Why?

Why am I constantly having to remind my son’s school that he has ADHD? Why is it so hard to remember that it is a neurological disorder and that he can’t always regulate his emotions?

I am so tired of this one size fits all approach that our public education system has when dealing with neurodiverse students.

I am tired of hearing he was disruptive and upset.

Did you ask him why he walked away when he was upset? Do you not realise that you are punishing him for walking away when you have previously told him to walk away if he needs time to calm down. If I’m confused by this message imagine how he must feel.

If you had taken a moment to chat to him away from the rest of the class instead of confronting him in front of his peers you would have realised that he was upset because his recess fell out of its snap lock bag and onto the ground which upset him.

It made him angry because it is the one thing he will force himself to eat each day at school when he doesn’t feel like eating anything else.

When Leni realised how upset he was he took himself off to the vacant classroom adjacent to his class to calm down. He did what every teacher has asked him to do so as not to upset anyone and was then called out for doing just that. When he was confronted in front of everyone he felt like he was in trouble and became defensive and more upset.

Then to top it off he was given a reflection, which in my opinion is a sugar coated word for detention.

Great!

Let’s punish a child who has a neurological disorder for not being able to regulate their emotions which will only make them more upset.

Instead could the teacher not have approached him quietly and said hey Leni what’s up? Oh that’s no good buddy, I totally get why you would be upset. Stay here for 5 minutes, have a drink of water and when you’re ready come back to class.

I am tired of having to explain why their approach is so wrong for Leni and why it just isn’t working for him.

I know it would be frustrating as a teacher because it’s frustrating as a mum but the difference is I am trying to understand him better and make things for him easier not harder. In my opinion not all teachers want to know how to handle our kids and they don’t really care.

Honestly this is why so many children with ADHD are moved from school to school, spend most of their time in detention or end up being home schooled.

“When you steal a students struggle you steal the learning. When you support the struggle you take that student farther than ever.”