How to Help Students Actually Use the Strategies They Learn
Remembering to use a management strategy is a task in itself, especially for students with ADHD. This breakdown in ADHD strategy use isn’t about forgetfulness or laziness, it’s a functional cognition issue. When you understand ADHD, this makes perfect sense.
The director of the brain, the one supposed to cue and direct all the parts of the scene in a timely way, is off script.
No matter how great the actors or the script, the movie flops without a good director.
With ADHD, it is the director that needs help.(executive function)
Noise-Canceling Earbuds: A Powerful ADHD Strategy
I’ll never forget the first time I used noise-canceling earbuds.
They were a Mother’s Day gift. I was standing in our great room (high ceilings, terrible acoustics) when I popped them in, and the world went whoomp… silent.
It felt like a million pounds had been lifted off my shoulders. I started scanning the room, literally looking for all the background noise that had just disappeared. I could breathe. I felt lighter. I looked at my kids, jaw dropped, grateful, amazed, and before I could get a single word out, I started to cry. Ugly cry.
Because even as an OT with a background in sensory integration and plenty of self-awareness, I had no idea how much I was suffering, until it stopped.
Sounds Hurt Me
Sounds overwhelm me , overstimulate me and distract me.
Minor background noises that many cannot even hear fill me with tension.
They always have.
Pushing into elementary school classrooms during independent work time, I can see I’m not alone. It’s extremely hard for students, not just the ones on my caseload, to concentrate.
Even when the room is “quiet,” the teacher isn’t. Every time a student comes up to ask a question or check their work, I watch the sea of eyes lift, pause, look down, and restart. Some appear to shift attention effortlessly.
The ADHD Strategy Dilemma
Since that Mother’s Day awakening, I’ve built a small army of sound-blocking tools, over-the-ear headphones, earbuds for on the go, even sleep buds for night.
I’ve also learned what works for me:
- Low-frequency air sounds bring instant relief.
- Brown noise for focus.
- Music with lyrics easily derails me but great for quieting ruminating thoughts.
Fortunately, in our elementary/middle school, giant earmuff-style noise muffling headphones have become as normalized as pencil grips. They truly help students concentrate despite the ” neutral” background noise of a general education classroom.
That is, when they remember to use them. Yes, after five paragraphs about how life changing noise cancellation is for me personally, I still forget to use them.
That’s ADHD.
My “director” knows this strategy is the winning shot, and still doesn’t cue it. I need someone to shout “Action!” at the guy whose job is to shout “Action!”
It’s not a problem of awareness.
It’s not that the strategy doesn’t work.
It’s that the cue doesn’t show up in time.
So instead, I suffer. I snap. I tense up. I spiral long before my brain reminds me of the tool that would help (if at all).
This isn’t a threshold problem, it’s a cueing problem.
The Strategy Needs a Strategy
To support my “director,” I made a visual reminder and stuck it at the point of performance (right where I sit down to work).
A simple sticker on my laptop. Now, before I start to write, I block the sound. I feel less tension, less distraction, more focus.
(printer + sticker paper = magic)
I use the same approach with my students, strategy cards , stickers, or small visuals taped to their independent work folders, writing notebooks, desks or Chromebooks. Right where and when they need it.
Bridging the ADHD Strategy Use Gap
This is exactly what your students are going through. They know the strategies. You’ve taught them. You’ve practiced them. But when it counts, they don’t use them.
Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they’re non-compliant.
Because their director didn’t call “Action.”
This applies to all strategies including sensory, writing , spelling and coping supports. If your students aren’t using the tools you’ve worked so hard to teach, it’s not because they forgot the content. It’s because they need support to access the cue.
The STRAT Deck explicitly addresses access by defining strategies before using them:
- RBP (Roadblock Plan): What barriers might I face, and how will I handle them?
- Use: What am I trying to accomplish?
- Time: When should I use it?
- Place: Where is it most effective?
- How: How will I remember to use it?
Because sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do for a student with ADHD isn’t just giving them a strategy, it’s giving them a way to remember to use it.
Check out the full STRAT Deck , a visual, tangible, personalized method to help students design, define and see their strategies.
It bridges that gap between knowing and doing.
*OT4ADHD LLC is an Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small commission for Amazon purchases made through our links We only link items that we have personally purchased , love and use regularly and keep them all together on our Amazon store page.