Enhancing Learning Abilities of Students with ADHD
via Art-enriched Teaching
There is evidence that both short- and long-term memory skills improve. The adolescent uses these skills to memorize the information studied at school and to solve complex problems. The increase in memory effectiveness is not explained by the sheer increase of memory capacity, but by the exploitation of strategies that the adolescent has acquired to improve short- and medium-term memory skills (including for example, taking notes, associative linking, information categorization, etc.). Some of these strategies have become automatic and thus freeing cognitive resources for more complex tasks. The information foundation accumulated by this age can be used to improve memory processes and to make them more efficient.
Social interaction becomes the focal point of adolescent life. The development of self-esteem is based on satisfactory reciprocal relationships with the peer group. The success of healthy peer relationships, in turn, demands individual trust of others and willingness for a certain degree of personal exposure, making possible the development of confidence and empathy. Parental relationships also undergo transformation while the adolescent works towards differentiation from the parent and development of autonomous emotional and philosophical identity. Thinking processes are significantly influenced by interaction with the peer group. There is constant exposure to inter-personal communication regarding feelings and to emotionally intense group inter-relationships. The environment at school becomes a social laboratory in which the adolescent crystallizes social concepts and skills. The entire period of adolescence is a stage for intense displays of tension and sensitivity. Students who suffer from stress due to ADD or ADHD most probably experience even greater anxiety, above and beyond the expected burden.
Tension is a well-acknowledged factor that infringes upon both learning and memory abilities (Krashen, 1981). In extreme situations, tension may turn into physically manifested symptoms that stimulate the brain stem and sympathetic nervous system, which control body reactions. Due to the associated elevation of the Adrenalin concentration in the vascular system, more blood flows to the limbs and to the heart at the expense of the brain and digestive system. The reactions in this physiological state are irrational and tend to remain in the �fight or flight� reflex state. The body may adapt to such chronic stress situations, but to the detriment of normal development of high-level cognitive skills that are expected at that age. Hence along with higher academic demands at school, there comes an increase in stress, further difficulty in coping with the situation and ultimately a deterioration of self-esteem. The high sensitivity to reactions from the peer group that typifies this age, and the difficulty for self-control due to overwhelming stress, reduces the ADD adolescent to an exposed and socially fragile state.
Art and Adolescence
Aharon Copeland (Storr, 1983) asserts that the need to create (in his case, musically) is associated with the need to clarify the deepest feelings towards life. This is, in his opinion, the way for self-consciousness and the endless quest for an answer to the �Who Am I� enigma.
As part of their personal development process, adolescents deal with this question. By legitimizing and allocating the time within the school curriculum for active creation and acknowledging the means of artists to express their identity, students will be given effective tools and means to explore their inner selves, to define and outline their distinct identities and express the complexities of the emotional stage they find themselves submerged within. Having expressed their message via words, music or imagery, they become aware of the content and are capable of adjusting how they relate to it. The ability to present their inner content and thus share it with others creates an opportunity to get support and social acceptance, which help to build confidence towards the development of personal identity.
A large percentage of students with attention deficit discover that such acts of creation fascinate them. Their work, in most cases, is original, unique and imaginative, leading to social recognition and appreciation by their peers, with a direct improvement in self-esteem.
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