LD OnLine News Headlines

If your child’s teachers are patient, kind, and supportive, consider it a gift – because far too many neurodivergent students are met with criticism, frustration, or misunderstanding in the classroom.

When ADDitude asked readers if they’d ever dealt with a teacher who clearly didn’t like their child, we received hundreds of responses. And, sadly, two-thirds of caregivers reported that their child had indeed experienced this.

Here are some of their stories – and signs of the scars that lingered long after the school year ended.

Diagnoses for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have increased in many countries across all age groups, our latest review has found. We have also shown that prescriptions for ADHD treatments have seen similar increases across all age groups.

Two bills that would boost federal involvement in reading instruction passed out of a Senate committee on Thursday, signaling Congress’ continued interest in the “science of reading” movement.

One, the bipartisan READ Act, would put new requirements on existing federal literacy grants to support early screening for reading difficulties and evidence-based reading instruction, and shift some funding to states with the lowest reading scores.

Another, the 21st Century Dyslexia Act, would change how the reading disability dyslexia is classified under federal disability law, establishing dyslexia as its own category.

Lhamon and Young: Moving special education services and civil rights complaints to other federal agencies weakens protections for students.
 

The changes are the “start of a brighter future” for individuals with disabilities, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told OSEP conference attendees.

The new interagency agreement could bring disjointed policies and reduced accountability, experts told the Special Education Legislative Summit.

Seeing a psychiatrist via telehealth became easier from January 2022. That’s when Medicare-reimbursed telepsychiatry arrangements became permanent.

The idea was for these video and phone consultations to provide more flexible and sooner appointment times, without needing to travel.

But our new analysis shows what happened next.

“Ableism inevitably leads to frustration, as neurotypical people attempt to make sense of the behaviors of their partners or children with ADHD that do not match their expectations. Worst of all, ableism often causes us to view symptoms and different ways of functioning as character flaws. A partner who forgets the plan is viewed as careless. A child who needs multiple prompts to start homework is labeled as lazy. Over time, these stories quietly damage connection.”

ADHD medication does not cause later substance use problems, research shows. On the contrary, ADHD medication appears to reduce risk for severe outcomes.

Parents should monitor patterns of social media use, not just total screen time, findings suggest.

A panel of teachers shares the most effective ADHD accommodations and teaching strategies they use to help neurodivergent students find success in the classroom.

Significant cuts and changes within the U.S. Department of Education are causing worry among parents of children with ADHD and other learning differences who qualify for school services and accommodations. Here’s what you need to know about IEP law and 504 Plan protections.

Pushback grows as House lawmakers consider permanently moving some other Education Department functions to outside agencies.

New York City officials are expanding a slew of the city’s highest-demand special education programs into preschool classrooms for the first time, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday.

The district also is facing a federal civil rights investigation over its planned changes to special education services.

If there’s one trap in life that we can all fall into, it’s the feeling that we are alone in our suffering. As the old saying goes, there are no unique human experiences, no matter how much your brain would like to trick you into feeling otherwise. Even after years of researching women with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and living the life of a neurodivergent woman myself, I still fall into that trap. So it’s always comforting to be reminded that we’re not alone.

Federal teams charged with making sure states are doing right by students with disabilities appear to have visited fewer than half of the states originally scheduled for review in 2025 and 2026.

The U.S. Department of Education is planning to make changes to a federal rule that requires states and districts to measure racial disparities in special education, according to an announcement made over the Fourth of July weekend. 

In a call with disability rights advocates Thursday, officials from the U.S. Department of Education tried to ease concerns about plans to move the agency’s special education offices to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The effort seemed to fail.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Education tried to reassure disability rights advocates on a call Thursday about plans to move special education offices to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but left them unsettled, NPR reported.

As Linda McMahon further splits up the Education Department, some parents worry about a disjointed approach to serving kids with disabilities.

While a top official says students will retain all their rights under federal law, some advocates and lawmakers call the transfer harmful and disruptive.

“When we talk about stopping medication…we need to ask, ‘What are we asking this person to give up and what supports are we using to replace it?’”

Emotionally adjusting to a diagnosis of ADHD as an adult is rife with dialectics, according to a new study published in Journal of Attention Disorders.

Researchers and clinicians say the shortage is due to limits on manufacturing and sales of the medications, and supply chain problems.

Oscar award-winning director Steven Spielberg, 79, is opening up about his favorite books. In a recent interview with book influencer Jack Edwards, the Jurassic Park director shared details on the books and authors he loves and the book he recommended to each of his seven children. He also revealed why reading can be difficult for him sometimes. 

‘I get frustrated inside the brain … my speech does not want to work,’ says man living with aphasia

Researchers and clinicians say the shortage is due to limits on manufacturing and sales of the medications, and supply chain problems.

ADHD, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and other conditions that cause cognitive complaints (like perimenopause) can co-occur.

Find out if you can join the military with ADHD or anxiety. Learn about waiver requirements and how MEPS evaluates medical records.

A woman who was diagnosed with ADHD aged 39 says she has found her purpose in life after switching careers.

How to spot and protect yourself from workplace bullying and gaslighting as a neurodivergent employee.

Accommodations for ADHD ensure student success, but maintaining multiple 504 Plans and IEPs can lead to teacher burnout. Here’s how to streamline the process. 

A crash course on the neurotransmitters implicated in ADHD and how new medications are targeting serotonin, a historically overlooked chemical in ADHD treatment.

Multiple states are suing after the U.S. Department of Education abruptly canceled millions of dollars in grants that were supposed to go toward training special education teachers.

Some of the ADHD we’re seeing may be the product of technological advancements.

California began screening all students in kindergarten through second grade this school year to determine whether they are at risk of developing reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a landmark bill into law in 2023.

The screenings are part of a set of policies that aim to raise the number of California third graders reading at grade level — 56% of whom fell short this academic year — by reimagining how kids are taught to read. 

Four school districts now want to sue Kansas for inadequate funding of special education.

The districts formed the Kansas Public School Funding Coalition and are seeking legal counsel, they announced in a Wednesday press release. The coalition aims to secure adequate general and special education funding for every Kansas public school.

Special education and disability groups pushed back against the plan to drop certain data collections tracking racial disparities.

For the first time in more than two decades, federal officials are moving forward with plans to find out just how much schools across the nation are spending on students with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Education is taking steps to green-light what’s known as the National Special Education Spending Study.

Double Olympic champion Jade Jones believes being diagnosed with ADHD helped her to make sense of her struggles – as well as her greatest successes.

“You can gamble on your phone. The ads are all over Instagram. It’s everywhere and it takes effort to get away from it. And when you combine the instant dopamine rush with sports, it’s different. There’s something about sports that make people feel like Gladiators.”

“I felt like a fraud because I wrote an entire book on how to support someone with ADHD yet never had the courage to raise my hand and ask the question for myself. I felt grief for all the years believing my struggles were character flaws. I felt some anger on behalf of all the women like me whole were simply… missed.”

More people are relying on social media – such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit – to learn about mental health conditions and to interact with people who have shared experiences.

These aren’t only long-familiar disorders such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. They also include conditions often placed under the “neurodivergent” umbrella such as autism, ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), Tourette syndrome and dyslexia.

We wanted to explore how social media platforms shape how we understand mental health. Our findings have important implications for how people make sense of, and seek help for, mental health problems.

“Asking for support can be difficult for males, as societal messages equate needing help with a diminished sense of masculinity.”

Menopause can be challenging for many women, but for those with ADHD, the experience can often feel like life is completely unravelling. For some women in their 40s, 50s and 60s it can also be the first time they realize they may have ADHD, as fluctuating hormones amplify their challenges with sleep, mood, attention and overwhelm. GP and Menopause expert Dr Helen Wall joined Anita to talk about her new book Menopause and ADHD, which aims to debunk some of the myths and support women navigating the combination.

Explore the science, expert insight, lived experiences, and camaraderie that surrounds women with ADHD.

Many adults with ADHD who were bullied in childhood find that the patterns extend into the workplace and personal relationships. Learn how to interrupt the cycle here.

Perimenopause is highly impairing for women with ADHD, who experience more severe symptoms and at an earlier age than neurotypical women.

Edward Kang’s RetinaMind analyzes patients’ retinal images and accurately diagnoses neurodevelopmental disorders 89 percent of the time.

My patients often ask if I think they have a particular psychiatric diagnosis, such as bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism. The way they ask suggests they believe that as their psychiatrist, I can identify hidden attributes in their brains, much in the same way one of my physician colleagues might diagnose a patient with a genetic mutation or bacterial infection.

The reality is messier and, in some ways, unsettling

For many autistic people and parents navigating a child’s care, getting a diagnosis feels like finally having an answer. But for a significant number of people, that answer is incomplete. Autism frequently co-occurs with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and other conditions, and when one piece of the picture is identified while others are missed, the effects can be profound.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s worth exploring what happens when the full picture isn’t seen. Understanding autism signs and symptoms in the context of co-occurring conditions is a meaningful first step, because the overlap is much more common than many people realize.

District leaders had recently confirmed they would consolidate students with disabilities into certain campuses beginning next school year.

As Mayor Zohran Mamdani scrambles to plug a multi-billion dollar budget gap, his administration is looking more closely at the money New York City spends on private school tuition for students with disabilities.

Researchers identified a more severe presentation of the condition marked by emotional dysregulation.

More than a third of the federal government’s education research budget — an estimated $289 million — could go unspent this year, according to an analysis by an advocacy group.  

The proportion of people diagnosed with and treated for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is growing. Prescription rates have increased 11-fold in 20 years.

But the growth isn’t uniform across the country. This week, ABC’s Four Corners found higher rates of ADHD prescribing in some regions, while other areas were much lower, suggesting ADHD was being missed.

Students in Vanessa Malzone’s third grade class at Sheehy Elementary put on their headsets and log into a reading tutoring program a few times a week. They watch videos and read out loud from worksheets into their laptops. On the other side of the screen: college students from across the country, connected by video, hoping to build a connection and confidence in reading. At Sheehy, which, like some other schools, has struggled with third grade reading test scores, school leaders say they’ve seen payoff from the partnership through the Teach for America Ignite Fellowship. The program pairs students with real-time tutors during school hours.

While there are many great brain-based learning strategies out there, students may not fully buy into these strategies if they don’t understand why they work. And for many students, no one has ever explained that why. These four hands-on activities guide students to explore how their attention and memory function and how that impacts learning.