Date
11 July 2025

Support planning and thinking skills

Support ākonga to manage their time and attention in the classroom

On this page:

Support time management

Support time management

Introduce tools such as visual timers to reduce surprise that an activity is over or to signal that a transition is coming.

Use multiple approaches to support concentration

Use multiple approaches to support concentration

Provide options to support concentration and short-term memory.

  • Monitor and moderate the classroom for visual and auditory distractions.
  • Encourage students to adapt the environment to meet their needs by, for example, wearing headphones, moving to a quiet environment or taking a walk to support their thinking.
  • Present information in a range of ways over an extended period of time to help students to retain information, build their understanding and stay focused.
  • Discuss with students the effectiveness of the classroom and make modifications and remove barriers where needed.
  • Use of visual prompts and cues to support understanding and access to learning materials.
  • Make links to background knowledge or previous learning to increase connections.
  • Schedule regular short breaks for physical movement.

Offer a range of approaches to support planning

Offer a range of approaches to support planning

Suggestions for supporting students’ planning and organising.

  • Use charts, visual calendars, colour-coded schedules, visible timers and cues to increase the predictability of regular activities and transitions.
  • Encourage students to use their mobile devices to schedule alerts and reminders for regular and novel events and task deadlines.
  • Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships using visuals, mind maps, 3-D manipulatives, outlines, flow charts and real objects.
  • Model and make available graphic organisers and flow charts to support planning and thinking in all curriculum areas.
  • Break tasks and lengthy assignments into small manageable parts. Schedule workflow using Trello to organise what needs to be done and when.
  • Provide options so that students can submit work online.

Support thinking in multiple ways

Support thinking in multiple ways

  • Highlight patterns, critical features and relationships.
  • Use cultural and narrative frameworks to support retention and thinking.
  • Use visuals, 3D manipulatives, outlines, flowcharts, and real objects.
  • Use mind maps to brainstorm ideas and make connections.
  • Support group and class discussions with visual annotations to prompt later recall of key ideas.
  • Offer students a variety of graphic organisers and flowcharts to support thinking.
  • Give students multiple opportunities to engage with new ideas and concepts.
  • Provide extra time for students to think and process before responding.

Useful resources

Useful resources

Website

Signly App

The Signly app enhances accessibility by providing visual sign language descriptions of exhibits and information, making it easier for deaf and hard-of-hearing users to understand their surroundings. By using visual signs and videos, it offers clear visual aids that improve communication in museums and public spaces.

Publisher: Signly

Visit website

Next steps

More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13”:

Return to the guide “ADHD and learning”

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