It is one of the common complaints of many parents that their child is not doing well in the studies, teachers consider their child as a slow learner, they have a reluctant handwriting which is too difficult to understand, at the same time they are very mischievous and mistreat/ manhandle other children, they ask too many questions, they are never bothered about their examination’s result. They have unhealthy eating habits and above all, they give an abrupt answer to each question which is asked to them.
Both, the teachers and the parents are unable to understand the cause behind such behaviour. They constantly try to deal with such a child in various different ways which most of the time; doesn’t work and out of frustration they start yelling and punishing the child which further worsen the situation.
As the importance of a psychologist is well recognised and gained awareness among people, these days such cases are taken to them. One such case is:
Parents of a child M were asked to consult a counselling psychologist as their child is not performing well in studies, shows temper tantrums, beats other children and is unable to score even a passing marks. The psychologist assessed his Personality determiners, Intelligence level.
Indicators of Personality
• Persona: Persona is an individual’s unique self which has been attained due to his unique interaction with the environment. It is described in terms of his behaviour i.e. his actions, postures, language structure attitude or opinions regarding his external world and feelings that may not have been apparent or discernible in his overt behaviour.
• Intelligence: Intelligence is an aggregate or the global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment.
• IQ: It is the ratio of mental age and chronological age indicating of child’s ability to perform a task.
• EQ: It is emotional maturity and the ability to effectively rein in emotional impulses, to the handle relationships smoothly and to have the essential competencies like self-awareness, self-control, resolving conflicts, cooperation etc.
• AQ: It refers to the most basic of all knowledge i.e. how to learn with intentionality, relatedness and capacity to communicate.
This predicts that AQ is related to EQ, which in turn is related to IQ and hence, these three are interrelated and altogether forms an overall intelligence level of the Individual.
According to the results of the testing, it was concluded that his IQ was good, EQ was low and AQ was inconsistent between average to low. That’s why the imbalance prevails in his behaviour.
Also, the assessment reports of his reading, writing, colouring, cognitive abilities, performance on video gaming clearly shows his hyperactive patterns. Anxiety takes the form of obsessions (excessively preoccupying thoughts) and compulsions (repetitive actions to try to relieve anxiety).
According to the reports M has ADHD i.e. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder which is associated with problems like trouble in paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviour and acting without social inhibitions.
The therapist give behaviour modification therapy which usually works with ADHD children as it nicely blends with various techniques like positive and negative reinforcement, shaping, fading, ensuring, etc.
It is suggestive that he should be continuing with the behavioural counselling sessions to prevent him from having a disorder and to help him in eliciting a normal behavioural pattern with balanced EQ and AQ.
Also, the cognitive restructuring of parents and teachers is important. So that they can:
• Acknowledge the problem in non-judgmental way.
• Provide children with the new ways and innovative techniques for learning.
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When child starts eliciting the positive result during behavioural counselling sessions, parent’s counselling is essential to make some positive changes at home so that the behaviour which is learnt during the session sustains. There is considerable number of children who do fairly well at counselling sessions show recurrent ADHD symptoms at home and school for the reason:
Need for Rehabilitation of Learning Systems:
If we observe the problem cycle carefully, it is quite evident that even if the child recovers; the environmental conditions pushes him back into the previous condition. Though they struggle to maintain with newly discovered life skills during the therapy session if they are not supported by parents and teachers then it will bring them back to the same faulty behavioural patterns and temper tantrums.
Defining Rehabilitation:
Rehabilitation refers to provide the support and to give an appropriate environment for a person who is struggling to maintain the happiness and satisfaction found with Life Skills and Therapy. It is the action of restoring something that has been damaged if its former condition is taken into consideration and recreating the former privileges or reputation after a period of disfavour.
Rehabilitation requires:
• Awareness about the needs, the hopes and the aspirations of the child
• Creative and stimulating classroom environment.
• Developing the concept of reality and sense of responsibility in children according to their age.
• Quantitative and qualitative expansion of education.
Learning System includes:
Management and Administration:
• Providing resources, training to the staff and support in teaching components which address the current issues such as substance abuse, child abuse, loss, loneliness, self-esteem, confidence and personality development.
• Recruitment of teachers on the basis of teaching aptitude.
• Establishing counselling cells for career, behaviour and academic issues.
The orientation of the Parents:
• Parent’s orientation programmes to equip them with the ways and the prodigies to deal with unusual behavioural patterns.
• Anger and anxiety management.
• Understanding various learning difficulties
• Problem-solving (Understanding Problem Cycle and focusing on the solutions).
• Using unique and creative ways of dealing with such children.
Teacher’s Training:
It is very important for a teacher to understand the mental, physical, the social and emotional health of a child. They must be trained to incorporate the following points with their teaching methods:
• Developing ways to improve the level of concentration of the students.
• Better organization in the classroom environment.
• Control their energy levels, hyperactivity etc.
• Organize games.
• Arranging extra-curricular activities to help children with their anger and aggression issues.
• Providing them with the practice material for improving their handwriting
• Improving their social skills by organizing group activities.
In order to minimise the ever increasing no. of ADHD students, we need to rehabilitate the learning systems with better policies and upgrading the teaching methods which we are using since the ages. With latest and advanced approaches to match with the competent requisites and demands of the contemporary world.
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