Are Children With ADHD Missing Nonverbal Cues From Teachers? – By Jennifer Lea Reynolds (usnews.com) / Nov 1 2017
Most people are aware of the role that nonverbal and other interpersonal cues play while interacting with others. A facial expression, gesture or a tone of voice can convey significant meaning, often allowing someone to better understand what’s being said and to behave or respond accordingly.
Noticing and Interpreting Cues Can Be Challenging
But children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may struggle interpreting, or even noticing, these cues in the first place, which can interfere with social relationships and academic success. In fact, Beckham Linton, a certified speech language pathologist and social learning coach at Heartland Social Learning Center LLC in Overland Park, Kansas, says that people tend to “look at social learning as being a separate entity from academics, which it is not.” She explains that “social learning is really the umbrella in which everything we as humans do falls,” adding that what’s learned in the classroom is a social process. Should social cues not be picked up, people are less likely to benefit from the academic information presented.
E. Mark Mahone, a child neuropsychologist, research scientist and the director of the department of neuropsychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, says that “a lot of children find they can look at and assess a social situation so they know what they need to do.” On the other hand, he adds that some children can find it incredibly difficult. He explains that children with disorders such as ADHD or autism may have challenges making sense of what’s going on and doing what’s appropriate in various settings. This all requires a high skill level, he says, adding that kids often learn by trial and error, watching other people and by having adults around who teach ways to behave in various settings.
Linton agrees. “By nature, we all observe our environment,” she says, trying to comprehend interactions and their meanings within a physical space. “But kids with ADHD often miss these general cues.”
The Problem of Missing Out on Nonverbal Cues
Linton says that when children walk into a classroom, it’s common to hang up coats and then sit. But kids with ADHD may “plow through” classmates who are in the process of getting settled in, not able to easily observe that all the other children are behaving otherwise. “Kids with ADHD can’t always read other kids’ body languages or monitor themselves enough to notice that kids are putting coats on hooks, so they don’t always have that thought of ‘Oh, so now I’ll do the same,’” Linton explains. “It’s challenging to read the room and think also about intentions of others and what to do next.”
In other cases, she says children with ADHD may not observe instructions written on the chalkboard unless the teacher verbally highlights its message. Or, because highly engaging activities can lead to a hyperfocused state, these children may continue playing with their favorite blocks or crafts while everyone else has returned to their seats. “Most kids pick up on what’s expected to do,” Linton says. “However, some children with ADHD have a hard time picking up on those routines.” In turn, they may be viewed as not wanting to participate, or they may miss key points that can negatively impact grades.
Caroline Maguire, an ADHD and social skills coach at New England Coaching Services in Concord, Massachusetts, elaborates on the many ways nonverbal cues might be missed. Rather than home in on struggles with focus and attention, though, Maguire prefers thinking of this in terms of a bigger picture – a “bird’s-eye view of the whole situation.” She says that children with ADHD can have a harder time realistically assessing abilities and effort since they sometimes lack self-awareness and self-monitoring that prevents them from realizing they’re missing certain cues to begin with.
Therefore, a teacher’s long pause may imply that his or her previous instructions were critical, but that pause may not mean much to someone with the disorder. Maguire adds that other things may go unnoticed such as a teacher who paces to convey energy and urgency about a project, or who changes a vocal tone for that same reason. In these instances, it could mean that a child isn’t walking away with a heightened sense of importance about classroom or homework expectations.
All of this can become problematic, Mahone says, because these children need to be able to interact in a “fluent and regular way with other children and adults.” He says settings like daycare and preschool can affects these interactions; their departure from the home environment norms could lead to miscommunication and misperception of other behaviors. Words and language, in addition to nonlinguistic elements such as the proximity between people, taking turns and knowing how loud to speak, are all a part of these interpersonal communications, he says. Children with ADHD are more inclined to have difficulties gauging the appropriate distance to stand near others, for example, while also exhibiting a tendency to “be in people’s face a bit more,” Mahone says.
How to Help Children With ADHD
To work on this, he says that parents should consider conveying “very explicit instructions” about how close to get to others, when to use hands while talking, when to maintain eye contact and the parts of the body it’s not appropriate to look at when speaking with someone. He especially encourages parents to never “call a child out” in front of peers and to instead provide positive feedback. Rather than saying, “Don’t look at him that way,” he suggests mentioning the behavior that is appropriate, such as, “Remember to use eye contact.”
Maguire suggests parents work closely with children to better understand assignments. Asking when the assignment was given, how long the teacher discussed it and reading directions together can help determine aspects about the project that may have been implied but missed. Then, parents can work on next steps with their child and develop strategies to ensure academic success. She adds that parents should also ask children which excelling classmates he or she admires to help narrow down behaviors to emulate to achieve success.
Linton emphasizes that even though children with ADHD may miss certain cues, that’s not to say that’s the case for all of these children. Secondly, she says it’s critical for people to remember that everyone learns differently; “just because someone has ADHD doesn’t mean that person has the same kinds of challenges as the person next to them with ADHD.” As such, she encourages not forcing these children into a particular educational track, incorporating more playtime throughout the day, paying attention to diet and giving careful consideration to medication dosing and usage – all factors that may yield varying results for each child with ADHD. “Not everyone learns the same way – we have to look at kids as individuals,” Linton says. “ADHD can be complex. It involves a lot more than just four letters.”
