New research coordinated by University of Wellington educational psychologist Te Herenga Waka-Victoria, along with Dr. Kelly Carrasco, has shown that the severity of ADHD symptoms is not an insurmountable obstacle. for the future academic achievement of the children diagnosed with ADHD.
The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal Journal of Attention Disorders.
Academic success and ADHD diagnosis: Here’s what the research revealed
the study was based on four sample datasets, two of which came from clinically referred children in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and two community samples of American children, registered at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan. In total, 434 children’s information was carefully studied to ascertain the impact their ADHD symptoms had on their academic success.
Ultimately, what we have found is that the severity of ADHD symptoms does not appear to have a significant impact in terms of academic knowledge for children with ADHD. Instead, it is a child’s verbal working memory skills and language skills that are most important predictors of academic success, ”said Dr. Carrasco, who collaborated with Professor Chi-Ching Chuang of Taipei University and the Professor Gail Tripp of the OIST.
“The symptoms of ADHD have an impact on the school performance of a young person’s life, but not necessarily on what they know or their ability to learn. It is these other factors, which have an impact on all types of children, that play a more important role, ”added Carrasco.
Modern learning environments offer many opportunities to be stimulating, which is challenging for students, including those with ADHD: “But the good news is that it’s not ADHD itself that prevents children from learning effectively, they are the expectations of the class in which we ask children to show what they know. This is where the symptoms get in the way, ”explained Dr. Carrasco.
The data allowed the group of scholars to examine language skills, short-term visual and working memory, processing speed, and how they affected reading comprehension, spelling and math skills: in the two samples from Aotearoa New Zealand, the first sample included 6 Māori children (6.8%) out of a larger sample of 88 children; the second sample included 9 Maori children (7.4%) out of a larger sample of 121.
The researchers were already aware from other academic literature that working memory is an important factor for many academic subjects: “It is a good idea for teachers to understand children’s working memory, because it is something that can be easily adapted. Teachers just have to break down their instructions into smaller blocks, instead of giving multiple verbal instructions at a time and hoping that all the kids learn them the first time, break up the instructions and maybe even combine them with written instructions and check comprehension as you go ” , specified Dr. Carrasco, referring to a different approach that can help achieve academic success.
Dr. Carrasco also states that project-based work can be overwhelming for students with limited working memory, so teachers should be aware that some students will need projects to be presented in segments.
“One thing I can’t stress enough when working with children with ADHD is the need to give a lot of positive feedback. These children tend to get a lot of negative feedback from both adults and peers, especially if they have hyperactive symptoms, so we need to counter this with a lot of positive feedback. “
Carrasco is aware that schools are in an incredibly difficult position, as they try to create environments that satisfy every child who enters: “But if teachers are aware of these things, they can ensure that reasonably easy things are in place, such as designate areas for quiet work and ensure that students with additional needs are never uncertain about what they should work on, ”concluded the expert.
Having academic success therefore does not depend so much on ADHD but on receiving the impulses necessary to have good results and especially to activate targeted education levels that make children diagnosed with ADHD understand that they are good at their tasks and perfectly capable of bringing them to completed successfully. As Jacques Barzun said: “In teaching one cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, perhaps for twenty years “.
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