Learning tips for children and young people with ADHD
People with ADHD face very special challenges at school. These tips will make learning easier.
At school
- Facilitate focus. Assign the child a seat close to the teacher, offer hearing protection or music.
- Respond to the child's needs. Visualise instructions, work can be done standing up, for example.
- Provide support when starting work. Help over the first hurdle(teacher goes round to the child again and asks: «Do you know what you have to do?»).
- Create structure. Plan together. When designing worksheets, make sure that the tasks are not too close together. Divide tasks into portions (cut worksheets apart for small children).
- Provide orientation. Provide the child with a timer so that they can see when it starts and how much time they have left.
- Create opportunities to retreat. For example, a corner in the classroom where children can retreat for a short time. Allow young people to pull up their hoods while studying.
With the homework
- Homework should not get out of hand. Set a limit with the teacher. If the child does XX minutes of concentrated homework, he/she may then stop. (Set the clock. If the child is looking out of the window and daydreaming: stop the clock. This only runs when the child is working). If you limit the homework and say to the child: «You can work for a maximum of 30 minutes», they will often automatically learn more quickly and with greater concentration.
- Pre-structure the homework with the child. Work out a plan of what needs to be done one after the other, preferably with a list to tick off. Plan breaks.
- Be flexible in terms of where you work. Perhaps the child learns better lying on the floor, bouncing on the exercise ball, running around or standing up.
- Take a breather for both of them if parents realise that they are about to get into an argument with their child. Things have often calmed down after 15 minutes and you can try again. If not, write a note to the teacher in the contact book.
- Get external relief. If the situation at home is very difficult (students from the neighbourhood? homework supervision at school?).
- Set priorities. And as parents, adopt the attitude: «The relationship with my child is more important to me than getting the worksheet done today.»
Increase in ADHD diagnoses in children
Overall, the number of ADHD diagnoses in children has risen in recent years. This is shown, for example, by a study conducted in 2023 by researcher Douglas McKechnie at University College London. According to this study, there are more diagnoses between the ages of six and nine in particular, as well as diagnoses in girls - in whom ADHD was not recognised for a long time.
Paediatrician Oskar Jenni, Co-Head of the Department of Developmental Paediatrics at the University Children's Hospital Zurich, has observed an increase in mild disorders in particular - and attributes this to the expectations of a meritocratic society: «If the pressure of expectations at school and at home increases, it is not the severe disorders that increase, but the mild ones. In addition, the expectations of what children must be able to do in first grade - in terms of independence and self-regulation - have risen massively over the last 30 years.»
In the organisation
- Tackle the daily paper chaos. 1. clear out the school bag together and put all the loose sheets in a pile. 2. stick in or organise loose worksheets. Meanwhile, letters to parents and exams can be signed. 3. the child starts homework.
- Systematically clear your head and create order. Assign each school subject to a colour. Purchase a trolley for school supplies in which each compartment has its own compartment and is labelled accordingly. This makes it easier for children to find their work materials at home.
- Loop in action sequences. Concentrate on one thing at a time. For example: Whenever the teacher writes the homework on the board, I write it down immediately. Or: Whenever I get off the bus, I check whether I have my bag with me. (It can take two to three months for an activity to become internalised).
- As parents, accept that the child is distracted. And that structure can only be trained to a certain extent.
Book tip
All the tips come from this book, which also contains many other practical tips:
Stefanie Rietzler, Fabian Grolimund: Erfolgreich lernen mit ADHS und ADS. The practical guide for parents. Hogrefe Verlag 2023, 304 pages, approx. 35 Fr.
