Help ADHD, language and communication
When a child or young person has a diagnosis of ADHD, their language skills can be affected. Challenges with concentration, auditory memory, organisational skills and impulsivity all have an impact on how a child’s language develops. Their language development is also influenced by how the child/young person responds to language and interaction around them.
- Listening to and following instructions correctly
- Being slower to process spoken information
- Missing details, or not grasping the “main idea” when listening for information
- Word-finding difficulties – remembering the names of things = “that thing there”, “you know”, “thingummajig”
- Difficulties with sequencing, organising and telling stories
- Being able to follow and hold a conversation
- Talking about the same topic without changing the subject too quickly
- Listening to another’s point of view
- Being able to wait for a turn in a conversation
- Keeping the right amount of personal space
- Using eye contact
- Difficulties with reading comprehension tasks
- Difficulties with reasoning and inference – drawing conclusions and “looking beyond the obvious”
These children will also be easily distracted in busy environments, so their challenges with processing information may be more noticeable in a classroom situation. Children will also struggle more when demands on their concentration are increased, such as during a lesson.
Not all children/ young people with ADHD have language differences, and the types of language differences seen in ADHD can also be seen in those without ADHD.
- Say your child’s name to gain their attention before giving an instruction
- Give information in bite-size chunks
- Allow extra processing time, both for understanding instructions and when speaking
- Check understanding by asking older children or young people to repeat back key points
- Keep activities short and incorporate movement breaks where possible
- Use visual information to support
Encourage independence and organisational skills by introducing checklists, planners and so on
Children often learn better if information is given to them in a visual form, rather than having to listen and process. They may learn best by:-
- looking, watching and observing before having a go themselves
- looking at posters, visual content on a smartboard, colours and graphics
- watching videos
- doodling and drawing
- using mind maps or other visual information graphics
- picturing items well inside their heads
They may learn best by:-
- using their hands and whole bodies to learn
- creating things
- pulling things apart and rebuilding them to understand how they work
Children may not be aware of which strategies work for them to help their learning and may need to be taught directly how to do this.
Read more about classroom and more detailed management strategies here
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