One Child

This week, volunteering in the fifth grade, I was asked for the first time to help a child who was described to me as possessing severe ADHD and OCD symptoms.  “Jimmie” needed help with his latest Advanced Math worksheet.  AM is an individual effort wherein the kids progress on their own, at their own pace, at home or in free time at school.  The teacher took a minute to introduce me to “Jimmie” and explained that I would assist him with AM.  She said privately to me that “Jimmie” is very intelligent and will probably not need help with the math itself, but probably will need help with the process.  He never looked at me or the teacher as he searched for the AM papers in his desk.  We moved to a desk in the commons and I saw that he had already finished the math problems and now needed to mark the bubbles on the answer sheet.  He rapidly transferred his answers from the worksheet to the bubble sheet, often skipping rows.  His haste was causing errors.  I pointed out the skips and he made corrections, mumbling so low I couldn’t hear him, never making eye contact.  I saw that the answers on the worksheet looked correct.  The teacher was right about his math skills.  He took the completed bubble sheet to the reader, logged on, and fed the bubble sheet into the reader.  He got an error message stating that there were answers beyond the expected range of questions.  I understood this to mean he had made extra marks on the bubble sheet, yet I could find none when I asked to look at it.  He took it back and erased several extra marks and tried again.  Again it was rejected.  Again he scrubbed the already-erased bubbles.  Once more it was rejected.  Another child had the same experience at the card reader and told me the reader was probably not working correctly and that we should try the reader in C-pod.  The bell rang so “Jimmie” returned to class without a word.  I followed him and said goodbye and that I hoped he’d be able to finish the AM sheet tomorrow. 

So what did I learn from this 20 minute session with “Jimmie”?  I learned that he is unique.  He has social difficulties that seem to fit some but not all of the descriptions I read about ADHD and OCD.  He is capable.  He knows how to solve problems.  (He was not successful with the card reader but he was on the right track.)  I learned that the diagnosis does not define the child.  I wonder how he interacts with his peers in and out of class.  Does he make eye contact with them?  Does he engage in any conversation?  What can his teacher do to help him?  What can I do to help him?  To be a teacher I need to know much more about ADHD and OCD.  I hope we delve deeply into this in our K-8 teachers program.  I hope I can spend more time with “Jimmie.”