Strategies for Supporting Neurodiverse Learners in the English Language Classroom

Neurodiversity and teaching neurodivergent learners are familiar topics for educators. Most teachers have a few students with individual learning plans (ILP) or struggling with ADHD or dyslexia.

Neurodiversity refers to the idea that no individual experiences the world exactly like another. Just like fingerprints, no two brains are alike. Australian sociologist Judy Singer coined the term in the 1990s to remove the stigma associated with disorders such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities.

While individuals impacted by autism, ADHD, and dyslexia may be more markedly different than those who are considered ‘normal,’ in a sense, we are all ‘neurodiverse’ because we all have personal learning modalities.

The issue of neurodiversity has come to the fore in recent years because of the rising number of neurodiverse learners in education. For example, it is estimated that 1 in 36 children is affected by autism in the United States. Whether these numbers reflect better diagnostic screening or the negative influence of factors such as socioeconomic status, nutrition, or environmental causes, the fact remains that these students face challenges that most learners do not.

Thanks to advancements in neuroscience, significant progress has been made over the past three decades in addressing neurodiversity in the context of learning. Organizations such as CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology, have developed principles and strategies to teach neurodiverse students and accommodate multiple learning styles.

With the above in mind, let’s examine some inclusive teaching strategies for supporting neurodivergent students.

Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment

A significant development arising from the focus on neurodiversity is the recognition that teaching strategies must be inclusive and cater to the unique needs of all students. To this end, it is essential that neurodiverse students are placed in an environment that feels safe, where they are listened to, and where they are part of a supportive community.

How to foster psychological safety

A safe environment is essential for all learners to thrive, but it is especially critical for neurodivergent students. Feeling psychologically safe means being comfortable expressing oneself, asking questions, and taking risks without fear of judgment or retribution.

Some steps teachers can take to create a safe psychological environment in the ESL classroom are:

Encouraging students to ask questions and advocate for their needs
Valuing the unique perspectives that neurodivergent students can bring to the class
Eliminating the fear of judgment and ridicule by presenting failures as opportunities to learn
Avoiding constant corrections and adopting other strategies to correct mistakes. The ESL class is all about communication. When students are constantly being corrected, they will be hesitant to express themselves. Instead, try repeating their statements back in the correct form. Eventually, they will internalize it.
Celebrating success to build confidence and pride

Take a deeper dive into the dos and don’ts of error correction when teaching English.

Use active listening and body language

We all know that communication doesn’t just happen through words. Body language is equally important. As teachers, we are used to evaluating students’ engagement based on these clues.

However, when it comes to neurodiverse students, we must acknowledge that they receive, process, and express information in ways that may differ from neurotypical students. We can convey our understanding and engagement to neurodiverse learners by paying attention to their verbal and non-verbal communication, asking open-ended questions, gently encouraging them to elaborate on their answers (paraphrasing or summing up what they say to show our engagement and understanding), and providing feedback.

We can also use body language by nodding, looking at students in the eyes (if they seem comfortable with it), and maintaining an open and relaxed posture. We must be aware of our deliberate or involuntary body language and remember that neurodivergent students may interpret it differently than neurotypical students.

Build a supportive community

Being part of a supportive community can greatly enhance one’s self-confidence and sense of safety. When teaching English to neurodiverse students, teachers can help create such a community by directly engaging parents, caregivers, and the students themselves in developing accommodation plans.

By listening to them, educators can come to know and understand their students’ needs better. Parents and caregivers will be familiar with the issues students face and will be able to articulate what strategies have worked for them.

Adapting Teaching Methods for Neurodiverse Learners

Another component of a supportive environment for neurodiverse English learners is the adaptation of teaching materials to their needs. Below are some strategies to accomplish this goal.

Implement multisensory instruction

Multisensory learning is based on the idea that most people learn best when more than one sense is engaged. This strategy can benefit all learners but is especially effective for students with dyslexia who cannot learn the traditional way.

According to the International Dyslexia Association, “Multisensory learning involves the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways simultaneously to enhance memory and learning of written language. Links are consistently made between the visual (language we see), auditory (language we hear), and kinesthetic-tactile (language symbols we feel) pathways in learning to read and spell.”

Examples of multisensory learning for English learners include activities focusing on visuals, such as:

using colorful charts, diagrams, or images to illustrate concepts
illustrated flashcards for vocabulary, color-coded grammar, or using different colors to identify different speech components (for example, red for nouns, green for adjectives, blue for verbs)
activities focusing on hearing, e.g., choral reading or listening to a recording while reading its script, using songs and rhymes to learn words in a fun way
kinesthetic activities such as role-play, Total Physical Response, and storytelling with props and gestures

Contextualize learning

Another way to make learning content more approachable for neurodiverse students is to place it in a context they can relate to or that caters to their interests and life experiences. In fact, contextualizing learning makes content meaningful to all students because placing information in a context, rather than presenting it in isolation, enhances students’ understanding and ability to recall.

This can be as straightforward as selecting reading materials that reflect students’ interests, extracting grammar points and vocabulary from written or audiovisual materials, or even class discussions that engage learners’ attention because they are relevant to them.

Use project-based learning (PBL)

This is another valuable tool in the ESL teacher’s toolbox when teaching English to neurodiverse students. PBL engages students in meaningful and purposeful tasks connected to the real world. In this process, language emerges naturally from the class activities. PBL also promotes collaboration, communication, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Incorporate student-created materials

When students are directly involved in creating their study resources, they develop a sense of ownership and pride in their learning, which in turn nurtures self-confidence and initiative.

Student-created material can range from vocabulary flashcards to presentations, videos, summaries, or personal glossaries. The process of generating one’s own study resources further helps students develop self-reliance and independence.

Explore all the English language learning methodologies and find the best teaching methods to implement in your ELT classroom.

Addressing Individual Needs

One of the hurdles teachers face in the classroom is tailoring their teaching strategies to address multiple learning styles, individual needs, and neurodiversity in the classroom. One relatively simple way to solve this problem is to create multiple points of entry through which students can access and engage with learning and show their progress.

Let’s look at some steps teachers can take to make learning accessible to all students.

Adjust learning materials for accessibility

Among the problems neurodiverse students may encounter in the ESL classroom is difficulty reading the learning material. This is a well-known problem for dyslexic students. Fortunately, some fonts, such as sans serif or Open Dyslexic Alta, are dyslexia-friendly or were created with the explicit goal of helping individuals with dyslexia.

For students who struggle with reading, teachers can also provide audio versions of the text or alternative reading formats. These include large print texts, digital versions, Braille, and Immersive Reader, among others.

Offer flexible assessment options

Students with learning disabilities should be offered alternative ways to demonstrate their learning. For example, students with dysgraphia can be allowed to type their assignments instead of writing by hand. Teachers can allow students to present orally or use speech-to-text tools.

Break down instructions clearly

For neurodiverse students, understanding instructions can sometimes be challenging. To ease these difficulties, it is important that teachers break down instructions into smaller chunks by providing step-by-step directions and reinforcing them with verbal instructions.

Before starting any task, teachers should ensure that their students clearly understand what is expected of them. Teachers can then monitor students regularly to verify they are on task and that there is no confusion about the why or how of the activity.

Use supports like movement

Neurodivergent learners may find it difficult to sit or concentrate on a task for extended periods of time. In truth, all school-age children and even adults may have trouble attending to a task for too long. When attention is waning and students are becoming restless or fidgety, it may be time to give them a break.

Breaks come in many forms, from allowing students to move around the room or stretch for a few minutes to playing a game like Simon Says or practicing relaxation through deep breathing. Far from being a waste of precious time, breaks allow learners’ brains to process and consolidate information.

Students with autism or ADHD can also benefit from fidgeting. Research shows that fidgeting, a behavior particularly common in ADHD students, can help learners relax and focus on a task. Alternatively, teachers can suggest using a fidgeting tool like sensory disks, stress balls, or spinner rings.

However, the research suggests that the efficacy of fidget tools varies widely from person to person and that, in some individuals, it can increase rather than reduce distraction.

Implement a Collaboration and Support System

If your students include neurodivergent learners, you don’t have to go it alone. The good news is that in many schools, there is a support system that teachers and students can rely on. Some actions teachers can take to seek support are:

Leverage district resources

ESL teachers can collaborate with speech and occupational therapists and special education teams. They can work together to identify the necessary steps to assist their neurodivergent students.

Encourage cross-team collaboration

ESL teachers can collaborate with school counselors and administrators to implement individualized lesson plans (ILP). In many schools, the work of ESL teachers is critical to ensuring that ESL students perform well across subjects.

By keeping open communication with their colleagues, ESL teachers can be aware of the challenges their students are facing in other classes and find ways to assist and support them. For example, if a student is proficient in math but has trouble understanding instructions, the teacher can provide her with a bilingual math glossary. Or the teacher may choose a specific reading to assist her students with a Social Studies topic, and so on.

For both neurodivergent and neurotypical ESL students, the greatest challenge is often demonstrating what they know in a language they are still learning.

Adopt a strengths-based approach

We all face challenges. Both students and teachers have strengths and weaknesses. What matters is how we address them. By recognizing and confronting them with resilience, we can overcome. By modeling self-awareness and resilience and sharing our challenges with our neurodiverse students, we can help inspire and motivate them.

The focus on neurodiversity over the last thirty years has yielded results that have also impacted the instruction of neurotypical students. Recognizing that all students have individual learning styles and needs has prompted educators to develop more inclusive teaching strategies while gradually moving away from the traditional model of teacher-centered education.

A crucial outcome of research and teacher-led inquiries into neurodiversity is the recognition that, in order to thrive, neurodivergent students require a psychologically safe, structured, flexible, and engaging environment.

Teaching students to advocate for themselves, creating an environment where learners feel safe expressing themselves, and adopting flexible, student-centered teaching strategies are all steps teachers can take to ensure their neurodivergent students have the same opportunity to learn as neurotypical students.

Finally, by engaging families, leveraging the available resources, encouraging cross-team collaboration, and working together with school counselors and administrators, we can help to build a support community for students and teachers alike.

ESL teachers play a crucial role in fostering an inclusive learning community, as students cannot showcase their proficiency in any subject if their English skills are lacking. A significant first step toward a more inclusive classroom is reflecting on current teaching strategies and gradually implementing research-based changes. Ultimately, these changes will benefit all students.

Download Bridge’s eBook about popular ESL learning methodologies to strengthen your approach for diverse and inclusive classrooms.