intervene quickly with the help of the school if needed.

[Read: How to Team Up with Parents — Tips from Teachers for Teachers]

Caregivers must also implement home-based privileges or consequences tied to their child’s report card performance. The child can earn three minutes of screen time, for example, for every check mark they earned toward the goal behaviors. If screen time matters that much to the student, they will be more focused on meeting daily report card behavior goals throughout the school day. If setting up home-based rewards isn’t feasible, school-based rewards may fill this need.

Behavior Report Card: Next Steps

• Free Download: The Daily Report Card for Better Classroom Behavior
• Read: The No-Punishment Guide to Stemming Misbehavior in the Classroom
• Read: Behavior Problems at School – a Complete Problem-Solving Guide for Parents

The content for this article was derived from the ADDitude ADHD Experts webinar titled, “ADHD Understanding and Services in School Settings: An Evolution in Education” [Video Replay & Podcast #461] with Gregory A. Fabiano, Ph.D., which was broadcast on June 28, 2023.

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This is the plight of many immigrant families in today’s U.S. school system. Because of language barriers, many caregivers fail to connect with educators and often keep quiet at their child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, when input about supports and services is so important. Add to the mix cultural differences and the situation gets worse. In many Latin American countries, a child’s challenges are not attributed to ADHD — the diagnosis isn’t generally accepted — but rather to a lack of clear rules or an absence of punishment. Medication is only used only as a last resort.

Given these challenges, we’ve created a checklist to help educators lead a successful IEP meeting with immigrant Latinx caregivers of students with learning differences. Something to keep in mind: Stigma is pervasive in Spanish-speaking countries. When caregivers express resistance, it is often due to a lack of information or because they feel shame or guilt.

[Sign Up: The ADHD Learning Series for Educators]

Before the IEP Meeting

• Hold an initial, brief parent-teacher conference to prepare the groundwork for the IEP meeting.
• Emphasize to the caregivers that you want to work as a team to help their child succeed, and that you value their input.
• Explain the purpose of an IEP, how the meeting will be structured, and who will participate.
• Inform caregivers of their rights (i.e., a translator, support person) and make sure to allow extra time for interpretation when scheduling the IEP meeting.
• Provide a draft of the IEP in Spanish.

During the IEP Meeting

• Invite parents to share information about their child and the strategies that have worked for them.
• Discuss ways in which the family can help from home, considering their routines, time limitations, and language barriers between generations.
• Explain test results and next steps.
• Provide the contact information of a person that they can call or email with questions.

After the IEP Meeting

Now that you’ve spent time with the family, follow up to keep the connection going and the family engaged. When caregivers and teachers work together, students feel understood, supported, and empowered.

IEP Meetings: Next Steps

• Download: 30 Straightforward Accommodations for Children with ADHD
• Read: How to Better Communicate with Students and Families of Color
• Read: Get Specific and Set Goals: Writing IEPs That Work
• Read: “Can We Request Another IEP Meeting?”

David Lucas “Luke” Smith, M.D., is the executive director and medical director at El Futuro, a nonprofit outpatient mental health clinic in North Carolina. He is board-certified in adult, child, and adolescent psychiatry.  

Tamara Schlez is an ADHD coach and engagement specialist at El Futuro.  

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Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

After about 45 minutes of unconsciousness, followed by another 5 hours where I was unable to recollect anything – I had no short- or long-term memory – I “woke up” in the hospital. By “woke up” I mean I was able to retain enough information to have a conversation that lasted longer than 5 minutes.

After a few days in the hospital, where I answered the same questions over and over (What is your name? What year is it? Who is the president?) I was sent on my way. But during my time in care and even afterward, I kept hearing variations of “You’re fine” and “You’re okay,” which troubled me, because I didn’t feel fine or okay. I struggled to recall anything before the accident. And I don’t just mean the hours or day before, but my whole life prior to the event. When I shared these concerns, my doctor assured me that it’s normal not to remember “the days” before the concussion, and that my memory should come back in a couple of weeks, “but you may not get it all back. You’ll be fine!”

After the incident, I was referred to an optometrist to help clear up my double- and triple-vision. Today, this would have been an obvious sign that something was wrong with my brain, not my eyes. But we didn’t know back then what we know now.

Worse than the memory loss, though, was my loss of impulse and emotional control. It felt like there was someone inside of me controlling – and ruining – everything. Still, I was told “You’re okay” and “It’s fine!” so many times that I stopped questioning what was happening to me, even though I didn’t feel like myself. I spent the rest of my high school years quietly struggling. I forgot how to learn and had no control over my emotions or behaviors – yet I was soon off to college.

[Read: 11 Strategies That Improve Emotional Control at School and Home]

I had not talked to anyone about what I was going through because I was told that I was fine – end of discussion. But once in college, I talked about my experiences with my new best friend. He was the first one to tell me, “Dude, you are not okay.” He told my roommate, who was a neuropsychology major, who then brought me to her psychology professor, who then put me in touch with his friend, a neurologist. He confirmed that my “concussion” was in fact a traumatic brain injury and that I had not received any of the post-injury care that I needed.

I was in denial at first. But being told that I was “not okay” did something to me: It gave me the confidence to finally advocate for myself. Eventually, I began to see a counselor who helped me deal with the shame and self-hatred I had developed due to everything that had happened. She helped me realize that it’s okay to not be okay, and she encouraged me to focus on moving forward and building myself into someone whom I can love and respect.

Today, I’m a teacher and learning specialist for twice-exceptional students — those with brilliant minds who also have conditions that impact learning, emotions, and behavior.

Why do I share this deeply personal story? Because, as a teacher, I think it is a great example of the damage we can do when we tell students who are struggling with big emotions or otherwise that they are “fine” or “okay” when we know – and they know — that they are neither.

[Read: “Did Something Happen at School Today?”]

I know that we mean well, but these words often have the unintended effect of negating a child’s feelings, as was the case for me after my injury. If we continuously tell students that they are okay when they are not, we cause them to question themselves and refrain from seeking help and advocating for themselves.

So how should we respond when a student isn’t doing okay?

What Emotionally Struggling Students Need

1. Acknowledge their feelings. Even when you concretely know that your student is not in danger, real pain, or emotional turmoil, it’s important to validate how they’re feeling. This doesn’t mean that you need to agree with them or even believe that their response is appropriate to the situation. On that note…

2. Remember that feelings are complicated. All young students are not always the best at recognizing their emotions, but it is particularly difficult for neurodivergent students. They may struggle to identify what triggered their emotions, which often makes for implausible explanations that seem attention-seeking. Your student might fear, for example, that they are being chased by a giant worm. Instead of dismissing them, recognize that your student may be struggling to identify and verbalize what’s really going on. Honor this emotion of fear anyway by saying, “That seems really scary” or “That sounds terrifying!”

3. Provide options for calming down. We can’t start to problem-solve in a state of emotional dysregulation. That said – and this should go without saying – do not tell your students to calm down. If they could, they would. Instead, offer them tools and strategies to help them reclaim emotional control.

I have a student who (virtually) storms into my classroom at least once a week. I let him express his feelings, acknowledge that I can see his frustration, and say something like, “I would really like to discuss this with you, but first, can we take a second to remember where we are?” With that, I ask the student to tell me five things he sees, four things he feels, three things he hears, two things he knows he can do, and one thing he is going to do. At this point (and usually after a lot of eye-rolling) we are able to move on to problem-solving.

4. Help students name feelings and look past the surface to identify the real problem. By building their emotional vocabulary, you’re helping students pinpoint how they’re feeling – anything from frustrated and bored to worried and irritable – which will allow them to take control and figure out what’s behind their feelings.

Once your student identifies what caused their feelings, give them options for problem-solving (and how you can play a role), like “mediate conversation between students” (assuming there’s some conflict here), “discuss methods for managing emotions” (e.g., what to do when challenging class material causes frustration), and “talk with parents about student needs” among other choices. Nine times out of ten, students simply want to be heard and have their problems recognized. Giving your students options to identify the type of help they want and need will empower them to seek out appropriate resources the next time a similar situation arises.

As I learned after years of suffering silently, it’s okay to not be okay. This mentality doesn’t mean that we’re encouraging students to accept defeat. In fact, it’s the opposite. When we can admit that we’re struggling – a little or a lot – it puts us on a path toward finding help to make things better. The next time a student isn’t doing okay, acknowledge it. Believe them so they won’t question themselves as they open the door to resiliency and self-advocacy. If we do not provide a truly supportive and safe space for them to express their emotions, we actively hurt their resilience and self-advocacy.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay: Next Steps for Emotional Control

• Free Download: 5 Emotional Control Strategies for Kids with ADHD
• Read: “Stop Trying to Fix Everything!” Scripts for Reflective Listening
• Read: “I Am What I Choose to Become!”

SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.

I obediently rose from my small desk to meet said stranger, who had lots of questions for me as we made our way down the hallway: How old was I? 8. Did I have any brothers or sisters? Yes, three. Which hand did I use to write? I raised my left hand when I meant to raise my right – a nervous mistake.

The stranger and I made our way to a small, windowless room I had never seen before, where other children around my age, unfamiliar to me, were sitting at a large, oddly shaped table. That small room eventually became a regular part of my routine. Why was I there? Because of reading challenges — from word recognition to reading comprehension — uncovered from earlier rounds of testing.

I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. School had already been a challenge for me even before the second grade. Starting in kindergarten, I struggled with seemingly simple tasks — learning the alphabet, tying my shoes, cutting with scissors, and other primary language and motor skills — that left me behind my classmates. Making friends was a challenge, and I was always just a step behind the conversation or action.

Oddly enough, no one discussed this change in my schedule, not my teachers, parents, or the few friends I had. Months after the stranger first appeared, acknowledgement of this change finally came in the form of a piercing, unforgettable comment from my teacher – my tormentor. When I was allowed to rejoin a reading group in my “regular” classroom, my teacher said, “Let’s see how long you last.”

[Read: Reading Strategies That Grow with Your Child]

My reading did improve, although standardized test scores indicated otherwise. Eventually, I stopped receiving reading remediation, but my school experience continued to be bumpy. I struggled to prepare for tests, and even with significant preparation, I would be met with tearful results and frustration from my parents. For some time in middle school, I got so anxious that I would get sick to my stomach on Monday mornings, which landed me in the emergency room; at age 11, I was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer.

Even in areas where I did excel, I wasn’t free from stumbling. I loved physics and understood its theories but would get stuck on memorizing and applying formulas. I had to repeat math, and a college with no math requirement was a top priority when I began applying. The understanding I had formed of myself as a learner — not as quick as the other kids who seemed to “get” school so much more easily than me — seemed at odds with some of the honors classes into which I had been placed.

Still, I survived school with an anxious sense of uncertainty, not ever understanding why it was so difficult for me.

Hidden Strengths

As researcher and social entrepreneur Dr. Todd Rose notes, “We all have jagged profiles; there is no average.” This is certainly true in my case. Much later in my life, during my first neuropsychological evaluation, I learned that I had combined-type ADHD that had been undiagnosed all this time. I exhibited significant struggles with executive functioning, including working memory. My oral reading accuracy was at the 30th percentile, with a “high rate of errors” along with other reading difficulties. And despite believing that I was not good in math, I actually scored above the 90th percentile in this subject.

[Read: The Dyslexia and ADHD Connection]

My profile is, indeed, jagged. My weaknesses, like difficulty with sustained attention, are offset by areas of great strength, like visual-perceptual skills. Of course, given the lack of a diagnosis, it took 30 years for me to uncover whether I was truly less capable or if there was a reason for my struggles.

The Champions Who Kept Me Going

Indeed, I experienced many struggles. But I did meet some champions along the way — select teachers and individuals who believed in my potential and encouraged me. I also found a group of friends with whom I could feel smart because we were all much more interested in learning things outside of school. I found joy working on automobiles and anything mechanical that I could take apart and put back together.

Even in college, which was a difficult transition for me, to say the least, what kept me going when I was one phone call away from dropping out were the people who cared for me, believed in my potential, and challenged me to work toward it. This same motivational factor reemerged several times throughout my life, which I credit for my successes.

A few months after graduating, I drove my younger sibling to middle school — the same one I had attended a decade earlier. We ran into one of my former teachers, and just as she had years earlier, she became a champion in my life that day when she encouraged me to do the unthinkable: Return to middle school. I enlisted as a substitute teacher that same week, fueling a passion to change the way we think about and educate kids.

Today, I am the president of The Dyslexia Foundation, director of the Global Literacy Hub at the Yale Child Study Center, and executive director of The Southport School and The Southport CoLAB, which serves kids who think and learn differently, many of whom have been marginalized or struggled in mainstream academic environments.

People frequently ask me, “What does it take to help struggling kids thrive in school?” I don’t have a singular answer, but I do know this: How children feel about themselves depends heavily on whether they have champions in their lives. These champions can leverage a child’s strengths, improve their self-perception, and motivate them toward positive change. I know this because my own champions helped me change my internal dialogue, little by little.

At my school in Southport, Connecticut, we bet on our students, just like some key people in my life bet on me. We choose to believe in their potential so that they don’t have to find those one or two teachers who believe in them. We don’t allow strangers to arrive at classroom doors and pull students out, as the relationship we build with our students is based on trust. We champion them unconditionally and appreciate them fully – no one is a stranger here.

Supporting Students with Learning Differences: Next Steps

• Free Teacher Training: The ADHD Learning Series for Educators
• Read: How Teachers Can Initiate and Promote Inclusive Education
• Read: “Your Brain Is Amazing!” 5 Things All Neurodivergent Teens Need to Hear

Dr. Benjamin N. Powers is the executive director of The Southport School, an independent day school for cerebrodiverse children in grades 2-8 with language-based learning differences such as dyslexia and attention issues. He is also the founder and executive director of The Southport CoLAB, Director of the Global Literacy Hub at the Yale Child Study Center, a senior scientist with Haskins Laboratories, and president of The Dyslexia Foundation.