Children learn in many different ways and at different speeds.

No one child is a carbon copy of

another. They vary by race, social status, the way they look and also the styles in which they learn best.

When a student begins school in the United States it often takes them more time to adjust to life outside

of their home. The new routine of going to school every week day can be extremely stressful for a

young child, and many children become overwhelmed with the vast amount of new information that

they are being taught. Teachers and parents observe their students and children to make sure that

eventually each child is able to keep up with schoolwork and everyday activities. Some children

display characteristics that allow these teachers and/or parents to question their student's or child's

learning capabilities. Some learning disabilities are very clear and obvious, however, there are other

learning impairments that take time and careful observations to detect. Attention Deficit Disorder is a

learning disability that is very common among children today. Classifying a student as having Attention

Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a process that takes time and effort. Through the process of recognizing

Attention Deficit Disorder in a child, knowing how to work with and teach these children, and setting

the student on the right track in school, people become more aware of how to correctly classify children

with ADD. When classifying students as having ADD mistakes are often made that affect how a child

learns and socializes in school. Can tracking and classifying students with Attention Deficit Disorder

cause them to be less confident among their peers and less academically successful in school?

In almost all secondary schools and some elementary schools today children are divided up by

their achievement or lack of achievement in certain subjects. In her article, “Teaching Children with

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Remedial Classes”, Jane Brodin touches on how failing to

classify students leads to disorder in a general classroom. When children are seen as being disruptive in

a classroom setting, peers often frown upon the children who seem to be acting up. This can cause

children with Attention Deficit Disorder to feel inferior to their classmates who may be completing

projects and activities before them without assistance from the teacher. Brodin explains that teachers

tend to focus more on the children who seem to have these learning disabilities and in turn these
students are seen as being different than the others. Brodin stresses that pulling students who need extra

assistance with schoolwork out of the classroom can prevent this commotion from occurring. If

children are placed on a given academic track to begin with they will eventually make friends with the

other students that may have the same learning disabilities as themselves. In this case these children

may be content with friends that they attend class with. If learning in a separate classroom is all a child

knows their self confidence will probably not be lowered because of this.

The issue of tracking students in school is a topic that has been heavily debated for years now.

Classifying a student as having Attention Deficit Disorder is an extremely serious process. Parents and

teachers especially, want to be sure that they are not placing a child on the wrong track. This is because

if a student is incorrectly classified it is very difficult to remove him or her from that given track.

“Beneath the Skin and Between the Ears: A Case Study in the Politics of Representation”, examines

how children are classified as learning disabled. In this article Mehan describes the modes of

representation within the case study of a nine year old boy named Shane. The steps that the referral

committee takes to understand Shane's learning capabilities include a written test, observing Shane

inside of the classroom, and observing him inside of his home. Mehan compares the psychologist's

direct and textual evidence with the mother's and teacher's more subjective, non-formal descriptions of

the child's modes of learning, and makes it clear that the committee definitely does not take the

observations of the child as seriously as the scores and results from the tests taken by the child. When

the parent and teacher spoke throughout the process of tracking Shane, they were often interrupted by

the psychologist. The article about Shane's tracking process proved that Shane was eventually found to

be completely capable of accomplishing work on a general track. Because of the processes that Shane

had to go through to test if tracking would be beneficial to him, he started to fall behind in the general

education classroom. This shows that even though in the end Shane did not seem to have ADD and

could do the work just as well as a child without a learning disability, he fell behind because of the

assistance he received when his placement was questionable. If Shane had falsely remained on the track
of a child with ADD he probably would have fallen behind just because the teachers and his parents

excepted him to.

Tracking that is shown through Mehan's case study involves examining Shane's actions and test

results. Beyond figuring out where a child should be placed in school is the issue of children already

classified as having ADD. When students are taken out of the general classroom to receive special help

in certain areas of academics their peer relationships are often affected. In Rubin's article titled

“Tracking and Detracking” he looks at the effects of both tracking of children excelling in school and

children falling behind in the classroom. Pulling children out of a classroom to do separate work should

not in any way harm the student, however, eventually it could cause the child to feel like he or she is

different from his or her other classmates. Students may then start to internalize these feelings of

separation which negatively affects his or her will to learn and socialize in the future. This article

concludes that if tracking was not in effect in schools children would not feel pressured to fit into

certain academic groups. Children with ADD would probably struggle with accomplishing work at the

same time as other students, yet they would possibly feel better about themselves and their work just

because they are not separated from their peers while doing it.

All factors involved in the tracking process are of equal importance when classifying a student

with ADD, and each factor can influence the rate at which a child learns. Landaus article “Conditional

Probabilities of Child Interview Symptoms in the Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder” clearly

shows situations where some students are misclassified as having ADD and how their learning

processes are slowed down because of this. These children are identified as having Attention Deficit

Disorder just because of minor symptoms they seemed to have at young ages. This article looks at the

psychological idea of the “self-fulfilling prophecy”. This “self-fulfilling prophecy” is tested by

observing children that were falsely classified as having Attention Deficit Disorder. Because these

children were told that they could not do average school work on their own they always sought extra

assistance when accomplishing tasks in school. Once some of these students entered high school their
desire to be placed on an average track in school grew with the help and push of parents and the will to

fit in with classmates who seemed to be more socially popular. These students ended up graduating

high school on average and in some subjects on even above average tracks. This study helps to prove

that social influences are important when it comes to a students will to appear average or above average

in school. It also shows that when a child is told that they are different and cannot complete work like

their peers they often do not work to their full potential and fall behind because they feel that they are

expected to do so. No observations and statements about the child should be ignored in the tracking

process because even the smallest observation can prove that tracking a child may not be necessary,

and can change how a child progresses in school.

Understanding how these students will learn best and the overall tracking process is important

when dealing with children whose learning and education progress is affected by ADD. Attention

Deficit Disorder is a learning disability that is too often misdiagnosed. It is vital that teachers, parents,

and physicians are careful when evaluating and observing a child who may have Attention Deficit

Disorder. Researchers have put in so much time and effort to understand the best ways to understand

and deal with placing children on tracks in school that will benefit the child and not hinder them in any

way. They have concluded that when classifying a student with ADD people need to play close

attention to the child's attitude and emotions about school and social relationships. It is very important

that educators make sure that while placing students on proper educational tracks they do not bring

down a child's self esteem. When confidence is low children's relationships with peers are negatively

affected. When students are lacking self confidence it is also common that they will give up trying and

working toward their full potential in the classroom. With the help of doctors, scholars, and educators,

society as a whole is able to be more confident when providing children classified as having Attention

Deficit Disorder with a better education and life all together.

Brodin, J. (2004). Teaching Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Remedial
Classes. 60-82.
Landau, S. (1999). Conditional Probabilities of Child Interview Symptoms in the Diagnosis of
Attention Deficit Disorder.
Mehan, H. (2000). Beneath the skin and between the ears: A case study in the politics of representation.
In B. Levinson et al. (Eds.), Schooling the symbolic animal: Social and cultural dimensions of
education (259-279). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, Inc.
Oakes, J. (1986). Beyond Tracking. Educational Horizons 65 (1): 32-35.
Rubin, B. (2006). Tracking and detracking: Debates, evidence and best practices for a heterogenous
world. Theory into Practice, 45 (1): 4-14.