Mark Bertin, M.D.: ADHD Goes to School.
Executive Function and Educational Policy
Many educational choices today put children with ADHD at a further disadvantage. From classroom design to curriculum, schools place huge demands on executive function. These skewed expectations often start in kindergarten, with academic tasks assigned far beyond the development level of an average 5-year-old. Fourth grade classrooms frequently require what used to be a sixth grade level of self-regulation and planning. For a child with ADHD, already years behind peers in this area of development, the gap grows between what is expected and their actual skills.
Children with ADHD benefit from smaller, well-structured classrooms. Classes over the last generation have grown larger, with twenty-five or more students and one adult. Layout is often in desk clusters, with children sitting in a circle. And yet, it is intuitive that it is easier to attend when directly facing the teacher, without your best friend at your elbow and another across the way. Desk clusters lead to distractibility and off-task behaviors. Smaller classrooms that minimize distraction go a long way to helping children with ADHD, as well as all students.
ADHD related deficits directly impair learning, separate from classroom focus or misbehavior. Children fall behind in reading as it requires attention to details, working memory to keep track of information, efficient processing of information and countless other aspects of executive function. One study suggested half of kids with ADHD have writing disabilities; the capacity to organize information and get it onto the page relies heavily on executive functioning. Math is the same, with careless mistakes rampant and multiple executive-function driven steps inherent to solving any problem.
