Credibility
– I am a college student studying psychology
– I am diagnosed with ADHD
– I’ve taught martial arts (assistant instructor) for 7 years and have taught music for 2 years.
Many students – especially in music had ADHD and I found greatest success in their learning by first taking time to understand what makes each student tick and then catering to their interests, challenges, and aspirations.
Defining ADHD
“Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by a persistent pattern of difficulty sustaining attention and/or impulsiveness and excessive or exaggerated motor activity.”
With ADHD occurring in approximately 9% of children and adolescents, there needs to be a higher focus on accommodations for these individuals. The problems with overpopulation in schools complicates the availability for versatile teaching styles in the classroom, but there is a lot we can do at home and as extracurricular teachers to set kids up for success!
The DSM (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) highlights 16 possible symptoms. All diagnosed parties (of older adolescence and adults) have a minimum of 5 symptoms in the inattention category and/or 5 in the hyperactivity and impulsivity category.
Some of these symptoms include:
1. Difficulty sustaining attention in tasks
2. Missing details or making careless mistakes in schoolwork, or at a job
3. Often avoiding to engage in tasks that require sustained mental efforts
4. Easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
5. Fidgets or taps with hands or feet
6. Often talks excessively
So how do we use these symptoms to their advantage?
Tips for Learning with ADHD
Inflicting the Hyper-focus State
Hyperfocus is a contradictory term from the definition of ADHD. This causes much confusion for parents, or the “neurotypical” brains that may not experience such phenomena. It’s understandable that one may not understand the difference between attention-deficit in the name of the disorder and your child’s special interests that they focus on for long hours in the day!
Hyperfocus can be defined as one’s complete absorption in a task until they essentially ignore or tune-out of their surroundings. In other words the attention deficit is directed towards issues of self-care like eating or sleeping rather than the subject at hand. This typically is a result of an intense interest in a subject. It may be a video game, playing an instrument, or a variety of other interests. This happens because the desired task stimulates their already dopamine deficient brain more than the other, harder tasks would do.
Think of an ADHD brain having an innate avarice for energy. Avarice may be a formal word for greed, but in this case the greed is satiated by conserving dopamine. Dopamine is the hormone that mainly plays a role in mood, and motivation. It is also called the “happy” hormone because it results in the feeling of well-being. So because dopamine is less available to people with ADHD, they try to hold onto it as much as possible.
The Spoon Metaphor – Many adults with ADHD relate to “the spoons metaphor.” Every day you start with an amount of spoons in your cup that vary daily. Each task that needs to be done will take a spoon away from the cup. If all the spoons are gone, it may be possible to “borrow” from the next day. But borrowing spoons will result in having less the next day. If you borrow too many spoons you will experience burn out, depression, or a combination of both. Spoons can be regained by self care, special interests, and other dopamine refreshing activities. Spoons can be depleted in varying amounts as well. Some days showering will take 1 spoon and others it may take 3 spoons.
Understanding hyperfocus as dopamine regenerating (or regaining a spoon) and other tasks as sapping away the dopamine, it’s easier to understand why some tasks are easier to focus on than the rest. It’s also a great question to be in habit of asking each other. “How many spoons do you have today?”
How to Incorporate Hyperfocus into learning. If you know what interests the person with ADHD, find a way to incorporate it into what they are learning. Sometimes you really have to stretch your creativity to make it work. When teaching music, I tend to teach songs that the student is already jamming to at home or in the car.
Using interests as a dopamine reward also works wonders! Try setting 30 minute timers with school before 10 minutes of scroll time, or a mini game of cards. Motivate reading a chapter in a textbook with one chip, candy, or chocolate item per paragraph. Introducing little dopamine “hits” with food or fun activities is called the “token economy” in science, but must be done with heavy accountability until the routine is established. Otherwise the compelling nature of the reward may not be regulated and the work will go unfinished.
One final disclaimer. Hyperfocus at its extreme state can lead to ignoring self-care, chores, or other surroundings. So be sure to support your child by reminding them to eat, or giving them appropriate time limit announcements to help them ease out of the state. Immediately snapping them out may cause irritation or other less desirable reactions. Give them ample notice and constant reminders of when to move on to another task if you need help with chores, etc.
Easing ADHD Paralysis
ADHD Paralysis (Also known as Task Paralysis) refers to the inability to begin, complete, or sustain tasks due to overwhelming feelings of anxiety, stress, or mental fatigue.
Task paralysis typically can be seen as overwhelming amounts of procrastination. Many people, including those with ADHD will call them lazy or irresponsible for such circumstances. Rather, ADHD paralysis is a result of the fear of starting or continuing a task because its either too daunting, they have too many tasks to do, or there is simply no motivation towards the task.
The second type of paralysis that I experience the most is time paralysis. If I have work, an exam, an appointment, or anything happening later in the day I cannot get anything done until that task is over. Simply having that task on my roster for the day makes it feel impossible to get anything else done. I will worry that starting a task will result in me forgetting when I need to leave.
How to Work Around Paralysis. I won’t lie, this is not an easy feat. Even with ADHD meds, I still find it hard to work past this struggle. However there are a few techniques that I can do myself, and I get the help of my roommates to work around.
- Offer to help prioritize tasks with them. Prioritization can be hard for a person with ADHD as everything can seem equally as important and problematic. Having someone to talk through tasks including estimated time and importance is monumental. I will even use the Indigo “Procrastination Log” (not a sponsor). The book offers a step by step list to choose your top priority and estimate how long it will take to complete.
- Break tasks into smaller sizes. If you have to complete a major assignment or study for a test, break these tasks into sections. Study just vocabulary, or topic by topic. Focus on research for the assignment for one focus session, draft in the next, etc. The task of “Clean your Room” (or house) can be especially hard. One of the tricks I stumbled upon as a kid was a tik-tok sound that had me pick up everything blue, all paper and recycling, etc. until suddenly my room was spotless! For bigger cleans, I will start on one section like making my bed, or making the bookshelves look pretty. These tricks fall in line with the dopamine rewards talked about earlier. Making one area of my house look really pretty gives me dopamine because I feel like I accomplished something.
Checklists and the dopamine of putting a sticker on a task or crossing it off works really well for me too! - Using hour glasses to regulate tasks timers helps me to visually see how much time I have left rather than setting an alarm and hoping it goes off. Any tangible time regulation strategies are helpful!
- Adult’s only tip. Use reverse psychology to your advantage. I asked my friends to call me and tell me they are coming over when they don’t actually plan on visiting. My desire to avoid having my friends relax in a messy house is higher than my desire to not clean. So I will go into frantic cleaning mode and get the majority of the work done before they are “supposed to” be there. And because sometimes they do actually show up, I will forget that I asked them to help me this way and it isn’t until I ask how much longer they’ll be that they remind me of the genius plan to get the cleaning done! (This trick is adults only because reverse psychology can easily slip into manipulation if not explicitly understood and agreed upon prior to its use)
Allowing Controlled Space for Distraction
Especially as a parent I implore you to allow space for your child to get off topic and tell you something exciting about their day or interest. The first benefit of this is developing a closer relationship with your child. Giving them space to get excited about their interests with you will allow you to learn more about them, and in turn making your child more likely to talk to you about deeper things or problems as they occur.
I will tell my students “You can tell me one joke and then go back to work” or “This is the last story before we switch to “XYZ” task.” This gives them the space to bond with you, get out their impulsive thoughts, and prepare them to switch back to the work at hand. You are allowing them time to express themselves while also setting boundaries about when they have to go back to working.
Providing this space may mean that some days the work you had hoped to complete is less than what was possible, but it associates learning as a fun task. Having a safe place to learn, get out jitters, and explore with your friends/family will result in long term benefits. Your kid will learn the material quicker and with better recall quality because they feel better engaged in the process.
Fun Ways of Increasing Stimulation for Tasks
We’ve talked about a few ways of increasing stimulation already. These included using dopamine rewards, checklists, and being creative with the way in which learning is consumed. Let’s get into more detail about ways to increase stimulation:
- Types of Food to Increase Dopamine. Food activates the dopamine reward system in all brains, but it is especially powerful for the ADHD brains. Most people with ADHD may accidently neglect their need for food or struggle to modulate their food intake. Scientifically this is a result of a lack of glucose. (Glucose is the sugar compound that fuels the body for all it’s energy needs) Sugary foods and carbohydrates are a great way of digesting foods that quickly can be converted into glucose. Things like pasta, cookies and chocolate are common ways adults will indulge in increasing glucose without even realizing it! This isn’t to say allow your kids to go on a candy diet. But carbohydrates like pasta are great to use in meal planning, and sugary treats are great for incentivizing productivity.
- Body Double with them. Body double is a term that we use in the ADHD community to simply mean working in tandem on projects together but independently. Having someone beside you working provokes accountability and can help pull someone out of task paralysis. Simply having the person in the same room works! My roommates play games in the room beside me as I study, and I’ll jam out to music with them as they try to finish their tasks. Sit in the room with them and read, but the most important aspect of body doubling is the limited interaction between each other. Make it clear why you are in the room and then try to limit interference unless it is important. Constantly asking how it’s coming or managing their distractions will “ruin your reputation” as a body double and they will stop seeking this support from you.
- Turn Life into a Game. Seriously! People with ADHD flock to video gaming because the dopamine-reward system is constant. Each quest, or task is rewarded with new gear, EXP, or gold to spend. My household set up an EXP board for cleaning at one point. Cleaning the kitchen gave us 30 XP, but just doing the dishes gave us 10 XP. We could use this XP to buy fun activities to do after work as a group. Turn cleaning into a series of challenges. “Who can clean their section of the house the fastest?” “The floor is lava, but it applies to your toys too.” Playing a game while you work and go through life sparks excitement and interest into the drab tasks of adulthood and chores.
Call to Action
If any of this information has helped you understand ADHD better, or if you have tips of your own please feel free to join the conversation in the comments. I’d love to hear how you incorporate creativity and accountability into your day to day life. I welcome any further questions about the science or personal experience on the matter!
For more research check out the papers and websites I used to help me write this post:
Hyperfocus: The forgotten frontier of attention.PubMed Central
Never Enough? Why ADHD Brains Crave Stimulation ADHD Science & Strategies
What is ADHD Paralysis? ADHD Paralysis
