I am an adult educator, and I am pretty sure I have a student with AADD. I have been to every AADD site I can find, and there seems to be little I can find to help me. I know that I cannot just walk up to this person and say, "I think you have a situation..." I would like to make my presentations easier for them. I want to know what I can do to help. :confused: This student is Highly Intellegent and I believe has great potential, however has a very difficult time socializing with her classmates and an even worse time digesting insturctions. I really want to communicate more effectively with my student...Please help! :)

Trek,
Becareful! As a teacher you can't diagnoise a student with add/adhd. You can complete a referral for a Child Study on that student stating your concerns and observations. Have you checked the student's cumm to see if there has been a diagnoisive of add/adhd? Also, express your concerns to the school counselor. Good Luck

Well, I am in a very different setting. My classes do not take place in a school, they take place in salons. I train trainers and this participant is in my program. I train and certify them to teach the latest styles, cuts, colors and trends. You are right, I guess I shouldn't say that I think this person definately has a condition. I really just want to help. Do you know of a way that I can get their attention in class? (without having to get a diagnosis?) I just want to help her reach her full potential... :)

Thank you for responding...

I admire you for wanting to go the extra mile for this student! What a great teacher!

I think that if you not limit your search to "adult" ADD and instead focus on ADD as a whole, you'll find more information that would help. They are the same thing, after all. Try a web search for "ADHD accommodations" - there are some great websites out there.

If that doesn't help, let us know.

In the meantime, probably the most helpful thing you can do is to always provide "multimodal" instructions - ie, not just verbal. Have a written copy for them to read at the same time as you are going over them out loud. Be interesting. The more animated you are, the easier it will be for students to pay attention to you.

I would expect that during demonstrations of cuts, colors, etc that you are giving a running commentary of what is being done. Again, try to make it lively or even funny. If there is a way to walk around and sometimes stand beside this individual, it would help draw her back in.

Social skills? I'm not sure that there's anything that you can do although I can see that it is important in your profession. Is it something that you cover anyway? You know, how to chitchat with your clients and make them feel comfortable? Just thinking off the top of my head here...

Anyway, do the web search. There's alot of good stuff out there.