My son raises his hand at any and every opportunity. He just loves to answer questions. He used to raise his hand and then by the time he was called on…forget the Q or the answer he had. But he is worse since his med treatment finally became effective, he can pay better attention and stay focused long enough to come up with an answer. He isn’t always right, but always wants to take a stab at it. As you can imagine, this can be annoying to the teacher/instructor as well as the others wanting to try answering the Q. It is also annoying to watch from the side as he holds his hand up for an hour shouting “ooo!oooo! I know!” Like Horshack from “Welcome Back Kotter” (an I dating myself?). I gotta love his enthusiasm, but I need to make him understand he is doing it too much, how it looks to other people and why he should stop. I don’t want to break his spirit or love of learning and thinking about things. Does anyone have a good idea for an approach to delecately help him with out hurting him?
Re: Stop Raising your hand for EVERYTHING!
This is classically impulsive ADHD behavior. It is likely that your child understands in the abstract that he shouldn’t constantly raise his hand but has a hard time containing his impulse to do so when he is in the classroom. One thing that might help is if he (you really) could work out a subtle signal from the teacher that could let him know when he needs to put his hand down. For example she could just walk past his desk and put her hand on his shoulder briefly. That will help him without stigmatizing him. After a few weeks of that, you could possibly add some kind of incentive for exercising restraint, such as a piece of candy or other small treat if he stays within, for example, a set number of hand-raisings in a day. I hope this helps.
Andrea
Re: Stop Raising your hand for EVERYTHING!
I didn’t consider it an impulse because his meds have really helped with other impulsiveness and he is really worse with this traite since he has been on the treatment. I think the excitement of focusing long enough to draw conclusions and then hang on to them long enough to answer is over whelming him.
TerryB
Caren,
I’m thinking that it is socially acceptable to raise your hand often if the teacher is looking for an answer to a question. It is not acceptable to vocalize your desire to be called on (“I know, me, me …). It is also not acceptable to complain if you are not called on. The other kids need to have a turn. I think the teacher should be flattered that he is so enthusiastic. I would be afraid to discourage him too much so I would probably just work on the mouth rather than the hand.
I do think it is socially unacceptable to keep raising your hand in class when the teacher is not asking for input or questions. He might need to work on that.
Terry
How about telling him that he is smart but sometimes it is nice to let someone else have a chance. He would be making the other person feel good too.