ADHD as a Journey

Students learn that even though their ADHD symptoms can make their school experience different from that of other students, it is possible to be successful. Each of the six sessions presents a different social skill and includes opportunities for guided practice:
1. Our journey. This session introduces the notion that students with ADHD must learn to be a different kind of traveler and must learn new ways to demonstrate socially appropriate behavior at school.
2. Pack it up. The need to learn effective organizational skills is emphasized and students are exposed to assorted organizational strategies that facilitate classroom learning.
3. Stop lights and traffic cops. Students learn various strategies designed to help them pay close attention when faced with distractions.
4. Using road signs as a guide. This session helps students identify personal cues that lead to socially appropriate classroom behavior.
5. Road holes and detours. Students are instructed on selected cognitive behavioral techniques intended to help identify and maneuver around obstacles that interfere with classroom learning.
6. Roadside help and being your own mechanic. This session emphasizes social skills with the expectation that students use the skills to self-manage their behavior.
The Journey is most effective when combined with teacher reinforcement in the classroom of social skills acquired during the group intervention.
(http://www.lyceumbooks.com/pdf/Sclsocwk7_Chapter_35.pdf)

Peer Pairing

Mervis (1998) reported that peer-pairing is an effective model for children with poor impulse control, hyperactivity, or high levels of aggression.  Peer-pairing is a good option to consider when traditional small-group, individual, or classroom interventions have been ineffective. The model is well suited for students who become overstimulated in a group setting. Peer pairing provides ongoing social skills instruction and coaching to two students who are matched based on similar levels and types of problem behaviors. Students who have acquired an emerging level of social skills acquisition can invite a guest student to the peer-pairing sessions. The guest student is someone whom both students agree to invite. A guest student does not have to have social skills deficits. Peer-pairings with guest students are another way to provide the student pairs an opportunity to rehearse what they have learned. By providing targeted training and coaching in peer paired arrangements, students with poor impulse control or highly aggressive behaviors can develop the skills necessary to be successful in school.
(http://www.lyceumbooks.com/pdf/Sclsocwk7_Chapter_35.pdf)

Kids Together

Kids Together is an effective group play-therapy intervention for studentswho exhibit impulsive, disruptive behaviors, and poor communication skills(Hansen, Meissler, & Owens, 2000). The fifteen-week program targets students age 5–17 and aims to increase socially appropriate peer and adult interactions. The group curriculum includes skill topics such as listening, organization, self-monitoring, impulse control, and problem solving. Students receive step-by-step instructions on how to seek and maintain positive social relationships. Once students demonstrate skill competencies, they identify cues and prompts to help them generalize the new behaviors to classrooms, hallways, and lunchrooms. Using a combination of play, art, and recreational therapeutic activities, Kids Together has been shown to reduce problem behaviors while increasing socially appropriate ones.
(http://www.lyceumbooks.com/pdf/Sclsocwk7_Chapter_35.pdf)

Cueing and Group Social Skills Instruction

Children and adolescents with poor impulse control frequently talk out of turn, fail to listen to directions, blurt out answers before being called upon, and have difficulty waiting their turn. Posavac, Sheridan and Posavac(1999) described an effective behavior intervention for students that demonstrate disruptive classroom behaviors. These students received social skills instruction as part of a small group counseling intervention that focused one enhancing listening and anger management skills. In addition, students were assigned a target goal behavior to focus on for the duration of the intervention. The goals were stated in positive terms such as “keep hands to myself.” A critical component of the intervention involved a cueing procedure that required students to evaluate themselves as well as their fellow group members at five minute timed intervals during social skills instruction periods as to whether they had met their goal. The cueing procedure culminated with the group leader making the final determination regarding goal attainment. Students were recognized and positively reinforced for performing the identified behavior. The cueing procedure provided in conjunction with small group social skills instruction for children that displayed disruptive classroom behaviors resulted in a decrease in impulsive behaviors.
(http://www.lyceumbooks.com/pdf/Sclsocwk7_Chapter_35.pdf)