ADD and Reading
Finding the Right Reading and Writing Curriculum for Your ADD/ADHD Learner
My son Aaron is an excellent story-teller with a vivid imagination, but his brain is FULL of random details and he often finds it hard to hone in on one topic. In addition to this, putting pencil and paper in front of him always left him daydreaming into space, and spending hours to get out 2 sentences. Reading and writing can be stumbling blocks for the student whose mind is constantly struggling to hold onto and organize thoughts. Finding the right reading and writing curriculum for your ADD or ADHD learner will help your child master reading and writing.
Many students suffering from an ADD or ADHD disorder have trouble with reading and writing. Writing is difficult because their active brains have trouble organizing thoughts into a cohesive story. Reading is difficult because it takes a level of concentration that is not easy for a student who suffers from attention deficit to obtain. This is because these learners are easily distracted by even the most minute noises and movements, which constantly break their reading concentration.
Parents who are homeschooling are able to offer their children an advantage by making the student's learning environment quiet and undisturbed. Even so, homeschooling a child with special needs is both rewarding and challenging. You'll find that homeschooling your learner requires that you think outside of the box. For instance, when it came to teaching Aaron to write, I had to completely remove the pencil and paper from the process. The object for us was to teach him HOW to develop and build a quality story, and that didn’t necessarily involve a need to “write” it down.
The advantages to teaching your ADD/ADHD learner at home are numerous. No one will be as proactive about your child's education as you will. You will be able to set up a quiet learning environment, whereas a classroom setting will always have little distractions that prove daunting. Simple actions in a classroom such as a piece of paper rustling, a book bag unzipping, or a pencil sharpening can't be helped and they can be extremely difficult for the ADD/ADHD learner to work through. These students also do better when they have one person who can be right there to help when they need it. A teacher, who has 20-30 students in her classroom, isn't able to devote the time and attention that your student needs.
However, with the advantages come disadvantages. It can be challenging when homeschooling to separate the school life from the home life. The last thing you want is for your home to turn into a battle ground. You can avoid this trap by having a designated schooling area and leaving the school work and teacher aspect in that room. In the rest of the home, you need to be mom or dad to your child, not teacher. Remember, as frustrated as you get with your child, your child is just as frustrated with the learning process. It takes an immense amount of effort for a child who is challenged with attention deficit to concentrate. This is why finding a curriculum that helps your child make connections in ways that he will remember is so important for his success.
After three years of trial and error, I have found that Zoophonics (www.zoophonics.com) is a great curriculum for my son. The lessons are well organized and easy to break up into shorter lessons. The reading and writing are integrated, worksheets are helpful, and each lesson is interactive using manipulatives such as flash cards, magnets, grid maps, and physical games. Finally, lessons are done with the instructor, which helps keep the student on task.
A second curriculum that has become a valuable writing resource for us is Games for Writing, written by Peggy Kaye. Using fun, interactive games, this book brings storytelling to life. It also helps the student focus his or her thoughts before putting it on paper, which is ideal for the ADD/ADHD learner.
I have found this to be an excellent “center” activity allowing me to reinforce the skills that are being learned. The games are challenging enough to jog his brain, but add the emphasis of fun. Aaron is an excellent story teller with a vivid imagination but his brain is FULL of random details and he often finds it hard to hone in on one topic. In addition to this, putting pencil and paper in front of him always left him daydreaming into space, and spending hours to get out two sentences. It was a huge challenge to improve his writing skills because of this.
During our first year of homeschooling I picked up right away on his resistance to sit with a pencil in his hands. We decided to remove pencil and paper and really focus on playing games in the book that stimulate the imagination and channel his thoughts into one topic. He really responded to this approach and started telling his stories again. It wasn’t long before his stories really seemed to flow too. When we moved into having him write them down we found those stories simply disappeared. Our solution? A digital recorder! Now he can tell his stories, learn to develop them in an orderly fashion and put out a good, grade-level paper. He no longer dreaded the task of writing and started really sharing more stories.
As a parent of a home-schooled ADD/ADHD learner, you have the unique privilege of helping your child succeed in school. Whether you have chosen to home-school because of this diagnosis, or if you've always known this is how you'd educate your children, you will need support. Don't be afraid to let your child participate in co-ops and take full advantage of field trips. Haunt chat boards and get to know other parents who are in the same situation. You'll find that the wisdom and support of parents, who have traveled your road, will make the path much easier. Even if you don't feel that you're creative or able to come up with ways to get past your current struggles, you'll find that the ideas of other homeschooling moms and dads will be all the creativity you need for both you and your child to succeed at homeschooling.
About the Author
Mikki Hogan, publisher of UniqueParenting.com, is a homeschooling mom of her four youngest children. They live in a quiet neighborhood of Southern CA where she is able to devote the required attention to each of her students, especially her son Aaron – diagnosed with ADD (and other learning disorders) in 2005.