Behavior And Attention Problems In Middle Childhood

Children in middle childhood, at an increasing rate, are exhibiting behavior and attention problems. The context can vary, but the main focus has been in school settings since children spend most of their time in school. Nonetheless, not all children possess these issues but a large amount do.

1. What's the truth?

Via playbuzz.com

With this gif, embedded within the acronym for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, there are qualities that a child with ADHD can possess. And these qualities, are also normal for children who aren’t diagnosed with the condition. With this image, the creator might have been trying to highlight, to shout (since the lights light up), that many of the qualities that are considered to be of an ADHD background, are not all unacceptable. Within what we have studied concerning ADHD, some of the ways that children with ADHD can express themselves are with aggressive behaviors, hyperactivity, inattention and noncompliance. The degrees of these can vary. For example, the word ‘fun’ is easily distinguishable in the gif and this can mean that someone with ADHD enjoys having fun as much as the next person, but the extent to which they express their fun can be of high levels. They can feel eccentric for a long time. Nonetheless, ADHD differs for different people (as ADHD not only affects children).

2. An Intervention

Via www3.wayne.kyschools.us

As we have discussed in my class, a good way to better the behavior of children with behavior and attention problems in school is to implement new teaching methods. Instead of having children sit all day at their desks, with no movement, it has been proven that it is efficient, for teachers leading the class and students to pay attention that they move around during the school day. As with the image above, it depicts a classroom full of children participating in an activity that requires them to get out of their desks. They are all following the teacher's instructions and from the original website where the image was collected from, it states that the children are ‘jamming out’. They are singing along to infamous songs such as, “Clap your hands if you’re happy and you know it”, songs that many of us have been introduced to in our early education years. Overall, a small activity is beneficial not only for students with attention problems but for the whole classroom. It is a de stressor.

3. 'Treatments'

Via groundedparents.com

Even though in my class we didn’t discuss much of the actual treatments of ADHD (medicine), I felt as if this was an important concept in another way. For conduct disorders, we did focus on intervention methods for parents and teachers to help students. Under the parents section, one of the bullet points that was included, was that of having positive parenting skills and methods of discipline. In the Mexican culture (my culture), for some parents, it is customary to spank their children as a form of discipline for when they misbehave. Therefore, this image depicting a belt (or sometimes it was la chancla) delivers the message that for when their children misbehaved or acted out, it wasn’t that they necessarily had chronic behavior problems, it was more of a matter that they were just acting out at that certain time and needed immediate discipline. As a child, this was a clear signal to stop whatever it was that you were doing. This is a way that some parents try to resolve the issue of their children acting out. Of course, it isn’t the cultural norm for every Mexican family.

4. A Consequence,

Via memeguy.com

The last image concerning attention problems focuses on students ability to focus and get their school work done. It is clear that from the image that the child is writing an essay, but they get distracted right away. As discussed in the class notes, children with attention problems can have a difficult time finishing their school work. They may need support from others, so that they stay focused on their work. This also connects to an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, where Spongebob has to write an essay for school. Throughout a long period of the time, he is depicted as vigorously writing down on his sheet of paper, which one would have guessed, he was writing what he was supposed to write. But it is shown, that after all that time, all he had written down was the word, “The” in exquisite cursive, just as the image above. Overall, children with attention problems need help from their teachers and parents, since they interact with them the most.