The Unteachables Podcast

#143: 5 powerful (and doable) ways to support ADHD students. October is ADHD Awareness Month!

• Claire English • Season 7 • Episode 143

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October is officially Hectic Month™️ (Black History Month, Mental Health Day, Halloween... all of it), but nestled in the mix is something super important: ADHD Awareness Month.

And look, if you’re thinking, “Well, I don’t have any diagnosed ADHD students,” think again. Not only is it likely that you do (diagnosed or not), but what helps ADHD students thrive is actually just good teaching for everyone.

In this episode, I’m giving you a front seat to 5 simple, powerful shifts you can make today to better support your neurodivergent students.

These are the real-deal takeaways from ADHD coach and teacher Andy Hayes’ masterclass inside The Behaviour Club, and they’re already making waves in classrooms across the club.

What you’ll learn:

  • Why ADHD students hear 10,000 more negative messages than their peers, and how to change the story
  • What task initiation actually looks like (and how to scaffold it without overhauling your lesson plans)
  • Why novelty isn’t fluff, it’s fuel for the ADHD brain
  • How visual routines support executive functioning and make your classroom calmer
  • The high-impact way to celebrate strengths over struggles (no tokenism, no fluff)

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SPEAKER_00:

Oh, hi there, teachers. Welcome to the Unteachables Podcast. I'm your host, Claire English, and I am just a fellow teacher, a toddler mama, and a big old behaviour nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behaviour and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game-changing strategies, and I mean the things that we can actually do and action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm and dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode. Hello there, teachers, welcome to the Unteachables Podcast. Thank you for joining me here for another day. We're in October, which is wild, but this month is absolutely chokers. It is hectic October. We've got so many different things happening. We've got Black History Month, we've got World Mental Health Day, World Teachers Day has just passed on Sunday, but I'm celebrating you like let's just say that this is our month as well. We've got Halloween coming up at the end of the month. The spooky season is upon us. And the one thing that I really want to talk about in today's podcast episode, it is also ADHD Awareness Month. So in today's podcast episode, I wanted to talk you through some powerful, just doable ways to recognize ADHD Awareness Month in your classroom and support your students who have an ADHD profile who are ADHD individuals. Now, I don't want anybody sitting there thinking, oh, you know what? Like I actually don't have any students with ADHD in my class, or you know, I don't teach anybody who has a specific plan. That does not matter. It's really important that you're listening to the following tips because not only are chances very high that you are supporting students who are neurodivergent, but uh what is good for students with ADHD is actually good for every single student. It's just good teaching practice. So the things that I'm going to be talking through are going to benefit you for every single student in your classroom. But of course, we're looking at this through the lens of ADHD Awareness Month. And it is the perfect time for us to kind of move beyond some stereotypes that have been established with ADHD students, build some understanding, build some empathy, and just kind of support them in a better way, in a more meaningful way within your classroom. Kind of, you know, boost that culture of inclusion in your classroom. So here are five powerful and doable ways that you can, I want to say, celebrate ADHD in your classroom this month, or bring awareness to or recognize ADHD in your classroom. All of the following are taken from this month's training inside of the Behavior Club. I welcomed Andy Hayes, who is an ADHD coach. He's a teacher himself, he's an ADHD individual himself. So I welcomed him into the Behavior Club this month. I wanted him to come in and present. I wanted to give him the platform and the voice to be able to present on ADHD. And he did a brilliant job. And these are just a few takeaways from that masterclass. If you are in the behavior club, go and watch it. It's brilliant. And of course, then you get all of the resources that I'm talking about as well to go along with that. So let's dig in. Number one takeaway on how you can, you know, really bring light to students with ADHD in your classroom is to give their inner critic a break. One of the most powerful things that Andy shared in this masterclass was that by age 12, many ADHD students have heard up to 10,000 more negative comments than their peers. Just think about what that would do to their confidence. And he brought up a really good point, which is, you know, think about what, like the words of ADHD. It's a disorder and it's a deficit. So if you have been labeled with ADHD, you're coming at it from a place of, I have a deficit, like I've got a disorder. There's something wrong with me when that is not the case is a neurodivergence. So I think the the just the fact that they're slapped on a label that has those two words in it, their inner critic is going to be, you know, going wild and they are seen in a certain way. I think, especially young boys with ADHD, they're looked upon in a certain way. So the best way that we can try to give their inner critic a break is just to catch the positive in any way that we can. Whether it's just a little like, hey, great job on the way out, or a non-verbal to put your, you know, your thumb up and to say, like, you know, well done, or uh to explicitly name something that they've done really well. And looking at things outside of just, hey, you went really well in that assignment, you know, like what are the other skills and the other strengths that students bring to us that we can celebrate? I love so if you're in the behavior club or you've purchased them, I've got my positive post-its, and on those, and they are something you can print out. Um, they're a really great way to leave just unexpected like reinforcements or you know, beautiful like positive comments on the desk of a student, in the book of a student, giving it to them on the on the way out of the classroom. And they're just really subtle, quick, but they're also super meaningful. Um, if you don't have those printable post-its, just grab a post-it and then scribble a note on there saying, Hey, great job, or you know, I love the way that you're able to focus today, or, you know, all of those things that might kind of get overshadowed by some of the behaviors that we might see, or some of the other ways that ADHD might be presenting itself in the classroom. If we can try to find those glimmers of amazing positive work that these students do, not only is it going to do a wonder for their confidence, but it's going to help us develop the rapport that specifically ADHD brains need in order to have that buy-in to then work really well for us and engage with us. Because that is another feature of the ADHD brain. It needs to have that buy-in, that novelty. There needs to be that dopamine. And if we're able to provide like little hits of that with leaving a little note on their desk or catching the positive in some way, then it's going to do wonders for our students and our rapport. The next thing I wanted to speak about was task initiation. Because for the ADHD brain, getting started is often the hardest part. And executive functioning challenges that are quite common with ADHD profiles can make, you know, those open-ended or unstructured tasks really, really overwhelming. So when it comes to supporting ADHD students in the classroom, really supporting that task initiation with clarity, but also again with a little bit of that novelty because that's going to give them the best chance of not shutting down on tasks, but like taking those first little steps into getting started. I love to do this by visually giving students some structure and some choices and like a clear, manageable first step. And I do this in a way that, you know, is really visual and it's got novelty. And I really feel like that makes a world of difference. The one resource that I do use for this, and the one that's available inside of the club if you're inside of the club, or you can make your own, that's also fine, or you can just like prop pop some prompts up on the board, or maybe write one of these down on a poster note and put it on your student's desk if they're really struggling with task initiation. There's no right or wrong way to do this. It's just about giving them that into the task. The kinds of things you can ask them to do is draw a progress bar and shade one section once they start. You know, just write your name, date, and title at the top of the page just to get started, pen to paper. Um, write down the first question or the heading into your book, doodle a box to hold your first paragraph or idea, highlight or underline keywords in the instructions, circle the verbs that tell you what to do. Um write just the first sentence and then count those words to celebrate. Set a three-minute timer and then brain dump your ideas as quickly as you can. Um, write three steps and tick the first one off when you're done, or write a mini goal for the next five minutes. Those are the kind of things that I have on my Smooth Start menu to just help with that task initiation because it is so overwhelming for some students. So if we're able just to give a really explicit small first step to provide them with that in, it can do wonders for getting us to get them involved. The next thing is to gain buy-in through novelty because the ADHD brain thrives on novelty and dopamine. And if interest doesn't spark with the lesson or with whatever they're doing, the brain's not starting up. And so adding some novelty or play or challenge can really switch the brain onto what you're trying to do in the classroom. So I just like to make sure that I'm adding some movement or brain breaks, thinking about how I'm switching up, you know, how I present my material. A really good example of that is I like think just think about my exit routine. I will sometimes do exit tickets. Sometimes I'll do my exit doors presentation. So they get to choose a door to walk through, and then that door leads them to a task. Um, it's not a PowerPoint slide, by the way, they're not actually walking through doors. Um, but like, you know, sometimes I'll do an exit slip on a post-it note. Like there's different ways that they can like access the learning, and it's kind of keeping a little bit of novelty there, a little bit of excitement there. I'm not saying that you need to like make every lesson really, really fun. It's just about keeping a little bit of novelty to allow students to get involved in that and their brains to switch on. And if you're not able to add novelty in the lesson, if it is just like a pretty stock standard lesson, just try to chuck in a three-minute chat, a three-minute brain break, a movement break. Get them to like, you know, stand up and shake it out, whatever it is. The most important thing here is for us to just understand a little bit about the brain, the the brain of an ADHD student a little bit better, because when we're able to understand, hey, like it thrives on novelty, it's you know, really hungry for dopamine, if I'm not interesting them, if there's no novelty there, if I've got no challenge there, then if a student's disengaged, then there might be a reason for that. I think that just understanding the brain better will help us to support ADHD students better. So that's why I wanted to talk about the novelty aspect. So I'm not saying you have to do like a song and dance every single lesson, but just being aware that if you would like to engage a student who does have an ADHD profile a little bit more, you can inject some of that stuff and just give it a go and see if that helps you to engage them. Uh, number four, making routines visual, predictable, and crystal clear. This is why I talk about what is good for students who are, you know, neurodivergent. What is good for them is good for every single student because clear routines that are visual and predictable and crystal clear will always reduce anxiety. It'll always build trust, it will always support independence, working memory, and it is just good teaching practice and it's going to help us with our classroom management so much. It's going to help us have those calm lessons that we are craving. So, specifically for students who are neurodivergent, yes, routines, predictability, having that clarity. It's always going to be really handy. So just get your routines down and use visuals to reinforce them. Tools like task cards and learning maps are brilliant because when students walk in, they know exactly what they're going to be doing. Timers are really, really important because that's going to, number one, increase the task clarity. But there's also that time blindness that comes with ADHD. So allowing students to see how much time they've got left, what time is left in the lesson and in the task is really handy. Um, learning maps, for me, to be honest, are like a huge non-negotiable because it just supports all of the students that are in our class so so much. So just give those a go. Just think like, are my routines visual? Is everything predictable? When students walk into my lesson, do they know what to expect? Is this reducing the dysregulation of some of my students with a more, you know, complex profile? Whether it is because they have ADHD or because they are, you know, struggling with uh disorganized attachment or whatever it might be, routines are golden, visual, predictable, crystal, clear. The fifth one, the final one, and this is a beautiful one to end on because it's just all about celebrating strengths and not just struggles. In the beginning, I spoke about how ADHD, like students will be diagnosed with ADHD and they are going to see in their mind deficit and disorder. And that is not what we want for them to be labeling themselves at. And if we're going to be completely honest, teachers, and it just happens because when something is in our minds, then that kind of becomes the way that we respond to the world. When we see a student's got ADHD and we have our own perception of what ADHD means in a classroom of 30 students that we're trying to teach, sometimes that can automatically, without us even realizing it, impact the way that we approach these students, treat these students. It is just the way that it is. So we have to be really cognizant of focusing on the strengths of ADHD and really, you know, supporting our students to see their strengths as well. If we are able to take the unique strengths of an individual with ADHD, we are going to be able to really help them to build their confidence. We're able to build rapport with them better, we're able to engage them better in the learning. It can be life-changing just for us to be able to go, hey, like look at the strengths that you have, rather than going, you've got ADHD deficit disorder, and like kind of adding to those 10,000 negative, more negative comments that students with ADHD receive by the time they're 12 years old. Um, so you know, really help your class celebrate the unique strengths and superpowers that come with not just having ADHD, but just being an individual human that isn't a robot, that isn't just going to, what's that thing? Like tell a fish to climb a tree and obviously the monkey's gonna win. I don't know what the what the analogy is, right? But it's so true. Like when we set a standard for every single student in our classroom and say, like, the only thing that matters in here is that you get an A, it's not going to work for any of our students, let alone students who are neurodivergent. So make it your mission to just, especially in ADHD Awareness Month, but of course every day of the year, just to notice and name the strengths of your students, whether it is that they were participating or that they were really kind, that they showed confidence, or, you know, they were really good friends or teammates, or they were really determined, or they had some really interesting ideas or anything that might support them to see the strengths and the beautiful things about what they bring to the classroom and the community. The more we can do that, the more engaged they're going to show up and be because they're going to go, hey, like my teacher sees me for more than the deficit and the disorder. Like my teacher sees me for my strengths and my ability to, you know, like get everybody talking or my strengths to be a good friend, or my strengths to actually nail an essay if that is their strength. Like that is also really important. But uh, a really good way that I do this is through my celebration cards. I don't like to give, you know, like tangible rewards or anything like that. I try to do everything I can to boost their intrinsic motivation. But the one kind of tangible thing that I do give are these um celebration cards. They're really high novelty, which is great for the ADHD brain, and they're really high impact in a class. I love them because uh it can be really cheesy. It's really, really cheesy. And my middle schoolers, you know, my year eights, oh Miss, you're so embarrassing, but they absolutely love them. So I just have uh the ones that I've got inside of the club at the moment are brand new. So I did redo them in the classroom prior to this. I had just like four different cards with different characters on them. Um, but now I've got 40 different characters that all kind of celebrate different unique strengths. So I've got, I'm just looking at the cards here. So I've got like the powerful pineapple, you push through challenges, or the participation potato, you smashed the lesson by joining in. The cool cucumber, you stayed chill like a champ. So if they're like, you know, wanting to work on their regulation and you can celebrate them for that. Uh, the epic egg, you cracked the learning wide open. The confident corn, you popped up with some awesome ideas. So uh these cards, there's 40 of them, there's a lot of them. If you are in the club, you can download them. If not, I'll pop the link in the show notes for you because they're a lot of fun. I uh print about print out a bunch, I keep them in a folder, and I'll just hand them out, whether it's students leaving the room, whether it's like popping them in their books after a lesson, like I'll just hand these out like wild. Like I won't wait until like an award day or anything like that. It's just another kind of version of a positive post-it. It's just another way to acknowledge and recognize the strengths that your students are bringing. But I feel like any way, and by the way, one of my behavior clubbers came to me, she's like, oh my gosh, like there was one student who I have been struggling with all year. I started using these cards, and after one week, he started to respond really positively to me. He was asking, when am I, you know, like, oh, am I gonna get the participation potato? So all of that to say, you don't have to use these cards. I'm just trying to give you an example of how we can celebrate the student strengths and not just the struggles, and we can highlight the brilliant things that they're bringing to our classroom, regardless of the challenges that they might have in that kind of really traditional kind of educational setting. But recognizing ADHD Awareness Month really can just be as simple as creating little moments of novelty, of clarity, of connection, of celebration throughout the day. And this can be done every day of the year. But when I'm talking about ADHD Awareness Month, I want to talk about it on the podcast really explicitly. But, you know, making our classrooms a place where neurodiverse students don't just survive, they thrive can really be as simple as just putting in some really awesome routines that are consistent, like a really good entry routine, a really good exit routine, a really great routine for transitions. That's it. Uh, you know, making sure you've got a system for recognizing the strengths of your students, whether it's the celebration cards or a post-it note on their desk or just whatever it might be. But at the end of the day, just seeing our students with ADHD as the wonderful, unique, brilliant humans that every single student that comes into our classroom is. And I really hope that this episode has given you just a few ideas on how you can support students with ADHD because I get that a lot. Um, like, oh my gosh, I've got this student, he's got, you know, an IEP and it's got he's got ADHD on there, I don't know how to support him. And I think often these plans are written by people who aren't teachers themselves and they're not really able to articulate how the needs translate into a mainstream classroom setting. So if you take one thing away from this episode and make it this, what is good for neurodivergent students is good for every single student. Consistency, clarity, celebration, uh, all of those things. And just having that, like holding that empathy of uh their brains are different, they're wired differently, and they need certain things in order to spark that interest, that learning, that engagement. And I think you'll then just be golden and you'll be able to work towards supporting them every single day in whatever way you can. Okay, I hope that was helpful. I am sending you all the best for the rest of the week. Happy World Teachers Day. You are freaking brilliant, and I will see you on the next episode. Bye for now.

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Claire English

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