Sue Pearson recommends books to support children with attention difficulties
SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH ADHD AND ATTENTION DIFFICULTIES IN THE EARLY YEARS. By Hannah Mortimore. QEd pound;6
SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY dISORDER. By Kate Spohrer. Questions Publishing pound;14.99
HOW TO TEACH AND MANAGE CHILDREN WITH ADHD. By Fintan O’Regan. LDA pound;9.95
ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: A Practical Guide for Teachers (Second edition). By Paul Cooper and Katherine Bilton. David Fulton pound;15
The neurological problems that underlie attention deficithyeractivity disorder have been with us for many years, but some people argue that current social conditions exacerbate the symptoms. This suggests all teachers need to understand this complex inter-relationship.
Responding to ADHD is also an emotive and controversial issue, with some advocating medication while others are adamantly opposed to it.
Supporting Children with ADHD and Attention Difficulties in the Early Years takes a pragmatic stance, arguing that inclusive planning should be based on individual needs rather than medical labels, so that “if children need your extra planning and action to learn to concentrate and to settle when compared with their peers, then go ahead and plan”. A concise, accessible book for newly qualified teachers, packed with valuable practical advice.
Supporting children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder provides a variety of materials and activities to use with children. It aims to demystify ADHD and draw attention to its positive aspects. Although newly qualified teachers may find this an appealing resource, it needs to be used with other materials that provide factual background information.
How to Teach and Manage Children with ADHD is a reassuring, readable and often humorous book, combining knowledge and experience. Stressing the heterogeneous nature of the learners and the need for proactive approaches, it contains lots of examples, incidents, strategies and photocopiable support materials. It could easily be used with teaching assistants and parents.
Attention DeficitHyperactivity Disorder: A Practical Guide for Teachers is aimed at teachers of five to 16-year-olds and provides an authoritative overview that can be used personally by staff or as the basis for a series of inservice training sessions.
All these titles provide invaluable lists of resources, contacts and materials, with Mortimore’s book including titles to use with young children.
Sue Pearson is a lecturer at the University of Leeds
