A.D.D. beginner

[vlh1992]

I just started teaching a beginner student who has a very severe case of A.D.D. I am having a really hard time keeping her attention and getting her to listen to anything that I say. Any suggestions???

[asuhayda]

Hey!

Thanks for your post. This is a very good question.

I have a student with severe ADHD and it is extremely challenging.

I have spoken to some family therapists and have done some research and let me give you some tips on how I deal with this kind of student.

1.  Don't over explain things.  Be brief and concise.
2.  Don't ask open ended questions.  They have a tendency to drift away when faced with deep intellectual questioning.

3.  You have to be a little firmer with them.  They constantly test you.
4.  Their world is very black and white.. this is not their fault. Do not hold it against them if they are occaisionally brutally frank with you.  You're not going to be able to change it.  If you want to avoid this, refer to rule number 2

5.  Give them something else to do.  You have to realize that kids with Attention problems will actually get worse if you force them to concentrate on one thing.  This seems counter-intuative but giving them something else to concentrate on while you teach them is actually helpful.

-  Examples.  Give them silly putty to play with or a strees ball to squeeze... Ever notice how they are constantly touching things and looking around?

6.  Have a lesson plan prior to teaching them.. don't wing it!  You'll need a strategy, their lessons need to be very structured.

7.  Don't just have them sit at the piano.  Move them around the room.  Have them practice standing up, playing games with them at the table, on the floor etc..

8.  Keep the lesson moving.  Keep your topics short.  Don't spend 25 minutes explaining their piece to them.. they can't concentrate that long.  Switch things up on them a lot.  Theory, games, technique, repertoire... short intervals.

9.  Stay calm...  If you get rev'd up, they will get rev'd up and then you'll lose them.

10. Keep the parents involved.  These kids need a lot of support in the studio, but most of all, in their own homes.. if their parents aren't willing to work with you, better pack up and go home.

I really hope this helps you out.

Best of luck to you!

[tdawe]

I know your post had good intentions, but as someone who struggled with "ADHD" as a child I would have found that extremely patronizing and you would definitely have alienated me further. One thing to bear in mind is "ADHD" is a very loose definition, pretty often a blanket term for any problematic child, and there are a myriad of potential causes - as such I find your generalisations very unhelpful. My advice would be (rather unhelpful I know!) to tailor the situation specifically to the child. Try talking with the parents. Personally I always found a greater challenge helped engage me more.

[asuhayda]

Yikes!

It's ironic that you found my post patronizing, but then you went out of your own way to be patronizing.

Look my friend, I've been teaching a long time.  What you find patronizing and what an 8 year old processes in his own brain are extremely different.  Clearly, if I were teaching an adult, this scenario would be very different.

Furthmore,  I have spoken with the parents... collaborating with the parents of a student with ADHD is the only way to be successful.  But the majority of suggestions that I've made are based on interactions with the parents and family therapists.  Tailoring a lesson to a student is the corner stone to any good teacher and is no exception when dealing with children with special needs.

But I'm afraid it's naive of you to suggest that a child with ADHD should be treated just the same as any other student.  The reality is, they do not learn the same and they do not behave the same as other students.

Your post did not add anything to this conversation that was constructive.  I'm sorry if you found this offensive, that was clearly not my intention.  But, frankly, you've offended me and I think that was intentional.

Please do not post anything if you don't have an intelligent position.  All you're doing is confusing the OP and aggravating me.

[tillyfloss]

I teach a young man diagnosed with ADD & to be fair, a lot of those points made by asuhayda have worked for me, although I had to discover them for myself and have tailored them specifically for my student. As with tdawe, my student thrives on very difficult tasks, so I tend set work (and lots of it) that I wouldn't normally set for a young man of his level.He always rises to the challenge. The work may not be executed especially well sometimes, but it keeps him at the piano - practising, engaged & moving forward. Anything which does not appeal to him is never done. Not out of naughtiness, or apathy; it just doesn't seem to feature on his radar at all.

I always keep the lesson moving. Lots of tasks. Far more than for any other student. I usually need to cover twice as much ground as I would for other students within the same time span.  

My suggestion is to remain alert and receptive to where your student's focus is, at all times. Subtle & not-so-subtle shifts in behaviour let me know when he needs to move on.

It isn’t a matter of relinquishing the reins,  but you will need to have a lot of different work planned & to hand, & be willing to swap it around regularly throughout the lesson. My student is just going into his teens so I can offer lots of scale work, interval work, aural exercises, sight reading etc plus several different pieces in the one lesson. (I swap them as and when focus drifts).

Rather importantly, I’ve found that  allowing  a few minutes during the lesson when he gets to  'let off steam' - during which time he can do whatever he wants to do at the piano (improvise hopefully,  but at worst just racing up and down the keyboard as he chooses )- tends to bring him back on track.  

I've had this student now for 4 years. When he first came I found him frustrating and difficult. Over time we settled in well together.  It was only after diagnosis that my task became easier, because I was no longer frustrated by his behaviour. Everything fell into place. He still exhausts me sometimes but he's making excellent progress ....which, as with any student,  is a joy.

[asuhayda]

I teach a young man diagnosed with ADD & to be fair, a lot of those points made by asuhayda have worked for me, although I had to discover them for myself and have tailored them specifically for my student. As with tdawe, my student thrives on very difficult tasks, so I tend set work (and lots of it) that I wouldn't normally set for a young man of his level.He always rises to the challenge. The work may not be executed especially well sometimes, but it keeps him at the piano - practising, engaged & moving forward. Anything which does not appeal to him is never done. Not out of naughtiness, or apathy; it just doesn't seem to feature on his radar at all.

I always keep the lesson moving. Lots of tasks. Far more than for any other student. I usually need to cover twice as much ground as I would for other students within the same time span. 

My suggestion is to remain alert and receptive to where your student's focus is, at all times. Subtle & not-so-subtle shifts in behaviour let me know when he needs to move on.

It isn’t a matter of relinquishing the reins,  but you will need to have a lot of different work planned & to hand, & be willing to swap it around regularly throughout the lesson. My student is just going into his teens so I can offer lots of scale work, interval work, aural exercises, sight reading etc plus several different pieces in the one lesson. (I swap them as and when focus drifts).

Rather importantly, I’ve found that  allowing  a few minutes during the lesson when he gets to  'let off steam' - during which time he can do whatever he wants to do at the piano (improvise hopefully,  but at worst just racing up and down the keyboard as he chooses )- tends to bring him back on track. 

I've had this student now for 4 years. When he first came I found him frustrating and difficult. Over time we settled in well together.  It was only after diagnosis that my task became easier, because I was no longer frustrated by his behaviour. Everything fell into place. He still exhausts me sometimes but he's making excellent progress ....which, as with any student,  is a joy.

Thank you for the post.

Now that I've had a minute to catch my breath!  Let me clarify some of my original thoughts so that they are more congruent with tilly.

With regards to the lesson being structured.  I think tilly has given a better description.  When I say the lesson needs to be structued, I just mean you have to have a lot of things in mind and a plan.  But I like your addition. You definitely need to be prepared to switch things up on a dime.  So, it's probably better for me to say that you need to have a set plan but have the flexibility to switch things up.  So my suggestion to be rigid was not the best way to describe that.  And your observation about taking visual queues is right on the mark.

To being challenging.. I completely agree with both of the previous posters regarding this.  I always give challenging music to my students.  So, the thought of suggesting it did not come to mind.  But I completely agree.

Furthermore, I approached OP's question from the angle to purely give tips on how to teach a student with attention deficit and hyperactivity issues.  I did not mean to imply in ANY way, that they are impaired and should be treated like they are  incapable of performing at the same level or higher than a student without attention issues.   I simply am suggesting some alternative ways of teaching such a student, as they require a different approach than a student who just sits there and gives you their full attention.

Ok. So, I've spoken my peace.. take it or leave it. I'm only trying to help.

[tdawe]

Yikes!

It's ironic that you found my post patronizing, but then you went out of your own way to be patronizing.

Look my friend, I've been teaching a long time.  What you find patronizing and what an 8 year old processes in his own brain are extremely different.  Clearly, if I were teaching an adult, this scenario would be very different.

Furthmore,  I have spoken with the parents... collaborating with the parents of a student with ADHD is the only way to be successful.  But the majority of suggestions that I've made are based on interactions with the parents and family therapists.  Tailoring a lesson to a student is the corner stone to any good teacher and is no exception when dealing with children with special needs.

But I'm afraid it's naive of you to suggest that a child with ADHD should be treated just the same as any other student.  The reality is, they do not learn the same and they do not behave the same as other students.

Your post did not add anything to this conversation that was constructive.  I'm sorry if you found this offensive, that was clearly not my intention.  But, frankly, you've offended me and I think that was intentional.

Please do not post anything if you don't have an intelligent position.  All you're doing is confusing the OP and aggravating me.

I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to create a conflict... it definitely was NOT intentional to offend you. You have misunderstood my post, as an adult, I don't find your post at all patronizing... but I know as a child I WOULD have done. To be honest I am upset that you have taken my offering of a different side of the argument as some kind of personal rebuke and utterly dismissed my points. The essence of my argument is that whilst your points are valid, ADHD is a spectrum disorder with a myriad of potentially totally different causes - it's not black and white, so whilst some ideas may work very well for some, they may have totally different result in another pupil.

edit: Upon rereading my post, I apologise for the jarring tone I chose... when you're in a rush, it can be very hard to convey a proper conversation online

[keypeg]

I've been reading this thread since yesterday.  I am a former teacher who still does some one-on-one occasionally, and my training includes learning disabilities.  I am also a music student and do some teaching in areas that I can.  A.D.D. is an overused term, and means that the person has trouble paying attention, just like "Dyslexia" means that a person has difficulty reading - either for a number of reasons.  To address a symptom you have to know the cause, which you can do by observing the student and getting information from the parents, physician, school teachers etc.  The OP has written two lines - is that enough information for giving advice?

Some people who can't pay attention have something in their makeup that makes them over-stimulated by anything new.  Others are highly intelligent and instead of falling asleep by boredom, get restless.  Others may be consuming loads of sugar.  Others may have other things going on.  Or even something unrelated - if the person has poor eyesight or bad hearing, will that make him fidgety and impatient?

Some of the things in asuhayda's post simply seem good teaching. 
1.  Don't over explain things.  Be brief and concise.
Over-explaining can lose anybody.  Piano is physical and uses the senses.  It's hard to keep all of that info together and also coordinate the body.  Young children in particular need less words and more action.  But even when I start a new instrument as an adult, I cannot absorb much in one shot because there is so much to coordinate that you may not think about.

2.  Don't ask open ended questions.  They have a tendency to drift away when faced with deep intellectual questioning.
I'm not sure what kind of open ended questions you mean.  As a student I would like a teacher to say what he means rather than making me guess what kind of answer he wants because he is trying to teach something.  If you talk to learning disabled students (who are usually highly intelligent), they want to be told things directly.
4.  Their world is very black and white..
This does not sound like ADD.  It sounds like Aspergers.  You mean, understanding things literally.
5.  Give them something else to do.  You have to realize that kids with Attention problems will actually get worse if you force them to concentrate on one thing.
If your student is getting antsy because he's in the Asperger spectrum, this would make things worse.  This student needs consistency and predictability, and time to adjust to each new thing.
6.  Have a lesson plan prior to teaching them.. don't wing it!  You'll need a strategy, their lessons need to be very structured.
  Shouldn't you have a lesson plan to some degree, period?
8.  ...  Don't spend 25 minutes explaining their piece to them..
That sounds like basic good teaching.

[vlh1992]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I have just taken on this student and have not had a lot of time to figure out everything yet. I am pretty new to teaching and was basically just looking for some general ideas that I could try. I realize that all kids are different and that not everything will work for this particular situation, but now I have some different ideas to try that will hopefully be beneficial to making me a better teacher and helping my student to excel. Again, thanks for the suggestions everyone.

[lostinidlewonder]

When I teach someone who easily gets distracted or loses focus I find it essential that I give them that space to be distracted. Do not tell them to stop when they tangent off, this makes the student very irritated with you no matter how good a teacher you are, let them have time out and let them notice that you allow them to digress and that you listen to them, however they should also realise that you slowly want to veer their attention back to the task at hand and this is what we both are here for. You need to make them feel positive about their attention deficient, in many teaching situations they are put down and penalised for it. They will respect you and listen to you more in the future if you do this. They will remember your teaching experience as a good one and ultimately this gives you much more control over their attention.

Ask them questions that they can easily answer, let them answer many questions fast and easily, then throw in one that might need a little more thought, hint them to the answer but always make them demonstrate the answer themselves. If they resist following though to an answer let them have a break, do something different for a while then attempt to go back to the previous issues. I find these type of students actually do better handing multiple tasks rather than doing single tasks from start to end. This gives them space to be distracted rather than feel claustrophobic dealing with single problems one at a time.