Scouts with learning disibilities.

[Gutterbird]

I have several young scouts who just joined or will so be crossing over into Boy Scouts with learning disabilities such as ADD or ADHA. Some are on meds while others are not. The issue that I am having is that these boys can not sit still, do not listen to directions, or become fidgety. I set simple goals for these boys (baby steps) and work with them to help them achieve these goals. It takes constant adult supervision when working with these boys. My big concern is camping trips and outings. I do not believe I can leave these boys without any type of adult supervision. We teach them the buddy system, but how fast they forget. On a recent day outing, we had a scout with ADHD decide to go off on his own. His buddy stated he was here a second ago. It took us an hour to find him. At some point I feel more like a baby sitter than a scoutmaster. My SPL, PL, and Troop Guides have been awesome working with these boys, but are getting frustrated. Several of the other adult leaders are feeling the same and can not spend the entire weekend baby sitting. I do not want to exclude these boys from any activities and I will never give up on them. I feel like I am to the point though where I have to talk with the parents and tell them that they must be present on our outings and weekend campouts.

 

How do other troops and scoutmasters handle kids with ADD, ADHD, or other types of learning disabilities?

 

[artjrk]

Speaking as a Scoutmaster and a parent with a son who in Scouts who also happens to be ADHD and on meds. Also my wife is a Special Education teacher. Don't do anything different for them. As they are growing they are learning how to make adaptations to compensate for their disability. If you do it for them, they will never learn themselves. Let the child take the consequence for his actions and he will learn how to compensate. Sometimes watch from afar is easier than trying to be hands on.

 

Yes, It was hard as heck as a Den Leader and involved removing him from several meetings. But now as a HS freshman he is one of the harder working and reliable ones in the Troop.

[Gutterbird]

That is good information, thanks for the reply. How do you handle the suppervision issue on campouts? I am getting concerned with summer camp just around the corner.

[artjrk]

Work with the youth leaders to help them "Stay on Task" which is probably the hardest thing for them to do on their own being as they are ADD and ADHD. I know at camp its hard but if you can, set them up in a way to have the least amount of distractions when they need to be focused on something. Don't isolate though, keep them part of the group.

[PhillyScout]

Something that I have observed as both a leader and a member of camp staff is that parents tend to take their kids off of their add/adhd meds when they send them off to summer camp. My point: taking them off meds isnt going to do them any good. Talk to the parents and ensure that they will be sending the meds with their kids.

[NE-IV-88-Beaver]

One thing that you might want to check on is whether the boys are still on their meds over the weekends. We found that some of our parents decided that their sons needed a break and didn't give them their meds on weekends. This made for a very different little Johnny than the one that we saw at troop meetings. After talking to the parents, most of them saw the wisdom of continuing to give their sons their meds on trip weekends. Some that didn't were eventually requested to go on trips with their sons although this was a rarity.

 

Scouting is an important part of these boy's lives so we don't want to isolate them from the program. Are any of your assistants trained in working with youth with this type of problem? If not, it may be worth your while to seek a volunteer to take some type of special training.

 

Over the years, we have had a number of boys with ADD and ADHD. Most of them,looking back on it,were a joy to be around as we watched them develop into fine young men.

[jr56]

I have encountered several scouts like this. If the issue becomes too severe, let the parents know that one of them will have to accompany their son on an outing. It is not fair to turn adult and junior leaders into babysitters.

[Engineer61]

As a parent of two boys, one with ADD (Scout) and one with ADHD (Athlete), I worry most about safety issues.

 

ADD/ADHD generally has a level of impulsiveness involved. The problem with impulsive behavior is that it is unpredictable to you and that the boy does not (cannot) envision the consequences of the behavior he is about to engage in.

 

Both of my boys are medicated. When on Scout trips, his medication is given to him. This is problematic in that the medication is designed to only be effective for 6-10 hours. After that, the Troop has to deal with him without medication.

 

For my athlete, I time his medication dosage (or augment it) to ensure that it is in effect during his events.

 

It is not an easy line to walk. At some point, the safety of the Scout and the Troop must outweigh the desire of the Scout or the Parents (or you).

[Gutterbird]

I think you hit the nail on the head with that last post. Safety of the boys are my main concern, I am very nervious about taking them on weekend campouts and more so our weeklong summer camp. There is no way I can supervise these boys 24/7 while at camp. Losing a boy for an hour on a recent outing confirms my concern. I really do need a parent to step up and assist.

[Engineer61]

To be completely honest, I have major apprehension about my Scout going on campouts and Scout summer camps. I usually sleep no more than 1-4 hours a night when he is out.

 

Generally, I don't believe that most of the SM's and ASM's have any idea (or training) how to deal with these kinds of issues when they come up.

[Mike F]

Gutterbird,

 

Tough challenge. Good job at addressing it up front.

 

Another thing is to consider the nature of the troop they join. Some troops do mostly base (or car) camping and all stay close. Others frequently send the patrols out by themselves with no adult supervision in the immediate area. Your sons will not be a good match for the latter.

 

As a leader, I get a medical briefing on each new scout and any time a scout has a change in condition. If he's on meds, we need to know what and why. Same for allergies, etc. This was a tough lesson learned after a new scout on powerful anti-psychotic drugs didn't take them one weekend. And we had no information in his medical forms about any of it because parent decided we didn't need to know. Now I'm very blunt about absolutely requiring this info.

 

Be up-front and you'll find a way to make it work.

[DeadSkunk]

Realize that a strong desire to help these boys might not be enough to overcome a lack of specialized training in their conditions. Depending on the severity of their conditions, you may need to ask a parent to attend the events with their son. Don't let it get to the point where other boys, leaders, and parents begin leaving your troop because they can no longer deal with it.

 

 

[dylfrick]

During the week long summer camp one of the best things to do is either make sure the medic knows about the scouts disability or let their counselors director know. If the counselor is an adult, you may be able to let them know directly, but the director is the best bet. Most summer camp staff (I know we were, and I've heard of others) take an instruction on dealing with scouts with disabilities, this helps out a lot. As a staff member, knowing why the scout runs off by himself and doesn't want to participate is a big big help. The directors will let their staff know on an as needed basis, this way it doesn't get out to the whole camp what the scouts disability is.

 

One good idea is to try and keep them busy, don't let the scouts mind wander. If need be ask him to do simple tasks for you, or ask him to be the PL over the week. This will give him something to occupy his time with. Granted, this does not always work, but it has worked in the past.

[SMT224]

We have had the best success with special needs Scouts by welcoming one of the parents in to the Troop as an ASM. This way the parent is there to give meds and give the Scout extra attention if necessary. Most of the time the parent stays as far away as possible from his or her son, but is there just in case.

 

After a number of camping trips with the parent in the background, the Scout can usually handle being on his own as he has become used to the Troop culture and the other Scouts. This "training" period seems to work better than tossing the special needs Scout in to the fray and then trying to repair damage after a bad experience when the kids goes out of control.

 

We once had a parent send his severely ADHD son to summer camp without meds to "see what would happen" without out telling anyone. Not a fun experience (he was actually tied to a tree by one of the merit badge counselors - wrong, but not surprising considering his way-out of control behavior). By Tuesday, when it was clear things were out of control, we had the parent drive the 3 hr one-way trip with meds.

 

After that unfortunate experience, we involve the parent of any special needs Scout immediately, and have them come on as many trips as necessary until the kid understands what kind of behavior is appropriate on Troop activities.

 

We now have two ADHD Scouts and three Aspbergers Scouts. They have integrated well into the Troop, and are no more outrageous than any other kid of that age. Their particular issues and behavior have been accepted and I think we are all better because they are in our Troop.

 

[Greaves]

Our council has a disabilities district, and every unit can call them for help. I know not everyone is so fortunate, but perhaps your council has resources available to you.

 

I'm a WDL with ADD, who has a 4th grade ADHD son. We're lots of fun at parties. As a parent, I would have zero problem attending every meeting, outing, and camping trip w my son. I know he can be difficult. He's learning to compensate for his natural inclination to dart off ahead.

 

He's had consequences--as a Bear, he got sent home from Cub Scout Day Camp for pushing a kid into the lake. He came home & copied out the Scout Law as an additional consequence, so he could understand what it is that Scouting is trying to acheive.

 

Be willing to call parents to collect their wayward youth when the behavior puts other people in danger. Speaking as a parent (not as a den leader) calling me to collect him tells me that things aren't going well. If he stays the week, or weekend, then I'm going to assume you're doing just fine, he's doing just fine, and everything's just fine.

 

If Mom & Dad don't know your concerns, they can't back you up.