{"id":34662,"date":"2026-09-14T14:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=34662"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:24:09","slug":"visual-aids-help-school-aged-children-with-adhd-recount-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/09\/visual-aids-help-school-aged-children-with-adhd-recount-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual aids help school-aged children with ADHD recount stories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Whether you\u2019re sharing a funny story told by another friend or recounting the details of a text for a school exam, accurate storytelling and retelling are an integral part of everyday communication and children\u2019s education alike.<\/p>\n

A new study from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has found that children aged 8-12 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)<\/strong> retell less complete and coherent stories than their neurotypical counterparts, potentially putting them at a disadvantage in social and educational settings. Visual aids helped reduce the gap. Their findings, published in\u00a0Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology<\/em>, pave the way for creating more inclusive learning and social environments for school-aged children.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hend Samniya from the Human Developmental Neurobiology Unit (Professor Gail Tripp) at OIST explains: \u201cPrevious research on story retelling has focused on a narrow range of variables, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of its role in communication and learning of children with ADHD. It occupies a larger role in communication than we might imagine \u2014 sharing experiences, memories, or feelings is important socially and for children\u2019s development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visual aids improve storytelling, but do not remove performance gaps<\/h2>\n

In the study, English-speaking children aged 8-12, with and without ADHD, were told two short stories from Aesop\u2019s fables<\/strong> with and without visual aids. Transcripts of the retellings were then coded by researchers to capture the narrative structure, fluency, and linguistic accuracy of each participant.<\/p>\n

The researchers found clear differences in narrative ability<\/strong> between children with and without ADHD. They also confirmed that visual aids helped participants with ADHD retell stories better to a much greater extent than their peers, likely because neurotypical children already performed well without visual support. However, even with visuals, their performance did not match their peers. \u201cIt\u2019s important to note that even though we could see the general differences between participant groups, each child experienced the challenges differently \u2014 there is no one-size-fits-all intervention,\u201d adds Samniya.<\/p>\n

Recognizing ADHD-related challenges beyond diagnosis<\/h2>\n

ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental condition, affecting an estimated 8% of children and 3% of adults worldwide. \u00a0While the lived experiences of every person with ADHD differ, the condition generally complicates participation in social settings, particularly those that carry a high expectation of rote performance and repetition. This especially impacts school-aged children, whose challenges with ADHD are known to impact learning performance and social relationships in classroom settings. Samniya summarizes:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging to see ADHD receiving more attention in recent years. I hope that our study can help increase awareness about the diverse challenges faced by people with ADHD, and help educators, clinicians, and carers in recognizing potential language and communication difficulties early to create supportive spaces for children with ADHD.\u201d<\/p>\n

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JOURNAL<\/h4>\n

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Whether you\u2019re sharing a funny story told by another friend or recounting the details of a text for a school exam, accurate storytelling and retelling are an integral part of everyday communication and children\u2019s education alike. A new study from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has found that children aged 8-12 with… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1036,1037,356,319,4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adhd","category-children","category-genetics-2","category-learning-2","category-memory","category-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34664,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34662\/revisions\/34664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}