Final Paper Report - CSS

1 Analysis and Intervention of Learning Problem Cirelys Santiago Seda Empire State College PSYC 3100 Learning and Memory Prof. Brittanie Jackson October 20, 2023

2 Analysis and Intervention of Learning Problem Ann is a 24-year-old woman who has been identified with ADHD. She has been medicated before and due to the rhythm of her life she struggles in continuously staying aligned with her treatment as well as she feels it does not work nor help. She is a mother of three children, two boys and one girl. She is also currently in university studying education. In University Ann often finds herself fidgeting, daydreaming, angry outbursts, unproductive, impulsive, disorganized etc. Ann's husband has suggested she sees a professional for her disruptive behaviors. Her husband has reported some issues with Ann stating that she does not pay attention when her children ask their mother to play with them or make them breakfast. Ann begins to recite her own thoughts paying no attention to the needs of her children and sometimes changes the subject because she is easily distracted. She begins to sing lullabies and dance around even while her children are trying to get her attention. Her husband also stated that his wife Ann lacks organization. She often leaves dirty dishes in the sink for days and forgets to separate the clean laundry from the dirty one and even mixes and matches clothes. She also always does her schoolwork before or after due dates, she is considered inconsistent with university work. She also does not keep track of her schedules for the week of making sure the kids are safe and healthy. The responsibility often falls on her husband, though her husband loves and admires her, he is concerned for the safety of both his wife and children. As they are still fairly young. His last biggest concern for his wife is her impulsivity and hyperactivity. She is described as easily agitated and erupts spontaneous behaviors, she is very forgetful and lacks attention, also sometimes has poor hygiene and is uneasy with change. She is often disoriented in completing daily tasks among other things. It seems that Ann's irritability and aggression is a part

4 strategies that deal with the cognitive disorder that affects her learning and memory skills. CBT has been shown to be effective with patients who have ADHD who also have medicated treatment as well as those who partake in behavioral therapy on its own. Furthermore, although psychopharmacology is considered the first-line treatment of adults with ADHD, it is now recognized that medication alone may be insufficient. Thus, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a promising approach. (Auclair et al., 2016). The objective with this behavioral approach is to help individuals like Ann in improving their abilities to redirect their attention span, control radical impulses, positively reinforce emotional and psychical manifestations, develop functional organizational skills that include balanced routines and lastly, to help them build relationships with boundaries. Such as areas like school, work, family home, friendships, marriage, parenting etc. Intervention Strategy To remediate the problem, we want to acknowledge that Ann has been medicated before, and we would like to re-introduce psychological medical treatment in adjustments to her previous medications along with counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy. Ann has expressed she has never done any type of therapy before and suggests it is worth a shot if it improves her symptoms that have been expressed by her and others. Analysis of Learning and Memory Principles Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Conditions of Learner Intervention Activities Learning & Memory Principles Expected Results Verification Method ● Adult: Early (20s). ● Female ● Psychoeducation: Learning of ADHD, identifying potential causes, ● Concept learning: hands-on activities with visual aids. ● Established comprehensi on. ● Increased ● Neurological genetic testing. ● Psychologica

5 ● Educatio nal level: Undergra duate ● Professio nal experienc e: 5+ years. related symptoms. ● Implementing time and organizational activities like surveys, washing hands, walking a lap around the building, building cognitive puzzles. ● Challenging behavior strategies: setting attainable goals, positive self- talk/monitoring. ● Communication: Building relationships (friendship, martial, familiar, professional etc). ● Stress management: Typical. Refer to meditation, breathing exercises, and soft movement. ● Cognitive Behavioral Therapy {CBT}: exploring areas of distraction, irritation, triggers and redirecting into manageable stressors. Leaving space for personal time for relief as well. ● Medication if absolutely necessary. ● Positive/negative reinforcement for such agitating and distracting behaviors. ● Problem regulation: teaching people with ADHD how to identify problems and create solutions, also helps them with the decision- making process. ● Repetition: Helps cognitive function in areas of learning such as language development, verbal communication, breaking lots of information into small bits and pieces. ● Group work. ● Solo intervention: identifying your weak spots, asking for help, implementing taught strategies. awareness ● Acknowledg ement of feelings both of their own and others. ● Critical thinking ● Positive self- esteem. ● Cooperation with talk therapy and medications. l evaluations. ● Special Education IEPs ● Behavioral observation. ● Monthly assessments.

7 pharmaceuticals until absolutely necessary and even so if this person is medicated, to work around the output attitude not the disorder. A lot of people learn to cope with these symptoms in disruptive behaviors before needing to self-medicate. CBT is a wonderful therapeutic option for children and adults. In these sessions through cognitive behavioral therapy, trained professionals provide cognitive restructuring, behavior modification, and skill training. These sessions give people a safe place to freely express themselves with gentle correction and smooth guidance. In a school environment for students who have this condition there must be intervention plans in place through educated professionals including the school board of education. These plans are referred to as IEPs, 504's apart from the IDEA act. This differs from the ADA act. IDEA are grades from kindergarten to twelfth grade and are implemented for public school education systems, sometimes private as well. The ADA refers to outside circumstances, colleges, public places, work, churches etc. This is to ensure that racism, prejudice, and discrimination is not held against people with disabilities, both are federal laws in place to protect people with a multitude of conditions. The IDEA act is essential for students in school as they are at a disadvantage with their learning conditions that need extra assistance and tools to completely achieve the task at hand. In CBT the learning and memory principles applied are based on coordination and reinforcement. Hands-on activities allow students to practice flexibility, time organization, and accuracy. An article going on about how to effectively treat students with ADHD in applying learning and memory principles calls for deconstructing Tasks: Break tasks into smaller units. Limit amount of work per page, cover up part of the work on a page, allow extra time for completing tasks, provide work breaks, allow students to use a computer to type or to use speech-to-text software, reduce the length of written assignments. (Mary, 2017). It continues to mention other types of strategies to deal with students who are nonverbal as this also is a

8 manifestation of ADHD in people. More activities are mentioned as entertaining, like music and video games. These are subjected to help the students in creating a non-distracted environment and gaming is used for active engagement with feedback. (Mary, 2017). The expected rationale for success is to identify and treat the symptoms of the students. Knowing that ADHD performs differently in each person, subjecting to scientific principles as well as human morality, we can help make their circumstances adequate for their adaptive needs. Reducing symptoms like over activity, non-verbalism, tantrums, aggressiveness, depressive and anxious episodes. Our goal is to improve those symptoms by targeting learning and memory principles in school and regular world environments. These principles are also followed up by psychologists, psychiatrists, school counselors, teachers, parents, friends, care givers, anyone can be trained in aided someone with special needs, but the important part is to be gentle and freeing, remembering these individuals need space to learn and grow without feeling confined or constantly corrected. To verify the intervention process by success would be by continuously monitoring it with professionals and parental figures if this person is a minor. As for adults, some ADHD people have legal guardians while others can legally represent themselves. Relating back to the textbook as well we see principles applied in learning and memory are meaningful learning from chapter five. In chapter eleven of Human Learning by Jeanne Ellis Ormrod we see that apart from brain activity, we use the embodiment of our hands and legs for learning too. The example given is when someone throws a baseball, we activate those parts of the brain that control the arm and hand muscles involved in throwing even if we aren't actually moving those muscles. (Ormrod, 2020, p.339). This principle is applied in activities like the ones mentioned above, like practicing writing, the use of technology, the organization of time and coordination. These are just a few of intervention activities that can be applied to Ann and people who are similar to her. Just as much

10 References Auclair, V., Harvey , P.-O., & Lepage, M. (2016). [Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the Treatment of ADHD in Adults]. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27570962/ Austerman , J. (2018, November). ADHD and behavioral disorders: Assessment, management, and an update from DSM-5. Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26555810/ Gutman, S. A., Wolff, S., Retig, Y., Swirnow, H., Herzog, M., & Balasubramanian, S. (2020). Effectiveness of a tailored intervention for women with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ADHD symptoms: A randomized controlled study. The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32078512/ Huang, F., Qian, Q., & Wang, Y. (2015, April 14). Cognitive behavioral therapy for adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Clinical Trials. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25873090/ Mary, W. (2017, July). Training & Technical Assistance Center - William & Mary School of Education. Classroom Interventions for Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder Considerations Packet. https://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/documents/packets/adhd.pdf Safren, S. A., Otto, M. W., Sprich , S., Winett, C. L., Wilens , T. E., & Biederman , J. (2004, August 23). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for ADHD in medication-treated adults with continued symptoms . Behaviour Research and Therapy. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005796704001366