CARE CORNER STUDENT CARE PROJECT

            The mental health issue that we identified was Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which consists of symptoms like being distracted easily, becoming restless and uncomfortable after sitting for too long and having difficulty in concentrating (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). ADHD may present with different severities and symptoms in children in their middle childhood, and it is also possible for children who are undiagnosed to exhibit such symptoms too. There was an identified case of ADHD among the children we were in-charge of, and another student also presented with symptoms of ADHD although not clinically diagnosed. Hence, our topic of impulse control was very relevant, since both children exhibited symptoms of easily being distracted and the constant urge to touch the props that we brought for sessions.

           

             Originally, knowing that ADHD children have the tendency to want to move about, part of our proposed measure was to have one of us in charge of monitoring the child with ADHD, but that was not applied as the ADHD child proved to be easier to handle and less problematic than the undiagnosed child. Although the child with ADHD was fidgety while sitting down, there was only one instance when he walked away from the group, but he was rather cooperative otherwise. When his mind wandered off, anyone of us who notices first went up to grab his attention back. He listened to us when we told him to focus and was also quite participative. This was perhaps because another part of our proposed measures was to have activities that allowed the students to interact and move about in every session, be it as the main activity or ice breakers. This likely helped to use up some of his energy which made him less likely to start walking around during the session. It was only in the third session, when the activity was drier and required him to sit and watch the other group role-play, his mind constantly wandered off and we had slightly more of a challenge trying to pull him back multiple times.

           

            Although in general, all the children were distracted by the props we brought on session one, like the Devil’s trident and headbands, the undiagnosed child who presented with symptoms of ADHD was the most distracted. When everyone else had their attention back on our activity, she still constantly tried to take our props and touched it even when we set the rule of ‘no touching other’s things without permission’ as a group. She was also reluctant to participate in our activities and often wandered away from the group, which seemed to show an inability to concentrate on tasks that proved to be slightly more challenging. Her behaviour frustrated us more than the child diagnosed with ADHD as she was more distracted and had lesser concentration and cooperation. For her, we still did not have one person in charge of her, but there were a few instances when some of us had to take a minute away from the group to coax her to participate in activities, and we did succeed in getting her participation for every activity although she might not have been as engaged as the others. During the activities, we also constantly gave her encouragement together with the other members, and this urged her to continue in activities that she found difficult like the obstacle course.

           

            Knowing that people with ADHD tend to have short attention spans, another proposed measure that worked for both children was keeping our instructions short and easy to understand. This made sure that they understood the objectives and rules of the activities before their limited attention runs out, allowing them to successfully complete the activities with the other children.

 

(615 words)

​

​