ADHD and foreign language learning
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Anonymous
| Middle School DC has ADHD and has been having great difficulty learning Spanish. DC notes it is so hard to concentrate, especially when studying due to the repetitive nature of the practice needed. DC has extremely strong verbal skills in English, but has really struggled with Spanish. Any tips or strategies that might be helpful? Do other kids with ADHD notice this issue too? |
Anonymous
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Yes, we are bilingual and DS had significantly more trouble learning our native language than his siblings. However, since he's also more dogged at learning, he remembers a host of grammatical rules and details that his sister learned and then promptly forgot... so in the end, they both have mastery, but acquired in a different way. My point is, just because it's laborious at first, it doesn't mean your child can't reach advanced levels in a language! Frequent review and practice are key. |
Anonymous
My ADHD DC also had trouble with Spanish, but also has strong verbal English skills. Middle School was ok because the teachers offered lots of support, but freshman year Honors Spanish 3 was tough. Thankfully that was the year MCPS closed mid year for the pandemic, and it was significantly easier with lots of retakes and easy assignments when they went virtual. She stopped after Spanish 3 and started taking ASL. She loves it! My non ADHD child is doing well in her freshman year of Honors French 3 and plans to continue into the higher levels and AP foreign language classes. |
Anonymous
| DD has combined type ADHD, and foreign language is one of her best subjects. She has two different languages for a total of five years. Maybe it’s because her hyperactivity manifests verbally, but she finds foreign language much less boring and more interactive than her other classes. |
Anonymous
| ADHD adult here, also LDs. I struggled with foreign language in HS but learned pretty quickly in an immersion program in college when I studied abroad. I think I needed to be hearing the language and using the language and not just learning vocab and verb conjucation in the classroom for the language to sink in. I suspect that many people would learn better in immersion. I wonder if there are immersion summer camp opportunities that might count for high school language credits. I have an ES student so I have not looked at the high school options yet. |
Anonymous
| I have adhd and am a very strong language learner. Remember-adhd is about difficulty focusing on non-preferred tasks. If your adhd kid loves history and doesn’t like language they will have extra trouble but if language happens to be an area of interest a kid can harness the hyper focus and really stand out in any subject. In any case, adhd medication should help since it’s a trouble spot and it may naturally improve as he gets older. |
Anonymous
Exactly this. Learning languages comes easily to me. Things that helped me that might help someone else with ADHD were doing flash cards as I walked, playing language games with others, and just talking. Often people with ADHD just love to talk. I was shameless, and lucky to find lots of people willing to converse. Other things that might help: watch language videos as you’re playing with slime or some other fidget, study while listening to really loudly, just anything that provides an extra boost of dopamine that you can do while studying. The problem might be with the teacher or the program. Language learning is easiest when it’s intensive and made to be fun. |
Anonymous
| Could DC maybe watch his favorite movies or shows in Spanish with English subtitles? That might help make it more intuitive. Flash card drills and memorizing grammatical rules is a slog for a lot of people. |
Anonymous
OP here. This is exactly what I was thinking. I think DC might benefit from an immersion experience. If anyone has any suggestions for this, let me know. I was thinking of perhaps setting DC up with someone just to speak Spanish with on iTalki or something similar, if I don't find anything else. I guess it's a less preferred task, although DC enjoys the class itself. It seems to be how much practice and repetition is necessary. Perhaps making it a more natural way to learn a language (or at least supplementing with that) would help make it less of a slog. Thanks again! |
Anonymous
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+1 on all above- my ADHD high school kid hates his language class but is good at it and can speak with other spanish speakers pretty well when in that environment.
Highly recommend TV in spanish - fun and reinforces the spoken word. |
Anonymous
Totally agree with immersion. My ADHD DD is doing well in an immersion program in part because it stays novel enough for her to keep focus. We also have a rule that any solitary electronic media is done in the target language. So she's wants to chill out and watch TV by herself, no problem, but it just be in the target language. If a friend comes over, then they can do English (unless they also speak target) but otherwise it's the other language. I think it's helped cut down on screen time overall. |
Anonymous
| ^^posted too soon. Cut down on screen time overall, but the screentime that she does get is helping her get a better ear for the foreign language, and an excuse to watch silly cartoons that otherwise she might feel too mature for. We find a lot of the programs in Netflix. |
Anonymous
You don’t want to try to learn a second language the “natural” way. Think how long it too you to learn English fluently. Over a year of constant exposure, probably, with no other options for communicating, and even after that, grammar is pretty bad. People think immersion is great, and it is, but without memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary, and practicing those specific things as you are immersed, really good language skills probably won’t happen. I don’t think there is a great program for immersion for a middle schooler. My kid does a month of Concordia language villages every year and it’s fun but unless you’re doing the high school credit program, there isn’t enough intensive language instruction for it to be more than exposure to the language. But that’s fine. At this age and with these options, I think it’s all about having an enjoyable experience with the language rather than going for fluency. |
Anonymous
| My kids both have ADHD and take French. Both were fine with it in the first couple years but had a really hard time when the challenge stepped up in level 3. Working 1-on-1 with a good tutor made a huge difference and got them over the hump and they didn't need the tutor at level 4-5 |
Anonymous
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My middle schooler as inattentive ADHD. From my observations, it's not so much the in attention, but cognitive aspects of executive functioning like weak working memory and processing speed that makes foreign language learning challenging. DC is very good at learning vocab and mastering grammar rules. However, composition is very taxing on his ADHD brain. When he has to read a passage, understand what the question is asking, and plan a response in French while incorporating the new vocabulary, the correct verb endings, and adjective agreement, or whatever grammar rule of the week -- everything slows down. And many careless mistakes ensue.
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