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Most
of us have experience with children in our Scouting programmes who have
one form or another of Attention Deficit Disorder or another challenge
that impedes learning ability or leads to inattentiveness and disruptive
behaviour. While there are a few Leaders who know how to work with
people who have these sorts of problems effectively, they are few and
far between. Although nearly every one of us will have occasion to work
with children or other adults who are affected by ADD or a learning
disability, these topics are either covered inadequately or not at all
in our Scout Leader training courses.
Scouting
provides a learning environment and leadership-followership training
programme that is very attractive to families who have children with
ADD. We offer a learning method different to that provided in most
schools, where each child is encouraged and helped in developing to the
maximum of his or her potential. Believe me when I tell you that there
are a lot of therapists out there who know who we are and how Scouting
works — and who may well recommend that parents place a child in a
Scouting or Guiding programme. If you are having difficulties working
with a particular child, you may be able to work with the therapist to
learn how to set the child up for success.
Many of
these very real developmental disorders are "invisible" to
others, beyond the behaviour or learning performance difficulties that
result from them. Since we cannot see the disorder, there is a
temptation to dismiss it as intentional disruptiveness or an
unwillingness to learn the skill or task we assign to the Scout.
Of
course, on the other side of the coin, some children who have such
disorders may, on occasion, "use" their "problem" to
get out of doing things they prefer not to do. It can be hard to discern
the difference between the actual situation and how it may or may not be
used...
That
said, the large majority of children with these disorders are
above-average in intelligence, and are VERY frustrated by the
difficulty in "getting around" the ADD or learning disability
to get to where they want to be, which is — more often than not —
where you want them to be in your Scouting programme. Part of the
disruptiveness is contributed by the disorder itself, and part is added
to the situation by the child's expression of his or her frustration
with having to work so hard to do something that seems to come so easily
to everyone else.
Every
child with ADD or a related disorder is an individual, with a
developmental situation that belongs to him or her alone. The uniqueness
of the individual manifestation of one of these disorders means that you
need to work closely with the parents, and - if possible - with the
child's school and any health care professionals involved in his or her
care.
A
Scout in your Group with ADD can be a real challenge, but need not
become the focus of all that is negative around him or her. You need to
remember the importance of eye-to-eye contact between yourself and the
child, the positive effect that remembering to notice and compliment the
successes - large or small - and remaining calm and non-threatening when
corrective action is necessary.
Medication
is a fact of life for some children with ADD and related disorders. The
more acute the need for this medication, the more critical it is that
you administer it on time and exactly as directed. While some of the
medications may be over-used by some school/health care provider
combinations to do a bit of "chemical warehousing", this does
not happen all that often today. Most children are quite appreciative of
the fact that a bit of medicine, taken on a regular basis, helps them be
a part of a "normal" child's social group.
While
we could give you pages of advice, we are not going to do that. Instead,
please use the links below to learn from and get in touch with people
who deal with ADD, ADHD, and other developmental difficulties on a day
to day basis. If they don't have the information that can help you, they
can certainly point you in the right direction! Talk to them. Learn from
them. Use the information to help strengthen your Scout Group. Once
you've done all that, come back and teach other Scout Leaders what
you've learned. We all need to know more!
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