BCS has a full program for all students who have issues associated with ADD/ADHD. Contrary too many stereotypes we have found these students to be well behaved and of generally even dispositions. That said, the predominant issues for such students tend to be in the area of executive function. BCS has developed a daily routine, which addresses all the essential problems that such children (and all children to one degree or another) face on a daily basis. We shall address most of them one by one:
The student is taught in a multisensory fashion to keep focus and to facilitate working memory. Assignments are given in multiple ways and in small classes we make sure that the quiet child is not just daydreaming but making important associative connections with high-level academic materials. Our techniques build fluency of thought abstract thinking and a greater knowledge base. Each day in almost all classes specific college level or college preparatory vocabulary is taught and reviewed. Working memory could be considered the single most important executive function. But they all are important because they are so interdependent. If one fails, it is likely all are compromised.
We teach ALL students how to get started on assignments. But initiation is more that getting started it involves follow through, HOMEWORK, procrastination, breaking the OCD/ANXIETY short circuit, and equally important TIME MANAGEMENT. BCS teaches these organizational and follow through skills on a daily basis. Class notebooks are organized, students are given time lines for long term assignments, and parents are informed of all assignment via our homework web page which teachers use on a daily basis. Homework is structured in such a way that parents can easily keep themselves well informed of what their children are doing. Students are not penalized with the classic, if it is a day late I will take off a letter grade for each day it is late. On the other hand, lateness is not acceptable either.
Paradoxically many ADD/ADHD people both cannot sustain attention and have the ability to hyper focus for long periods of time on subjects that interest them. Sustained attention and the ability to learn to keep focus on relatively boring tasks, however, is key to success in life. We teach students techniques to inhibit distractions. We teach sustained attention by assigning students to extracurricular activities that will keep them busy after school and on weekends. These take advantage of students interests (hence they are willing to focus on them) and simultaneously put them in situations where they must be on task within a group/teaching or mentoring situation. Sustained attention is taught within the classroom each day too. A typical BCS student may be studying theatre or dance or music or science or scouting after school in a structured situation in which they are being held accountable for their progress to someone other than their parents. Such activities inherently teach students to work long hours and to pay attention for sustained periods of time.
This skill again goes to the heart of success in life. Often people with ADD combined with anxiety need a bit of extra help in this area. In fact it is so important we have included it as one of our Student Learning Expectations. All people need to learn how to be flexible in their communication, adjust their style to the environment around them and to think outside the box. And, while many ADD people are known for their extreme creativity, they often have not learned this skill. We work with students vis a vis our mentoring/scouting and other classes to learn how to use different work habits, different communication skills, and to apply them to specific situations. We want our students, and demand that our students struggle in a variety of settings while still at our school where their skills in this area can be honed.
The ability to track and observe our own behavior is a learned skill. At BCS we methodically go about teaching students to observe their own behavior and think about it in relation to what they want to achieve and how others are responding to them. We help students by actually giving them the tools to count/observe their behavior, develop their own life plans and then to monitor them. Parents are enlisted as needed to help students realistically assess what impact they are having on others. Students learn to adjust their behavior to the immediate circumstance to think about their behavior in relation to short and long term goals. In short, students learn to analyze their own behavior.
Many ADD/ADHD students are unhappy and even depressed. They have had many school failures and feel they are inadequate. They feel they have been a disappointment to their parents. Through daily successful learning experiences students quickly lift their own veil of depression. Often, we see such self concepts literally seem to disappear within one or two weeks or beginning our program. The key to high self esteem, for most children is academic success. There is not a substitute. Through rapid academic success students have a new store or energy to tackle the tricky emotional issues associated with growing up. Most such students are able to discontinue anti-depressant medication within weeks of beginning the program.
This truly goes to the heart of ADD/ADHD issues. So much so that we should consider renaming it to DOD which would stand for Development Organizational Disorder. This deficit strikes to the heart of all the goals mentioned above. It is so important that BCS teaches students how to be organized in their world and in their thinking too, on a daily basis. That said, such students DO NOT do not generalize these skills from one situation to another easily, nor do they learn such skills. Hence we think it should be considered a subset of developmental disabilities. Often they do not even understand why such skills are important or why they need to bother. Hence parents feel as if they are banging their heads against the wall, and often become very angry and resentful of the children they love. BCS teaches these skills to all students and we follow the model of:
I do it
We do it
You do it.
Notebooks are organized in EACH class. Assignments are clearly delineated and students learn to unclutter their thinking so they can take initiative and start to learn. This learning process starts the moment they begin BCS. Hence each class always has small academic goals that the most disorganized, but bright child can comprehend. Small successes quickly build to a motivated child who is interested in learning. We expect to see noticeable changes in a few days. But organization skills, the You Do it part, take time to incorporate.
In terms of importance, organization should be at the top of this list. We have placed it on the bottom so it is the last thing you will read and hopefully your retroactive memory will remember it the best.