How Can I Help My Teen or Child With ADHD Study More Effectively?
Big tests may not come frequently in school, but when they do – Wham! They’re hard. My grandson thought he could wait until the night before the test to study. As 19th-century Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once mused: “…[T]he young know everything.” But – lo and behold! – time after time, he found that cramming doesn’t really work. (I could have told him that. I think I did, too. Alas!)
So, what does work? Virtually all students could do better by studying differently, not necessarily longer. This is just an academic takeoff of the adage Work smarter, not harder. This is especially true for kids with ADHD because this little difference could make a huge difference.[1]
Six Study Mistakes That Everyone Makes[2]
Many students employ strategies that are, statistically, less successful than the ones previously outlined. Here’s how to make them more effective.
Highlighting – 84% of students use these this method, along with rereading (see below), even though recent research suggests that it doesn’t make for long-lasting learning or comprehension. Highlighting has not been shown to be very effective, especially when students need to make inferences or connections. This is perhaps because students are overly focused upon individual facts as they highlight. They can’t see the forest for the trees, as it were. Before you throw away your highlighters, however, know that these strategies can still be used – if the highlighting is recast as a fact-gathering prelude to more substantial reflection. In this way, the student would take the facts and then categorize and labels them. This would be followed up by the interrogation and self-explanation (mentioned below) to understand the gathered facts are important and how they’re related to everything else. This adds more rigor.
Rereading – Although not an effective study technique when carried out aimlessly, it can be employed more deliberately to facilitate a deeper understanding of the material. On this, more careful, sort of “close reading,” each successive reread seeks to achieve a different comprehension goal. So, although it may not be done correctly by the majority of students, it should not be totally abandoned.
Summarizing – Summarizing is paraphrasing important ideas in a text. This sounds straightforward. How could you go wrong with this? The problem is that, again, most kids, especially younger students and ADHD students, simply do not write effective summaries. To create effective summaries effective, students need to have the proper training. This method is therefore somewhat difficult to implement. Because until this training is in place – and until students have been evaluated for competency – their summaries will not be conducive for study purposes.
Mnemonics – This idea uses letters, keywords, phrases and rhymes to stimulate (and index) memories. Its use should probably be limited to languages, lists of items and possibly language and math rules and formulas.
Imagery – This view uses mental pictures to induce memories. It also increases retention when tested shortly after studying. A drawback of this method is that not all content lends itself to imagery in any direct way. However, it can be useful to practice developing pictures in your head to represent the parts, processes, and steps of more complex topics. This makes imagery a more useful and versatile tool.
Rehearsal –When you rehearse something in the usual sense, you say it over and over again until you have it down pat. It is effective, but it is only in your short-term memory. On the other hand, “Elaborative Rehearsal is a method to more effectively encode information into your long-term memory by requiring the brain to process it in a more in-depth way.”[3] We would do this by:
- Connecting the new information to older information (i.e., linking new facts up with your prior knowledge).
- Organizing the facts by categories.
- Citing examples of the concepts.
- Putting everything in your own words.
- Making up study questions. Then answering them.
- Breaking up your study time into smaller units over several days. (See “Spacing,” below.)
Five Techniques to Try Instead
These cognitive strategies have a much higher success rate.
Retrieval[4] – This strategy is designed to pull the information out of a child’s head, as opposed to always trying to stuff it in there. “Retrieval practice encourages flexible thinking, improving higher order thinking skills and transfer of knowledge.”[5] This foundational method can take many forms.
- Brain Dumps[6] – These can also be called “free recall.” Have your child pause in his or her studying and tell you as much as possible about what he or she was studying or reading. You could also ask him or her a specific question about what they were reading or studying. After they tell you as much as they can, have them resume their activity.
- Practice Tests[7]– Taking practice tests is another highly effective method of studying. It also has an added benefit for children with ADHD. Kids with ADHD find reading and getting information very challenging because it’s such a passive activity. To boost their engagement and let them take a more active role, they should make their own practice tests using old quizzes, notes and study guides to help them predict what their teachers might ask. The best kind of tests to make are the ones where a student has to recall information rather than just choosing the right one. They should also take the test several times until they can answer all the questions correctly.
Spacing – Don’t cram the night before! Divide your child’s study time into several shorter sessions over several days. (In some contexts, this is termed “chunking.”) This has two benefits. Firstly, it helps to give us a more profound grasp of the material. But secondly, it helps prevent the student from being completely overwhelmed by the work. Spacing also brings in another factor to assist us: Intervening intervals of sleep. Sleep helps the information go into our long-term memory. The “brain rehashes the information that you learned and reviewing it over several days helps to increase the odds of remembering it.”[8]
Quick Reviewing – Relatedly, don’t do all your studying right before you go to bed. The mental activity might hamper your ability to shut down your brain for the night. But a quick 10- or 15-minute review before you turn out the lights, further helps the brain to process difficult material.
Interleaving – This practice involves not only spacing studying across several days, but also mixing up the order and type of problems or questions studied. This adds variety as opposed to the monotony of a “massed practice” consisting of the same kind of tedious work performed repetitively. Mixing up the type of questions and problems aids the student in creating personalized problem-solving strategies – instead of mechanically plodding through the work because every problem is presented in the same way. This is not to say, however, that there is no place for repetition. For example, occasionally revisiting past topics keeps previously-acquired facts close at hand – which is especially helpful in preparation for midterms or finals.[9]
Interrogation and Self-explanation – These are two additional, promising strategies that promote learning and boost problem-solving performance. These methods encourage kids to actively “process” the content that they are focusing on and to integrate it with their prior knowledge. After a teen reads a passage, he would stop and ask him- or herself: “Why is that true? Why is that important?” (This is the “interrogation” part.) Then he or she would explain how those facts were related to his prior knowledge or previous reading.[10]
Three Surprising Extra Tips
Employ Exercise – Exercising before you study, helps your focus and concentration. It also improves executive functioning skills.
Use Aromatherapy – Remember! The smell of peppermint wakes up the brain. Lemon and peppermint might be a good diffuser blend to start off the morning (or a study session) right. Here’s an essential oil blend for a roller bottle that I found for older kids. (A “roller bottle” is similar to the delivery mechanism for roll-on deodorant.)
- 3 drops of cedarwood
- 4 drops of lavender
- 3 drops of vetiver
- 3 drops of frankincense
Preparation instructions: Drop these four essential oils into a 10ml roller bottle and fill it the rest of the way with a “carrier oil” – like jojoba or coconut oil. These sort of essential oils are purported to increase focus, concentration and retention while also relieving anxiety and stress. Apply the oil blend to out-of-the-way places such as student’s wrists or the napes of necks. [11]
Vary Your Location – Lastly, it sometimes helps to study somewhere else (other than your usual surroundings) because we may be too distracted by our familiar settings. You might try the quiet of a library – or try a coffee shop, for those who do better with a low-level “hum” in the background.[12]
Further Reading
Once you feel comfortable with the strategies sketched above, you may be interested to do some higher-level exploration. As far as we can tell, ancient Greco-Romans employed techniques that are generally designated under the heading the “Art of Memory.” Unfortunately, the precise details of these techniques have been lost to the mists of time. But a few intrepid researchers have attempted to reconstruct the history and, perhaps more importantly, the methods.
Interested readers should consult the following two works, for a start.
- The Art of Memory – by Frances A. Yates (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1966)
- Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything – by Joshua Foer (New York: Penguin Press, 2011)
Notes:
[1]Ann Dolin, 7 Secrets to Studying Better with ADHD ADDitude Inside the ADHD Mind https://www.additudemag.com/learn-more-in-less-time/
[2] Ibid.
[3]Esther Heerema, Elaborative Rehearsal: A Better Way to Memorize Learn More Efficiently and Effectively VeryWell Health July 30, 2018 https://www.verywellhealth.com/elaborative-rehearsal-a-better-way-to-memorize-98694
[4]Pooja K. Agarwal, Henry L. Roediger,III, Mark A. McDaniel, Kathleen B. McDermott, How to Use Retrieval Practice to Improve Learning Retrieval Practice Guide Washington University St. Louis http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/RetrievalPracticeGuide.pdf
[5] Ibid.
[6]Brain Dumps A Small Strategy with a Big Impact Retrieval Practice.org https://www.retrievalpractice.org/strategies/2017/free-recall
[7]John Dunlosky, Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning American Educator Fall 2013
[8]Ann Dolin, 10 Secrets to Studying Smarter with ADHD ADDitude https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/how-to-study-with-adhd-and-ace-even-tricky-exams/
[9]What Do Fruit Salad and Interleaving Have in Common? Retrieval Practice.org https://www.retrievalpractice.org/strategies/2018/interleaving-fruit
[10]John Dunlosky, Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning American Educator Fall 2013
[11]Erika, DIY Focus Essential Oil Blend Living Well Mom September 7, 2017 https://livingwellmom.com/diy-focus-essential-oil-blend/
[12]Ann Dolin, 10 Secrets to Studying Smarter with ADHD ADDitude Inside the ADHD Mind https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/how-to-study-with-adhd-and-ace-even-tricky-exams/