Expert: Norm Bishop - 8/18/2008

Question
Hi Norm,

I am a seventeen year old high school senior. A friend of mine recently started a volunteer tutoring service, and I agreed to tutor a seven year old boy diagnosed with ADHD. I've never dealt with this kind of thing before, so I'm having a lot of difficulty. He doesn't listen to me at all, and runs around the library, sometimes disturbing other people. I have no way of stopping him. I've tried to just sit down and talk to him a little about himself and his school, but he would not cooperate. We've had 5 sessions, and I have not been able to control him, forget actually doing any kind of work. It's not that we can't get much done, it's that we can't even get started. Any advice/tips you can give to help me help him focus would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer
You have taken on a noble project.  It sounds as if the place that you are tutoring is simply too distractive for tutoring to be productive.  I suggest that you explore the possibility of a separate room where you can close the door and keep the distractions to a minimum.  

When you have the appropriate space, then you need to create clear boundaries.  You are there to tutor, the student is there to learn, they sit, they work, when they do they get a reward, when they don't then the session ends early.  Your service is free and a privilege.  It may be helpful to create a reward system.  Say he gets points for starting to work when first asked, then gets points for each task completed, and a bonus for getting it all done.  His points could then be "cashed" for game time at the end of the session (could be educational games, like hangman).  

Children like this do not have the ability to internally self direct, so the better your system of outside boundary constraints, the better the child will do.  You need to be very consistent...every time he misbehaves he gets the same consequence, every time he does well he gets the same consequence.  

It isn't easy, but you can do it.

Norm