Did you know that music helps ADHD students focus?
“No, this cannot be; we need to give them as little distraction as possible!”
Well, this is also what I thought for years, but research shows that a structure and predictable background noise can actually help them filter out distractions and maintain their attention. It’s all in the rhythm, the melody, and the tempo; it can stimulate the brain and enhance cognitive processing.
The study investigated the Contrasting effects of music on reading comprehension in preadolescents
with and without ADHD, and concluded that students diagnosed with ADHD benefited from listening to a certain type of music while working on reading comprehension.
1- ADHD, music, and reading
The research compares the reading performance of two groups of preadolescents: one diagnosed with ADHD and one typically developed (and its correlation with changes in heart rate variability, HRV, an autonomic nervous system indicator.)
Both groups completed short reading tasks under four conditions: without background music, with calm music (no lyrics), calm music with lyrics, and rhythmic music with lyrics.
The task consisted in reading a short text aloud, followed by five questions to answer.
Results show that comprehension significantly improved under the music conditions in the ADHD group and deteriorated in the typically developed one.
These findings suggest that music may improve attentive skills of preadolescents with ADHD.
It is supported by the fact that participants with ADHD showed a high decline in HRV (Heart Rate Variability) when reading without music and significantly less decline during exposure to music (as their brain’s fight-or-flight system did not tell their heart to speed up), indicating that music-induced less demands on the ANS (Autonomous Nervous System).
It is suggested that since individuals with ADHD are easily distracted by external stimuli, the
inhibition of the late-selection mechanism becomes easier when a monotonous, persistent external stimulus is masking other random stimuli. In these situations, the increased ability to ignore the stimuli (i.e., inhibit late selection processes) permits more resources of attention to be used to maintain early-selection processes.
2- How to implement it in the classroom
Let’s work in tune!
What you need:
A pair of headphones, music, and a portable music device (phone, tablet, or MP3 player if they still exist).
For the setup, no need to reinvent the wheel; in this experiment, the volume was set at a medium level (70% of the volume scale) and could be adjusted by 5% if students felt discomfort.
Which music to choose?
You want to choose instrumental music with minimum lyrics as they are distracting. Ideally, you could look for tunes that match the student’s reading pace. I’d advise against letting them choose as they might pick songs they enjoy, but that could be counterproductive to the task. It is also important to note that the students had better results when listening to calm music compared to rhythmic and more arousing music (keep Rammstein away) .
Youtube is a wonder cave but advertisements are distracting (unless you use an adblocker).
If your students respond well, they don’t have to be isolated during their assessment, the pair of headphones will do just fine. Logistically, it allows you to keep your teaching assistant inside the classroom. This approach is more inclusive toward ADHD students.
Takeaways
This relatively simple, available, and inexpensive tool may improve the learning experience of numerous adolescents who struggle with attention deficits, and it would be feasible to obtain affordable equipment to allow background music reading.
Although the study focused on reading, you could experiment with your ADHD students. Could listening to music help them whilst working on maths problems, science, or MFL?
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