Educational Practice

Some students who have special needs associated with ‘Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity’ (ADHD) require educational support from the stage of early childhood education. Direct observation of student behavior, functional analysis of these, the coordination with other education professionals, health and social program allows educational measures tailored to different performances in the school context. 

The aim of this article is to include an innovative experience on this subject, using didactic and organizational resources that may be new and interesting for application in other cases or educational settings. Yet it is worth quoting a key author on the study of ADHD. He is Russell Barkley.
According to him, to decide that a student has ADHD, he or she must demonstrate the following: it appears soon on the development of the child; it distinguishes between these children and those without these characteristics; it is relatively widespread and occurs in different situations, but not all;It affects the child's ability to successfully accomplish what is required for their age; It is relatively persistent over time or development; not only due to social causes or the environment;It is related to irregularities in the operation or development of the brain or in the natural functioning of a skill; it is associated with other biological factors that can affect the operation or development of the brain and genetic factors, injury, toxins, among others.

Most of the experts agree that ADHD refers to problems of a person's ability to control behavior: difficulty sustaining attention, lack of impulse control or inhibition and excessive activity. Barkley (2006), speaks of two additional problems:

- Difficulty on following rules and instructions.

- Excessive variability in their responses to situations.

We have to define three ideas or concepts to understand ADHD as a disorder of skills. These ideas are: inhibition, self-regulation and executive functioning. (Barkley, 2009: 68).

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Schools have sufficient resources to meet demands for specific needs associated with ADHD. It is part of the specific needs of educational support of this type of students, focusing on the positives rather than negatives to meet those needs.

These will range from the most common to the more specific, depending on the features that students present and the asociation with other difficulties (behavior, learning, anxiety, mood).

It is convenient to specify these actions and follow an objective and systematic plan to provide educational responses with inclusiveness preferably for these students from early childhood education. For this reason, the role of parents and teachers can promote the psychoeducational evaluation and intervention. This work is completed with the differential diagnosis of different professionals.

Source: Martínez, M. (2010). Práctica educativa con un alumno con diagnóstico de TDAH en la etapa de educación infantil. Innovación educativa, nº 20, pp. 261-272.