Support focusing on tasks
Some simple classroom adjustments and providing options for ākonga can support them to focus on tasks
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Go to top of current page: Support focus
Provide sensory supports
Provide sensory supports
Sensory supports can help students with ADHD feel less anxious and frustrated. Offer these options to everyone.
- Build in regular movement breaks.
- Provide something tactile and quiet (a stress ball, a rubber toy) to fiddle with in class to help them to focus and pay attention.
- Adapt the chair of a student who needs to move his feet while seated. For example, tie old pantyhose to the front two legs of the chair. Invite the student to sit on the chair, placing their feet on the pantyhose and bouncing their feet up and down.
- Allow students to take off their shoes and wiggle their toes during times of anxiety, such as tests and exams.
Standing to work
Standing to work
Provide standing workstations to support movement while learning.
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Help students to focus
Help students to focus
Examples of strategies students can use to manage their behaviour and increase their attention and focus.
No captions or transcript
Classroom adjustments
Classroom adjustments
Build flexibility and supports into the classroom environment.
- Provide physical activity breaks throughout the day to increase engagement – for example, handing out materials, running errands or dancing to music during tidy up times.
- Break up longer tasks with short relaxation breaks to give students an opportunity to recharge and refocus.
- Introduce Swiss balls or a mini tramp into the classroom to allow students to release tension. Movement assists concentration.
- Support students with ADHD to alternate between different work stations or desks throughout the day.
- Note that some students with ADHD experience light, temperature, or noise sensitivity.
- Schedule activities, such as singing, that promote relaxation.
Maximise hands-on learning
Maximise hands-on learning
Use hands-on, practical activities to build on the particular strengths of students with ADHD and praise their effort and achievements.
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Source: Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
Useful resources
Useful resources
Ask the expert: ADHD in the classroom management strategies and student supports
A webinar with Sandra Rief, author of How to reach and teach children with ADD/ADHD. The webinar is an hour long, with an introduction, a description of ADHD and strategies and supports that teachers can provide to students with ADHD.
Publisher: Help for ADHD
Strategies to empower, not control, kids labeled ADD/ADHD (Chapter 3)
Read time: 64 min
A broad collection of classroom strategies from the book ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom.
Publisher: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Support self-regulation and positive behaviour ”:
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Return to the guide “ADHD and learning”
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How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: ADHD and learning
Understand:
Strategies for action:
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Identify needs and how to provide supportShow suggestions for Identify needs and how to provide support
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Support self-regulation and positive behaviourShow suggestions for Support self-regulation and positive behaviour
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Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
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Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13
