Students with ADHD may require special education and related services to be more successful at academic tasks, Mary Fowler writes in her introduction to the CH.A.D.D. Educators Manual. Without adequate intervention, they are at risk of academic failure. Students with an ADHD diagnosis can learn to read if they receive the right kinds of help at the right times.
ADHD Characteristics and Reading
Students with ADHD have a constellation of behaviors that affect their ability to benefit from traditional instructional methods. Traditional instruction requires students to pay close attention to text, to listen carefully, and to sustain effort on a difficult task. ADHD students, however, are typically impulsive, causing them to overlook important aspects of words. They often are distractible. It can be difficult for them to focus on listening to the lesson or sounding out the word when other stimuli are competing for their attention. A low tolerance for frustration causes many to give up when concepts are not immediately understood or useful.
Channel Impulsivity
ADHD students often need to slow their responses to allow processing and thinking time. Since they are inclined to look at words and quickly make a guess based on initial letter or word shape, it becomes important to teach them to pause and take in the entire word. One way to do this is to teach students to tap a finger on the desk for each sound in the word. This helps them to consider the letters in sequence and pay attention to all of them instead of simply looking at the first and last letters.
Improve Focus
Sandra Rief recommends that teachers use multisensory lessons to help ADHD students focus on lessons. By having information coming in through different sensory channels, the student is most likely to attend to the material. Reading lessons should involve listening to oral presentations, looking at words, pictures and diagrams, and writing or manipulating materials. Students may also benefit from tactile stimulation, such as spelling words in flour or sand, making clay letters or using pasta letter shapes.
Offer Motivating Material
Reading lessons for ADHD students will be more successful if the students are excited about the material. High-interest/low-vocabulary materials are available commercially on all levels and are designed to appeal to struggling learners. The nonfiction texts draw from topics in science and social studies and teach fun facts. Fiction texts include high adventure stories about older students with a lot of action and suspense. High-interest/low-vocabulary stories can tempt young ADHD students into learning to read.
Improve Tolerance for Frustration
Learning to read can be difficult, and many ADHD students have a low tolerance for frustration. Mary Fowler recommends breaking instruction into very small sections to minimize frustration. Ensure that each component for the task is thoroughly learned before moving on to the next concept. Plan for more frequent review and maintenance of previous learning so that ideas are always fresh in the student's mind. Set the student up for success as much as possible to minimize frustration.
References
- "How to Reach and Teach ADD/ADHD Children: Practical Techniques, Strategies, and Interventions for Helping Children with Attention Problems and Hyperactivity"; Sandra F. Rief; 1993
- "CH.A.D.D. Educators Manual: An In-Depth Look at Attention Deficit Disorders from an Educational Perspective"; Mary Fowler; 1992
- Academic and Educational Outcomes of Children with ADHD
