Download Teaching Students who are Gifted and OCD?

Accommodations for
Students who are
Gifted and OCD?
Online Resources
www.ocdonline.com
www.ocfoundation.org
www.mentalhealth.com
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ocd
OCD (Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder) an
Anxiety Disorder
Accommodating the Student
For the student with OCD who experiences
reading and test taking compulsion:
• Provide options such as allowing
someone else to read to the student
• Photocopy reading assignments,
highlight important section, and have
the student read only those parts
• Photocopy reading assignments, have
student draw a line through words
read with a dark marker to prevent
going back and rereading.
• Suggest that the child read aloud to
counter the effect of reading rituals
• Have student listen to prerecorded
tapes containing chapters in
textbooks
• Provide extra time to complete test
• Permit student to write directly on
the test
• Be very cautious about timed tests
For the students whose symptoms interfere
with completion for class/homework:
• Give option of submitting
assignments after due dates
• Consider decreasing the work load
• As a rule, if class work has not been
completed during the school day, it
should not be sent home as
homework, which can be
overwhelming for students with OCD
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinfo
rmation/ocdmenu.cfm
http://understanding_ocd.tripod.com
www.insightpros.com/ocd
http://journals.sped.org/ec/archive_
articles/VOL.37NO.2NovDec2004_TEC
_Adams37-2.pdf
http://psychcentral.com/library/ocd
_child.htm
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/c
ontent/full/39/23/32
http://www.aboutourkids.org/about
our/articles/about_ocd.html
www.kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emo
tion/ocd.html
www.thesamscenter.com
www.ocdaction.org.uk
Teaching Students
who are Gifted and
OCD?
Brochure developed by:
Rita C. Caccamise
Characteristics of
students who are
Gifted and OCD:
Characteristics and examples of behavior:
Fear of contamination: Washing and
Cleaning; washing and rewashing hands;
having dry, chapped, cracked, bleeding
hands, may resemble eczema.
Fear of harm illness, death/pathological
doubting: Checking; compelling urge to
return home to check something, checking
locker, backpacks.
Symmetry: Arranging; tying shoelaces on
shoes until both look identical, duplicating
steps from one place to another; arranging
book on a shelf until they appear
symmetrical.
Fear of harm, illness: Repeating; endless
streams of different question; reading and
rereading sentences, paragraphs; erasing and
erasing words or numbers; repeatedly
sharpening pencils.
Number: Counting; repeatedly counting up to
a particular “magic” number.
Scrupulosity (fear of doing or having done
something evil): Penance; repetitively saying
mental prayers, mantras.
Other compulsive behaviors:
reassurance-seeking.
Avoidance,
Program/Service
Needs of Students
who are Gifted and
OCD:
Suggestions for teachers
Try to accommodate situations and behaviors that
are related to the OCD: such as tardiness or
incomplete work.
Try to be sensitive to the psychosocial needs of
the student with OCD:
• Identify strengths and talents; point them
out to the student.
• Structure class activities so that students
with OCD are not isolated
• Designate one school employee as the
student’s safe person at school
• Be open to assigning the student with
OCD to teachers who are empathic to
child’s needs
• Teach basic social skills to students who
need them; rehearse the skills
• Help student develop strategies for
dealing with negative social situations
• Encourage the student to participate in
outside social activities
Keep the lines of communication with parents,
discuss progress frequently.
Educate peers about OCD when symptoms are
conspicuous in the school setting.
• Provide students with general information
• Allow the student with OCD to do a
presentation on OCD for classmates
Strategies for
Differentiating
Instruction for
students who are
Gifted and OCD:
For school-aged children with OCD the weigh
can be enormous. Young people who engage
in extensive bedtime or morning rituals, for
example, may be exhausted in school
because they did not get enough sleep. OCD
can exact a heavy toll on academic
performance. Obsessions can be extremely
intrusive and may interfere with normal
thinking or information processing.
Ways to help:
• Teach student about learning
strategies.
• Help student identify a strategy
that works for them.
• Help student set short-term goals
• Set small steps to accomplish a
task, such as taking a test, writing
a story, completing math
assignments.
• Emphasis student’s strengths yet
work on correcting weaknesses.
• Develop cues with the student that
will help s/he refocus on task
• Be flexible with deadlines for
turning in assignments.