need help with students learning disability?

Question

I have a first grader in one of my classes that is an "at risk" student. He is extremly behind the rest of the class and can barely retain any information. He gets fustrated and often asks why he cant remember something after he has studied all week for it. The part that stumbs me is that he often zones out in the middle of class or while you are working individually with him. He will space out and no matter what you say, touch or yell he stays in his zone and has no recognition to what happened. I was working with him yesterday and he zoned out. When he came back to about three minutes later i asked what happened and he told me he had a dream. He eyes stay open, wide open and regardless to his surrounding he will space out. Any ideas to what this might be. His parents took him to the doc and they said adhd....and i disagree because he displays no signs. If anyone has any ideas please let me know....Thanks!

Answer 1

First of all, this is beyond the scope of what a classroom teacher should deal with. You'll need to enlist the help of your principal, school nurse, and school psychologist on Monday. (I'm assuming you're at a public school.) First of all, the principal and school nurse. The symptoms you describe could be simple daydreaming, but they could also be a kind of seizure. Get a plan in place for how to deal with it the next time it happens. You want someone else to observe this.

Let's assume that the child is drifting. If the child's parents took him to the doctor, you should have received a Connors survey (or some other scale) to fill out to show what is happening at school. There can be an attention deficit without accompanying hyperactivity. (This would just be ADD, not ADHD) .

As far as this child having trouble with remembering information...memory is a complex thing. First there is the perceptual register, which filters out irrelevant details and allows the child to focus. Then there is working memory, which is like the work table in the brain. Some children have a limited working memory. Most adults can hold seven items in their working memory...some children can only hold two. This will have a big impact on their learning! As if this isn't bad enough, once information is in the working memory, it needs to be integrated into long-term memory. This can be another trouble spot and can lead to significant learning problems. Find out more about central processing disorders to see if suggested strategies help your student. Talk to the school psychologist about referral for special ed testing.

In short--talk to the school psychologist about referral for special education testing. Get a plan in place with your school nurse to deal with these kind of scary episodes. Keep up the communication with the boy's parents, and keep researching what could be going on. In the meantime, read "How the Brain Learns" by David Sousa for some immediate help in dealing with this child. Good luck!

Answer 2

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