By Jeff Copper, MBA, PCC, PCAC, CPCC, ACG – August 26, 2024
In the classroom, ADHD students are often fidgety and energetic, unable to sit still and pay attention. What can teachers do? In my experience as an ADHD and attention coach, I have heard schoolteachers and other educators talk about their challenges in managing these students. It calls for a balance of structure with flexibility that can reduce the student’s impulsivity and anxiety, and, thus, the concept of in-house field trips was born.
The concept is a strategy to engage students with ADHD and involves creating ways to help them release pent-up energy and enhance their concentration. In-house field trips allow personalized variations based on the student’s preferences and attention spans. Rather than venturing outside the classroom, these experiences bring enthusiasm directly to the student’s environment. By designing activities that align with the student’s preferences and strengths, educators can foster learning experiences that capture the student’s attention.
To learn more about this concept, I turned to Jackie Minniti, a retired schoolteacher renowned for her expertise in supporting those with ADHD. In my interview with her on Attention Talk Video, Jackie shared experiences from her years of teaching and working with ADHD students, and we talked about this innovative concept of in-house or classroom field trips for wiggly ADHD students.
Overall, Jackie’s insights shed light on the potential of in-house field trips to support students with ADHD and transform their energy into opportunities for growth, learning, and self-discovery. If you can relate to this topic, please check out my video, “Benefits of In-House Field Trips for Wiggly ADHD Students,” on Attention Talk Video, http://youtu.be/os66Gce1AUA
Jeff Copper: Welcome, everybody, to this edition of Attention Talk Video. I’m your host, Attention Coach, Jeff Copper, and we’re here with Jackie Minniti, author of June Bug. Jackie, welcome to the show.
Jackie Minniti: Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff Copper: As a teacher, probably as a parent, you’ve probably witnessed that situation in school where that ADHD child had the wiggles or something, or…
Jackie Minniti: Yes.
Jeff Copper: … was not allowed to go out to recess because their work wasn’t done. From your experience as a teacher, how did you manage that yourself in a classroom?
Jackie Minniti: Well, probably the worst thing you could do to a kid with ADHD is take recess away from them. I mean, that’s just absolutely counterproductive. These kids need more recess, not less recess. And the fidgeting is just part of the whole ADHD mix. These children are going to fidget and you have to accept that and figure out a way to deal with it. What I found that worked for me is something I used to call in-house field trips. When I taught kindergarten, especially with the little ones, this was something that seemed to pay off in a quiet or more focused child.
Depending on the situation, I would see a child start to fidget and I’d ask the child to come up to my desk and maybe help me give out papers, or ask the child to put away some supplies. If they really seemed to be exceptionally wiggly, I had an agreement with the teacher across the hall that if a child needed a little in-house field trip, they would take a message over to the teacher across the hall, and most of the time there was nothing in there except an envelope with a smiley face inside. And I kept a stack of these in my desk so that they’d always be ready.
And the student really loved the idea that they were singled out to do something special. It gave them just enough of a chance to diffuse that energy and then they’d be able to come back and get back down to work without having to tell them to sit still or do something that called a negative attention to them, which generally would make them uncomfortable, make the wiggles worse.
Jeff Copper: Well, as I’m learning interviewing the experts, when you think of attention deficit disorder, you think it’s a deficit of attention, and we’re starting to realize it’s really a self-regulation issue, which explains a lot. That’s why kids with a ADHD can play computer games for hours on end. Their issues is stopping and sometimes engaging stuff that’s not as interesting. But when it comes to motor movement, to me, that’s another thing that needs to be regulated. And what I’m hearing you say is that when you saw that wiggle or whatever, you either gave them a job which made them feel important, which is always kind of good, or the in-house field trip, particularly kind of going across the hall as a means to let them work that out, to me, that’s just absolutely brilliant, because you’re allowing them to get rid of that fidgeting, that excess energy, so that they can come back and focus on what they’re doing. Because I can see, if you’ve got just energy that’s really kind of pent up and you’re saying, “Listen, you have to sit still,” that’s just going to make it that much harder.
Jackie Minniti: Oh yes, it does. It’s just simpler to deal with it. When you see the wiggles just starting, let them diffuse that energy and come back and sit down. If you’re just going to harp on them, “You’ve got to sit still,” or “If you don’t sit still, I’m going to take your recess away,” that’s like throwing gasoline on the fire.
Jeff Copper: Absolutely. I can’t help but reference… we did a show not on so obvious solutions though, with David Giwerc, add to that he’s ADD, as we described in the video when he was a kid, he broke couches and stuff because he’s bounding all over, and his grandmother brought him a rocking chair, and fast-forward the stories in college, he found that he could focus rocking in his rocking chair, singing his notes to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy, or She’d Be Coming Around the Mountain When She Comes. And that’s another example of that actually helps him focus as opposed to have him sit there and not just sit still. He couldn’t necessarily do it. So I think the in-house field trips and the job and stuff to get them to expend that energy and actually get them out during recess so they can get rid of that energy, is absolutely brilliant.
So your book, June Bug, you can get that off of amazon.com?
Jackie Minniti: Yes. Project June Bug, it’s available on Amazon, any of the online booksellers or through my website, www.jackieminniti.com.
Jeff Copper: And that’s Jackie, J-A-C-K-I-E, M-I-N-N-I-T-I.
Jackie Minniti: Yes.
Jeff Copper: Thank you very much for coming on the show.
Jackie Minniti: Thank you, Jeff.