Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that can affect attention, focus, planning, and the ability to complete everyday tasks that others may find trivial.

For students, this can hamper their ability to work consistently in a classroom environment and may make it harder for them to complete their independent work and revision.

This article will help you understand what to expect when working with a student who has ADHD, and how you can adapt your teaching practice to help them get the most out of your lessons.

What to expect from a student with ADHD

ADHD is a diagnosis used to describe a range of differences in attention, self-regulation, and executive functioning. These differences can make it harder for someone to engage with tasks that feel overwhelming, difficult, or lacking in immediate reward. In these situations, a student with ADHD might show hyperactivity, struggling to sit still or commit to the task, or inattentiveness, such as procrastinating, daydreaming, fiddling with objects, or repeating verbal tics.

In the past, most people who received an ADHD diagnosis were those who displayed ‘obvious’ hyperactive symptoms, typically energetic boys who struggled to sit still in a classroom. However, this represents only a small fraction of students who have ADHD.

Other students with ADHD show subtler inattentive symptoms and may only receive a diagnosis when the stresses of exam periods bring these challenges to the forefront. This is especially the case for girls in education, who often first get misdiagnosed as having depression or anxiety, and may not receive their diagnosis until they are well into secondary school.

A young student is waving at her online tutor during an online tutoring session on her laptop.

This means that if you are tutoring a student with ADHD, they may have had their diagnosis for years, or they may have only just received their diagnosis in the middle of a stressful exam period. Most of the students I have tutored are in the latter category, as the students realise that they suddenly need a lot of intensive one-to-one support for their exams.

When starting work with a student who has ADHD, you should try to avoid bringing in any preconceptions about what ADHD should look like. Even if a student is aware that revising a topic is important and will benefit them in the long run, they may find it challenging to begin working on said topic without the necessary scaffolding and support. They might also flourish in a subject they find interesting and rewarding, but struggle to access the basics of another.

How to adapt sessions to support a student with ADHD

1. Structure sessions in short, focused segments

When planning sessions with students who have ADHD, you should aim to break up the sessions into smaller parts and tasks. Students can easily lose their focus if they feel like a session is getting repetitive, or if they feel that they aren’t making any progress.

2. Ask questions to maintain focus and check understanding

Ensure that you are never talking for too long, and ask questions as frequently as possible to check and assess understanding. Avoid generic yes/no questions like “Did you understand that?” and instead try to ask more specific ones, e.g., “How should we start this question?”. If possible, encourage students to write or type on the whiteboard to keep them physically engaged in the lesson.

3. Switch up topics

I also find that even the most academically inclined students with ADHD will struggle to keep working on the same topic for more than 40 minutes. Try to add breakpoints to your lessons every 20 minutes or so to bring in different topics, including recaps or questions that bridge the gap between multiple topics.

A female tutor wearing a headset is talking to a student during an online tutoring session.

4. Use diagrams and mind maps

Students with ADHD can also become easily overwhelmed if a concept or question has too many parts to take in all at once. When explaining a topic or working on a question, try to begin with a simple diagram or mind map on the screen. You can then add to and annotate it together as you work through the topic/problem. Having diagrams on the screen can also help students reorient themselves if they lose focus midway through a problem.

5. Break up large chunks of text

Students can also become overwhelmed when presented with walls of text, often missing crucial pieces of information that are buried within exam jargon. When working on virtual whiteboards, it can help to copy-paste parts of the question one section at a time to reduce cognitive load.

6. Underline key information in exam questions

Encourage students to read through exam questions one line at a time, underlining relevant keywords or numbers. They can then tick off the underlined pieces of information as they are used, which can help to reduce the number of things the student needs to keep in their head at once. It also provides a useful reference point if they get stuck later in the question, as they can look back to see if there is any underlined information they have yet to use.

A student is highlighting the keywords in a biology exam question.

7. Use bullet points to plan answers

Depending on the student’s writing ability, you might also want to encourage them to plan their written answers in bullet point format. In essay-based subjects, these can serve as a scaffold for longer responses, or they may suffice as a full answer in less wordy subjects. Using different colours on the whiteboard to break questions into parts can also improve focus and memory retention.

8. Help students create a revision plan

Once you have worked with a student for a while, they may also want or need your help with creating a revision plan. A clear, timetabled plan is particularly valuable for students with ADHD. Without one, they may gravitate towards revising material that they already understand well, while avoiding areas they find more difficult. Many also underestimate how much content they need to cover. This can lead to a complete roadblock on where to start, and may cause time to be wasted on smaller topics, whilst larger ones remain ignored.

The main strategy I have found to help with this is to ask students to print off the exam specification and then highlight each topic red, yellow, or green based on their confidence level. If they can then take a photo of that highlighted specification, you can work with them to prioritise red topics in lessons and assign yellow ones for independent study. Having an actual timetable and goal to move towards can be a great motivator, and also doubles as a good indicator of whether the student is going to finish revising in good time for the exam.

One thing to reiterate to students preparing for exams is that they should never leave revision to the last minute. This advice applies to all students, but students with ADHD are especially prone to delaying starting until the panic sets in before an exam.

A female student is studying for an exam using flashcards.

9. Encourage students to revise topics as they go along

Encourage students to revise and make notes as you go through the lessons. I find that flashcards are invaluable for students with ADHD to help sort and compartmentalise content into manageable chunks. Because organisation can be a challenge, I always recommend that they use a lever-arch binder and plastic wallets to file notes by topic and subject. Others may prefer a digital filing system on Google Drive or OneDrive, which can be especially useful for students with poor handwriting.

10. Use PMT Education’s platform features to support learning

Lastly, if you’re a tutor with PMT Education, make sure to take full advantage of the platform’s features, including the LessonSpace whiteboards. Students with ADHD often benefit from knowing what to expect, so you can add lesson plans for those who would find it useful. In addition, students can access the whiteboards of completed lessons or watch lesson recordings to revisit your explanations and consolidate their learning.

When teaching students with ADHD, ensure that you bring as few preconceptions as possible to your lessons and create a supportive environment where students feel comfortable learning and improving. These students will require more granular planning and support than their peers, but with your help, they will be able to flourish.

Further Reading:

Avatar photo

Lewis M.

Lewis is a fully qualified physics and maths teacher with over six years' experience working with A Level students. They are also a tutor at PMT Education and specialise in working with students who have anxiety, ADHD, and autism.

  • Copy URL Copy URL

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment