Kids with Attention Deficit Disorder hate sitting in a chair and repeating words or phrases. But rote memorization is usually one of the main ways that children are taught facts.
Take multiplication tables, for example. You say “2 times 2″ and wait for the child to say “4″, then “2 times 3″ and so on. Maybe you use flash cards as visual aids. That helps a tad, but it’s still crazy boring for a child with ADD. Actually, it’s probably boring for most kids, but especially those whose minds are in turbo.
Physical movements and exercise while learning not only make it fun to learn, but aid in memorization. Here’s some of the fun things that Steven chooses to do when we practice math and Spanish (yes, we’re teaching him a foreign language, too, more about that in another post):
* indoor golf (with a putter and la ittle fake grass strip that has a hole)
* indoor basketball (with one of those plastic hoops that hang on a door), and outdoor basketball, too
* indoor hockey (we have a long hallway so we use a plastic puck and two hockey sticks)
* Wii. Yes, I know, it’s a video game, but at least you get to move around when you play. We play Wii tennis, bowling, air hockey, baseball, etc.
* outdoor baseball (using one of those balls on a stand with a long string tied to the ball so you don’t have to go looking for it)
* hmmm… I can’t think of what you call this game… maybe “paddeball”? It’s the one where you have two wooden paddles and a rubber ball that doesn’t bounce very much. It’s usually played at a beach.
Usually he gets to pick what he wants to play while we work on memorizing things. The technique is pretty much the same. For instance for teaching Spanish, I’ll say the phrase in English and he has to say it in Spanish. (Of course, that’s not the only way he learns Spanish, but it’s the method we use for memorization.) Then, after saying the phrase, he gets to hit the ball. I do the same when it’s my turn, and so on.
Steven enjoys this so much that he asks all day if we are going to do “Spanish Practice” and “Math Practice”. Best of all, his ability to remember in both Spanish and math has improved greatly!
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We use this approach to Bible verses and short poetry, too. I got the idea actually from Vacation Bible School, where they had the kids hop like a frog (for instance) and then recite the verse. And so on.
It works for most kids, I think, not just ADD. Though mine is 6, I think all 6 year olds are a little bit ADHD. LOL.
October 30th, 2008
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January 3rd, 2009
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