Book Suggestion: Calm, Alert and Learning

[Ivriniel]

I am a Kindergarten/Special Ed teacher (this year half my day will be spent in Kindergarten, and 1/2 with a 4/5/6 Special Ed class) and this morning I was handed a copy of Calm, Alert and Learning: Classroom Strategies for Self Regulation by Dr. Stuart Shanker.

I’ve just started reading it, but even just a few pages in it looks like it would be a value resource for people all subtypes of with ADHD.

In it, Shanker writes about the Five Domain Model of Self Regulation. (The domains are Biological, Emotional, Cognitive, Social and Prosocial.)

Under the biological domain Shanker says:

Some children have a nervous system that quickly becomes overloaded with multiple forms of what for most people would be considered normal sensory output.

These children have two responses to overload:

1) Shut out the stimul. These children become withdrawn (hypoalert). In this state their nervous system is no longer on overload, they are not aroused sufficiently to learn. These children need to learn to up-regulate (increase their level and expenditure of energy.).

2) Become overstimulated. These children become hyperalert and need to learn how to down-regulate (decrease their level and expenditure of energy).

Reading this it sounds to me like 1) is ADHD: inattentive subtype, while 2) sounds like ADHD hyperactive subtype.

As I read if I find things that seem useful, I will try to come back and post.

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