EDUCATORS WEIGH IN ON CURRENT TOPICS
raising kids
Dear Teacher,
Experienced educators and authors Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts give solid advice about everything school and education-related. Parents should send questions and comments to dearteacher@dearteacher.com
QUESTION: My second-grade daughter has very poor concentration. Her teacher commented on this several times last year. Does that mean that the child has ADHD? – Wondering ANSWER: When children have trouble concentrating in school and are overly active, disruptive, and inattentive, many teachers and parents jump to the conclusion that a child has ADHD. However, to find the answer to your question you need to start with a routine visit to your daughter’s primary-care doctor when it is possible for you to do so. Tell the doctor about the teacher’s observation of your daughter. You might even want to bring the child’s report card along to the appointment. Ask the doctor to test her for ADHD. Some doctors will do the evaluation. However, others will give you a referral to an ADHD expert because testing for ADHD takes several hours and also a large amount of time to analyze the test. If your doctor does not give you a referral and you still want testing, you should seek out a referral from the special education teacher, a psychologist or guidance counselor at your child’s school. Here are the areas that will be used in helping to make the diagnosis of your daughter: • Social history: a typical day in your daughter’s life
• Medical history: any medical concerns that your daughter might have • Family history: ADHD runs in families • Strengths and weaknesses: activities the child can and can’t focus on • Education: how your daughter is doing academically By the time the clinical interview is over, most experts who diagnose and treat people with ADHD will have a good idea of whether your daughter has ADHD. QUESTION: My children in elementary and middle school spent way too much time on homework before their school went online. How much time should they have been spending? Are there any shortcuts that could lessen their homework time when school resumes? – Too Much Time ANSWER: One dividend of online schooling was that most students found their homework time reduced as much of it was done during online classroom sessions. However, you are definitely right that your children were probably spending too much time on homework before they went to online schooling. Just about every study done on homework time reinforces your view. Teachers routinely exceed the most common recommendation of 10 to 20 minutes of work for first grade. And this amount of time should grow by 10 minutes
12 August 2020 • siparent.com
DearTeacher.indd 2
7/29/20 6:15 PM
