6 teaching strategies that support kids with ADHD and learning disabilities

Every classroom has kids with different strengths and challenges. That’s why every teacher has a toolbox of research-based strategies to help kids learn. These strategies are especially helpful for struggling students. They can make a big difference for students with ADHD and learning disabilities.

Techniques like differentiation, scaffolding, graphic organizers, wait time, mnemonics, and modeling help kids build the skills they need to thrive in school. When teachers use these research-based strategies, they can meet students where they are and shape the classroom to work for them. 

Below are six common strategies teachers can use to support their students. 

Differentiated instruction is a method teachers use to adjust the content, process, or product of a lesson so it works for different learners from the start. With differentiation, there’s no “one size fits all” approach. The instruction responds to students’ needs, strengths, and readiness.

Teachers can differentiate for the whole class. For example, they might teach a lesson in more than one way. Or they might offer different options for how students show what they’ve learned. Teachers can also differentiate for individual students, giving extra support as needed.

Kristen Hodnett, MS, clinical professor of special education at Hunter College, explains: “Differentiation can be applied to the content taught, the product created by students, or the process for how they reach the objective of the lesson.” 

Neurodivergent students often need different support and ways of learning. But they aren’t the only ones who benefit. “Differentiated instruction benefits all learners because it considers their full identity, including interest, readiness, ability, and language,” says Hodnett. Differentiation works because it doesn’t assume that everyone learns the same way and at the same pace. 

There are many ways teachers can differentiate the curriculum. Here are a few examples.

• Teachers give the whole class the same story to read. But they offer it in different formats: a print version, an audiobook, and a graphic novel version. 

• Teachers re-teach skills to struggling learners in a small group. At the same time, other groups practice the skills on their own. Students move in and out of groups as needed.

• Students get to choose from a list, menu, or choice board of options to show what they’ve learned.

Teachers use scaffolding to help students who need extra support. “Scaffolding is a support that helps students do something or meet an objective they couldn’t quite do independently,” explains Hodnett. “These supports are temporary and should be reduced or removed as a student builds confidence and skills.” Think of it like scaffolding on a building. Workers take it down when the building no longer needs it. 

Teachers can use scaffolding with the whole class. But using scaffolding with individual studentsopens in a new tab is especially helpful. For example, a student with ADHD might need ongoing extra support to organize their thoughts before starting an assignment. 

Scaffolding benefits everyone. But neurodivergent students may need more of it for longer than their peers. 

Scaffolding directly addresses barriers to learning. Students with ADHD, for example, often have difficulty starting tasks. To help build this skill, teachers can offer scaffolds such as prompts or checklists to give students a boost. As students get better at starting tasks, they’ll need fewer of these supports. Eventually, they can do it completely on their own.

Here are some examples of how teachers use scaffolding in the classroom:

• Gradual release of responsibility model: Teachers show students how to do the skill. Then they do it with students. Finally, students do it themselves. This is also called “I do, we do, you do” or guided practice.

• Sentence starters can help struggling writers. Or they can help students practice social skills, like asking for help. 

• Prompting students as they work,opens in a new tab such as reminding them what comes next, can help reduce cognitive load.

• Using math manipulatives can help develop number sense. Students can use them until they fully grasp abstract concepts.

• Visual or picture schedules can help with new routines. 

Picture a blank Venn diagram, a flowchart, or a mind map. These are all graphic organizers. “Graphic organizers offer a way to structure thinking, making it visible,” explains Hodnett. They give students something concrete to fill out, which helps them organize, understand, and remember what they’re learning. Teachers often use graphic organizers as scaffolds. 

Teachers might hand out graphic organizers like a worksheet, draw them on the board, or have students create their own. Students can fill them out as a group or on their own. 

Graphic organizers can make complex information more manageable. They can help break down big tasks or topics into smaller chunks. “They also provide structure and focus, which benefits students with ADHD and executive function needs,” says Hodnett.

The visual nature of graphic organizers can help students see relationships between concepts. They can be great for brainstorming, outlining, and planning.

Graphic organizers can support everything from reading and writing to math. Here are a few examples.

• Concept mapsopens in a new tab illustrate the relationships between ideas. They help visually organize information.

• Number lines help students develop number sense.

• Guided note-taking organizers can help students focus on important details in a lesson.

• KWL charts (Know, Want to Know, Learned) can help students activate prior knowledge at the start of a lesson. Later, they can use it to review what they’ve learned. 

A mnemonic is a memory aid. It helps you remember information by linking it to something familiar or easy to remember. For example, you might remember the order of operations in math (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction) with “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” or “PEMDAS” for short. 

Mnemonics can be acronyms, jingles, rhymes, and even visual associations. Teachers can give students mnemonics. Or they might encourage students to come up with their own mnemonics,opens in a new tab which can be even more effective.

Many people struggle with memorization. It’s especially hard for those who have trouble with working memory or processing speed. Mnemonics help lighten cognitive load and give the brain a mental shortcut for storing information. They’re such a powerful tool that many people remember them into adulthood. 

A child may struggle to learn their parent’s phone number until it’s put to a catchy tune. Or a phrase like “Never Eat Shredded Wheat” can help students remember the order of compass directions: north, east, south, and west.

Here are some ways teachers may help students remember important information.

• Match a visual to a letter sound or concept, like the classic “A is for apple.” 

• Pair information with a catchy jingle, like singing the alphabet to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

• Use acronyms like ROY G BIV to help remember the colors of the rainbow.

• Try rhymes and sayings like “thirty days hath September, April, June, and November” for memorizing details.

While it sounds simple, wait time — when a teacher pauses before taking responses to a question — can be a powerful way to support struggling students. “Wait time is an important practice to increase participation and ensure all students have an opportunity to engage,” explains Hodnett. 

Teachers sometimes call this a “think moment” — a pause for students to reflect on their own before sharing with the group. They can also build wait time into strategies like “Think, Pair, Share.” Students think about a prompt on their own (and have wait time) before sharing it with a partner and then with the class.

Everyone’s brain responds at a different speed. Wait time accounts for those who may need extra time. “Wait time is beneficial because it gives students time to process information and plan what they want to say,” notes Hodnett. 

Hodnett adds that pairing wait time with sentence starters can offer extra support, too. This is especially helpful for multilingual learners and students who need more time to process language.

Here are some ways teachers might use this simple strategy:

• Teachers may call for a “think moment” or “wait time.” That means they pause before taking responses to a question.

• Teachers ask students to whisper a response into their own hands before they call on anyone.

• Students have time to write down or sketch out some initial thoughts before responding verbally.

Modeling is one of the most common and effective teaching strategies. It’s when a teacher demonstrates what they’re asking their students to do. This could be solving a math equation on the board, thinking aloud to show their thought process, or talking through how to fill out a graphic organizer. 

“Modeling is a way to make thinking visible to students,” explains Hodnett. “In the beginning, students may lean on the model and replicate it in [their own] work. But over time, it will build independence as students gain confidence.” 

Some students may hear a set of instructions and be able to dive right into the assignment. But many students benefit from the additional reinforcement of modeling.opens in a new tab 

Modeling helps make clear what is supposed to be done. For example, students with dyslexia benefit from seeing instructions demonstrated instead of just reading them. For students with ADHD, modeling gives a clear, step-by-step guide for starting a task and working through it.

Modeling is a core teaching method. Here are some ways teachers use it: 

• Teachers pause while reading to think aloud and show how students might understand and respond to text.

• Teachers solve a practice math problem on the board and talk through the steps.

• Teachers show students an example of a completed project.