Literature Analysis

Literature Analysis

Research

ADD and ADHD are conditions that need immediate and extra attention. The learners with these conditions require their teachers to pay more attention to them to ensure that their academic progress is guaranteed. There are several reasons why they need immediate attention from the teachers, which are the problems that come with the ADD and the ADHD condition. Learners with these conditions have a problem staying focused in class. It can be considered normal for children to forget doing their homework, act without consciousness, have daydreams during class, or get fidgety at the dinner table (Sprague-McRae, & Rosenblum 2013). However, some conditions cannot be considered normal among learners, which include hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention.

These conditions make it difficult for children to inhibit their spontaneous responses, which may involve all the activities that they carry out during the day, which may range from movement to attentiveness and speech. These conditions typically begin in early childhood and mainly before the children reach the age of seven, which makes it difficult for them to adapt to their immediate environment and do normal things like everyone else (Black 2010). In most cases, these children are never understood by the community around the school due to their inability to act normal. They are hence labeled trouble makers or sometimes criticized as lazy and undisciplined (Meyers & Bagnall 2015).

Many people have the notion that learners suffering from the ADD condition are kids who are out-of-control and are always in constant motion. They think that children with this condition disrupt everything around them. However, the reality of the matter is that it is more complicated. Some children with these conditions may be hyperactive while others sit down quietly with their minds far away. Some even put too much focus on a task that they have trouble shifting their attention to something else. Others are only mildly inattentive, but overly impulsive.

Most of the people cannot be able to differentiate between children with these conditions and normal kid behavior since they are similar. In schools, this becomes a very significant problem as everyone recognizes them as deviant learners (Healy 2011). Teachers who are not aware of these conditions always have a negative attitude towards them, which makes it even more difficult. What they need is to be monitored from time to time to ensure that they are on par with the other learners (Sobol 2017). In class, they might stare at the teachers, but they are mentally not in class. In some circumstances, they might refuse to answer questions in class, making it difficult for them to adapt to the rest of the class. They are often labeled as weirdos, which discourages them from trying to fit into the school system.

The most significant problem that the learners with the ADD and ADHD conditions face while in school is that they are not recognized by the system. No one seems to know that such learners exist because of the picture that is formed in the teachers’ minds about learners with such conditions (Sajadi & Khan 2011). However, their situation gets worse when they find themselves in schools with too many students. It becomes more difficult to notice them and give them the attention that they require. They need to be followed up by the teachers to keep them on par with the other leaners. In such big schools, teachers typically have a lot of leaners to handle that they do not get the time to follow-up on the activities carried out by the students and the way they conduct themselves in and outside class (O’Regan 2014).

In class, learners with these conditions need to be attended to more than the rest of the other learners. Teachers are typically taught how to identify these children from the rest of the group and help them move with the other students. The problem comes in when the conditions of teaching are poor, especially when the ration of teachers to students is relatively high (Hariparsad 2010). It becomes complicated to spot them in huge classes. Apart from that, the teachers are, in most circumstances, too busy preparing to teach. This means that they do not have the time to attend to the needs of the learners. Learners with this condition cannot even approach their teachers for personal tutoring due to the scarcity of teachers. Some institutions have less than ten teachers, each handling around a hundred students. Many of these learners with these conditions, due to stigma, do not try at all to fit into the environment and therefore end up staying by themselves in silence and shift their minds far away from the classroom system.

Many children with ADD and ADHD show early signs before they even get to school. However, it is in school that they are most affected since they have trouble meeting the expectation for kids in their grades. It’s also essential, when considering a child’s behavior, to compare it to other children the same age, not to the range of kids in his class or grade (Al-Fadhli, & Singh 2010). Within any given grade, kids’ ages can differ by almost a year, and a year can make a big difference in a child’s ability to self-regulate. When children exhibit behaviors that we associate with ADHD, it’s essential to keep in mind that they could be caused by other underlying factors. An inattentive child could be distracted by chronic anxiety, by a worrisome or painful situation at home, or because she’s being bullied in the playground (Miller 2016). These are all things a child might be embarrassed by and go to some lengths to keep secret. Another thing children often hide is undiagnosed learning disorders. If a child is fidgeting when she’s supposed to be reading, it may be that dyslexia is causing her great frustration. And if she bolts from her chair, it could be because she is ashamed that she doesn’t seem to be able to do what the other kids can do, and intent on covering that fact up (Smith, Robinson & Segal 2020).

Causative Analysis

The major problem that is causing the emerging problem in the elementary schools is misinformation. The teachers have poor methods of identification of learners with ADD and ADHD conditions because they assume that those learners with those conditions are just normal learners with deviant behavior. Some of the teachers even form negative attitudes toward these leaners. This is because of the pictures that come to the minds of the teacher when they hear about ADD and ADHD conditions is worse than what the real conditions look like. This becomes a big problem for learners with these conditions since they need extra attention from the teachers and their peers to keep up with them. This leads most of them to drop out of school, especially in areas where parents are not interested in their children’s education life.

Another thing is that the learners usually are bullied and discriminated by their peers since they cannot be able to keep up with them. They are labeled names that represent pathetic people in society to show them that they are not part of society. This type of treatment is what drives most of them to drop out of school. All these activities happen because no one has the information that the children are undergoing certain conditions. If they had the information, they might have changed their hostile behavior towards them, in which case, they would have embraced them back into society.

The teachers to student ratio in some of the elementary schools are worse than the idea that everyone has. The population of the teachers is deficient that in some schools, the teachers are in charge of over one hundred learners in elementary school. This means that they are extremely busy to attend to the needs of the learners with the ADD and ADHD conditions, let alone notice them around (O’Regan 2014). They become unapproachable due to their attention being focused on so many learners at the same time. This leaves the learners with one condition left to keep silent and hide out from the rest of the population of learners or even drop out of school since they cannot be at par with the other learners in their classes.

School plays a significant role in embracing the learners with these conditions or not notice them at all. Elementary schools have come to neglect some of the essential things in their education system, which are the learners with such conditions. Part of the reason why the elementary schools are brought up is to identify the learners with such conditions and help them to get on par with the other learners. However, schools are too busy taking care of the teaching and learning schedule of all the learners that they neglect such learners which is part of the reasons why learners with ADD and ADHD face a lot of obstacles in their school environments and decide to either drop out of school or sit silent and hide from the rest of the learners.

Solutions

A high student to teacher ratio affects knowledge absorption and retention among students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) in the Mississippi Delta needing intervention.

This has become a problem for elementary learners who need immediate attention. There are three primary solutions to solve this problem. The first solution is to increase the number of teachers in elementary schools to lower the teacher to learner ration. Lowering the ration of the teachers to learners will increase the attentiveness of the teachers in discovering the learners with such conditions. Teachers will not be too busy taking care of so many learners but rather a few. If this happens, it will be easier to identify the leaners with such conditions and give them as much attention as they need to keep them at par with the other learners. Apart from that, the teachers will be more approachable from the angle of the learners, which will allow them to interact with their tutors hence feeling as if they are part of the elementary school society.

The second solution to this problem is for parents to inform the teachers of the learners’ condition when they are brought to the elementary schools for the first time. Most of the cases of conditions ADD and ADHD are discovered at a very young age before the children even join the elementary school. This is what the parents need to note in their children and inform the administration of the conditions. It is not only the responsibility of the schools to find out these conditions by themselves but rather both parents and teachers too. This will help the teacher know in advance of the conditions existing in the children in which they will take their time and give these learners the attention they require. It will also help to prevent circumstances that may discourage such learners, such as forming a negative attitude towards the learners, not knowing of the conditions they have, and the attention they need.

Schools can also introduce an anti-bullying concept in elementary schools, even though this will not be very effective. The schools should encourage a free-from bullying policy where if any learner is found bullying, he will face certain punishment, which will discourage others from bullying. Apart from that, encouraging the learners to understand and tolerate each other is one of the crucial things that the schools need to introduce. This will help the learners with ADD and ADHD conditions to fit into the school environment and feel free to interact with the other learners and teachers.

The implementation of these solutions comes at a cost. For example, the state government needs to employ more teachers in elementary schools to reduce the ration of a teacher to a student. This is to make it easier for learners with ADD and ADHD conditions to interact more with their teachers and give them the attention that they require. This will cost the state government more resources, even though it will help to reduce the rate of school dropouts among the learners with these conditions. It will also help them not to hide out among everyone else and seek the help they require. However, other solutions, such as introducing an anti-bullying policy in the elementary school, will also help the learners with these conditions to fit keep at par with the other learners. Learning in an environment where they are not rejected is all they require. If they are accepted by the other learners, they will not be discriminated against or labeled names but instead embraced, and given the attention they need, their experiences in schools might change, and they might just be able to get at par with the other learners.

The most feasible solution to be implemented in the urban community in the Mississippi Delta elementary schools is lowering the teacher to student ratio by increasing the number of teachers from the current number. This is the most feasible and effective strategy that can help children with the condition to get full attention from the teachers that they require. The learners need attention, and if the teachers are handling more than enough learners at the same time, the attention that is given to the learners with such conditions might reduce. This effect might be seen in the performance of the learners as they have poor concentration in the class, and they might be discouraged from schooling. Since in the community, the parents are not very much interested in their children’s education life, they might decide to drop out of school becomes a problem in the area. For this not to happen, there is the need for the employment of more teachers into the elementary school to reduce the ration between the teachers and the learners.

Some of the solutions that will be implemented include:

• Introducing an anti-bullying policy in the school to ensure that the learners with the ADD and ADHD conditions to have a friendly environment around them.
• Parents who know of their children’s conditions should inform the school administration of these conditions to ensure that more attention is given to the learners with ADD and ADHD.
• Teachers should improve the attention they have on the learners and look at them from an individual perspective. This will ensure that they spot the students with the conditions and help them become get at par with their fellow learners.

In conclusion, a more qualitative and quantitative analysis should be conducted concerning the state of the elementary schools. This is to help them determine whether there are schools with learners who have ADD and ADHD conditions that are not known to the schools. This will also help the schools to prepare adequately for a future where the needs of learners with these conditions are met.  More attention will also be given to the learners with the conditions, and the school will embrace them with their conditions and help them get at par with their fellow learners.

References

Sprague-McRae, J. M., & Rosenblum, R. K. (2013). Chronic neurological conditions in the classroom: A school nurse curriculum for sustaining a healthy learner. Pediatric Nursing, 39(6), 276.

Black, R. S. (2010). Can under-identification affect exceptional learners? Advances in special education, 19, 37-51.

Meyers, C. A., & Bagnall, R. G. (2015). A case study of an elementary school learner with ASD and ADHD in an undergraduate learning environment. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 31(2).

Healy, J. M. (2011). Different Learners: Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Your Child’s Learning Problems. Simon and Schuster.

Sobol, E. S. (2017). An attitude and approach for teaching music to special learners. Rowman & Littlefield.

Sajadi, S. S., & Khan, T. M. (2011). An evaluation of constructivism for learners with ADHD: Development of a constructivist pedagogy for special needs. In European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems (pp. 656-671).

O’Regan, F. J. (2014). Successfully Managing ADHD: A handbook for SENCOs and teachers. Routledge.

Al-Fadhli, H. M., & Singh, M. (2010). Unequal moving to being equal: impact of no child left behind in the Mississippi delta. The Journal of Negro Education, 18-32.

Hariparsad, S. D. (2010). Challenges facing educators’ in the inclusion of attention deficit hyperactivity disordered (ADHD) learners in the mainstream classroom (Doctoral dissertation).

Miller, C. (2016). What’s ADHD (and What’s Not) in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/add-adhd/attention-deficit-disorder-adhd-in-children.htm

Smith, M., Robinson, L., & Segal, J. (2020). ADHD in Children. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/add-adhd/attention-deficit-disorder-adhd-in-children.htm