Can STEM Learning Benefit Children with ADHD? Exploring Engaging Strategies

September 4, 2024 / Heather Reyes

A father and son are playing a game, laughing and enjoying each other's company. The father has his hands clasped together, while the son is holding his hands out in front of him, as if they are playing a game of patty-cake. The table is covered in colorful papers and pencils, suggesting they are working on a fun STEM learning activity that supports the unique needs of children with ADHD. This engaging environment helps the son focus and channel his energy into creative problem-solving, making STEM learning both enjoyable and effective.

STEM learning is a dynamic and hands-on approach to education, particularly beneficial for children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). While ADHD can present challenges in traditional educational settings, STEM learning offers a unique pathway for these students to thrive and reach their full potential.

ADHD children often exhibit inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. However, these traits also mean they are usually creative, have high energy levels, and can solve problems spontaneously. In traditional classroom settings, the lengthy lectures, static routine activities, and limited hands-on opportunities can be particularly challenging for students with ADHD. These challenges often lead to frustration, low self-esteem, and poor academic performance.

Research indicates that individuals with ADHD perform exceptionally well when faced with pressure or mental challenges, novel or varied tasks, physical activities, hands-on operations, or topics of interest. These characteristics closely align with the core principles of STEM education—exploration, experimentation, and active engagement.

This article will explore how STEM learning can benefit children with ADHD and provide practical strategies to make these activities more effective.

A child's hand carefully places a wooden bead onto a wooden toy, focusing intently on the task. The scene is a close-up, emphasizing the detail of the construction and the child's concentration.

Benefits of STEM Activities for Children with ADHD

Higher Learning Engagement

Unlike traditional classrooms that rely on passive learning methods like lectures or textbooks, STEM activities encourage hands-on practice. These activities do not demand high levels of sustained attention, making it easier for ADHD children to engage in learning.

Additionally, STEM activities allow children to choose their areas of interest to explore, which is highly beneficial for ADHD children because of a puzzling phenomenon—people who have trouble focusing most of the time can often "hyperfocus" on tasks or activities they find really interesting.

Improved Focus and Motivation

STEM activities typically have clear goals and immediate feedback, which can significantly enhance the learning interest of children with ADHD. Clear goals and a structured follow-up path are also particularly beneficial for improving their focus. Seeing their projects take shape—whether it's a working robot or a successful chemical reaction—brings a sense of accomplishment, further enhancing their engagement in STEM activities.

A young boy in a white shirt and blue shorts sits on a woven cushion, playing with a wooden toy. He is focused on his STEM task, his eyes following a basketball as it bounces in the air. The scene is simple and natural, highlighting the joy of childhood play.

Development of Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

Children with ADHD often excel in creative thinking and innovative problem-solving. STEM activities start with real-world problems and encourage children to view and solve problems from different angles, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. By participating in STEM activities, they can further develop these abilities in a structured environment.

Structured Learning Environment Helps Children Succeed

Structured learning methods provide ADHD children with a clear roadmap, helping them break down complex tasks into manageable parts, reducing the likelihood of feeling overwhelmed. Children can follow the guidance, stay on the right track, and complete their learning.

Tailoring STEM Activities for ADHD Learners

Incorporate Movement Elements in STEM Activities

Children with ADHD often benefit from activities that involve physical movement, which can help them stay engaged and focused.

Many STEM activities are well-suited for outdoor exploration. For example, integrating yoga movements into a camping STEM activity or using a solar oven to make crayons. These activities allow children to move around, interact with their environment, and make learning more fun while channeling excess energy positively.

Use Visual Aids and Tactile Materials

A young girl with long dark hair, wearing a white tank top and yellow shorts, walks through a grassy field, her arms outstretched, as if she is flying. She is wearing a green felt backpack shaped like a frog, with a variety of felt food items sticking out of the top, including a carrot, a fish, and a piece of lettuce. The scene is playful and imaginative, capturing the joy of childhood and the power of pretend play

Visual aids such as pictures, charts, images, and other visual materials make complex concepts more concrete, helping ADHD children better understand and remember information, deepening their understanding of abstract concepts. Different types of tactile materials provide rich sensory experiences that help them extend their attention span and maintain interest in learning.

For example, fractions can be an abstract math concept that many children find challenging, regardless of their learning differences. But the "Pizza Maths STEM activity" makes such learning simple. Children make play dough pizzas through sensory play, interacting with various materials and tools while learning the concept of division by cutting pizzas. The activity includes many cards, graphics, and visualized instructions, making it ADHD-friendly.

A child's hand carefully mixes yellow playdough with a yellow spatula on a white surface. The playdough is surrounded by white powder, creating a contrasting and playful scene. The child's hand is small and delicate, highlighting the joy of exploration and creativity in making pizza dough.

Flexible Scheduling

Children with ADHD may need more time to complete a task. Allowing them to work at their own pace and providing opportunities for open-ended exploration is essential for them. This helps preserve their confidence and prevents them from feeling frustrated in their learning.

Clear and Step-by-Step Instructions

A set of colorful instructions for a pizza-themed math game. The instructions are divided into four sections: Making Dough, Little Pizzeria, Chef's Hat, and How to Play the Pizza Game. Each section is illustrated with cute drawings of pizza ingredients and a pizza chef. The instructions are designed to be engaging and fun for children, while also teaching them about math concepts.

Detailed step-by-step instructions with visual supports such as pictures or videos can help ADHD children make tasks more manageable. Step-by-step guidance breaks complex projects into smaller, achievable steps, helping children stay focused and reducing the possibility of feeling overwhelmed.

These are the basic principles for selecting STEM activities for children with ADHD. In ADHD families, parents often need to spend more effort caring for their children. Therefore, when conducting STEM activities, parents are encouraged to use the power of the STEM Box.

The STEM Box is like a gift that packages all the creativity, materials, concepts, and knowledge needed for the activity and delivers it to your home every month. Parents can start learning with their children without any additional preparation.

Here are a few STEM Box activities suitable for ADHD children of different ages, which can be used as a reference when choosing activities for your child.

STEM Box Activities Suitable for Children with ADHD

Sink or Float STEAM Activity

This activity aims to help preschool ADHD children learn and understand the concept of buoyancy. The box includes multiple activities, each of which can be conducted independently, allowing ADHD children to flexibly engage in activities and learn.

A fun, educational STEM game for kids featuring blue foam cutouts of sea creatures and a matching blue and white card with outlines of the creatures. The game is designed to help children learn about different sea creatures and their names.

The Sink or Float STEAM Box includes several activities:

Starting with DIY cute marine creatures, help children build spatial awareness and develop logical thinking through hands-on creation.
Engage in fun fishing activities, shape recognition, marine animal stacking, marine colouring art creation, etc., further encouraging children's sense of achievement and interest in learning.
Follow the included science magazine for buoyancy science experiments: simulate swim bladder experiments to observe small fish diving in a bottle and understand the mystery of fish sinking and floating.
Go outdoors, collect twigs, leaves, stones, or flowers, observe, and record their sinking and floating phenomena in water to understand the concept of object density.
Create messy play art, learn to create dyed paintings with pom-poms, and practice using tweezers to develop fine motor skills.

Through this activity, children will embark on a hands-on adventure filled with visual aids and tactile materials, helping ADHD children maintain focus through various exploratory activities.

Articulated Claw STEAM Activity

This activity is suitable for children aged 6-8 to explore. They will build a movable and telescopic claw, make yarn monsters, and try to catch these fluffy monsters with the Articulated Claw.

During the process, children will learn how levers work, acquire new craft skills, and engage in open-ended creative design challenges using levers and linkages. The accompanying magazine explains scientific knowledge through science comics, combining text and images, making it very suitable for ADHD children.

A set of colorful instructions for a fun, educational science project. The instructions are in the form of a comic book, featuring a group of aliens on a mission to explore a human research facility. The comic is full of humor and adventure, making learning about science engaging and exciting for kids.

Automaton STEM Activity

How can a ball continuously climb a slope, going up and down in an endless loop? This activity will help children aged 9-12 with ADHD start their journey of automation exploration, preparing them for the future. In this activity, children will follow graphical step-by-step instructions to assemble an automaton machine—a fun and stress-relieving toy perfect for children with ADHD.

During the process, children will explore the application of cams in automation, follow the science magazine to explore the history and mechanisms of automation, mechanical wonders in human history, and binary, computers, and artificial intelligence.

STEM subscription boxes can meet the needs of ADHD children of different ages. They offer a wealth of activities, experiments, and hands-on projects that are highly attractive and easy to learn for ADHD children.

By incorporating engaging STEM activities into their educational schedules, parents and caregivers can support children's learning journeys meaningfully and enjoyably. Many parents have reported that their children are more engaged and proactive in exploring STEM activities, with increased interest and motivation for learning.

STEM learning can help ADHD children learn better and gradually acquire abilities equal to or even superior to those of typical children. The Tinkerer STEAM Box provides a fun and accessible way to help ADHD children develop interests and strengths. Children aged 3-12 can find their areas of interest here and receive corresponding support, helping them acquire the essential skills needed for growth and better adapt and integrate into society.