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Reading Strategies for Students With ADD and ADHD in theInclusive ClassroomJean OstoitsPublished online: 02 Apr 2010.

To cite this article: Jean Ostoits (1999) Reading Strategies for Students With ADD and ADHD in the Inclusive Classroom, PreventingSchool Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 43:3, 129-132, DOI: 10.1080/10459889909603314

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Reading Strategies for Students With

ADD and ADHD in the Inclusive Classroom

JEAN OSTOITS

Jean ostoits is a teacher of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) at Rawlings Elementary School, in Pinellas County, Flori&. She will receive her master’s degree in varying exceptionalities at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg in May 1999.

he number of students with disabili- T ties being educated in general educa- tion classrooms has increased substantial- ly since the late 1980s (McLesky, Henry, & Hodges, 1998). This inclusion is hav- ing a significant effect on the way teach- ers educate students in general education classrooms.

Teachers need to pick and choose from a variety of strategies and accommoda- tions to meet the individual needs of all students-those with disabilities and those without (Yehle & Wambold, 1998). Students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) present a unique set of charac- teristics that challenge educators to find strategies to ensure their academic suc- cess. Of primary concern is the reading ability of these students.

A diagnosis of ADD/ADHD does not necessarily mean that a student will have a reading disability, but many students so diagnosed do experience difficulties in learning to read. According to Zentall (1993), about 9% of students with ADHD have been characterized as having true reading disabilities. Effective behavioral and academic interventions by parents and professionals can improve the reading skills of those students (Warren & Hynt, 1995). Pharmacological interventions may be needed as well.

Effects of ADD/ADHD on Reading French and Landretti (1995, p. 11) have

suggested that “attention deficit is a break- down in the attentional regulatory sys- tem.” Such a breakdown can result in low grades and erratic performance and cause students to learn inefficient reading skills. Staying alert in the classroom is difficult for these students because of the sheer amount of effort required to pay attention.

Orientation to Text Lipson and Wixson (cited in French &

Landretti, 1995) describe a reader’s ori- entation to a text as bottom-up, topdown, or interactive. In a bottom-up orientation, the reader’s cognitive processing is fo- cused on the text. This orientation is often seen in a skills-based cumculum. In top- down, the cognitive emphasis begins with one’s personal meaning structure or schema. This approach is often seen in whole language classrooms. However,

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reading is not an either/or process; it re- quires an interaction of both orientations for success. According to French and Landretti (1995), this is what makes as- sessing a student with ADD so difficult. Teachers, reading specialists, and parents must collaborate in finding the strategies that work for individual students.

Learning Styles.

Dunn and Dunn (Wallace, 1995) re- ported that poor readers’ learning styles are almost always exactly opposite the conditions expected of learners in school. According to Wallace (1999, their pre- ferred learning styles include the follow- ing:

1. Working with a small group of peers rather than always working alone or in the large group.

2. Poor auditory memory. 3. Low motivation (being slow to start as-

signments). 4. Low persistence (failing to finish as-

signments). 5. A need for visual illustrations, spatial

strategies (such as semantic maps), and tactile or kinesthetic resources.

Suggested Interventions.

ADDlADHD students need to read quietly to themselves so they can hear their own voices, maintain attention, and find meaning during silent reading time (Reif, 1993). Rereading is often neces- sary because of their inability to focus on what is being read. Tracking or losing their place is problematic and often re- quires using a marker. Routman (1991) suggests using a sliding “mask” to help students focus on parts of words to help with decoding. Routman provides direc- tions for making and using such masks for big books as well as regular size text, which can be used on the overhead pro- jector, and in small groups.

Small Group Work

One-to-one assistance and small-group work on specific skills will also ensure a more successful reader. Burcham, Carlson, and Milich (1993) reported that in a Cali- fornia elementary school highly trained paraprofessional aides in the regular class- room provided structured feedback every 15 minutes on targeted behaviors. This ap-

proach resulted in dramatic decreases in the school’s discipline referrals, allowing students to spend more time in an acade- mic setting.

Structure and Comfort

Students with ADD/ADHD also need structured daily schedules and consistent instructional methods. They need a class- room atmosphere in which they are com- fortable taking risks (Edelsky, 1992). Using reading materials with predictable texts; refemng to texts children already can read; reading aloud to students; and implementing shared reading, repeated reading, and paired reading all contribute to a risk-free atmosphere (Routman, 1991). Reif (1993) believes that strategies for students with ADD/ADHD must be in- teresting, relevant, motivating, and multi- sensory in nature. They must also involve active participation by the students, inter- action with peers, and choices that tap into the students’ learning styles and strengths.

Prereading strategies

Prereading strategies should relate prior experience or knowledge to current learning by using class discussions, brain- storming, visuals, and story predictions. Prereading strategies such as K-W-L charts (What I Know, What I Want to Know, and What I Have Learned) and pre- reading of questions that will be asked later help to prepare students for reading (French & Landretti, 1995). The K-W-L method, developed by Donna Ogle, re- quires students to recall prior knowledge to develop questions and read for answers (Warren & Flynt, 1995). Vocabulary words can be learned using the Fernald kinesthetic method, in which the student says the word, sees it written by the teach- er, traces the word with a finder, writes the word from memory, sees the word again, and reads the word aloud (Warren & Flynt, 1995).

Afrer Reading

Strategies to use after the reading is fin- ished include using graphic organizers as visualizing strategies. Storyboards, story charts, and circle stones allow the reader to form an image of what he or she has read (Rief, 1993).

The use of story mapping enhances comprehension. Mathes, Fuchs, and Fuchs

(1997) recommended a technique called Cooperative Story Mapping. The tech- nique involves having students use meta- cognitive strategies to increase their understanding. Teaching students to iden- tify story elements such as main charac- ters, setting, problem, major events, and resolution provides them with a frame- work on which to base their comprehen- sion. In addition, Cooperative Story Map- ping encourages group discussion about the story, which allows readers to fill in any missing parts. Using story mapping to develop relationships provides ADD/ ADHD students with needed reinforce- ment for vocabulary and concept develop- ment (Wallace, 1995). Warren and Flynt (1995) have found that mapping helps stu- dents take notes during class as well as when reading. It requires the student to attend and stay on task to gain the infor- mation.

Mathes et al. (1997) advise grouping students heterogeneously in groups of 3-5 to work on story maps. Such an envi- ronment allows low-achieving students to be placed in roles of academic value while being exposed to the skills of high- er level readers.

Retelling the story is another way of in- creasing comprehension. Storytelling promotes good attention, invites active involvement, encourages visualization, and requires the active use of imagination (Reif, 1993). Language-experience sto- ries (Wallace, 1995) have been found to be useful with young students; they are easily created with any age group using a limited amount of material.

Cloze exercises for reading cornpre- hension development are easily created by the teacher and are also very useful. (A cloze test asks the reader to supply words that have been deleted from the text.) The teacher can use whatever materials the student is currently reading to make a cloze passage simply by blocking out key words in the text. ADD/ADHD students may be provided a word box with the key words to use in filling in the blanks.

For content area reading, ADD/ADHD students benefit from being allowed to write in their books, highlighting impor- tant information and details (French & Landretti, 1995). Rief (1993) suggested using metacognitive journals, which include columns for “What I Learned”

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and “HOW I Came to Learn It,” and dou- ble-entry journals, which are used for ex- amining quotations. Students write the quotations they liked and then write their thoughts about the quotation. These jour- nals can be shared and discussed.

Allowing Movement Edelsky (1992) believes that allowing

students with ADHD to move around the room to confer with peers during reading helps with the students’ need to “fiddle.” French and Landretti (1995) suggested allowing students to sit on the floor or draw while listening to someone read. Older students can be encouraged to jot down notes or key words. Zentall(l986) found that students with hyperactivity were most on-task and least active when a story was read quickly without added detail (cited in Fiore, Becker, & Nero, 1993). Zentall (1985) found that color added to search-attentional tasks im- proved the performance of ADHD stu- dents. However, after the novelty of color wore off, the gains were diminished, sug- gesting that students with ADD/ADHD needed constantly changing strategies to keep them involved.

Parents and professionals responsible for teaching students with ADD/ADHD how to read have an enormous task. They not only have to deal with the reading process but also with sustaining the stu- dents’ attention and interest. Classroom teachers in regular and special education classrooms face an extremely diversified student population. To meet the increased instructional needs of this diverse student population, teachers must be able to dis- play a variety of strategies. In describing the current state of practice, Fiore, Beck- er, and Nero (1993) suggested that no in- tervention strategies to date, whether em- ployed singly or in combination, have proved clinically sufficient and durable for the troubling and troublesome problems of these youngsters. Educators must contin- ue to search for integrated components- cognitive, behavioral, and pharmacologi- cal-that will constitute an adequate treatment package (Fiore et al., 1993).

What Works for Me At Rawlings Elementary School,

where I teach, the regular classroom is the primary place where students with SLD

Vol. 43, No. 3

receive special education services. I go into eight regular education classrooms and work with small groups of students identified as being Specific Learning Dis- abled (as well as “struggling” students) for 30 to 40 minutes a day. Most of the students with whom I work have difficul- ty focusing their attention for a sustained period of time.

My experience has shown that the big- gest challenge to teaching ADD/ADHD students who also have learning disabil- ities is keeping them engaged in reading long enough to promote understanding of the text. This requires me to be knowl-

words they are reading and slide the bookmark down the page as they read. Plain pieces of manila paper that are lam- inated work very well. I have the students write their names on the backs of their bookmarks and then laminate them. The bookmark also lets other readers know whose book is whose. Teachers may want to experiment with different colors of paper to see if one color helps the student more than another.

Using graphic organizers enhances my students’ comprehension. Often, when my reading groups begin a new book, each student makes a folder to complete

Rather than always making students write out what I want them to remember, I sometimes let them draw what they see as I read to them.

edgeable about the various techniques for teaching reading because what engages one student does not necessari- ly engage another. I need a full “bag of tricks.”

Awareness of learning styles enhances a teacher’s ability to reach each student. One of my students, Bobby, is an ex- tremely auditory learner who needs to hear himself read a text aloud to keep en- gaged. If Bobby is required to read silent- ly as part of a reading workshop, he spends his time staring off into space, or looking at the text as if he were reading, but in fact just staring at the page, accom- plishing nothing. His accommodation is simple; the classroom teacher simply pro- vides a comer in the back of the room where he can sit and whlsper to himself what the text says, while not disturbing others in the room.

ADDlADHD students often have trou- ble keeping their eyes focused on the text because their attention is drawn to small distractions that most students ignore. These distractions can be as small as another student’s sneezing in the class- room. Once their attention is drawn away from the text, they have difficulty return- ing to their place. I have found that book- marks are invaluable for students who have this difficulty. I have the students place their bookmarks under the line of

while the book is being read. The folder consists of several sheets of notebook paper for the students to use for daily re- sponses to what they have read. I also give them several blackline graphic organizers to ihclude in the folders. KWL charts, story mapping, character webs, and T charts to list main ideas and details, allow my ADD/ADHD students to participate actively in what they are reading. The charts are particularly valuable because they can be filled in a small amount at a time. Many students with ADD/ADHD have difficulty sustaining their attention through long writing assignments (such as story retellings). Rather than always making students write out what I want them to remember, I sometimes let them draw what they see as I read to them. Some of my students excel in art and pro- duce detailed drawings of characters or settings. Frequent discussion of what is being read, with both the teacher and peers participating, is also a strategy that I employ on a daily basis. Even talking allows ADHD students to have some movement.

The responsibility for ensuring suc- cessful learning for ADD/ADHD stu- dents is an enormous one. However, I have found that each time I leam and employ a new strategy I have more suc- cess in teaching these students to read.

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REFERENCES

Burcham, B., Carlson, L.. & Milich. R. (1993). Promising school-based practices for students with attention deficit disorder. Exceptional Chil- dren 60, 174-180.

Edelsky. C. (1992). Language arts topics and edu- cational issues: Information sheets. 'hscon, AZ: Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 359 486.)

Fiore, T.. Becker, E., & Nero, R. (1993). Educa- tional interventions for students with attention deficit disorder. Exceptional Children. 60, 163- 173.

French, M. & Landretti, A. (1995). Anention deficit and reading instruction. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 383 134.)

Mathes, P., Fuchs, D.. & Fuchs, L. (1997). Cooper- ative story mapping. Remedial and Special Edu- cation. 18(1), 20-27.

McLeskey. J., Henry, D., & Hodges, D. (1998). Inclusion: Where is it happening? Teaching Exceptional Children, 31.4-10.

Rief, S. F. (1993). How to reach and teach ADD/ ADHD children. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Routman, R. (1991). Invitations: Changing as teachers and learners K-12. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann. Wallace, J. (1995). Improving the reading skills of

poor achieving students. Reading Improvement 32. 102-104.

Warren, J. S.. & Hynt. S. W. (1995). Children with attention deficit disorder: Diagnosis and pre- scription of reading skill deficits. Reading Im- provement. 32, 105-109.

Yehle, A. K., & Wambold, C. (1998). An ADHD success story: Strategies for teachers and stu- dents. Teaching Exceptional Children, 30, 8- 13.

Zentall, S. S. (1993). Research on the educational implications of attention deficit hyperactivity dis- order. Exceptional Children, 60. 143-153.

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