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For author Ruth Devine, writing a series of adventure novels about a teen boy with ADHD was a deeply personal experience.
Her three sons have all been diagnosed with the condition and as they grew up she became aware of just how hard it could be to get them to read.
"[I wrote them] so that my children in particular, but all children, could enjoy an adventure series, enjoy a typical story to entertain themselves but where the hero is one that they could look up to and be inspired by and see," Devine told News Breakfast.
Tips for reading and ADHD
- Provide kids with secondary "fidget" activities, like listening to music while reading a textbook
- Listen to a recorded version of a book while reading the text
- Give kids an extra piece of paper to doodle on while working on a writing assignment
Researchers have long found a link between ADHD and difficulties with literacy and reading rates.
Kids with the condition may be more easily distracted, have trouble recalling information they read, and therefore understanding the material.
Devine said she employed a number of specific writing techniques to address these hurdles in her Jack McCool novel series.
"What I did was to make sure that it was very fast-paced, very lively ... there was action on every page," she said.
"[There's] less dialogue and the action drives the narrative.
"I made sure that every chapter had a very subtle recap of where we were at in the story. I then also made sure that each chapter ended on a cliffhanger to draw them through the story."
About 3-5 per cent of children in Australia are believed to have ADHD, and it is much more common in boys than girls.
A study by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute found up to 40 per cent of students with the disorder were failing to meet the national minimum standards for literacy and numeracy.
Consultant paediatrician Professor Harriet Hiscock said persuasive writing, spelling and grammar could be harder for kids with the condition.
"They need our frontal lobe, frontal part of the brain, which we know in kids with ADHD isn't as well developed," she told The World Today.
"I think there's issues with how they're focusing and concentrating and learning right from early years, in Grade 1.
"And if they're not picked up and addressed, particularly in primary school, then these kids get into high school where it becomes harder."
'Naughty' kids get a self-esteem boost
Devine said these hurdles could seriously impact on kids' happiness.
"ADHD children can often by perceived as the naughty child at school. They fidget. They get distracted. They're off task. They're daydreaming. They don't follow instructions. They're impulsive," she said.
"And if you can imagine as an adult if you step outside the door every day and, for a large portion of your day, you're on the back foot, you're in trouble, you're irritating people, annoying people, you're in the wrong, that can really do huge damage to how you feel about yourself."
"When you're a parent of an ADHD child, you very quickly discover that their self-esteem can really take a battering."
Devine is hoping that it will help her sons and others with ADHD to see the Jack McCool character overcome similar obstacles.
"[To] recognise that all the things that he does and that he gets wrong is what happens to them in their daily life, but he actually picks himself up and keeps going," she said.
Topics: adhd, books-literature, australia
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