What strategies to use to teach English to children with ADHD?

He ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder It is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders that appears in early childhood. Does it mean that children with ADHD can't learn English? Quite the opposite! In this article we tell you some strategies to ensure that children with attention deficit can learn the language.

What happens to children with ADHD?

before telling you how to teach English to children with ADHD It is important to understand what happens with the little ones. What are the characteristics of your attention difficulties? We must assume that children with diagnosed ADHD They don't learn the same way than the rest of the children.

It is also important to highlight that the diagnosis is not made at home, but it must be a psychologist who determines whether or not the child suffers from ADHD. In addition, the psychologist himself will help and will give guidelines to facilitate the learning at school, the home and in extracurricular activities, such as in English courses.

Children with ADHD have the following characteristics:

• Difficulty paying attention to two stimuli (simultaneous or alternative). That is, it could be complex to listen to the teacher and take notes at the same time.
• Difficulty attend to important information, because they are easily distracted.
• They find it difficult to execute long tasks or that require constant mental effort.
• Inability to organize tasks and activities How to prepare things for school.
• They usually lose or forget things, including writing down homework.
• Difficulty follow directions and conversations.

Benefits of bilingualism in children with ADHD

You will be surprised to know that different studies affirm that the language learning during the childhood stage improves performance of children with ADHD. Furthermore, it facilitates the Problem resolution, improves the ability to move from one task to another and, in the long run, can even modulate the level of execution of more complex tasks and that require great concentration.

He bilingualism brings great benefits as long as the second language is taught to early ages. And children with ADHD have incredible qualities like an excellent visual memory, a lot of energy (which can be channeled into activities such as camps, sports, etc.) and the ability to socialize.

How to teach English to children with ADHD?

What strategies can be followed to teach English to children with ADHD? In the case of teachers and parents, it is important understand the difficulties that children present. But in the specific case of those who teach the language, it is necessary adapt curricular contents so that these are more accessible to the little ones.

How are the contents adapted? They can be done more visuals, simplify instructions and reduce the amount of information that is offered. Furthermore, it is also important to offer the activities one at a time, as it allows children to focus on a single task at a time. Some specific techniques to work are the following:

• Enhance basic capabilities. Work on the most basic skills such as attention Y memory helps children with ADHD improve concentration and language learning. Repetition and practice are a very effective method.
• Reduce stimuli distractions from outside.
• Design tasks Keep them short so that the child works for small periods of time. They can also divide the tasks in smaller steps.
• Create daily routines inside the classroom.
• Use visual materials that are attractive to children. If the material is visually striking, the child will focus his attention on it.
• To establish a goal and reward system. The rewards are small, such as a break and even doing a task that the child likes, such as coloring or listening to music in English.
• Use the game as part of learning.

How to help children at home?

When children are diagnosed with ADHD Not all the work is done by the psychologist and the teacher. It is a joint work. If you want to enhance your English learning at home, you can do it too! So that it serves as booster to what was taught in extracurricular classes.

To do this, you must be in communication with the English teacher and, of course, supervise your child's homework. Do they mean more hours of study at home? Yes, but remember that it must be a reinforcement that is fun for the children. You can create games very simple and easy include the language in everyday life of your son. That is, in small, everyday activities like choosing clothes or shopping at the supermarket.

The first thing is grasp What are the characteristics of children with ADHD and, from there, promote language learning in a fun way for them.