A mom came in the other day to talk about her struggling eight year old daughter, Hayley, a third grader.  She presented with many of the common concerns  – difficulty with decoding, reading  fluency, spelling and writing,

“What has the school done for her,” I asked.

The mom answered, “Well, in kindergarten she got Wilson Fundations.”   “Then in first grade she got Reading Recovery,” she continued.  “The Reading Recovery Teacher went out on maternity leave in April and they gave Hayley support with Harcourt Trophies in her regular class.  Now they are talking about SRA for next year or  Read 180.  I really can’t keep up with it.  Why do they jump around so much?”

“Sounds like she may have a case of Curriculum ADHD,” I responded.  “Curriculum ADHD is characterized by  jumping from method to method without every really giving any one a chance to take hold.  There’s a lot of that going on these days.”

Response to Intervention (RTI) is the prominent new buzz term in education.  (Every 10 years there seems to be a new one.)

My question is this. If a child is not given a sufficient enough time with a particular method, how do we know if he/she is responding to the intervention? 

Could curriculum ADHD be contributing to the child’s difficulty?