504 INTERVENTION SUGGESTIONS
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
My child teenager is forgetting to write down homework
assignments and bring them home.
TRY THIS ACCOMODATION
Develop an “accountability sheet”. The sheet should have
a place to rate class behavior, class work, the previous
days homework and write down the homework assignment. The
student is to give it to the teacher at the beginning of
each class (it is their “ticket” into the class) and pick
it up at the end of the class after the teacher or student
(with the teachers initials) writes down the daily assignment.
The “accountability sheet” must be brought home and checked
nightly, there should be a very stiff penalty for forgotten
or lost sheets and a significant REWARD for improving
compliance until 95% accomplishment is achieved at which
point continued compliance is rewarded.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Bad grades coming home - or don't see bad grades coming home.
TRY THIS ACCOMODATION
Have all grades "C" and below sent home in the backpack
addressed to you in a sealed envelope. This works better
because then you get to review the work with your child in
the privacy of your home in a gentle, kind way and help them
avoid the humiliation of getting it in class.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Your child forgetting their textbooks.
TRY THIS ACCOMODATION
Have a mandatory second set of books including workbooks
provided by the school to keep at home. No more excuses
about forgotten books!
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Our son would manage to "hold himself in" during classes,
but found that the transition times - hallways, lunchroom
and other unstructured times - became his opportunity to
engage in clownish behavior.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
One accommodation that worked well for him was to let him
use an adult rest room facility rather than the student's
bathroom - less opportunity to get distracted by a "bright
idea" - happier kid, happier school - and it didn't cost
them a cent or a moment of administrative time.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Your child is easily distracted by noise.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
For children that are easily distracted by noise in the
class have them wear earplugs to help filter noise levels
when there is a need to focus.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Your child is having significant problems coping with many
aspects of the school environment. He/she may be struggling academically
and/or
behaviorally.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
In my son's school he was assigned a “Para” (teacher’s aide)
to work with him and it has helped him 100%!! The school administration
kept telling me that with the budget cuts;
“you won’t get one, it'll never happen”, etc. I didn't stop
until I got one and the key is CONSISTANCY from you, the
counselor, the teachers, and any one else who is around your
child that supports your reasons for the need of a Para.
This will help you get one. You must have all written
documents from the doctors, counselors, psychologists, camp
staff notes, etc.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Your child has trouble following basic classroom rules or
exhibits other behavior problems in the classroom.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
The teacher gives instant gratification for his good behavior.
She uses stickers, animal mini pens, and a chart on the wall.
The children who score “X” amounts of stars, win a prize.
This is the first teacher out of 3 yrs that knows how to
motivate children, especially mine who has ADHD. He responds
to her and her methods.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Your child wants to take the same test as the other students
in the class so they aren't "different" but you aren't sure
they can handle the exact same test
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
Have the teacher (or aide etc.) highlight the specific areas
of the test that you would like them to complete. i.e.-
highlight problems 1-10 that need to be completed out of a
possible 30. Another accommodation would be for the teacher
to highlight key words or phrases on the test to help prompt
the student with directions or instructions to complete the
answer. i.e.- highlight "sum", "difference" etc.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
fidgeting with pencils, pens, etc and consequently dropping
them, flipping them at others, etc
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
A string of different shaped beads, small enough to go in a
pocket, and be used as "worry beads". This worked well with
2 of my ADHD children when they got to middle and high school, especially.
They went to the bead store, picked beads of
different shapes, of 5 mm or less, and strung them on poly
cord. The teachers reported seeing them wound between fingers,
pressed into palms, etc, but the distractive fidgeting
decreased dramatically
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Frequent excessive talking.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
Teach the student hand signals that alert him/her to excessive
talking. Give the student rewards for going reasonable
lengths of time (this varies depending on the individual
skills of the student) that the student does not talk
excessively.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
My child teenager is forgetting to write down homework
assignments and bring them home.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
Develop an “accountability sheet”. The sheet should have
a place to rate class behavior, class work, the previous
days homework and write down the homework assignment. The
student is to give it to the teacher at the beginning of
each class (it is their “ticket” into the class) and pick
it up at the end of the class after the teacher or student
(with the teachers initials) writes down the daily
assignment. The “accountability sheet” must be brought
home and checked nightly, there should be a very stiff
penalty for forgotten or lost sheets and a significant
REWARD for improving compliance until 95% accomplishment
is achieved at which point continued compliance is
rewarded.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Bad grades coming home - or don't see bad grades coming
home.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
Have all grades "C" and below sent home in the backpack
addressed to you in a sealed envelope. This works better
because then you get to review the work with your child
in the privacy of your home in a gentle, kind way and help
them avoid the humiliation of getting it in
class.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Your child forgetting his or her textbooks.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
Have a mandatory second set of books including workbooks
provided by the school to keep at home. No more excuses
about forgotten books!
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
Our son would manage to "hold himself in" during classes,
but found that the transition times - hallways, lunchroom
and other unstructured times - became his opportunity to
engage in clownish behavior.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
One accommodation that worked well for him was to let him
use an adult rest room facility rather than the student's
bathroom - less opportunity to get distracted by a
"bright idea" - happier kid, happier school - and it didn't
cost them a cent or a moment of administrative time.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
My son has a problem with long term projects like book
reports, term papers and class projects. Although he has
good intentions of getting them done he thinks he has more
time to do them than he really has. He ends up doing a
rushed job at the last minute.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
What we did (that worked very well!) was to give him daily
deadlines for small pieces of his project. Of course it
took a lot more supervision on our part but it was worth
avoiding the headaches and hassle of doing it the other way.
As he got older he seemed to resent the close supervision a
little but we repeatedly explained that it was necessary
because of his ADHD disability. This seemed to help him
accept the extra monitoring a little better.
We will often make the final deadline two or three days
before the project is really due because there are still
delays when we do it this way. If he is finished a little
early he will look over the whole project to see if he can
find any mistakes or places to improve it. We realize now
that our child with ADHD needs a lot more daily supervision
and monitoring on some tasks than we ever thought, but once
he accepted this help (we call it being his “executive
secretary”) he has done much, much better.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS BEHAVIOR
My child had difficulty completing his homework assignments.
It seemed that he was overwhelmed by 20 math problems or ten
short answer questions to complete or 4 worksheets in English.
It seemed like it was so overwhelming to him that he resisted
doing anything. We suggested to the teacher that his
assignments be decreased in length but we got a lot of
persistence about that. We came up with a different system
that the teachers like and that helped our son with getting
his homework done, here's what we did.
TRY THIS ACCOMMODATION
We made an agreement with his teachers that he would be given
the entire homework assignment but would initially only have
to complete half of it. We then checked his answers. If
his answers were all correct he was finished. But for each
one wrong he had to complete that many more problems. This
had effect of motivating him to get all the answers correct
the first time, because it would reduce the amount of work
that he would have to do. However, if he truly did not
understand the material he would have to do more problems,
which would help him to grasp the concepts. Obviously,
this does not work with all assignments, such as a book report.
Also, for some assignments the teacher had to pick the
questions that he was to answer.
BONUS INFO
Our school district has proven very difficult. Among other
things, my son needed an auditory trainer (CAPD) and
occupational therapy (fine motor skills - writing). It was
the school district's opinion that "related services" was
applicable only to eligible IDEA/Special Ed students.
According to the school district my son does not qualify for
Sp. Ed.
From ERIC, regarding Section 504, Responsibilities to Provide
FAPE, I found presenting the school district with a document
highlighting the following quote quite useful in advocating
for my son: Students can receive related services under
Section 504 even if they are not provided any special
education. These are to be provided at no additional cost
to the child and his or her parents. Section 504 requires
provision of educational and related aids and services that
are designed to meet the individual educational needs of
the child.
