by dragana.maksimovic -

Understanding ADHD and its impact on children’s education

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition impacting millions of children worldwide. Recognizing its characteristics is essential for educators to provide effective support in the academic journey of students with ADHD. In this comprehensive blog post, we will explore what ADHD is, delve into the challenges it poses for children’s education, and discuss strategies, support systems, and assistive technologies that can make a positive impact.

What is ADHD?

ADHD is a neurological condition characterized by a short attention span, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. As of 2024, around 7.2% of children under the age of 18 globally have been diagnosed with ADHD. Students with ADHD can exhibit both hyperactive and inattentive traits, leading to impatience, difficulty sitting still, disruptions in instruction, easy distraction, forgetfulness, and task avoidance. These traits significantly impact a student’s capacity to learn, develop social skills, and engage in academic environments, potentially resulting in educational disparities and an increased risk of dropping out of high school.

Understanding ADHD in the Classroom:

Children with ADHD encounter obstacles in traditional learning environments. Schools employ strategies like behavioral classroom management and organizational training to address these challenges. Behavioral classroom management focuses on positive reinforcement, while organizational training helps children develop time management and planning skills. Unfortunately, only about one in three children with ADHD receives behavioral classroom management, highlighting the need for increased awareness and implementation.

What Teachers Can Do To Help:

Teachers play a crucial role in helping children with ADHD succeed. Effective communication, clear assignment instructions, and flexibility in learning approaches are key. Providing choices for assignments, minimizing distractions, and incorporating organizational tools contribute to a more supportive classroom environment. Collaborating with parents and involving school counselors or psychologists enhances the overall support structure for children with ADHD. In addition to classroom strategies and support systems, assistive technologies can empower children with ADHD to manage their tasks more effectively.

Understanding ADHD and implementing effective strategies, support systems, and assistive technologies can make a significant difference in the educational experiences of students with ADHD. By creating inclusive classrooms, leveraging technology, modifying learning environments, and collaborating with school staff, educators can provide the necessary support for these students to achieve their full potential. It’s crucial to foster empathy, dispel stigmas, and celebrate every step of progress along the way. Together, parents, teachers, and healthcare providers can work collaboratively to ensure children with ADHD receive the tailored support needed for success in the classroom and beyond.

References and relevant links:

https://manikapant18.medium.com/5-free-edtech-tools-to-better-engage-adhd-students-54cbdca8cd44

https://colleamoi.com/blogue/adhd-classroom-tools/?lang=en

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/school-success.html

https://disabilitycreditcanada.com/10-best-assistive-technologies-add-adhd/

by dragana.maksimovic -

Fonts designed for dyslexia

“Every child and adult should be able to realize their reading potential. By dedicating our resources towards awareness and considering different and complex studies on Dyslexia, we’re always evolving to make the user-friendly font accessible in today’s digital and print landscape.” – Christian Boer

Fonts designed for dyslexia aim to improve readability and reduce visual stress for people with dyslexia. These fonts typically incorporate specific features to enhance the reading experience for dyslexic readers. To design the dyslexia-friendly typeface, all typography rules and standards were ignored. Here are some common characteristics of dyslexia-friendly fonts:

1. Open and unique Letterforms: Dyslexia-friendly fonts often feature open letterforms to make it easier to distinguish between letters. This means that letters have distinct shapes and are less likely to be confused with one another such as „b“ and „d“.

2. Increased Letter Spacing: Wider letter spacing prevents letters from merging into one another, reducing the chances of misreading.

3. Weight Variation: Some dyslexia-friendly fonts use variations in stroke thickness to make letters more distinct.

4. Clear Descenders and Ascenders: Descenders (the parts of letters that extend below the baseline, such as in ‚g‘ or ‚y‘) and ascenders (the parts that extend above the x-height, such as in ‚h‘ or ‚b‘) are often more prominent in dyslexia-friendly fonts, making it easier to differentiate between letters.

Several fonts have been designed specifically for people with dyslexia over the years, and some of them are:

– Dyslexie: Developed by Christian Boer, Dyslexie is a typeface that incorporates many of the aforementioned features. It has gained popularity for its efforts to enhance readability for dyslexic readers.

– OpenDyslexic: This font is open-source and freely available. It emphasizes distinct letter shapes and increased letter spacing to improve reading for individuals with dyslexia.

– Lexie Readable: Lexie Readable is a font designed by Lexie Dyslexia Institute. It focuses on clarity and simplicity, with open letterforms and increased spacing.

San serif fonts are also a great way to help someone who has dyslexia. San serif fonts create more visual separation between the letters which helps readers read and comprehend texts more easily. Here are some standard san serif fonts that would be good options when designing for people with dyslexia:

  • Helvetica
  • Verdana
  • Arial
  • Century Gothic
  • Tahoma
  • Trebuchet

There is no hard research that proves that fonts designed for dyslexia improve reading speed. However, a master thesis by Renske de Leeuw of the University of Twente found that fonts like Dyslexie had an overall reduction in reading errors.

It’s important to note that while these fonts may be helpful for some individuals with dyslexia, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Different people may find different fonts more or less helpful based on their individual needs and preferences. Additionally, other factors such as background color, text size, and line spacing can also influence readability for individuals with dyslexia.

References and relevant links:

https://dyslexiefont.com/en/typeface/?_ga=2.246587012.1697522350.1702816263-1541481720.1702816263

https://medium.com/codex/accessibility-fonts-and-dyslexia-3cc495795127

https://www.dyslexia-reading-well.com/dyslexia-font.html

https://www.k-type.com/fonts/lexie-readable/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwuMhDNi1_w&ab_channel=Seeker

by dragana.maksimovic -

Understanding dyslexia

“Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.” ( Rose, 2009.)

Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder. It is estimated that 1 in 5 kids has dyslexia and they often show signs even before starting school.

Signs of dyslexia (Martinelli, 2023)

A young person with dyslexia may:

  • Struggle with learning even simple rhymes
  • Have a speech delay
  • Have trouble following directions
  • Repeat or omit short words such as and, the, but
  • Find it difficult to tell left from right

In school, children with dyslexia are likely to:

  • Have difficulty sounding out new words
  • Lack fluency compared to other children their age
  • Reverse letters and numbers when reading (read saw as was, for example)
  • Find it difficult to take notes and copy down words from the board
  • Struggle with rhyming, associating sounds with letters, and sequencing and ordering sounds
  • Stumble and have difficulty spelling even common words; frequently they will spell them phonetically (hrbr instead of harbor)
  • Avoid being called on to read out loud in front of classmates
  • Become tired or frustrated from reading

Dyslexia affects children outside of school as well. Kids with dyslexia may also:

  • Find it difficult to decode logos and signs
  • Struggle when trying to learn the rules to games
  • Have difficulty keeping track of multi-step directions
  • Struggle with getting the hang of telling time
  • Find it especially challenging to learn another language
  • Become incredibly frustrated, which can effect their mood and emotional stability

A dyslexia diagnosis is not linked to child’s intelligence and does not mean that the child will never be able to learn. There are many ways to help dyslexic children overcome their difficulties. Dr.  Matthew Cruger, a Neuropsychologist from Child Mind Institute believes these are some of the techniques that could be useful in teaching a child with dyslexia:

  • Multi-sensory instruction in decoding skills
  • Repetition and review of skills
  • Intensity of intervention — that is, more than being pulled out of class once a week for extra help
  • Small group or individual instruction
  • Teaching decoding skills
  • Drilling sight words
  • Teaching comprehension strategies, to help kids derive meaning from what they’re reading

Dr. Cruger states that traditional approach in teaching can be counter-productive for children with dyslexia:

“If the child hates the experience of reading help, it’s not helpful and it’s not treating the source of the problem, the decoding weakness.”

References and relevant links:

https://childmind.org/article/understanding-dyslexia/

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexia/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia

https://childmind.org/healthyminds/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH5Ds4_0lO8&ab_channel=Vox

by dragana.maksimovic -

Inclusive educational content for children

Students with disabilities are increasingly spending most or all of their school day in general education classes. Accessible educational materials and technologies are essential to the independence, participation, and progress of these general education students who function in highly varied ways — physical, sensory, and learning (AEM Center).

There are different types of conditions that impact cognitive functions, which include abilities related to learning, memory, problem-solving, attention, and general intellectual functioning. These disabilities can affect a child’s ability to process information, acquire new knowledge, and perform various cognitive tasks, especially in early childhood, which is why it’s important that interactive materials and technologies used for learning are accessible to all children with disabilities.

The idea would be to create content, such as printed or digital book or an interactive platform that is inclusive for children with cognitive disabilities, in a way that encourages engagement through tasks and exercises. While being accessible to those children with cognitive impairments, it should also be alluring to other children and encourage them to interact with the content. The task would be to try and find the middle ground, where the content is exciting enough to keep children interested while also having their possible disabilities in mind.

Ensuring that children with disabilities can participate in a range of activities in early childhood is very important if these children are to benefit from learning environments.

Examples / existing solutions

  • Multisensory learning tools

Multisensory learning involves the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways to enhance memory and learning of written language, which can be very helpful for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dyslexia, or learning difficulties: https://mein-kleines-baby.de/products/sensory-book-board-erforschen-und-lernen-durch-fuhlen-filzbuch?variant=46486197797202&gclid=CjwKCAiA6byqBhAWEiwAnGCA4PAO3BxCz9ok_h2uLY0IwbjNJTHUfQjN2VnaYXrNJFGHMTfqt2o9IhoCwXUQAvD_BwE

  • AAC devices

For children with communication difficulties, AAC devices, including communication boards and speech-generating devices, can facilitate expression and interaction:

  • Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

Immersive experiences can make learning more engaging and help children understand abstract concepts in a concrete way:

Personal motivation

As someone who has struggled with dyslexia my whole life, I am really passionate about this topic, because I was never treated any differently than my peers in school, even though they didn’t face the same difficulties as me. This obviously affected my learning ability and I was forced to find means of dealing with these issues on my own, which was not an easy task. Thankfully, this didn’t affect my ambitions to continue my education, since my disability was not that severe, but that is not the case for everyone. Young children often struggle a lot to find a way to first understand their disability and then learn how to cope with it.

By creating content that is inclusive for all children, we avoid singling out people with disabilities, while providing them with helpful ways of achieving everything they want and more!

Relevance of design fields

Design fields play a crucial role in creating a positive and effective learning environment. The design of educational spaces encompasses a variety of elements, including architecture, interior design, graphic design, and instructional design.

There is an educational framework called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The goal of UDL is to remove barriers to learning and provide multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression to meet the varying needs and preferences of students. UDL is based on the premise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and that instructional design should be adaptable and accessible to a wide range of learners.

Expected challenges

The term „cognitive disabilities“ is extensive. The research of cognitive disabilities is a multidisciplinary endeavor that involves contributions from various fields, such as psychology, neuroscience, special education, genetics, educational psychology, etc. This might be really challenging and input from a lot of experts as well as people who have experience on the topic will be extremely necessary.

Approach / upcoming research

My next step would be focusing on specific disabilities I would like to address and doing more research on what they represent and how they are traditionally approached in the educational field.

I would also like to learn more about the existing solutions, their pros and cons, and also choose which media channel would be the best to address the problems.

References and relevant links:

https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

https://aem.cast.org/create/creating-accessible-websites

https://uxdesign.cc/universal-design-for-learning-for-students-with-autism-a7d12c0d35f7

https://www.ldau.org/multisensory-teaching-for-dyslexia#:~:text=They%20need%20specialized%20instruction%20to,engagement%20of%20all%20learning%20modalities.

https://4experience.co/vr-ar-teaching-for-students-with-adhd-and-asd/#:~:text=Visual%20Cues%20Help%20a%20Lot,to%20real%2Dworld%20situations%20difficult.

https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/teach-your-child-to-use-an-aac-device/