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75 per cent of them were for young males

“It certainly suggests the drugs are being abused,” says Gordon Floyd, president and CEO of Children's Mental Health Ontario. “There's a desire for the quick fix … the idea that – ‘oh, we'll fix this with a pill' – rather than spend a few months in counselling, is pretty appealing.”

ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders of childhood, with core features that include an inability to focus, and hyper and impulsive behaviour. Increasingly, it's seen as a chronic condition that 60 per cent of kids never outgrow and one that experts estimate affects five per cent of children worldwide.

Boys are four times more likely to develop autism, three times more likely to suffer dyslexia, and two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.

IMS figures show ADHD prescriptions for males have increased 50 per cent since 2005.

Write important information down where the child can easily read and reference it. Remind the student where the information can be found. Divide big assignments into smaller ones, and allow children frequent breaks.

Develop a “secret language” with the child with ADD/ADHD. You can use discreet gestures or words you have previously agreed upon to let the child know they are interrupting. Praise the child for interruption-free conversations.

written behavior plan is near the student

consequences immediately following misbehavior. Be specific in your explanation, making sure the child knows how they misbehaved.

Recognize good behavior out loud. Be specific in your praise, making sure the child knows what they did right.

cross off each item as it is completed.

run an errand or do a task for you

Allow the child breaks as often as every ten to twenty minutes. Teach a better understanding of the passage of time: use an analog clock and timers to monitor homework efficiency.

Provide a stress ball, small toy, or other object for the child to squeeze or play with discreetly at his or her seat.

do one step and then come back to find out what they should do next

extremely brief when giving directions

write directions down in a bold marker or in colored chalk on a blackboard.

Establish a homework folder for finished homework. Check and help the child organize his or her belongings on a daily basis, including his or her backpack, folders, and even pockets. If possible, keep an extra set of textbooks and other materials at home. Help the child learn to make and use checklists, crossing items off as they are accomplished. Help organize loose papers by color coding folders and showing the child how to hole-punch and file appropriately.

play a sport—or at least run around before and after school.

Neurological deficits, not unwillingness, keep kids with attention deficit disorder from learning in traditional ways.

If you can work with and support your child’s teacher, you can directly affect the experience of your child with ADD/ADHD in the classroom.

If teachers are supported to set up classrooms to promote success, these students (and other challenging students who have similar behaviors but may not have individualized education plans, or IEPs) can improve their performance in school and in life.

Making positive attention more predictable in the classroom can help break the cycle of negative attention-seeking behaviors. Putting one-on-one time on the student’s personal visual schedule (even if it’s only a couple minutes to read a student’s favorite page in a book) or setting a timer for 10 minutes and telling the student that’s when you will be back are just two strategies that can help.

Teachers who work with challenging students need support from administrators and others in the school. It is very stressful to have a student in class who is constantly disruptive. In order to make the necessary investment, the teacher needs substantive support from administrators to avoid frustration and burnout and to garner the energy to provide effective interventions. When administrators delegate some of the teacher’s responsibilities to other people in the building, the teacher can devote more time to finding solutions. Regularly meeting with consultants (e.g., special educators, mental health professionals, and behavior analysts) can be essential for designing how the student progresses, but it also takes up the teacher’s prep time. If possible, the administrator can arrange coverage so that the teacher can meet with consultants at times other than lunch and prep. Support staff can instruct small groups of children while the teacher works with the student with behavior challenges. And since there are usually so many people involved with a struggling student, delineating a clear coordination plan is also critical. It can be helpful, as a team, to make a list of responsibilities and indicate who is responsible for what.

The more intensely the student is taught the underdeveloped skills, and the more the environment is changed to encourage appropriate behavior, the more quickly the student’s behavior is likely to change.

Moreover, in the last decade, there has been a growing interest in an evidence-based approach to studying the impact of music listening on anxiety, as measured by self-report measures (subjective reactions toward a stressful situation) or psychophysiological markers (objective indicators of anxiety, such as increasing heart rate).