(3-minute read)
Would medication solve the problem??
I completed an evaluation for a 2nd grade girl whose biggest struggle seemed to be distractibility. It was two-thirds into the school year, and while all students opened the book to the correct page very quickly, the student I was evaluating was “too distracted” and would take forever to find the right page. Furthermore, when the class practiced alphabetizing their spelling words (as in a dictionary), this student was again “too distracted” and wouldn’t complete the task despite that the other students were quite proficient after practicing this skill for so many months.
The mom was encouraged to give the child medication, and she wanted to know if that was the only route to help her child at this point.
When I pulled the student aside to test her on some skills, I discovered that she had no idea how a book works, or which way to turn pages in order to find the correct page. She didn’t know that page 3 follows page 2, and if you need to find page 100, you shouldn’t be turning one page at a time. Similarly, the student didn’t know that the letter D comes after the letter B in a dictionary, and that Z is all the way at the end. (It sounds incredulous, however, many of our students lack very basic skills that prevent them from functioning optimally in class.)
Of course it appeared that this student was distracted because she either turned pages mindlessly, or she didn’t bother doing the task at all (because she had no clue what to do.)
In a case like this, medication wouldn’t help because the child would continue to lack the skills to complete the task. Pills don’t teach skills…
What do I recommend in such cases? This student needs DIRECT TEACHING of the skill in question as she didn’t pick up the skill when the teacher taught it to the entire class in the beginning of the year. Oftentimes, when we teach skills that a child is lacking, the “distractibility” suddenly goes away.
Are there kids who benefit from medication? Of course! Once we’ve taught a child as many skills as possible but it’s hard for her to implement them because her eyes wander by external distractions, or she’s internally distracted by her thoughts and daydreams, medication might make a world of a difference!
Are there kids who benefit from medication? Of course! Once we’ve taught a child as many skills as possible but it’s hard for her to implement them because her eyes wander by external distractions, or she’s internally distracted by her thoughts and daydreams, medication might make a world of a difference!
Have a productive week!
Yours,
Dr. Devora