Case Studies

Calming a Disruptive Student

It was Thursday at 2:00 and Mrs. Edmonds realized that in fifteen minutes Mr. Berger’s third grade class was due to begin music class. She dreaded teaching Mr. Berger’s class because of one student: Jason Hendricks. Jason was diagnosed with ADHD when he was six years old. He is now 8. As he has gotten older, Jason has had more difficulty participating in group singing games because he can’t seem to sit in one place for more than 30 seconds. He disrupts all cooperative learning activities by pulling other students’ hair, jumping up and down, waving his hands and head, among other things. While he has never threatened or hit other students, his behavior is just disruptive enough to misdirect the other students’ attention to the task at hand. It seemed to Mrs. Edmonds that every time the class activity was going well Jason would begin to act out and the students would dissolve into peals of laughter.

Solutions