SRE classroom tips for supporting students with ADHD

You’ve come into the classroom excited and ready to use your very short 30 minutes to teach a great lesson about our great God. There is one student who can’t seem to sit still. He calls out, wiggles around and the other kids are getting distracted. Maybe he has ADHD?

It can be hard to know what to do in these situations, and how to support young people who have ADHD, whether you are aware of the diagnosis or not. Getting to know each student, especially those with diverse needs, is going to be most helpful. But this can be difficult, if not impossible, with such limited time and a whole class of kids.  

What’s more, each student with ADHD is not the same. Just like every child responds differently in different contexts and with different people, children with ADHD will have good days and not-so-good days. Here are four tips to make your SRE class beneficial for all students.

1.      Communicate lesson path and expectations

You’ll often see in the school classroom that the classroom teacher has displayed the schedule for the day to prepare students for what’s to come. Kids like to know what is happening next and sometimes they’re keen to know the duration of the current activity and what activity they can look forward to.

In SRE, visual schedules are helpful for two reasons. Firstly, it helps them to know what they need to be doing now, and when it will be time to move around and/or talk to their friends. A visual schedule also helps with behaviour redirection. 

Secondly, it helps them with time. Often people with ADHD experience what’s been called “time blindness” or “time agnosia” which can either feel like something is going on forever (and it’s been 4 minutes), or like no time has passed at all (and it’s been 5 hours). Communicating to students the expected duration of each activity will be helpful - you could even use a countdown timer in certain points in the lesson.

Things you can say:

“I know you’re really keen to talk to your friend, but right now (point to schedule) we are doing our Bible lesson. You can talk to your friend during (point to schedule) our bookwork time.”

“I can see you want to move on to the next activity. Give me 2 more minutes to finish what I need to say, and then we can do this next activity.”

“When we are doing our Bible lesson, I would like you to be sitting and listening. When we do our song, we can stand up and dance.”

2.      Understand when students with ADHD really are engaging with the lesson

One of the markers of ADHD is impulsive behaviour, such as calling out in a classroom or speaking out of turn. This can also be a sign that they are interacting with the content, just on a different wavelength. They may have noticed a detail in what you have said, or what they have seen, and they’ve fixated on it. The good news is they’re curious and want to know more. Stifling their curiosity about something that’s caught their attention might lead to their disengaging altogether.

You can delight in their curiosity by engaging with it, putting it off for later discussion, or inviting them to church. Or you might have an enthusiastic kid who knows lots of detail about what you’re teaching that day and will want to teach the story. Sometimes this can be used to your advantage, but other times you might discern that maybe it’s best for you to tell the story and encourage them to listen instead.

Another example of impulsive behaviour is movement and what seems like the inability to sit still. This kind of movement does not necessarily mean they’re not listening. Sometimes moving enables these kids to listen better.  

But it can sometimes be distracting in a classroom setting. One option is allowing them to walk around the back of the room or giving them a place with more surrounding free space. You could also give them something to colour or draw with or let them borrow a small handheld fidget tool during listening time. Sometimes it helps to give the whole class a ‘body break’ at a transition point or when you need them to refocus. For example, “Everyone stretch up high, clap three times, hands in your lap.”

Things you can say:

“The picture (or visual aid) I’m about to show you might look different to what you’ve imagined,  I want you to focus more on this particular detail of the story.”

“I love that you’re keen to find out more about [subject]. Let me finish what I’m teaching about [topic] and then we can chat more about [subject] after.”

“It’s great that you want to share about what you know in this story. How about I finish what I’ve prepared, and you can help fill in anything I’ve missed when I’m done.”

3.      Keep them interested… or not…

When young people with ADHD are bored, they’ll look for something else to do that will interest them. It’s always worth trying to find ways that will engage them in the lesson, perhaps using visuals, video clips, props, or student participation. There are lots of ideas in this article.

But sometimes kids with ADHD are just not interested or engaged, and that’s ok. Being patient with them and not pushing them will benefit you in the long run, and you will have a better connection with them. When you have a moment in the lesson, you can ask them what might help them be more interested.

This can feel counterproductive, but SRE is a long-term investment. We can take confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to be at work through us to make Jesus’ name known. Sometimes we learn later that the lessons we thought went poorly were the ones that had the biggest spiritual impact on someone.

Things you can say:

“You might not enjoy doing this activity, and that’s ok. Not everyone loves all the activities. But we can still be respectful and let other people enjoy this. Perhaps we can think of things you might enjoy.”

“It’s ok to be bored, and you don’t have to listen to the story if you don’t want to. But I do ask that you sit quietly and let other people learn.”

“You might have heard this story before and probably know a lot of details. It’s good to keep listening to the story to see what new things you might learn.”

4.      Repeat yourself, I’ll say it again, repeat yourself

Students with ADHD sometimes act in a way that leads us to assume they are ignoring us or being intentionally defiant. It’s not usually personal. Sometimes directions might not have been clear enough for a particular student, or they don’t have enough information to do what is asked (“Thumbs up if you understand what to do next”). Writing the directions on the whiteboard can be helpful, such as ‘The word search is on page 34 in your Activity book’ or having your teacher’s book open to show everyone what the activity looks like.

Other times students may have listened and understood instructions, but they’ve been distracted, and they have forgotten what to do. This is when calmly repeating yourself is not a negative thing but a helpful way to keep them on track. Be clear with your instructions, say exactly what you mean and what you want your students to do, and keep guiding them back as needed.

Things you can say:

Hold up the workbook/worksheet and say, “Today in our books, these are the tasks you’ll need to do, do we understand? Ok, let’s go.”

“If you’re not sure what you’re meant to do, that’s ok, put up your hand and I’ll come round to help you.”

These strategies will likely help all the students in your class to engage with the content and stay on track. Creatively engaging with students who are neurodiverse can be exhausting. But let’s stick at it, praying our Heavenly Father would bless our efforts.