Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is close to the heart of Special Education Philippines because this is one of the reasons why this blog was created. This education blog wants to serve as an avenue to learn more about the disorder and hopefully find out answers to the questions and concerns about ADHD.

On the other hand, there are times that the questions and concerns about ADHD outnumbers the answers available. Let me give you a real example based on my experience as a parent and a teacher of a child who has ADHD.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Special Education Philippines

Our child is diagnosed to have the Inattentive type of ADHD. We have suspected long before that he has been zoning out during classes because of many factors related to his environment (e.g. he is distracted, bored, lesson is difficult, etc). There are a number of reasons why his attention would fleeting. So to cut the story short we opted for a more personalized instruction – homeschooling. There are times that our child has to work independently and without the presence of the teacher (who is either my husband or me). Assistance and presence is removed in the hopes of teaching the child to work on his own.

However, for our child with ADHD this is usually where he syncs out. We have provided consistent schedules, regulated amount of work (so as not to underwhelm or overwhelm him), arrange his physical environment (lighting, study table, minimal decorations, etc). In short the environment he is in is structured in such a way that will maximize his success rate. Yet, he cannot keep his attention to his work. On the other hand, when you sit down with him and go through every item of his work, he seems to be working smoothly with relative ease. Yet when you ask him to do the same task alone – forget about it!

Now you might say that it is still premature to leave him alone to work on his own. We have considered that but he is already in 6th grade and almost two years in homeschooling and I am just a few feet away from him. It seems that when he is not physically there he zones out. We could actually be there for him all the time but we hope to bring him back to regular school after his elementary age and he won’t last in secondary school if he always needs a teacher to watch over him. For our sanity, we try to avoid thinking what it would be like for him in college.

My husband and I are considering different factors. How much of this inattentiveness is due to behavior? How much of it is due to his ADHD? And how many times have we reminded him that choosing to be comfortable in the short term will only bring him discomfort in the long term? How frustrated this repeated situation is making him and us?

Special Education Philippines is asking these questions and concerns today. But today, I don’t have the answers yet. Maybe tomorrow I might or the next week or the next month. Who knows? One thing is for sure – these are questions I hope to find an answer some day.

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