Students with ADHD can be highly successful in school, especially when they learn in schools ready to understand them. Below are three classroom-possible strategies for supporting students with ADHD.
Tag Archives: ADHD
Listen to youth. Improve outcomes.
In this case, the youth has committed to a shared goal of increasing organization. As school adults, we have the power to support them in achieving their goal, or to prevent them from growing by insisting on strategies we have already tried and the student rejects. Instead, I hope that our team listens to what the youth has said, and that we show up for them in the way they have asked us to.
Support students with ADHD through play-based coaching.
Combined with in-the-moment feedback and support from families, schools can create exceptional learning environments for all students while offering students with ADHD effective and respectful support.
Classroom-possible, evidence-based supports for children with ADHD
One of the best researched and most effective interventions for ADHD is medication. However, medication is not an option for every child, and schools can’t require families to seek a diagnosis or a prescription. Since schools generally can’t control whether a family chooses medication as a treatment for ADHD, often the most effective, evidence-based supports for children with ADHD involve “classroom-possible” strategies that are good for all students, yet demonstrate the most benefit for students with ADHD.
- Play-based skills coaching with peers
- Recess at the beginning of the day, and ideally throughout instructional time
- Positive reinforcement paired with clear, predictable expectations for behavior and classroom routines
- Explicit training in organizational skills