Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Treatment and medication
A child's reputation is made in the classroom, mostly out of adult earshot, and it follows them from one year to the next. Teachers who work on how the class treats the child, and not only on the child, can move it.
The version that has been trialled has the teacher doing small deliberate things: pairing children with some thought, noticing this child out loud for something good, refusing to let a running joke settle into a nickname. A child cannot repair a reputation alone, because the group is holding it. Anyone who runs a room has more leverage over that than they usually realise.
This explains how treatments work. Never start, stop or change a medication because of something you read here.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Greet one another with a greeting of blessing and goodness (Quran 24:61). How a group speaks to someone is not a small matter, and it is something that can be taught.
لَّيۡسَ عَلَى ٱلۡأَعۡمَىٰ حَرَجࣱ وَلَا عَلَى ٱلۡأَعۡرَجِ حَرَجࣱ وَلَا عَلَى ٱلۡمَرِيضِ حَرَجࣱ وَلَا عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِكُمۡ أَن تَأۡكُلُواْ مِنۢ بُيُوتِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ ءَابَآئِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ أُمَّهَٰتِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ إِخۡوَٰنِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ أَخَوَٰتِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ أَعۡمَٰمِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ عَمَّٰتِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ أَخۡوَٰلِكُمۡ أَوۡ بُيُوتِ خَٰلَٰتِكُمۡ أَوۡ مَا مَلَكۡتُم مَّفَاتِحَهُۥٓ أَوۡ صَدِيقِكُمۡۚ لَيۡسَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ جُنَاحٌ أَن تَأۡكُلُواْ جَمِيعًا أَوۡ أَشۡتَاتࣰ اۚ فَإِذَا دَخَلۡتُم بُيُوتࣰ ا فَسَلِّمُواْ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِكُمۡ تَحِيَّةࣰ مِّنۡ عِندِ ٱللَّهِ مُبَٰرَكَةࣰ طَيِّبَةࣰۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمُ ٱلۡأٓيَٰتِ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَعۡقِلُونَ
No blame will be attached to the blind, the lame, the sick.Whether you eat in your own houses, or those of your fathers, your mothers, your brothers, your sisters, your paternal uncles, your paternal aunts, your maternal uncles, your maternal aunts, houses you have the keys for, or any of your friends’ houses, you will not be blamed: you will not be blamed whether you eat in company or separately. When you enter any house, greet one another with a greeting of blessing and goodness as enjoined by God. This is how God makes His messages clear to you so that you may understand
Qur’an 24:61read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review covering fifteen years of research with adolescents coded the studies and calculated effect sizes for both medication and behaviour therapy. It puts school based behavioural work on the map as something with measurable effects, though it summarises a whole literature rather than testing any one classroom programme. Expect modest and real gains from teacher delivered work rather than dramatic ones.
Sibley MH, Kuriyan AB, Evans SW, Waxmonsky JG, Smith BH. (2014). Pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for adolescents with ADHD: an updated systematic review of the literature.. Clinical psychology review doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Reputation lives in the group, so it moves when the group's behaviour towards the child moves.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Changing how the family understands the child comes before the medication, before the charts, before the meeting at school. It is step one, not a friendly introduction to the real work.
Paediatric and psychiatric bodies have moved towards treating earlier than used to be usual. The reasoning is that the damage builds on itself.
Showing a teenager live pictures of activity in one targeted part of their own brain has been tried once, in a small trial, and it looked encouraging. That was around a dozen young people, and nobody has repeated it yet.