Quick Guide for Working with Students with…
Attention Deficit Disorder

Characteristics of the Condition
	Motor activity: 	
◦	Excessive motor activity (e.g., leg bouncing, finger or pencil tapping).
◦	Restlessness; difficulty remaining seated, inclination to pace
◦	Difficulty sitting down and getting started on independent work
	Impulsivity:	
◦	Interrupting others when talking
◦	Talking a lot, but seeming to talk in circles
◦	Inclination to move quickly from task to task
◦	apparent “carelessness” in work habits 
◦	Impatience with solutions that are not “quick fixes”	
	Inattentiveness:	
◦	Difficulty sustaining concentration on a task (though sometimes hyper-focusing).
◦	Appearing not to be listening when spoken to, as mind wanders.
◦	Overt inattention (e.g., staring out the window during class or study session)
◦	Failure to maintain eye contact during conversation, or offering replies tangential to subject
	Organization/Time Management:	
◦	Difficulty meeting deadlines, keeping appointments 
◦	Losing materials, equipment, other possessions
◦	Misunderstanding assignments, requirements, expectations despite instructions
◦	Trouble making decisions, sticking with plans

Impact on Classroom Performance
◦	Arriving late to class; missing appointments, …
◦	Misunderstanding assignments, instructions, test questions…
◦	Assignments are turned in late or not at all
◦	Difficulty taking useful notes in class
◦	RE writing:  
­	Illegible or highly variable handwriting
­	Sentence fragments, poor sentence structure, run-on sentences, spelling errors
­	Simple sentence structure, OR, rambling, convoluted, ungrammatical multi-clausal structures
­	Ambiguous or obscure pronoun reference  
­	Words missing from a sentence (which the student may have trouble detecting)
­	Inconsistency of  tense; more rarely, errors in number, case agreement
­	Lack of clear thesis statement; content disorganization; unexpected shifts and digressions 
­	Absence of coherent argument or expository structure (e.g., no stated conclusion)
­	Anomalous quantities of writing in either direction: i.e., large amounts of linear, disorganized and repetitive writing (“tunnel writing”) or meager production, especially given the knowledge the student can articulate

Interaction with Student
◦	Suggest organization and planning strategies for study, reading and writing projects
◦	Suggest reading strategies that aim at active, purposeful information gathering
◦	Provide coaching on pre-writing activities that help structure information
◦	Suggest assisted proof-reading of work: e.g., computer or another person reads passages exactly as written; this allows the student to hear and potentially identify errors that may be not be detected in silent proof-reading.
◦	Provide suggestions for organization and time management, then follow up to see if they are being used.