Our students walk in every day and, really, we have no idea what happened while they were gone. Or what actually happened in the class before, or the year before, or when they were 5... all of it effects how our students will act in class and how they will learn. Some days, you just have to be a psychological mind-reader to be able to get through the first five minutes. Some days, you really wish you never asked.
Over the past week, I've been reading a lot about Reactive Attachment Disorder. Technically speaking it's an attachment disorder in which the primary care givers failed to respond appropriately to their infant or child. We all read about those studies in psych 101 about babies who died because no one held them during the first few months of their life - RAD is what happened to those who lived. That's a rather simplistic view, but it is succinct. Often time, these children also have other acronyms after their name, like ADD, ADHD, ODD and others. This can be the student you have who is a dream to be with, but refuses to write anything or the students who destroyed your classroom in less than five minutes and was taken away in handcuffs. J. is a kid living with it. It's a really good insight into what these kids might be thinking, what might help them and perhaps help us to understand the layers in our students.
Over the past week, I've been reading a lot about Reactive Attachment Disorder. Technically speaking it's an attachment disorder in which the primary care givers failed to respond appropriately to their infant or child. We all read about those studies in psych 101 about babies who died because no one held them during the first few months of their life - RAD is what happened to those who lived. That's a rather simplistic view, but it is succinct. Often time, these children also have other acronyms after their name, like ADD, ADHD, ODD and others. This can be the student you have who is a dream to be with, but refuses to write anything or the students who destroyed your classroom in less than five minutes and was taken away in handcuffs. J. is a kid living with it. It's a really good insight into what these kids might be thinking, what might help them and perhaps help us to understand the layers in our students.
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