For children with ADHD, school can be challenging. Here’s how to secure accommodations to help them feel confident and supported.
If your child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), school may be a more challenging experience than other activities. Children with ADHD might struggle to focus on lessons, sit in class for long periods, and complete assignments on time. Children with ADHD are protected under Section 504, a federal law ensuring children with disabilities are eligible for accommodations under an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). An IEP is a specialized plan created for students with disabilities that guarantees them classroom accommodations. This experience may affect their confidence and comfort in school. Still, there are ways to help your child succeed by getting accommodations to help them feel supported in school. Approximately 9.4% of children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with ADHD. Many students with ADHD report difficulties with school given their ADHD symptoms. With an IEP, there are many ways caregivers and teachers can work together to support students with ADHD. Here are six ways to help your child with ADHD succeed in school. With ADHD, many students may find completing timed exams very difficult. Being easily distracted, trouble sitting still, and other common ADHD symptoms can contribute to extra pressures during test-taking times. Having extra time to finish tests can be helpful and allowing students to take breaks as needed. Providing choices in tests, such as choosing between a written essay, oral report, online quiz, or hands-on project, can also be useful in helping students with ADHD succeed. Allowing a student to take tests in a different room that is quiet, has few distractions, and lets them move around without interrupting other students can also help ensure a child with ADHD’s success during test times. Trouble with focus is a common experience for people experiencing ADHD. Students with ADHD can get easily distracted during class time, missing key information or not completing assignments. It can be helpful to seat students with ADHD in a classroom that has minimal distractions. Seating students with few windows, near the teacher’s desk, or in another place with fewer distractions can help students with ADHD maintain focus. It’s helpful to pair the student with a peer who’s a good role model and help model appropriate behavior and keep a child with ADHD on task and focused. For students with ADHD, engaging assignments can help improve a child’s ability to focus. Checking in with the student ahead of time to ensure they understand clearly what they need to do is an important strategy in helping children with ADHD complete assignments. Breaking down larger assignments can help students with ADHD feel less overwhelmed, increasing focus and attention. Providing students with tasks that are somewhat challenging but still doable can be a great way to keep a student’s interest. Similarly, working on a computer or a tablet can also be visually interesting. It’s important that students with ADHD receive help managing their time, in and out of the classroom. Many students with ADHD can struggle with time management and staying organized. Forgetting to do homework, trouble staying on task, and other challenges are common for children with ADHD. Providing extra warnings before transitions and changes in routines throughout the day can help children with ADHD stay on task and flow through their schedules more easily. Setting a timer for in-class work can help students know how much time they have to complete their work. It’s common for children with ADHD to become deeply absorbed in activities they find interesting, and they may need extra assistance and time to shift their attention to their next task. Using organizational tools, such as a homework folder or personal planner, helps limit the number of things the child has to track. Assisting a child with ADHD in using these tools can help them organize assignments and remember when they need to turn them in. For children with ADHD, paying attention for long periods of time takes extra effort and can become very tiring. Allowing students with ADHD to take breaks during class time can greatly improve their focus and enthusiasm. Taking breaks as needed can help students with ADHD reset after sitting for long periods. Also, allowing students to exercise lightly, like walking around the classroom, can help increase their concentration. Providing extra warnings before transitions and changes in routines can also help children with ADHD maintain focus. Many students with ADHD struggle with feeling confident in the classroom. Being sensitive to the influence of ADHD on emotions, such as self-esteem issues or difficulty regulating feelings, can help children with ADHD feel seen and supported by teachers as well as caregivers and parents. Providing praise or incentives for good classroom behavior can help keep a student with ADHD motivated. Because many students with ADHD can have issues in school, it’s important to provide frequent feedback and consistent encouragement as positive reinforcement when they meet goals. For teachers, communicating daily with parents about progress through a daily report card can help students with ADHD stay on track. If your child has ADHD, it’s important to get them needed accommodations to help them succeed in school. Most children with ADHD are not enrolled in special education classes but do need extra assistance daily. Getting an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for your child is an essential first step to ensure they receive support. Alternatively, a 504 Plan provides services and changes to the learning environment at school to meet the needs of a child with ADHD as adequately as other students. IEPs provide individualizedspecial education services to meet the unique needs of the child. Usually, the first place to start to get an IEP for your child is the school counselor. The guidance counselor can walk you through the process of getting your child accommodations. If you’d like to find accommodations for your child but aren’t sure where to start, you can visit the CDC’s official hub for classroom strategies for students with ADHD. Due to common ADHD symptoms like forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, and a short attention span, school can be a challenging experience for a child with ADHD. However, special accommodations can give students with ADHD the tools to be successful. This article provides some common classroom adjustments with an IEP or a 504 Plan, but there are many more accommodations that you can request for your child. Requesting accommodations for your child can give them the support they need to succeed in school and feel more confident in their academics.
Students with ADHD are eligible for services and an individual accommodation plan under Section 504 if they have significant difficulty learning in school due to ADHD impairments. Once it is determined that a student is eligible for services, the next step is to develop a 504 Plan which often includes a written list of specific accommodations, supplementary aids, and related services that will be provided to the student in school.
The purpose of these accommodations is to ensure that the individual educational needs of the student with disabilities are met as adequately as the needs of those students without disabilities. There are actually two federal laws that address the educational needs of students with disabilities—Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (or simply Section 504) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (also known as IDEA). Section 504 and IDEA guarantee that students with disabilities have access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) that is comparable to the education available to non-disabled students.
The definition of a disability is much broader under Section 504 than under IDEA, so more students tend to be eligible for services under Section 504. Most students with a 504 Plan are served in the general education classroom. Often these are the students who have milder impairments and do not need the intensity of special education but could benefit from extra supports, accommodations, academic and behavioral adjustments, and modifications in the regular educational curriculum. This includes extended times on tests for students with ADHD. A 504 Plan also tends to be a much faster, easier procedure for obtaining accommodations and supports since IDEA has stricter eligibility criteria and regulations.
Both laws require the placement of a child with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. IDEA requires an individualized educational plan (IEP) with educational goals for the student and specifically designed special education, instruction, and related services that the school is responsible for providing in order to help the student reach those goals. Section 504 does not require a written IEP, but it does require a plan of reasonable services and accommodations for the student with disabilities. The first step in developing a 504 Plan is to identify how the student's disability is affecting learning and impairing academic performance and then to determine the specific instruction supports and accommodations that are necessary. These accommodations should significantly reduce or eliminate the effects of a student's disability in the educational setting. Symptoms of ADHD can affect each person in quite varying ways, and so a 504 Plan must be tailored to her individual strengths, learning style, behavioral challenges, and educational needs. Chris Zeigler Dendy, M.S., is a highly regarded expert in the ADHD and education field. She is also the author of "Teaching Teens With ADD, ADHD, and Executive Function Deficits." In addition to inattention, Dendy identifies several areas that can be challenging for students with ADHD in the educational setting including:
If your child is experiencing any of these learning challenges, it is important that they are addressed in their 504 Plan. Also, keep in mind that approximately 25 to 50% of students with ADHD may also have a specific learning disability. Common learning disabilities seen alongside ADHD include disabilities in reading, math, spelling, and written expression. These accommodations are often helpful for students with ADHD. Your child's 504 Plan might include some of these. Depending on a student's individual needs related services may include speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, assistive technology, counseling, as well as training in study strategies, organizational skills, and time management. The types of modifications available for students with ADHD include adjustments to testing format and delivery. Students may be permitted the following, for example:
Modifications in the classroom and homework assignments may include shortened assignments to compensate for the amount of time it takes to complete, extended time to complete assignments, reduced amount of written work, or breaking down assignments and long-term projects into segments with separate due dates for completion of each segment. Students may also be allowed to dictate or tape-record responses, use a computer for written work, or do oral reports or hands-on projects to demonstrate the learning of the material.
Teaching methods may be modified to provide multisensory instruction, visual cues, and hands- onities, highlight or underline important parts of a task, cue student in on key points of the lesson, or provide guided lecture notes. Outlines and study guides may be offered, along with reductions in the demands on memory, teaching memory skills such as mnemonics, visualization, oral rehearsal, and repetitive practice, use books on tape, assistance with organization, prioritization, and problem-solving. Class schedules may also be adjusted by scheduling those classes that require most mental focus at the beginning of school day, adding in regular breaks for the student throughout the day to allow for physical movement and "brain rest," or adjustments to the nonacademic time. Adjustments to grading, like modifying weight given to exams, breaking test down into segments, and grading segments separately, partial credit for late homework with full credit for make-up work may also be appropriate. Preferential seating that's away from distractions—away from the door, window, pencil sharpener or distracting students, near the teacher, or a quiet place to complete schoolwork or tests can be helpful. Seating the student by a good role model/classroom "buddy" and appointing "row captains" or "homework buddies" who remind students to write down assignments and who collect work to turn in to the teacher should also be considered. Students should be offered assistance with note-taking, providing the student with a copy of class notes, peer assistance with note-taking, audio taping of lectures. For distracted students, one-on-one tutoring and organizational assistance (including teacher/school representative meeting with the student at the end of each class or end day to check that homework assignments are written completely in homework notebook and needed books are in the backpack, providing organizational folders and planners, color coding) can make a big difference.
It's important to note that students with ADHD may require extended time for testing, especially those students who tend to retrieve and process information at a slower speed. The use of positive behavior management strategies (including frequent monitoring, feedback, prompts, redirection, and reinforcement) can help students maintain positive motivation. Teachers should provide clear and simple directions for homework and class assignments by repeating directions, posting homework assignments on the board, and supplementing verbal instructions with visual/written instructions. An extra set of books for the student to keep at home, along with highlighted textbooks and workbooks will help ADHD students stay on task. Setting up a system of communication (such as a notebook for a weekly progress report, regular emails, or phone calls) between the parents and teacher/school representative helps keep everyone informed about the student's progress or difficulties. Parents should also be notified of homework and project assignments and due dates so they can follow-up with the student at home. |