Classroom Interventions Ideas For Children With ADD and Learning Disabilities

Here’s a site with many ideas on different interventions for children with Attention Deficit Disorder and learning disabilities from the Child Development Institute, they have a large website, looks like it’s worth poking around.

Here’s a list of their ideas for children with Attention Deficit Disorder in the Classroom

1. Pause and create suspense by looking around before asking questions.
2. Randomly pick reciters so the children cannot time their attention.
3. Signal that someone is going to have to answer a question about what is being said.
4. Use the child’s name in a question or in the material being covered.
5. Ask a simple question (not even related to the topic at hand) to a child whose attention is beginning to wander.
6. Develop a private running joke between you and the child that can be invoked to re-involve you with the child.
7. Stand close to an inattentive child and touch him or her on the shoulder as you are teaching.
8. Walk around the classroom as the lesson is progressing and tap the place in the child’s book that is currently being read or discussed.
9. Decrease the length of assignments or lessons.
10. Alternate physical and mental activities.
11. Increase the novelty of lessons by using films, tapes, flash cards, or small group work or by having a child call on others.
12. Incorporate the children’s interests into a lesson plan.
13. Structure in some guided daydreaming time.
14. Give simple, concrete instructions, once.
15. Investigate the use of simple mechanical devices that indicate attention versus inattention.
16. Teach children self monitoring strategies.
17. Use a soft voice to give direction.
18. Employ peers or older students or volunteer parents as tutors.

Here are the some of the other sections on their page

Strategies for Cognitively Impulsive Children
Suggested Classroom Accommodations for Specific Behaviors
Books and Materials For Helping Kids & Teens With ADHD
Books and Materials For Helping Kids & Teens With LD

I have a Teaching Students with Attention Deficit Disorder section on my ADD Resource Website with links to 34 articles and ebooks on the topic. Here are the main pages

Accommodations for ADHD Students
Overviews of ADHD in Education
Educational Guides for Teachers of ADHD Children
Other Articles for Teachers
ADHD Children in School. Parent Resources