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Ideas for Attention Deficit Children

Children whose attention seems to wander or who never seem to "be with" the rest of the class might be helped by the following suggestions. You can apply those suggestions to any classroom specialy with children having difficulty with English language.

1. Pause and create suspense by looking around before asking questions.

2. Randomly pick reciters so the children cannot time their attention.

3. Signal that someone is going to have to answer a question about what is being said.

4. Use the child's name in a question or in the material being covered.

5. Ask a simple question (not even related to the topic at hand) to a child whose attention is beginning to wander.

6. Develop a private running joke between you and the child that can be invoked to re-involve you with the child.

7. Stand close to an inattentive child and touch him or her on the shoulder as you are teaching.

8. Walk around the classroom as the lesson is progressing and tap the place in the child's book that is currently being read or discussed.

9. Decrease the lengh of assignments or lessons.

10. Alternate physical and mental activities.

11. Increase the novelty of lessons by using films, tapes, flash cards, big pictures from books, small group work or by having a child call on others.

12. Incorporate the children's interest into a lesson plan.

13. Use a soft voice to give direction.

14. Give simple, concrete instructions, once.

15. Investigate the use of simple mechanical devices that indicate attention versus inattention. Passing a small object (small stuff annimal or sponge ball) to the child when asking a question and let the child through that object back to you after answering.

16. Employ peers or older students or volunteer parents as tutors or helpe