Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental health disorder that affects over two million American children, reports the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). ADHD can be broken down into three types: hyperactive-impulsive, inattentive and combined. A person with ADHD may learn through specific learning styles that are often not in use in schools or places of work, resulting in the person experiencing deficits in learning.
Basics
According to NAMI, girls are more often diagnosed with the inattentive type of ADHD, while elementary school-aged boys often receive a diagnosis of the combined type. This gender difference in the type of ADHD diagnosed will affect different learning problems displayed between the genders.
Facts
Due to the symptoms of inattention, lack of attention to detail, inability to sit still, inability to listen, problems concentrating and impulsivity, many of the people diagnosed with ADHD also experience learning problems. According to MayoClinic.com, students with ADHD often experience academic failure and require extra attention in the classroom to keep this from occurring; on the other hand, there are children with ADHD who are gifted learners or are gifted in specific academic areas.
Considerations
NAMI funded a study published in 2009 focused on the effect ADHD medication can have on a student's math and reading performance. The study demonstrated that children with ADHD who took medication showed improvements in their math and reading scores when compared with students who had ADHD and were not taking medication.
Treatment
Treatments with ADHD and learning deficits generally focus on a treatment plan that combines the use of medication, psychotherapy, lifestyle changes, social skills training and tutoring or special education resources. The special education resources will focus on the specific learning deficits of each child and will help the child learn things he was unable to learn in his regular classroom or the learning he missed prior to being diagnosed and beginning treatment for ADHD.
Tips
Changes need to be made in the classroom, at home and in the workplace to help the person with ADHD overcome some of her learning deficits. In school, children with ADHD should be often allowed to get up from their seats, learning activities should involve movement, students should be seated in areas of the room that are free from distraction and behavior modification techniques should be set in place, suggest HelpGuide.org.
In the home, children and adults should follow a routine, follow a regular sleep schedule, get plenty of exercise, make notes, have organizational tools in place and have the ability to ask others for help.
At work, adults should take notes in meetings, write down what they need to complete and when it is due, have reminders of deadlines programmed into an email calendar or on their phone, should spend 15 minutes every day organizing, should begin each day by making a to-do list and should work to keep track of time.
