Empowering Students with ADHD: The Role of Customized Accommodations
ADHD isn’t caused by laziness or lack of discipline. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that runs in families and impacts a person’s thinking, feelings, and behavior. It’s a recognized medical condition that affects 9.6% of all school-aged children in the US, according to the CDC. ADHD can only be diagnosed by a medical professional using strict criteria outlined in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Whether the student receives this diagnosis or not, any behaviors or symptoms that present a challenge to learning are worth looking into.
Before I continue, I want to be clear that I am not an expert in diagnosing or treating ADHD, nor have I ever been a traditional educator. I do however have 20+ years of experience training adults both formally and informally in an occupational environment. Yup, I was the one who made people sit through those boring workplace safety talks each year. But wait, my talks were anything but boring and my focus was always on comprehension not collecting signatures on an attendance roster. I am a Certified Instructional Trainer (CIT) with advanced knowledge of how different people learn. Most of all, I am passionate about taking a creative approach around barriers that can hold people back from learning and applying new information. Oh, and I also have ADHD.
Over the years I’ve become an expert on reasonable accommodations for workers with visible and hidden disabilities. Requesting a reasonable accommodation for a disability follows the same process for adults in the workplace as it does for students of all ages in an academic environment. Afterall, disabilities don’t just go away after graduation, and neither do those important coping skills.
Common Traits of Students with ADHD
For many students with ADHD, school can be overwhelming and frustrating. Restlessness, Distractibility, Impulsiveness and Procrastination are just a few roadblocks they face. Aside from the impact ADHD has on academics, it can also affect the social aspects of school and play. Frequent interrupting, trouble taking turns, rigid thinking, irritability and a tendency to hold grudges are all common traits for people with ADHD.
The good news is that ADHD can become a strength for many students if they can identify and understand the symptoms of their condition and use them to their advantage. This isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
First of all, every student with ADHD is unique in that they may experience some symptoms and not others and certain symptoms could be more predominant. This is why it’s important to focus on the specific symptoms of that individual, how they manifest and what situations may be triggering. It’s also critical to be aware of any coping skills that already seem to be working to mitigate these issues or lessen their impact on daily life.
Requesting Accommodations for ADHD
I can’t stress this enough, every person is different so there is no one-size-fits-all solution to accommodating the needs of a student with ADHD. Requesting academic accommodations for mental health and behavioral disorders is more common than ever and educators are beginning to recognize how helpful these small changes can be for the individual and the overall classroom environment. Below are some common issues faced by students with ADHD and a few accommodations that may make a world of difference.
Hyperactivity
Hyperactivity and fidgeting can be channeled in a healthy way.
Consider fidget toys and even fidget clairs (yup, that's actually a real thing)
Time to move their bodies helps get the hyperactive energy out before it comes out on its own.
Lead the room in a short stretching exercise or set a timer and have them run in place. For older students who might roll their eyes at such an activity (although you’d be surprised how well this can be received by adults who expect learning to be boring) dismissing the class for a 5 minute break to grab a snack or use the bathroom can be enough.
Sending a hyperactive student to run an errand can also be a good trick as long as it doesn’t have a negative impact on their ability to refocus or take them out of the classroom while others continue learning. On the other hand, sometimes allowing a hyperactive student to leave the classroom during the lesson to experience a change of environment can be beneficial to everyone. Offering a method that allows the student to catch up on the missed material could be a reasonable accommodation.
Distractibility & Hyperfocus
Having a short attention span makes it difficult to concentrate on all forms of input including lectures, reading, experiments and working in small groups. Alternatively, students with ADHD may experience episodes of hyperfocus making it difficult to break away from an activity and move on to the next thing. This can cause extreme frustration and resistance when the student feels forced to switch gears. It can also limit their learning process if they are interrupted while they are “in the zone” It could be reasonable to request that all students be encouraged to compare notes with a buddy or debrief in small groups in case they missed something.
Location, location, location! It’s not just for real estate. Setting a student up with preferential seating that is close to the teacher and away from high traffic areas. I find that taking a front seat has always helped me stay focused, hear the lesson clearly and view any visual aids. I still make a point to arrive early to meetings and conferences to get a good seat. For some reason, we all like to sit right up front for a music concert or theatrical event but when it comes to learning, we try to hide in the back. When teaching adults, I’ve been known to ask everyone in the back row to come forward and fill in all of the empty seats in the front. I find that I get much more engagement from the front row and the most reserved individuals tend to open up and share valuable experience on the topic.
Difficulty Understanding & Following Instructions
When it comes to assignments, a student might not stand a chance if they miss critical instructions or don’t fully understand what is expected. Keeping instructions simple and clear is always helpful. Providing examples of good and bad work can help students see where the bar has been set and strive for excellence. The use of pictures, graphs or any other visual aid can add context to the assignment and bring all the elements of learning together for a student who may have difficulty making those connections on their own.
Requesting that instructions be delivered out loud and in writing and then having the student repeat the instructions back in their own words can ensure they fully comprehend the assignment and are set up for success from the start. The instructor could decide to do this for the whole class or privately with the individual. Either way, the student with ADHD is getting what they need.
Resistance to Change
For a student with ADHD, and for many students for that matter, change can be difficult and trigger symptoms and behaviors that can be very detrimental to the individual and others involved in that change. Providing the individual with a schedule for daily routines and activities or a structured lesson plan for the semester lets the student know what's coming up next and when. It also helps them to identify any missed information so they know exactly what gaps they need to fill in. One very important accommodation request that many people don’t think to ask for is a “heads up”. Letting a student know ahead of time that changes to their schedule, environment or expectations are coming gives them a chance to process and prepare for the change.
Impulsiveness
With ADHD, the mouth is often engaged before the brain. Students with ADHD might have a tendency to blurt out answers, respond impulsively on quizzes and tests and react with emotion and often disrespect toward educators.
In some cases, impulsivity can be effectively managed in the classroom by requesting the development and implementation of a “behavior plan”. This could include positive rewards for appropriate behavior, a non-verbal “signal” to get the students attention or providing extra “brain breaks”. Behavior concerns of all types should be talked through calmly and privately. Calling a student out for inappropriate behavior or issuing discipline can be damaging to their self-esteem and may even encourage the behavior. You know what they say… negative attention is still attention.
Forgetfulness & Disorganization
We can all be forgetful at times. A student with ADHD might routinely forget assignment details, due dates, leave their books at home/school or encounter the dreaded “I did the assignment but forgot to turn it in”. Aside from inhibiting the learning process, these forgetful behaviors can negatively affect grades and put them at a disadvantage later in life.
There are a myriad of tools out there to help people get organized from day planners, color coding and even pulling in an organizational expert. Whether you are trying to clean up a messy closet or take notes during a lecture, organization is a skill that’s important to have. Students with ADHD may not have this skill intuitively or may be resistant to organizational techniques that are forced on them. Individuals with ADHD should not be afraid to get creative with accommodations that can address their unique areas of disorganization. Some solutions could be a second set of books to keep at home, a typed outline of the lesson plan to help with note taking or providing containers and compartments that help them keep their desk or locker clean.
Procrastination
For some students with ADHD, they have trouble self-motivating until the pressure is put on them by someone else. Waiting until the last minute can lead to sub-quality work or incomplete assignments. Long time periods from when the information is absorbed until it is processed and applied leaves a lot of room for error.
Academic opportunities should present an equal playing field. When a student with ADHD carelessly completes an assignment or turns things in late, excusing that behavior presents an unfair advantage over other students who do complete their assignments thoughtfully and on time. This is not the point of an accommodation and quite frankly, it would likely be considered an “unreasonable request”. An alternative may be to give credit for the work done instead of taking away points for late or incomplete assignments (with a plan for improvement). Requesting that larger assignments be broken up into stages and given their own informal deadlines could help a student manage their time and gauge if they are on track or falling behind.
Timed Situations
These can be disastrous for a student with ADHD. From randomly calling on students for an answer to the administering of standardized tests, the pressure of a ticking clock seems to instill panic, paralysis and/or perfectionism.
Allowing understanding to be demonstrated in other ways could be a solution to test anxiety. Administering an oral exam could allow the student to talk through their answer instead of being forced to pick from multiple choices. This also allows for clarification if there is any confusion in the way the question is worded. Minimizing the number of questions per page or grouping similar topics together can help a student with ADHD approach the exam in smaller pieces that are less overwhelming.
Requesting extra time or a quieter space for tests is one of the most common accommodation requests for students from kindergarten to grad school. Because these requests are so common, many institutions may already have an abbreviated process for requesting this particular accommodation. For example, requesting 50% more time to take the SAT test might only require proof of diagnosis where other accommodation requests might involve more interaction.
In summary, every student has a right to an education that affords equal opportunities and equal assessment. Symptoms of ADHD can present unique challenges but they can also foster inventive thinking, creativity and resilience. By understanding the unique aspects of the individuals condition and requesting the right accomodations, ADHD can be a SUPERPOWER!
REFERENCES
29 CFR, Part 825, Subpart A, (100, 104, 110-113, 123). Coverage Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-C/part-825/subpart-A
28 CFR, Part 36, Subpart C, (301-302) Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_regulations.htm#a302
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Resources
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/school-success.html
https://askjan.org/disabilities/Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder-AD-HD.cfm
https://add.org/recommended-accommodations-college-students-adhd/
