I found this video on You Tube today. I have two comments:
1. The parents observed the child's behavior and showed it to him with the hopes it would help him do better. It did not work. In my model, The Homework Trap, I recommend that parents be observers rather than enforcers. Although it might be helpful to share those observations with the child, it is more important to share those observations with the teacher, and have the teacher make modifications in light of the difficulties involved. For a child with ADHD, it may be possible to contain behaviors during the day with medication, but that can also give the teacher a false impression of what the child can do during the afternoon and evening. Medicating the child after school is not a particularly good solution.
2. The second important point to make is that the child is doing well in high school. Maturation is a significant factor in human development. We make the mistake of thinking that the child must do the work now or he'll do poorly later on. The key is that we must not create so much negativity in the child's life that he turns off to school later on.
I recommend giving copies of the book to the teachers at your child's school. Discount purchases are available through Wyndmoor Press. Single copies can be purchased at Amazon.
Here is an article in Psychology Today that offers good, common advice on ADHD (5 Strategies to Help Your Child Combat ADHD). As with so many articles on ADHD, it skirts the all-important, and often devastating problem of unrelenting homework pressure. Dr. Turner does a good job reviewing what is commonly known and making it available for the general public, but let's take a deeper look at the homework dilemma. Set clear behavioral expectations: One of the most important, and likely to succeed, behavioral expectations is "work on your homework for one half hour, but only one half hour." Write things down: Absolutely. But when does the to-do list get put away for the day? Provide frequent positive attention: Without doubt. One of the problems for homework-trapped children is that no matter how positive you are, you're in a bind if 50% of the work is done, failure is around the corner, and it is really time to call it quits. Talk with your child's teacher: Yes, but from what perspective? The comments in this article talk about what happens in the classroom. Absolutely talk with the teacher about in-class accommodations and defer to that teacher's decisions and judgment about what can be done. But what about talking to the teacher about what happens in your home, your child's need for you to be in charge of your home, and to make the final decision about the homework to be done? Appropriately manage medication: Yes, talk with your child's doctor. Consider the need for medication during the school day. But, also, be careful about the pressure to medicate your child through the afternoon and evening, interrupting appetite and sleep, because decisions are being made, in your home, about what your child must do when he gets home. We need to add some uncommon ideas about homework to the more well-known ideas about helping a child who has ADHD.
In this article, How to Handle Hyperactivity in Kids with ADHD, the author quite accurately notes that children with ADHD are in a bind at school in that they are forced to sit still yet sitting still deprives them of the stimulation they need for them to listen and learn. The following words are taken directly from the article: “[They] can miss much of what is taught simply because their brains are
not as stimulated when they are still,” Olivardia said. (However, as he
said, “Perhaps the current setup of school, sitting still for 6 hours a
day 5 days a week, is the real problem.”)
The article goes on to discuss what a parent should do in the home with the ADHD child, and, for the most part, it suggests that the child be given room to fidget and to move around. It also notes that detrimental effects on the child's ego to be constantly told that he or she must sit still. I like this article. I recommend reading it. I will note that the article does not make direct reference to homework, but the parallels to what I've often said about the homework trap are quite obvious. We place demands on the child to sit still and do the work. The demands go on for long periods of time since the work does not get done so the expectation never ends. Constantly tell the child to "do your homework" is the same as constantly saying "sit still," to the child who can't sit still. It has negative implications for the child's self-esteem, and possible long-term negative consequences for the child's future. And just as making the child sit still does not improve his capacity to learn, making the child do homework does not contribute in any way to his educational needs. Even if research supported homework for the average child (which it generally does not), it is still detrimental for the child with ADHD and, for that matter, for any child who is homework trapped, regardless of the cause (ADHD, auditory processing problems, grapho-motor problems, slow reading, etc.).
I came across this article on time management: Helping ADHD Children Manage Time. I think it has some good points. My one addition and caution is to highlight that a central piece to learning time management is having finite time to manage. In the article, the author talks about helping the child learn to estimate how long tasks will take. But it is also important to provide a clear time limit within which those estimates can be made. Say the child is in third grade and it is reasonable for that child to do 30 minutes of homework a night. What do you do if your estimates come out to 60 minutes? Does the child work for 60 minutes or does the child figure out the most important things to do in the 30 minutes that child has. Parents need to look realistically at what their child can do and not assume that, just because the work was assigned, that work can override other things you want your child to do, or your child's reasonable need to relax and unwind.
The word “homework” is mentioned only once in this entire
article. This is a telling omission since homeworkpolicy is, in part, the driving force behind
this problem. If it were not for homework, and the excessive weight we give it,
the landscape would be different. Children would have an opportunity to blow
off steam after school, eat and sleep better, and be more prepared for the next
school day. Children who are truly afflicted with ADHD would be easier to spot
and treated accordingly. There are numerous studies to show that homework has
limited value. There are cross cultural comparisons that show that children in homework-light
countries generally fare better than children in societies with homework-heavy
policies. The omission of homework as a central piece to this stories parallels
the omission of homework as a central component of teacher education, at both
the college and the continuing education levels.
I have sometimes mentioned that homework reform is
particularly important for children with ADHD. I address it as a particular
issue in my book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents,Students and Teachers, with the recommendation that children with ADHD may need
more time for their assignments at school, but less work for their assignments
at home, i.e. homework.
Constant homework pressure is tantamount to giving the child
ongoing criticisms throughout the course of his educational days. This is true
even when the feedback is given with a smile and under the guise that we are
trying to help the child.
Homework policies that demand that all children complete all
the work, the same work as other children without modification, is essentially
a demand for conformity.
Working harder, is of course, the mantra of teachers, “if he
only tried harder, he would be an A student.”
I understand that teachers may find it difficult to
individually modify every student’s assignments as they try to do their best to
teach the whole group. But, individual modifications can be made through a 504,
and, even without a 504, a policy that redefined homework from an assignment
based to a time based session would go far in resolving this issue.
In today’s papers,
there are three articles worth reading. In the New York Times, Frank Bruni
writes on, Teacher’s on the Defensive and Bronwen Hruska writes on Raising theRitalin Generation. In her Washington Post blog, Valerie Strauss writes on OnObama’s Call to States to Save Teacher’s Jobs. All three articles are
addressing today’s crisis in education from different points of view (note that
the article on Ritalin starts with the fact that the original recommendation
for medication came from the school).
The issues
involved in these three articles are complicated, but the consistent theme is a
relationship between society and its teachers which has gone awry with each
placing blame on the other in some way. Society has its ills and they go beyond
education. We have a nightmare of disparity in educational opportunities that
coincides with huge differences between the rich and the poor. This widespread
unfairness causes parents to compete with each other to get their kids the
schooling they need. When I was a child, there were parents who sent their kids
to parochial schools, for religious reasons, not because they did not believe
that the public schools could teach their children.
We have a massive
drug problem and an incarceration rate that is so high that inner city parents
are desperate to get their children into schools that are not just good, but where
their kids might survive. For them statistics about how charter schools mount
up against public schools are secondary to the hope that their children will be
protected from the violence on the streets.
So what can be
done? It’s complicated and goes beyond any simple solution. But for starters,
we need to diminish the over dependence teachers have placed on homework as a way
to teach kids. Surely, trained teachers are more than capable of teaching
children in the 6 ½ hours they have them in class. They do not need to waste
their time grading assignments, punishing children, conferencing with parents,
and recommending medication all in an effort to get control over things they
don’t really have control of.
I have rarely
heard of parent/teacher conflicts arising out what is actually taught in
school. These conflicts typically develop over what the child is doing in the
home, and whether the parent is doing enough to make sure it gets done. It
becomes the fuel for fire in conflicts between teachers and parents, unnecessary
fuel that diminishes education.
I have read
heartwarming accounts of progressive schools for inner city children, largely
because the principal and the faculty have learned that they can work directly
with the kids without getting overwrought about what happens in the home. It’s
not that these kids don’t have caring and loving parents. Rather, it’s that
their parents are stressed out enough making ends meet, and need to know they
are in charge of their homes and don’t come back from their efforts to support
their children to assignments they cannot modify if they choose. Teachers would
gain greatly if they gave up authority for things that are truly out of their
control. They would be happier. They would be more effective. And they would
end up retaining the ones that are really good. And even the weaker teachers,
the ones that are good enough, would also rise to the top and show that people
can be skilled professionals, even if they are not the mavens of their field,
if they work in environments which gives them the support they need.
Seeking less
control often paradoxically gives a person more control. Teaches can achieve
this, in part, by reducing their expectations about what happens in the home.
There is a new study that is making the news today finding a delay in brain development for
children with ADHD. Although the study is new, the results are not surprising
as there have been other theories and evidence that support this line of thinking.
The implications may be that the ADHD child is capable of learning at his or
her age and grade level, but not capable of complying with the behavioral
demands that go with that age. We medicate these children to get them to comply.
We then demand that they keep complying when they get home. It seems clear to
me that we should not be fighting these kids against their inner natures 24
hours a day. It’s one thing that place demands on them during the day for the
sake of giving them the education they need. It is another thing to keep
pressuring them through the afternoon and night, and make them do more schoolwork
when they get home. If their brains are a few years behind, at least in the
area of behavioral control, then we should let them act and play based on where
they are at in a developmental sense. With little research to support homework
as a policy for all, it should be a standard accommodation in a 504 plan for
children with ADHD that homework assignments be waived or greatly reduced.
For other comments on ADHD, visit these recent postings:
I came across this article reporting on a school district
that got cited for its inappropriate handling of discipline with a student who
has ADHD. The ruling generates varied responses from people with different points
of views. Interestingly, homework is not addressed in the article or the
responses.
I frankly feel sympathetic to the teachers, the school
district, the parent and the child. I think everyone has legitimate concerns
and no one is really wrong. Teachers need to have control in their classrooms. Students
need access to a good education. Children should not be humiliated for
behaviors that are out of their control. Other students need order in the
classes they attend. Undoubtedly, the school district will promulgate policies
and procedures to comply with this report. I truly doubt that anyone will
consider how homework may be the fuel that continues to stoke the fires.
The first and foremost intervention that children with ADHD
need is homework relief. Without it, there is a tendency to continue to
medicate them into the afternoon and evening, disrupting appetite and
interfering with sleep. They lose the capacity to unwind and burn off energy
that’s been pent up trying to keep it together through school during the day.
They lose the respite they need by having a calm home, instead getting
pressured to continue working after they get home. They lose the support they
need from loving parents who are forced into the role of taskmasters. And this
occurs in the absence of any clear, verifiable evidence that homework
contributes to a child’s education.
I’m not saying that teachers cannot assign homework, but children
need boundaries on the homework they do. They need limited penalties for work
which is not done. They need to know that their parents are the final
decision-makers for all matters that take place in their home. And, if they
have ADHD, they need less or homework or possibly no homework at all.
I think the school district will experience a dramatic
reduction in its “behavioral” problems by backing off from relentless demands
that children continue doing schoolwork at home. If they insist on giving homework,
they should at least give parents more authority in the home, and allow children
with ADHD to come to class ready and refreshed even if that means they did not homework
at all.
I
read an article in the Denver Post entitled “Advocate for your child withinschool systems.” The article reports one parent’s experience with a child who
has ADHD and the difficulties she had over her first ten years of education. The
parent then came across a brochure, “My Child Hates School … and I Do, Too.” I don’t
have a copy of that brochure but it appears that this parent finally learned
that while the school was not providing accommodations, her child could have protections
based on this developmental disability.
I
think all parents should have this information, but I also think that it is
critical that we go further and understand what protections help and are
actually needed.
For
the most part, protections come in the form of a 504 or IEP. They can only
consist of provisions and accommodations of which the school is aware.
Considering the 504 plans I’ve reviewed, it appears to me that they mostly
consist of good teaching practices, which should be used for all students, and
a few specific ones for the ADHD child – e.g. extra time, preferential seating,
tape recording, hard copy instructions. I have yet to see a 504 plan that
includes homework relief.
Without
homework relief, the 504 will be highly ineffective for the child with ADHD.
That child may or may not be medicated. Either way, the child will be
struggling to hold it together through the full school day. That child needs
relief, not more work, when he or she gets home. That child does not need extra
medication since it will invariably interfere with appetite and sleep. That
child needs to play, to burn off steam, and to get refueled through a peaceful
home that offers respite and relief.
The
problem with more time is that it is absolutely meaningless as an accommodation
at home. At school, more time is actually redistributed time within a fixed
school day. The child may go to school from 9 to 3. If he or she spends an
extra 15 minutes completing a worksheet or test, that is 15 minutes less of other
things to do. If the student takes the SAT, it is not a problem to stay into
the afternoon to finish a test one Saturday of the year.
But
where does the extra 15 minutes, or ½ hour, or couple of hours come from when
the assignment is sent home? Maybe extra time means no penalty for handing the
assignment in a few days late. But as long as the assignments keep piling up,
there is no true accommodation at all.
My
general formula for homework trapped children involves time bound homework. For
children with ADHD, I strongly recommend an even shorter period of time.
When
you go for your 504, keep this formula in mind. More time at school; less work
at home.
There was a recent study conducted in Iceland indicating
that early treatment of children with ADHD improves educational success. Right
now, medication for ADHD is in vogue. Should we begin medicating our children
at an earlier stage? I don’t have the answers, but I do recommend looking
carefully at a study conducted on Icelandic children and asking the question:
Does this apply to children here in the United States?
According to the book by Baker
and LeTendre, National Differences, Global Similarities: World and the
Future of Schooling. LeTendre, Stanford. University Press, 2005, students
in countries such as Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, which give low amounts
of homework have students who earn higher test scores than countries with high
levels of homework, such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran. The United States is
among the countries that gives a lot of homework. Unfortunately, although I have
seen this reference quoted in many places, I don’t have the original study and
was unable to find a country by country listing of homework policies in which I
could see where Iceland rates (If one of my readers has that information,
please pass that on). But I think it is important, before we draw conclusions
about early treatment of ADHD here in the United States, that we consider that
factor, and also consider whether there are differences in how we treat
children with ADHD here and there, specifically, are Icelandic children getting
an afternoon dose of medication?
The fact is that children with
ADHD appear different in class on medication than they do off medication. Then,
they go home. There, they need time to unwind, to expend energies that have
been controlled throughout the day. If they come home to high amounts of
homework, they will have to do it either medicated or unmedicated. If we
medicate them, we disrupt appetite and sleep, and are likely to take away the
respite and relief they need after a hard day at school, one that may be harder
for them than for an average child. If we don’t medicate them, we set up a
situation where the teacher has an idea about what the child can do at home
that is totally unrealistic given that the teacher observed the child in a
medicated state and is making assumptions about the child’s capability when
unmedicated. Even with the medication, the assumptions may still be unrealistic
because that child, despite a good day at school, simply cannot go on and keep
working into the afternoon and night.
So, researchers, practitioners,
parents, and teachers: Beware. This study may have its value. It could also do
considerable damage if we don’t look at it for its broader implications and how
such treatment interacts with the homework policies and expectations of the
culture in which the study was done, and the culture in which the interventions
will be made.
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