What is ADHD?
What does ADHD stand for?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
In class, when the teacher is teaching something that is boring, how might this affect someone with ADHD?
Can't stay focused
Daydream
Fidget
True or False:
It can be hard for someone with ADHD to listen to and interested in what their friends or loved ones are saying.
True
With ADHD, you often have a lot on your mind. Sometimes it might be a challenge to sit and listen to someone else without interrupting and saying something that comes into your mind.
True or False:
Many people with ADHD have trouble managing their emotions.
True:
People with ADHD often feel emotions more intensely and take longer to recover from them. Becoming easily bored, angry, upset, or overly frustrated is often a challenge for people with ADHD. This can happen when things don't go your way, something is difficult or hard to do, you have too many things to do all at one time, or you feel left out.
How many pounds of food can a tiger eat in one single meal?
up to 40lbs!!
What are three areas of challenge for individuals with ADHD?
Impulsivity
Inattention
Hyperactivity
What can make it difficult for someone with ADHD to have motivation to complete school work?
Not interesting-boring material
Fear of failure-being embarrassed, feeling worse about oneself
Not understanding the directions
Past experiences with little success when trying hard
Difficulty planning/organizing the tasks to get the work done
Name 3 ways someone with ADHD may act impulsively that can affect the friend or family member they are with.
*Bonus: Describe how that behavior may impact the friend or family member.
Get upset quickly-trouble keeping your cool
Interrupting
Blurting out things that might hurt their feelings or that you promised to keep private
Making commitments before thinking it through
Have trouble waiting/taking turns
True or False?
Rejection is especially hard for people with ADHD.
True:
People with ADHD often have intense pain when they experience rejection and these feelings are often bigger and last longer than someone who does not have ADHD.
This is called Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria.
What superhero uses a shield to fight off the villans?
Captain America
List at least 2 common behaviors for someone who struggles with impulsivity?
Interrupting others
Acting without thinking first
Trouble waiting for his/her turn
Not thinking about consequences of choices
Blurt things out
What are at least 2 common distractions in a classroom or at home that can make it difficult to complete class/home work?
Friends
Phone
TV/Video games
Sounds outside or inside classroom
Name at least 2 reasons why it is harder for someone with ADHD to keep friends.
1. People with ADHD often struggle with emotion regulation which can be hard for friends to understand.
2. Sometimes people with ADHD don't follow the normal social rules such as taking turns, letting other people talk, paying attention to other people, not touching others without asking, respecting other's personal space.
3. Following directions can be hard for some people with ADHD.
4. Being flexible and open to new ideas is sometimes a challenge for people with ADHD.
Name 2 ways ADHD can bring down a person's self-esteem.
1. ADHD brings more challenges for people which can lead to beliefs that they are not as "good at things, smart, popular, etc." as others.
2. Kids and teens often have to be reminded or corrected more often than neurotypical kids and teens which can lead to negative beliefs about themselves.
3. Some kids and teens with ADHD get "in trouble" more often or have more setbacks than their friends or siblings that don't have ADHD. When this happens frequently they can begin to believe that they are "bad" or "not good enough."
4. When kids or teens do poorly on tests, projects, activities, or sports they can view it as a failure. If that happens often they can view themselves as a failure.
Ground Beef
List at least 2 ways in which someone with ADHD may be inattentive.
Daydreaming
Forgetfulness/leave things don't bring things home
Take longer to understand directions
Struggle to complete tasks/assignments
Become bored quickly
Difficulty staying focused, especially on something that doesn't interest you
When someone with ADHD has trouble staying focused and paying attention in class, how does that affect their learning?
Miss instructions from the teacher so don't know how to do the work.
Trouble remembering presented material so they don't understand what to do.
Have trouble completing work independently because of what they have missed/don't understand.
True or False:
Remembering things is a challenge for some people with ADHD that can impact relationships and friendships.
True
You might find you accidentally forget plans you have made with friends, their birthdays, or forget to do things you promised to do which can lead friends and loved ones to feel disappointed or frustrated.
Name at least 2 reasons why kids and teens with ADHD often "give up" when they feel stuck.
1. Kids and teens might give up when things are challenging because they have struggled to be successful in the past and have developed the belief that they "aren't going to do well anyway."
2. ADHD can make it difficult to get started and/or finish tasks so it feels easier to just "not even try."
3. Kids and teens can feel easily overwhelmed by all the different parts of a project or task and have trouble figuring out how to even get started.
4. Kids and teens with ADHD often have difficulty asking for help. This is may come from feelings of shame and embarrassment due to difficulties with paying attention, focusing and understanding or being corrected frequently.
How do you get a squirrel's attention?
act like a nut
List at least 2 ways someone with ADHD may be hyperactive.
Move around a lot
Fidget/shake leg, pick fingernails/cuticles, play with things
Trouble staying seated/move around a lot in the seat
Moving constantly/restless
Talk a lot
How does ADHD make it harder for a student to complete long-term assignments/projects?
Requires organizing, tracking of material and information
Planning steps to take to complete the project
Managing time, abide by a schedule
Task initation
True or False:
The "BIG" feelings that come with ADHD are only felt/experienced by the person who has ADHD.
False:
Not only might people with ADHD have trouble managing emotions, but they might also have big emotional outbursts. These are impulsive emotional reactions that happen without thinking through the problem or the consequences, and can damage relationships or cause tension.
How does the ADHD symptom of "hyper-focusing" impact a person's emotions?
People with ADHD often have a pattern of hyperfocusing/giving a lot of attention to negative thoughts about situations, their negative beliefs about themselves and/or other's mistaken judgments of them which leads to increased feelings of anxiety, shame, embarrassment, disappointment, anger, and overwhelm. So the more their brain makes them focus on the negative thought the bigger the negative emotion tied to the thought gets.
What sea creature looks like slime?
A blob fish