THE UNDERACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)
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Date
2019-07-24
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
High school students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) demonstrate significant academic underachievement and poor educational performance (Barkley, 1997; Loe & Feldman, 2007). The first chapter of the following research study explores the roots of this problem from a cognitive theoretical perspective and disputes many of the common approaches to remediating the problem via behavioral interventions. Chapter 2, the needs assessment study, confirmed the research at a suburban middle-class high school. Students in the sample with ADHD significantly underachieved, underperformed, were given a high percentage of accommodations that were not evidence-based, and demonstrated evidence of working memory deficits. The literature review in Chapter 3 examines interventions aimed at improving the cognitive deficits of high school student with ADHD. It utilized the information processing system as the theoretical framework and examined three separate approaches for helping students with WM deficits: (1) Cogmed Working Memory Training, (2) mindfulness training, and (3) cognitive load reduction strategies. I examined each approach for student compliance, ability to influence near transfer and far transfer effects, and overall demonstration of effectiveness on academic performance and achievement of high school students with ADHD Chapter 4 outlines a proposed single-subject multiple baseline mixed-methods study of an intervention aimed at improving the academic performance of high school students with ADHD. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the results of the study which found that the Cognitive Load Reduction Program provided a differential boost that prevented a regression in academic performance observed in students with ADHD who did not complete the program.
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Keywords
ADHD, Working Memory