Category: ADHD

Don’t Let Neurodivergence Derail Your Semester

2/29/2024

Helping Struggling Learners Stay on Track

Image by Julia M Cameron

The semester is underway. Is your neurodivergent student staying on track? ADHD, autism, dyslexia and other learning differences can pose obstacles to academic consistency, but with the right guidance, struggling learners can maintain traction and achieve academic success.

Last month, we examined how neurodivergent students can use a growth mindset for goal setting. This month, we are exploring how individuals with learning differences can apply a growth mindset in order to maintain momentum.

Life’s little setbacks

I recently assisted a worried parent whose teenage son Lucas sprained his ankle just before cross country tryouts. While she was understandably upset that he might become disheartened, we discussed ways he could reframe the accident as an opportunity for personal and athletic growth.

I coached Lucas to view his injury not as a setback, but as a chance to grow both mentally and physically. The idea was for him to embrace the prescribed rehabilitation plan with patience, recognizing that progress might be gradual. During coaching sessions, I encouraged him to focus on achievable gains during recovery rather than dwelling on limitations. Adopting a growth mindset helped Lucas set realistic short-term goals, making the recovery process more manageable and providing a sense of achievement.

Despite the initial disappointment and some bumps along the healing path, with support, Lucas maintained focus on his goal of returning to competitive form. While his recovery didn't unfold as initially anticipated, Lucas did experience growth in ways he hadn't foreseen. His mother remarked that he eventually learned to navigate a slow rehabilitation with grace and cultivated resilience and perseverance. The experience became a transformative journey for him, resulting in a successful recovery and a strengthened mindset for future athletic and academic challenges.

What is growth mindset?

Dr. Carol Dweck's theory on growth mindset highlights the significance of tackling problems with grit. Unlike a fixed mindset that sees struggles as proof of built-in limitations, a growth mindset sees them as opportunities to get better. Like flexing strength-building muscles, this outlook generates endurance and gives students the confidence that they can make continuous improvement and achieve their goals.

Growth mindset is also associated with more consistency in tracking goals. A research study at Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands has found that a growth mindset allows people who are tracking their progress to maintain both self-compassion and persistence while pursuing their goals.

Dweck's growth mindset theory can help neurodivergent individuals focus and persevere when using tracking systems in pursuit of their academic, professional and personal goals. This approach not only fosters resilience in navigating obstacles, but also helps learners develop acceptance about the path their progress takes.

How you can help

Goal-setting thrives on continuous improvement and achievement. If you are guiding someone on their educational path, you can encourage them to face challenges with a positive mindset and navigate their pursuits with determination and adaptability.

Encourage your student to write down their goals: When learners jot down their goals, they’re making them real and touchable. Writing brings clarity, helping individuals express what they are reaching for, and serves as a friendly nudge, keeping objectives in sight.

Help your learner find a way to track their goals: Keeping tabs on progress is like having a roadmap for accomplishments. It's a visual testament to how much ground a student has covered. Tracking helps students stay focused, gives room for adjustments when needed, and ensures that they stay true to their aspirations.

Teach your student to cultivate self-compassion regardless of the result: Embracing a positive mindset is key for bouncing back. Understanding that stumbling is part of the journey helps students accept imperfections, dial down the fear of failure, and face challenges with a positive spin.

Help your learner continue to persevere, even when they don't meet their goals: Many pursuits are more like marathons than sprints. Treating setbacks as stepping stones to learning and self-improvement helps students become more adaptable, ready to face whatever hurdles come their way.

Growth mindset allows people who are tracking their progress to maintain self-compassion and persistence while pursuing their goals.

Coaches and educators can support students in adopting a growth mindset to advance their academic, professional, and personal success. If neurodivergence has hindered your student’s progress and satisfaction, they can adopt these strategies and see their objectives take root and flourish.

Is your student looking to set sustainable goals and maximize their academic confidence? Schedule a complimentary information session.

As an executive function coach and academic tutor, I specialize in helping individuals with learning differences exceed their goals for academics, organization, college transition, and career development.

"I wanted to express my appreciation. I am certain that your direction and voice made a difference for our son, probably even more than he realizes. Thanks again!" - Richard, Parent

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Growth Mindset, Neurodivergence and New Year Goal Setting

1/23/2024

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Young woman ascending artificial rock climbing structure

Image by Allan Mas

Celebrating Progress, Grit and Fresh Starts

Winter is a traditional season for quiet reflection on the year that has passed. It presents an opportunity to celebrate where we took risks, navigated obstacles, persevered, acquired skills, and made gains.

It’s also a time for setting goals for the coming year. For people with learning differences, forward momentum can feel particularly evasive. They tend to find progress toward goals to be more of a “one step forward, two steps back” experience.

In this article, we’ll explore the nature of progress for neurodivergent students, how growth mindset theory can help, and concrete strategies for using that mindset as a tool for better goal setting.

Progress Is Not a Straight Line

When assessing their progress, and creating goals for the coming year, people who are wired differently need to steer clear of perfectionistic thinking, or the notion that improvement must be immediate in order to exist. If you know someone who is neurodivergent, as I am, they may at times experience progress as imperceptible growth, happening beneath the surface of understanding. They may encounter satisfying breakthroughs, followed by humdrum plateaus, followed by what appear to be disappointing setbacks. These frustrating roller coasters – fits and starts – can erode their confidence. The path may not make sense, given the sweat equity.

The journey of tackling a high school, college, or career challenge may ultimately prove to be as valuable as arriving at the destination. In setting goals for the new year, people with learning differences such as ADHD and autism benefit from giving themselves credit for the process of forward movement, not just achievement. Sustaining efforts outside their comfort zones can embolden neurodivergent individuals to stay the course and practice positive habits that eventually develop into routines.

Growth Mindset Theory

Dr. Carol Dweck’s growth mindset theory highlights the importance of facing setbacks with persistence. Unlike a fixed mindset, which interprets struggles as indicators of inherent limitations, a growth mindset views them as opportunities to develop strengths. This perspective fosters stamina and empowers students with the confidence that improvement and progress are always within reach.

Embracing a growth mindset unleashes cognitive potential. A January 2023 Neuroscience article cites a Southwest University study that correlates growth mindset with greater gray matter in the part of the brain responsible for decision making and goal setting. Research at the Gene-Brain-Behavior (GBB) Project supports the notion that individuals who have a growth mindset develop critical reasoning skills that make them resilient and adaptable thinkers.

Growth Mindset and Neurodivergence

Neurodivergent individuals, whether in middle school, high school, college or beyond, can adopt a growth mindset to increase their traction with academic, professional and personal goals. However, encouraging students with learning differences via blanket positive encouragement that lacks relevant details can be baffling to them, or even backfire.

In the June 2023 Washington Post article “The growth mind-set: Why friends, family and work make a difference,” author Tara Parker-Pope describes the value of bringing attention to a person’s specific strengths and areas of growth, rather than simply praising them for doing “a good job.” The idea is that vague, but positive statements from mentors and peers can actually contribute to an individual’s anxiety because they don’t have a clear sense of which actions the praise is connected to, whereas targeted and accurate feedback helps them conceptualize what they are doing well, and focus on areas where they can still improve.

People with learning differences may benefit during goal setting by noting whether they struggle with metacognition and the ability to see how they navigate through environments, responsibilities, and achievements. Feedback from mentors can help them take a detailed and precise account of how past decisions played out, highlight specific areas of growth, realistically assess their strengths and blind spots, and plan what to work on accordingly. From there, supportive routines can be introduced and practiced.

Growth Mindset and Developing Sustainable Habits and Routines

While detailed feedback and support can empower neurodivergent individuals to set appropriate goals, and routines can keep them on track, cultivating patience and gentleness with themselves and the fruits of their efforts can help them stay in the game and bolster lagging confidence.

To be sustainable, growth is best framed as a gradual progression, not a one-off event. Rather than allowing setbacks to weigh us down, we can view them as opportunities for improvement. People who are wired differently can acknowledge previously challenging goals and the hurdles they have overcome, then take stock of growth edges, unrealized potential, and support structures they can implement to ease the process.

Achievement of long-term goals will play out differently than that of short-term objectives. Rushing to the end point of complex, incremental pursuits may be counterproductive. Multifaceted endeavors, targets and aspirations require longer time frames.

How Neurodivergent People Can Use a Growth Mindset for More Effective Goal Setting

Aim for gradual progress. Learners sometimes feel pressured to absorb new information at astronomical speed and achieve instant results. However, lasting progress can take time. It is okay to go at our own pace and trust the process. Unmet goals are not unachievable; they just have not yet been met. People with learning differences can leave room in their worldview for those aims to manifest on their own time, supported by steady effort. Desired outcomes inevitably take longer than expected to achieve.

Validate efforts, not just results. Consistency and tenacity are vital to success. Repeatedly stretching outside one’s comfort zone ultimately leads to major growth. Expectations associated with high school, college, and professional milestones can emphasize external achievement, downplaying internal and subjective gains, which are often at least as significant. It is easy to focus only on results without appreciating the learning process. Yet we benefit from identifying new skills acquired along the way, regardless of their size.

Cultivate grit. Learners can make friends with resilience by incorporating positive forward movement into their daily routines. Growth is a process, so it is necessary to be prepared to work toward goals gradually over time, even before progress becomes apparent. Challenges and obstacles do not need to deter students from tackling new tasks with courage. If they don't meet their goals today, they can take a break from the frustration and try again tomorrow. Pacing matters. People can develop new stamina by making a habit of revisiting difficult projects with greater equanimity. If routines include getting back on the proverbial horse after a setback, progress toward goals becomes a natural phenomenon.

Get effective supports in place to maintain momentum.

Solo Support: Discovery is a beautiful thing, and our life paths are nothing short of adventure. Struggling learners can visualize achieving their goals. They can commit to making significant growth toward them, and imagine taking the steps that will get them there. To concretize progress, they can then gamify positive actions and reinforce effective habits to ingrain them into routines.

Community Support: If neurodivergent individuals are not making the traction they want, they may be missing key resources and self-management tools. Skillful mentorship can expose learners to fresh perspectives and untried solutions. No one succeeds entirely alone. Asking for help and assembling a team can provide encouragement and inspiration. It is crucial to be conscientious about the environment we inhabit and the influences we absorb, as the people we interact with inform our inner dialog. If interactions are energizing and help us move forward toward goals, we are in the right company.

Observe and celebrate progress. Celebrating achievement activates the brain’s reward system by releasing oxytocin and dopamine. This can generate a feedback loop that reinforces motivation. It also reduces stress, accelerating learning and increasing memory, focus and attention. No accomplishment is too small or negligible. Learners can develop greater courage and a stronger sense of achievement by recognizing the little wins and appreciating how far they have come.

Coaches and educators can support students in adopting a growth mindset to advance their academic, professional, and personal success. If neurodivergence has hindered your student’s progress and satisfaction, they can adopt these strategies and see their objectives take root and flourish.

Is your student looking to set sustainable goals and maximize their academic confidence? Schedule a complimentary information session.

As an executive function coach and academic tutor, I specialize in helping individuals with learning differences exceed their goals for academics, organization, college transition, and career exploration.

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Use ChatGPT to Enhance, Not Replace Your Student’s Skills

6/25/2023

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Image by Mikhail Nilov

How to Use AI Chatbots to Aid Critical Thinking Rather Than Make It Obsolete

ChatGPT Guidelines for Students, Coaches and Educators

In related articles, we discuss how learners can use AI writing generators effectively as research tools, as well as how students can maintain rigorous standards with their AI-assisted academic projects.

Today, we provide an overview of some risks associated with using AI writers for school assignments, as well as guidelines on how to leverage them effectively as learning tools.

ChatGPT has arrived at the party. This sleek chatbot platform developed by OpenAI makes it painfully easy for students to cheat, write their college essays, and respond to take-home exam questions.

Naturally, students want quick solutions. They struggle with skill gaps resulting from pandemic learning loss, information overload, learning differences, and stress. They have every motivation to employ academic shortcuts.

Classroom educators are under intense pressure to help students make up for lost time, but may not have the resources to help each student raise their skills to grade level.

Enter ChatGPT.

This natural language processing app creates near-instantaneous writing that appears at first glance to be comprehensive, sophisticated, and well organized. What student wouldn’t be tempted to hand in a poem, opinion piece, or critical analysis presented in this way?

Educators and parents have long been concerned about academic plagiarism, but AI-generated writing cannot be detected by plagiarism checking software. Now, it is easier than ever for students to pass off prefab essays as their own.

The problems with academic misuse of AI chatbots are even deeper than that.

Students with learning differences are facing a crisis where the allure of letting AI tools do the heavy lifting may feel too strong to pass up. Yet they may not understand how to create effective research inquiries, or recognize when a chatbot’s algorithm is integrating low quality or inaccurate content into its explanation. To make matters worse, neurodivergent learners may not appreciate the value of academic struggle, and how circumventing a healthy challenge ultimately serves to erode their confidence.

It’s riveting to read text that is rooted in an individual’s concrete perspective.

Students build analysis, problem solving, and communication skills by responding thoughtfully to academic prompts. Averting atrophy of critical thinking while using chatbots requires that students understand how to use them competently, so that they further, rather than stifle that learner’s cognitive development.

The guidelines below can help your student leverage the positive features of using AI chatbots for academic work, and avoid some of their pitfalls.

Guidelines I use in my practice:

If your student is using AI chatbots as a tool for research or writing projects, you can make these recommendations:

Identify your unique priorities. Before using AI chatbots to conduct research or craft a piece of writing, it is important for learners to get clear on their own priorities and desired focus. A ChatGPT response to an initial inquiry may be too generic to be a useful starting place, other than offering a broad overview of relevant possibilities. It’s essential that students weed out inaccurate info or points that are not connected to their project’s focus. They must narrow what they think are the most important ideas to emphasize in their argument. Note to student: “A computer cannot tell you who you are, or what you believe.”
Keep asking follow up questions. ChatGPT has a dialog interface which is not available through standard internet search. This back-and-forth feature allows learners to refine their research by drilling down. Rather than settling with the first summary that emerges from a chatbot, or seeing it as the definitive truth, students can be encouraged to notice where it could benefit from deeper investigation. They can pose additional queries in the same dialog thread, asking the algorithm to produce more specific commentary, or to take a different approach. The chatbot’s iterations can reflect increasingly more focused explanations. Prompt for student: “What information would improve the narrative coming from the chatbot?”
Customize your angle. An AI chatbot’s iterative interface can engage learners’ active input, helping them identify what they find inspiring and relevant, sharpen their discernment, and clarify their own viewpoints. Students have likes and dislikes, preferences, and topics they consider snooze-worthy. They may not love every school assignment, but they can be guided to apply curiosity to their use of AI research tools. Their resulting academic exploration and work will incorporate themes they actually find interesting. Tip for student: “Discover how the topic matters to YOU.”
Know your unique stories. ChatGPT’s output can be antiseptic, dry, and boring. Your student, on the other hand, possesses colorful thoughts, impressions, and inclinations. A slick automaton cannot compete with the subjectivity of human stories and memories. It’s riveting to read text that is rooted in an individual’s concrete perspective. At the end of the day, telling their own story empowers the student and affirms the value of their life experience in their learning process. Suggestion to student: “Avoid being generic. Personalize it.”

The bottom line: Students can use AI chatbots as a starting point for research, but must learn to integrate details that illustrate their own insights and experience, eliminate unsuitable information, and craft a response or piece of writing using their own reasoning and communication skills.

Students do not have to be passive, disempowered or outshone by AI chatbots. ChatGPT can help your learner explore, but it does not need to remove the sense of agency and empowerment that comes with being at the academic driving wheel.

Is your student looking for guidance in using research technology to maximize their academic confidence? Schedule a complimentary information session.

As an executive function coach and academic tutor, I specialize in helping individuals with learning differences exceed their goals for academics, organization, and college transition.