Effective Differentiated Learning for ADHD Students in Math

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of differentiated learning strategies tailored for students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in mathematics. It begins by highlighting the unique learning challenges faced by ADHD students, including procedural errors, difficulties with working memory, and challenges in problem-solving. The report then explores various differentiated learning approaches, such as consultative-based academic interventions, cognitive-based instruction, and the use of real-world scenarios, to address these challenges. It emphasizes the importance of adapting teaching methods to accommodate individual learning needs and aligns these strategies with theories of differentiated instruction, emphasizing learner-centered approaches and allowing students to take control of their learning. The report also provides practical examples of how these strategies relate to specific mathematical content areas and the five mathematical strands, including conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and strategic competence. Ultimately, the report concludes that employing differentiated learning is crucial for helping ADHD students grasp mathematical concepts effectively, ensuring they can achieve their full potential in the classroom. The report is a great resource for educators and students alike, and it is available on Desklib, a platform that provides AI-based study tools.

Running head: COMMENTARY 1
Education: Presentation and Commentary
By (Student’s Name)
Institutional Affiliation

COMMENTARY 2
Introduction:
Each and every student in a class has his or her different ways of learning. Mathematics
as a discipline requires deeper elaboration and detail explanation in order to grab the concepts,
techniques as well as various methods and their applications. For this reason, there is a need for
mathematics teachers to adopt a teaching technique that accommodates each and every student's
learning needs, and the only method of instruction suitable to achieve this is differentiated
learning. The content of this paper, therefore, evaluates and assesses how a mathematics teacher
can use differentiated learning as a method of instruction to help learners with ADHD. Children
with ADHD are learners with a special condition that makes then not to have the same learning
ability as the other learners. According to the research evidence, learners with ADHD normally
score a lower score than other students in mathematics with at least 8% to 10% percent. Thus to
ensure that there are healthy competition and effective learning for all the learners in a
mathematics class, the teacher should adopt a differentiated learning technique.
Strategies and approaches suitable for mathematics class differentiation:
o Consultative-based academic intervention or approach
o Cognitive based instruction
o Keyword use approach
o Linking explanations and concepts to the real-world scenario
o Rewriting problems in a more simple language
o Allowing the ADHD learns with adequate participation chances
o Application of small group learning and peer teaching

COMMENTARY 3
o Use of guided questioning techniques to enable learners to express their level of
understanding
How do the approaches and strategies you discussed in presentation relate to
theories of differentiated instruction?
Differentiated learning is an educational framework in which the teacher organization
classroom in a way that enables learners to learn through various avenues (Gipe & Richard,
2018). Therefore, for a mathematics teacher to ensure that his or her lesson content reaches
every learner as per their uniqueness and learning abilities, the teacher must shake up the
classroom and organize it in ways that the learners have various avenues of acquiring,
processing, and make sense of the lesson content. In this manner, the application of a cognitive
approach while teaching learners with ADHD enables a mathematics teacher in a class to
accommodate each and every learner's as per their cognitive abilities. Also, the application of a
consultative based teaching enables teachers in mathematics classrooms to apply learner-
centered teaching, which benefits each and every learner at a personal level, thus concurring with
theories of differentiation, which requires teachers to offer to teach services to learners at a
personal level.
Differentiated learning theories also require the teacher to provide the individual learner
with specific steps towards taking control of their learning experience (Suprayogi, Valcke &
Godwin, 2017). Therefore, allowing individual ADHD learners with adequate participation
chances is one of the ways that a mathematics teacher can allow learners to take control of their
learning. Another strategy that presents learners with the opportunity to take control of their
learning is peer teaching or tutoring. By organizing learners with ADHD in mathematics class

COMMENTARY 4
into smaller groups to learn from each other is another way that enables learners to learn a
personal level.
Giving instruction to learners that are organized based on the differentiation theory
requires enables specific assessment of the learner’s rate of understanding at a personal level. For
this reason, the strategy of the teacher use guided questioning techniques that enable each learner
to express his or her level of understanding meets this need for differentiated learning. It also
provides a mathematics teacher with feedback during and at the end of the lesson on the learners'
progress.
According to the theory of differentiated learning, teaching and learning should be made
simple and learner-centered. Thereby, rewriting problems in a more simple language, Linking
explanations and concepts to the real-world scenario, and helping ADHD learners in
mathematics class identify keywords is crucial in attaining differentiated learning. Thus, to
summaries, all strategies discussed within the presentation are all differentiated strategies of
learning and assessment and are suitable for athletics learners with ADHD based on their
inability to learn as their peers in the same classroom (Jitendra, 2013).
How do the approaches and strategies you discussed in your presentation relate to
your chosen exceptionality?
As highlighted in the introduction, learners with ADHD have weaknesses that limit them
from learning as swiftly as their peers in the same class, and on most occasions, they will score
marks which are between 8% -10% lower than the peers (DuPaul, Weyandt & Janusis, 2011).
Research shreds of evidence show that these leaners have the following mathematics
weaknesses:

COMMENTARY 5
o They have procedural errors when it comes to subtraction of lager numbers from
smaller numbers
o Learners with ADHD may also rely on finger counting while handling
calculations
o They also prefer talking loud while guiding their action rather than simply use
inner speech
o ADHD learners are also slow when solving mathematical challenges
o This group of learners also lack the ability to separate relevant information from
irrelevant information while solving math problems
o And finally, they have difficulty in solving problems with multiple procedures
and steps
The chosen strategies and approaches selected for the case were suitable for meeting the
specific ADHD learning requirements in relation to mathematics. Therefore, by engaging
learners with ADHD in consultative learning, the teacher is able to elaborate and make
mathematic challenges much simpler. Moreover, the consultative learning approach also enables
the teacher to show to each and every ADHD learner the most simple and alternative way to
solve mathematical challenges that require multiple procedures and steps (Rief, 2012). This
meets the learner's demand as this group of learners usually has difficulty when it comes to
procedural calculation.
Moreover, learners with ADHD take a lot of time to grab a mathematical concept and
apply the same concepts to a mathematical challenge. For this reason, organizing a mathematical
class in a way that each and every learner is given multiple chances to express what they have
learned from the lesson content gives them enough time to grab and understand a mathematical

COMMENTARY 6
concept, thus meeting their needs (Mulaudzi & Runhare, 2014). Furthermore, using real-life
situations and linking the instruction to what ADHD learners are much aware of enables them to
understand mathematical concepts based on real-life experience rather than memory.
Nonetheless, reorganizing class into small groups based on interests and abilities enables ADHD
learners to talk and discuss louder as most of them do nit prefer internal speech while giving
themselves action guidance, which enables them to learn based on their unique styles of learning.
Finally, rewriting problems in a more simple language and helping learners with ADHD to
identify keywords within problems solves the difficulty which they have when it comes to the
identification of important information in mathematical problems.
Provide examples of how the approaches and strategies you discussed in your
presentation relate to the mathematics content area as well as the working mathematically
strands.
The presented strategies relate in the five mathematical strands and content, such as
fractions as a content area in mathematics. According to various mathematical literature, there
are five strands that should be captured to ensure mathematical proficiency. These strands
include conceptual understanding of mathematical operations, concepts and relation, procedural
competence which is simply the ability of the learner to carry out accurate, efficient, appropriate
and procedural calculations, strategic competence or the ability to formulate, represent and solve
mathematical problems, the adaptive reasoning strand which is the individual learner’s ability to
reason logically and apply justifiable reasoning and the final strand is the productive deposition
which is individuals own mathematical efficacy (Niss, 2015).
The chosen strategies build up learner’s procedural fluency enabling them to carry out
mathematical activities in a more accurate manner. Strategies such as Consultative-based

COMMENTARY 7
academic intervention or approach enable the teacher to provide the individual learners with one
procedure on how to handle mathematical concepts. This enables us to accurately and
procedurally solve mathematical problems. Therefore, when a learner is given for example {(1/4
+1/1) + (1/4) + 4(1 + 4/8)} with the direct aid of the teacher, an ADHD learner will be able to
follow at the individual level the procedure outlined by the teacher he or she cannot comprehend
alone.
Another strand is a conceptual understanding which most of the ADHD lacks, thus, to
help this group of learners develop conceptual understanding, the teacher should be able to make
the concepts easier to follow and understand (Niss, 2015). For this reason, rewriting problems
and using real-life experience in a mathematical class with ADHD is crucial as it enables
learners to organize the impacted knowledge into a coherent whole. For instance, when teaching
learners with ADHD, the addition of fraction such as {(1/3) + (3/6)}, teacher based on the real-
life situation as one of the identified strategies can draw a picture or use concrete material to
show the fraction or even tell the same concept as a story. This enables the learners to grasp the
concept from the experience point of view rather than from memory.
Strategies such as the keyword identification approach help learners with ADHD to build
strategic competence when solving mathematical problems (Niss, 2015). Being able to identify
what a mathematical question needs, enables the individual learners to formulate the problem,
represent them, and solve the problem. Taking, for example, Mary bought two oranges, and she
divided the oranges into two equal parts. She gave one piece to her sister Joan and ate the two
pieces, and kept the remaining. Find how many pieces Mary kept? In such a question, the learner
must be able to understand the tested concept. Therefore, by helping the learners interoperate the

COMMENTARY 8
problem by identifying the keywords, the teacher enables the learner to build strategic
competence.
Conclusion
According to the differentiated learning theory, each and every learner is unique and has
his or her style of learning. To this, the proponents of this theory came up with a framework that
could be adopted to ensure that each and every learner acquires concepts and ways in the way
that is most efficient. The content of the paper applied various strategies that are suitable to
learners with ADHD and elaborated on how these strategies are effective in a mathematical
class. Therefore, in concluding, it can be noted that learners with ADHD are special learners, and
a mathematics teacher should employ the differentiated approach of instruction to ensure that
they are able the grasp concepts which they are not able to acquire normally as their peers.

COMMENTARY 9
References
DuPaul, G. J., Weyandt, L. L., & Janusis, G. M. (2011). ADHD in the classroom: Effective
intervention strategies. Theory into practice, 50(1), 35-42.
Gipe, J., & Richard, J. (2018). Multiple paths to literacy: Assessment and differentiated
instruction for diverse learners, K-12.
Jitendra, A. K. (2013). Understanding and accessing standards-based mathematics for students
with mathematics difficulties. Learning Disability Quarterly, 36(1), 4-8.
Mulaudzi, P., & Runhare, T. (2014). Teaching mathematics to learners with perceived attention-
deficit hyperactive disorder at foundation phase: A case study of five grade three South
African learners. Journal of Educational Studies, 13(2), 139-165.
Niss, M. (2015). Mathematical competencies and PISA. In Assessing mathematical literacy (pp.
35-55). Springer, Cham.

COMMENTARY
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Niss, M. (2015). Mathematical literacy. In The proceedings of the 12th international congress on
mathematical education (pp. 409-414). Springer, Cham.
Rief, S. F. (2012). How to reach and teach children with ADD/ADHD: Practical techniques,
strategies, and interventions (Vol. 3). John Wiley & Sons.
Suprayogi, M. N., Valcke, M., & Godwin, R. (2017). Teachers and their implementation of
differentiated instruction in the classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 291-301