Tips for chaperoning kids with ADHD on field trips?
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Anonymous
| My partner just returned from chaperoning a small group of 3rd graders to a museum that was definitely not a "please touch" experience. One child (who is medicated for ADHD) had a particularly hard time keeping his hands to himself, following directions, doing the required sketching, etc. Talking about it later, my partner and I realized that we don't have a very sense of how to work with a kid like this. Any suggestions for best practices for chaperoning children with ADHD? |
Anonymous
| Honestly? The teacher should have taken that kid. It's not fair to ask a regular parent volunteer to deal with kids who (for whatever reason) can't follow the rules. |
Anonymous
Agree. It is not fair to have a parent chaperon. At our school, it's usually the SN teacher or teacher who chaperons unless the parent of the child can volunteer. |
Anonymous
The class is doing a bunch of small group field trips, so no teacher was there. |
Anonymous
It's not fair to put another parent in that position where they have to come to an anon board for advice. It sounds like the kid needs a medication adjustment and having their own parent there to observe and chaperon would have been ideal. But since your partner does not have regular interactions with this child, there is really nothing you can do. |
Anonymous
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I'm wondering how you know the child is medicated?
If the parents have shared, then ask the parents. "I'm concerned Larla didn't get a lot out of the field trip last week because she was distracted and I had trouble keeping her with the group. Do you have some suggestions for next time?" |
Anonymous
|
Come on, everyone. A huge percentage of kids these days have ADHD so there is likely to be at least one if not many more in a classroom. If the teacher thought he would be a huge problem she would have watched over him herself but from the sound of OP's post it does not sound like he was a huge problem at all.
I see a lot of kids touching things they are not supposed to touch at museums and while it makes me cringe it's not like the security guards are swarming them or anything. There are always a lot of kids not following directions during field trips. Is this your first time chaperoning or are you a K parent or something? As long as the kid is not running away or doing something seriously disruptive or dangerous you should be able to handle it. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. |
Anonymous
OP here. There is definitely more behaviour stuff than I included in the original post, but I don't want to take the discussion too far off track or make it too personal. We are not newby parents, but we don't have experience dealing with the types of issues this kid has. The main question remains: Any tips for dealing with a severely disruptive kid on a field trip? |
Anonymous
This is good advice. And it brings up a good question. How exactly do you know this child is medicated? |
Anonymous
The mother express concerns about the meds being administered late due to the field trip. |
Anonymous
|
This is a tough situation. I have a son with ADHD--but he is the inattentive type, likely to stay reading in one area and not notice the entire group has moved on, but not the type to touch what he is not supposed to touch--and I volunteer for every single field trip because I don't think any other parents should have to deal with him (honestly I worry that he would get separated and lost). The teacher once assigned me a kid like the one you mention as well as a couple other NT kids. It was unbelievably challenging, between getting my kid to transition from something he was reading with interest and chasing after the other child plus managing a couple of other kids with average level misbehavior, i watched one child walk out of the museum on her own! I ended up making my son and the other boy with ADHD hold my hands, which they were not too happy about, but I figured safety was the single biggest issue and this was the only way. Anyway, it was miserable and, frankly, unfair of the teacher.
To answer your question simply, I think the most important thing for my child and for most kids with ADHD is to state behavior expectations beforehand very succinctly and clearly. Do not assume that they know not to run and not to touch--even if they do know, they need the rule explicitly stated--just make all expectations clear upfront and simple. That said, I did all these things and I still could not get the kid under control. I wouldn't talk to the parents if I were you--why put that on yourself? But do tell the teacher. The teacher needs to find a way to make the experience doable for everyone. The lesson I learned is that, because I still don't want to impose my spacey guy on anyone else, I can't volunteer to help the class. I just come to keep him in line, which is very easy to do one-on-one, and but I don't volunteer to chaperone. I think the school and the parents of the child in question should do the same thing. |
Anonymous
| I don't understand. If the child is severely disruptive any teacher in their right mind would have taken him away. That's why they often don't assign themselves a group and float around. I've seen teachers do this a few times. |
Anonymous
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Don't ever say "don't X". The ADHD brains say "touch X" or "do X"
If you have a child that is doing something you don't like suggest a better activity. "Hey look at Y." Then the ADHD brain says "hey what is Y". Also, don't answer questions ask more questions. Why is the house blue? why do you think? (they can pepper you with 1000 question, but when they have to stop to think why the house is blue, they get to activate the creative side of their brain) |
Anonymous
| How come he was only severely disruptive in your second post, when the thread wasn't going the way you expected? |
Anonymous
| I don't understand why the teacher wasn't there. Small group field trips, what is that? What grade is this? |