ADHD at School: Teacher Resources and Tips

How teachers can help ADHD students shine in the classroom by fostering structure, routine, good communication, and fun.

by Chris Zeigler Dendy

Teachers often determine the success or failure of students with attention deficit disorder (ADD ADHD). Next to parents, teachers are the most influential people in a student’s life. When a teacher conveys the message that a child is capable and worthwhile, the child believes it.

Here’s how a teacher can establish a supportive, structured classroom that will encourage learning and boost self-esteem with thoughtful ADHD teacher resources.

• Establish a positive relationship with students. Greet them by name as they enter the classroom or when calling on them in class. Create a class bulletin board for posting students’ academic and extracurricular interests, photographs, artwork, and/or accomplishments.

• Post class rules. With input from students, establish short, simple rules. State them in positive terms that convey what you want students to do.

Instead of saying, “Stop talking so loudly when you come into class,” say, “When you come into class, check the assignment on the board and start working quietly.” Or, “Sit down first and then you may talk quietly with your neighbor until I start teaching.”

• Make a routine for the classroom. This will help students with ADD stay on task. Homework should always be written on the board. “Row captains” should check to see that assignments are written and that completed work is picked up. Students should check in with the classroom aide at the end of the day to make sure they understand the homework assignment and what’s required of them.

• Assign work that suits the student’s skill level. Students will avoid classwork that is too difficult or too long.

• Provide frequent, positive feedback. Students with ADD respond best to feedback that is immediate. Use positive comments, such as “You’re doing a great job” or “Now you’ve got it.” If a student’s answer is incorrect, say, “Let’s talk this through” or “Does that sound right to you?”

• Offer choices. Students who are given choices for completing an activity produce more work, are more compliant, and less negative. Establish, for instance, a list of 15 activity choices for practicing spelling words. The student can earn a total of 100 points by choosing four or five tasks with various point values: writing words on flash cards (20 points); using them in a sentence (40); or air-writing words (20).

• Ask questions rather than reprimand. If the student misbehaves in class, ask, “Is that a good choice or a bad choice?” The student will get the message that his behavior is inappropriate.

• Provide visual reminders. Students with ADD respond well to visual cues. For instance, demonstrate a skill, such as essay writing, on an overhead projector or on the board. Leave key points about a topic written on the board. Post important concepts on brightly colored poster board around the room. Use color to highlight important facts on handouts.

• Give appropriate supervision. Children with ADD require more supervision than their peers because of their delayed maturity, forgetfulness, and disorganization. Coping strategies include: pairing the student with a classmate who can remind him of homework and classwork; using student partners to team up on a project; involving classroom aides as much as you can during and after class.

• Increase active class participation. Group strategies include asking students to write their answers on dry-erase white boards and showing them to the teacher, asking students to answer questions in unison (choral response), having students give a thumbs up or down if the answer to the question is yes or no — a level palm, if they don’t know the answer.

• Seek Out ADHD Resources for Teachers

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• Encourage hands-on learning. Have students write and act out a play. Videotape an assignment. Take apart and put together a model of a miniature eyeball when studying the human body.

• Accommodate, accommodate. Some students with ADD may need accommodations. Make sure they get them. For instance, a child may need extended time on tests, shortened assignments, instruction in note-taking, a notetaker, segmented assignments for long-term projects (with separate due dates and grades).

• Keep him on track. When a student is overwhelmed, and in danger of failing, accept make-up work on occasion. Students with ADD usually try hard, but may still fall behind, even when they do their homework — completed work gets left in the bottom of their backpack or in a stack of papers at home.

Once a student falls behind, he doesn’t always know how to get back on track. He may become depressed, and give up. Monitoring work and developing a plan to help all students submit assignments is critical. Accepting late assignments offers a student encouragement. If none of these strategies works, the teacher should immediately notify the student’s parents to get homework submitted promptly.

This article comes from the Fall 2008 issue of ADDitude.

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