American Public schools are being slated with more than just teaching core academic subjects. They are increasingly being put on the front line to deal with their students’ social emotional needs. Where academic subjects have a Common Core Curriculum and/or State Standards that explicitly give the learning objectives teacher’s must meet by the end of each school year, the significant and increased need for social emotional learning in the school setting is still a relatively new area with limited research and programing available to educators. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is currently affecting more than 11% of the student population in the United States. Right now, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder. …show more content…
Children who have a diagnosis of ADHD are at high risk for diagnosis of other conditions. Of the children diagnosed with ADHD, 46% of these students also have a Learning Disability, 27% have a conduct disorder, 14% suffer from depression and/or anxiety, and 12% have Speech and Language disabilities (Branscome, Cunningham, Kelley, & Brown, 2014). School counselors play a vital role in working with these students, not only by providing interventions to decrease the behaviors associated with ADHD, but also to work on decreasing conduct problems and to develop interpersonal and emotion regulation skills. Also, instruction and practice on listening, paying attention, following directions, and appropriate social skills has been shown to increase social and academic success in school. With the demands on school counselors, one way to work with these students with such high needs is in a group setting. (Webb & Myrick, 2003) Although there are some, there is currently limited resources available for school counselors to turn to in terms of preplanned curriculums for working with groups of students with ADHD. Webb and Myrick, in 2003, designed and then researched the effectiveness of a specific group counseling intervention for children with ADHD in the school …show more content…
The counselor asked students what they knew about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, then further educated them on what it is, how it would present in and out of school, and how they have the capacity to achieve the same goals as individuals not living with ADHD. The school counselor would explain “that sometimes they take the same road as others while learning things and then, at other times, they will go another way, perhaps taking some detours, even though everyone is trying to get to the same place” (Webb & Myrick, 2003, para. 22). Each of the group sessions began with a review of the previously presented lesson and a discussion of how the students used the skills taught in real life between group meetings. A specific objective was provided for each group session that pertained to thoughts, behaviors, and skills that were deemed necessary, by the creators of this intervention, for students to be successful both in and out of school. At the conclusion of each group session the students were given a task they were to practice before the next session, as well as a summary statement to encourage them. (Webb & Myrick,