As a young student with ADHD, the home setting is a crucial environment for learning and succeeding in school. The structure and support that parents, siblings, and tutors can provide for these learners is crucial in their development and level of achievement in academics. A warm and supportive home fosters the discipline needed for the executive functioning that is necessary to plan, focus attention, and organize multiple tasks—all essential skill sets required in any academic setting.
It is a harmful misconception that ADHD college students, as a result of being accepted into college, no longer need support to succeed in their coursework. Unfortunately, the opposite is often reported. They can feel overwhelmed, that home setting they relied on has become a crutch kicked out from under them. As with most college experiences, the students move away from the home and are expected to independently manage their assignments while simultaneously confronting a variety of distractions that come from the demands of new social situations. College for students with ADHD for this reason can lead to unfavorable outcomes. Distractions multiply and with it the student’s performance and overall executive functioning skills take a hit.
According to the American College Health Association, reported cases for ADHD in college students are on the rise in the last 20 years—from 2 percent of the student body to 11.6 percent in 2020. That comes out to roughly 1 in 9 students who will be at significant risk for mood and anxiety disorders associated with poor academic performance, an imbalanced social life, and the potential of dropping out before receiving a degree.
Although the home setting as a tool to help students with ADHD get back on track is often not an option, this does not mean that help is not available. Effective Students offers workshops and personalized academic coaching programs for college students that target ways to improve executive functioning and time management. With these programs, college students with ADHD have the option to take online courses or work alongside an academic coach to devise the blueprints needed to succeed in college.
The steps to ridding feelings of overwhelming and overbearing workloads and distractions starts with a simple plan. Our online workshops and academic coaches will channel the student’s energy and focus it on developing the steps needed to organize and manage their college workload. We empower students with accountability and metrics to measure their progress throughout the semester.
The goal of many families is to see their children off to college, a rite of passage that yields the coveted diploma that can open high-level career doors to young adults entering the workforce. Being impacted by the negative symptoms of ADHD in college should not be a deciding factor in a student’s success rate. With the right resources offered by Effective Students in the form of online workshops and academic coaches, someone with ADHD can learn to master the art of organization and time management and become the accomplished individual they were always meant to be.
