Honestly, how should I handle this situation?

Question

I teach in the children's ministry at my church on Sundays, and there is a disruptive child in the class. Some teachers who have taught him get frustrative due to his behavior, even though they know that he has ADD. He takes medication. I know that children need to be disciplined and that's not the issue, but how do I create an atmosphere where he's not the bad guy in the class. Alot of the preteens in the class call him "bad." Not cool in my book. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Good question,
Lets start off with your classroom agenda, what are you doing as far as teaching them?
1) you can bore them easily with I speak you listen approach, or
2) you can ask for Interaction and get them involved, which should get their attention, and hopefuly get the disruptive one into the program to particpate, rather than having the individual disrupt the class.
Thats a hard one to call, but honestly add/adhd/ohd even with meds still requires you interact with the child in a soft tone, I have a 14 yr. old son with adhd, and its pretty intense, since I and his mother are divorced, she has him on meds, point is, she thinks putting him on meds "Solves the problem", thats only half of it, when he over reacts to a situation, she over reacts and it doesnt help any. For example when he spills a drink, his mother Explodes, blah blah blah you are this, you are that... When he spills adrink over at my house I say "oops" and go forth to clean it, he immediatly starts shaking as though Im going to beat him, or yell at him, only recently does he understand that im not GOING to over react to his accident, unlike his mother, so since then he has slowed down. and now hes coming along even though he explodes with over reaction to allot of stuff going on in his Life, his School especialy.
From Experiance to get my son to understand and Learn, its my approach to him, if I am loud and abusive it will make him feel bad, or angry and he will just act worse, all I can tell you is, "play it by ear", when somthing happens that this individual decides to be disruptive, you intercept his actions with decisive calm not by being Frustrated but by being calm and collective.
I don't know if you can understand that, but showing your frustration only agrivates a child with adhd even more.
Kids with ADHD or ADD have a higher reactionary state of mind than kids without. Sorry for the long answer but I feel its neccessary to be decisive to answer this ffrom experiance, and being such a difficult topic/subject its just not easy to say either way, I too am ADHD, but I don't take meds I disipline my mind and emoitions most of the time and Do extreamly well. I have researched this topic quit a bit to say the leaste, its a very powerful influence in my life and with my son imperitive that he learns as I do. "taking it one day at a time calm and easy.
Good Luck!

Answer 2

A sensitive issue to say the least but one that has surfaced in many churches with the en crease in diagnosis of ADD, etc. We actually had to go to the family and sit down and very caringly discuss the issue. They are obviously very open and understand what their child has tendencies to do. If medication is used sometimes it can be administered prior to the service or class to provide that extra coverage during those time frames. If however nothing can be done to calm and suppress those disruptive antics the child at times must be returned to the parents during the class time so the other children can be fed. Another issue that may help is if your church has the means and people a person/teacher may have to handle the child in a one on one setting during class time then bring the child back together to play or interact after class. Your creativity will be challenged as you`ve all ready seen. Good luck but dont`t give up. Much prayer will availeth much.

Answer 3

Have you involved the parents in this problem?

I believe ADD in an extremely over diagnosed problem. I believe many of the kids simply needed a better understanding of action/consequence when they were toddlers.

Try placing him front and center in class.
Since this is a church setting, try occupying his time with one on one contact, with a lot of hand holding and prayer time.

Sounds like forced obedience, and it takes a strong person to enforce it. But that's the problem with a lot of "out of control" kids. The parents don't want to make the effort to enforce the discipline because they have other priorities, don't have the time, don't want to be the bad guy, have other plans for the night.....

Kids like this, I think, play into the "I have a complex, so gimme what I want or I'll start up" syndrome. Remove the issue. Make them play your game, your way.

Who's in charge here?

Answer 4

I taught a lot of these children in vacation bible school. I found out that if I had something to keep their hands and minds busy while I tried to teach that they honestly listened better. If I were teaching on the coat of many colors, they would make modeling clay coat of many colors.

I asked them to do their best, and then take the project home and teach their parents about the lesson today. It worked very well. Good Luck

Answer 5

Talk with his parents and explain the problem, which you probably already have. Also, ADD afflicted youngsters do need a more special class or teacher. If you weren't trained for it then talk to your supervisor. You cannot withold the education of the other students just because of him. Looks to me he needs 1 on 1 teaching, maybe by a teacher so trained.

Answer 6

Give him reasons to move, also you need to make sure he understands you fully. Look at him, face to face, and say, "Joe, you need to do this now, please"
Children with ADHD are not good with choices - they over complicate things. They also have a hard time with instruction that has multitudes of things to do. Such as 'Joe, go get the book, bring it to me, and read this' That's hard.
Walk around the class, tap on the table in front of him to remind him where his attention needs to be.
Above all, praise him when he does well.

Answer 7

In my experience, kids will begin to behave the way they think others see them. If everyone sees this kid as "bad" he'll be bad because that is what is expected of him. If all of a sudden someone starts seeing him as good, he'll pick up on that and start seeing himself that way.

You can try to counteract this situtaion by using positive methods with him. Catch him doing something good! Just one little thing, like if another student drops their pencil and he picks it up for them, say "Thank you *kid's name* that was really nice of you!" I've seen some of the most annoying, difficult kids turned around this way.

When you give kids praise and thanks and attention for being good, they want more of that. A lot of bad behavior from kids is just because they've realised, when they behave well, they just get ignored, but when they behave poorly they get lots of attention from everyone.

You only see the kid once a week, so it make take him a little while to realise that you're changing your view of him, that you now see him as a good kid who sometimes makes mistakes instead of a bad kid who will always be bad.

I highly recommend the book 'How to Talk to Kids can Learn'--look it up on Amazon. It's very easy and quick to read and contains a lot of great info on how to talk to kids in learning and school situations so that they want to behave and do well.

Answer 8

teach a lesson about jesus' acceptance of different people like tax collectors and lepers and such.... and lead by example, be accepting of the child and gently request that he stop certain unruly behaviours

Answer 9

I'm sorry you're not going to like my answer .I don't beleive in ADD .I think it's an excuse for bad parenting .My motto is "There is no such thing as bad kids, only bad parents"

Answer 10

Try having him participate in the lessons.