Five sentence summary Learning environments are often not created with ADHD learners in mind; struggles with working memory, regulating attention, and executive functions create different challenges for us. Making your syllabus (and other key course materials) as concise and clear as possible goes a long way. UDL can work really well for ADHD learners, you'll want to provide materials in advance, and review your assessment policies to ensure they're not ableist. Large projects should be assessed to determine if they can be broken into chunks and scaffolded for more guidance. If you're rethinking your syllabus, designing a course or workshop for the first time, or just want to look over your course materials before the semester starts to check for ableism, this post is for you. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that has a lot of heterogeneity within it, so what works for one student may not work for another. It's also a disorder or neurotype that most folks misunderstand, including the very folks in your institution who are supposed to act as experts and who gatekeep disability accommodations. So how does one even begin to design a course that is accessible for ADHD folks? Let's start by identifying the potential barriers folks with ADHD face. Some common barriers The barriers for ADHD are hard to directly observe: the chemistry in our brain is different or off. We have problems with our memory, with our attention, and with executive functions, like monitoring progress, setting goals, and planning. For someone without ADHD, it's easier to ignore impulse reactions and think things through. For ADHD folks, our brains struggle, we follow those impulses, and we may lose our way, despite our best intentions. Examples of potential barriers for ADHD learners include:
Solutions that help ADHD learners overcome these barriers include:
Shouldn't they be able to do some of this themselves? Why can't they read the instructions and develop their own list of steps? This type of thinking about ADHD folks is common, and it can be hard to shift your perspective. If we see someone using crutches to help them walk, we know that a ramp would make things easier compared to a set of stairs. It's obvious what the barrier is, what the potential solutions are, and we don't for a second question why the person with the crutches is using the ramp. We have trouble with executive functions: task initiation, organizing, prioritizing, etc. The potential solutions can look like shortcuts or giving in to laziness but only if you don't respect that our brains don't function like yours, only if you don't trust that we are working hard. Regular check-ins are the ramp and leaving our brains to swim in an ocean of ideas, well that would be asking us to take the stairs. It's not as easy to understand as someone who use crutches for their mobility, but it is the same idea. With college students especially, they will develop a lot of these skills with time (if given the right support). Learning to break down a document and pull out the main ideas is something we can learn, but it's hard to know if they've had the chance to learn this and practice it. It's not as though your ADHD learners get a manual on how to make college work for them and their ADHD. Make your syllabus ADHD-friendly The syllabus is often the student's first introduction to their instructor and the course. Unfortunately, it might be the first time an instructor, knowingly or unknowingly, introduces barriers. Students with ADHD need a well-organized, consistent, and simple syllabus. Bullet points, a table of contents, and reducing the amount of extraneous info can all go a long way. Introduce some UDL Universal Design for Learning or UDL is a great place to start if you're looking to make your course more accessible. UDL is a framework based on the idea that purposefully including multiple modes of representation, participation, and options for expressing knowledge increases accessibility. While it often seems overwhelming, you don't have to redo your entire course at once. You could choose to introduce some of the principles of UDL to the mid-term. You can go unit by unit and introduce more UDL every time you teach the course. Plan to provide materials in advanceShare you materials in advance. This is one of the most common accommodations for folks with ADHD: having lecture slides, materials used during class, etc. shared in advance. There is so much room for accessibility when folks can modify the materials themselves to fit their own needs. Learners with ADHD take more time to organize our thoughts, our notes, and so forth. Having the slides, questions, or other materials in advance allows us to organize on our own time. This accommodation annoys some instructors who prepare and edit slides at the last minute, and I feel your pain. Really, I'm that person editing everything at the last minute. However, even if you provide students with an unfinished draft of your lecture slides beforehand, that helps. If you're able, prepare your materials as Google Slides or Google Docs so students can click a link you've shared with them previously and see the most current version of the slides. For any sort of in-class work, like learning a new software package and doing an in-class tutorial, or reading prompts and responding with in-class writing assignments, these really need to be finished and provided beforehand. The student may need to work through the assignment on their own time if they are going to follow your process in class. Otherwise, they will fall behind and get lost, which is not at all an equivalent experience to the students without these neurological processing differences. Take a look at final projects or any other large assignments Projects requiring a narrow focus and a lot of depth can be a serious source of struggle for ADHD brains. A narrow focus can exacerbate ADHD issues. ADHD learners do best when they have some freedom to explore their own interests. You'll want to find the middle ground between giving students enough freedom to be creative and follow their interests but not too much so that they become overwhelmed with ideas. Lots of heterogeneity within ADHD folks, remember? Some will feel like they're drowning in options and will need help sorting their thoughts, so that's where you may need to schedule in some check-ins. Are your assessment policies ableist? Many old-style grading practices are ableist. It's always worth reviewing how you assess learners and whether or not you're assessing them on what really matters. If you have a harsh late penalty policy, you're punishing ADHD folks for something they might have little control over. I'm not arguing that ADHD students should be given leeway to be 15 minutes late for every class, but I would argue that rather than punish them for something they have a harder time managing, you scaffold in a grace period. Transitions are hard for ADHDers because they require a lot of executive functioning skills. To this day, it takes me a couple of weeks to fully organize and train myself into a schedule for a new semester. Give them some space and time. If you require students to give a speech and don't allow any notecards or memory aides, you're harming ADHD folks and anyone else with a disability that impacts their memory. If you're judging oral presentations based on standards of professionalism and including standards like, "makes consistent eye contact with the audience," you're implementing a big barrier for neurodivergent and other disabled students. A three hour final exam worth 50% of the grade for the course will likely harm your ADHD students. For those who have double time or time and a half for tests, this is a really, really long time to be doing an assessment. Our brains cannot focus optimally for that long of a period. Please ask yourself if such a long exam is necessary. Will they need to focus at this level of intensity in their chosen career? Unless we're referring to surgeons, I am not sure this type of extended and precise focus is required of most professions. This is just a taste of some of the main ways you can help ADHD brains. For more ideas, see what not to do for your ADHD learners. Generally speaking, the more well-organized your course or workshop is, the easier it will be for ADHD learners to focus on the content they are supposed to learn rather than their ADHD. This is a bit of a paradox, as we're often not well-organized, but that's exactly why the organization of our instructors is so crucial. ADHD brains are motivated by novelty, challenge, urgency, and genuine interest, so UDL can work really well for us. We'd rather be working on a creative class project relevant to our interests than sorting for instructions scattered across ten different pages or trying to remember what that second slide said from Friday's lecture. ADHD learners can really shine and impress when given the support we need, and often the types of accommodations we require will help all students understand the main concepts and ideas. Key points:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
AuthorThere's a reason theADHDAcademic is an anonymous account and there's a reason why this website will remain anonymous. That said, there are some basics it might be helpful to know about me: DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional or a lawyer of any kind. All text, graphics, and content on this website are for educational purposes only. Any and all content should not be substituted for medical or legal advice. Although I strive to provide the most accurate, current, and scientifically sound information, content should never be substituted for professional advice. Always consult a medical and/or legal professional before making any decisions. Links are provided only for reference and do not necessarily imply endorsement.
|