welcome everybody Russ Barkley back again with another short video on a topic related to ADHD hey you're going to meet my new intern working in my studio this week and that's Johnny back there as in here's Johnny you'll recognize that of course not only from the Johnny Carson show but mainly from the uh movie by Jack Nicholson The Shining so uh Johnny is here because he's getting ready for next month's National Talk Like a Pirate Dayo and so he wants to learn the ropes of the studio so maybe he'll do a video for us next
week yeah that should have been next week of course so uh with that said let's get started on this topic which is on the use of extended time for college students with ADHD when they take examinations particularly high stakes examinations like those needed to get into college and those that may be needed to get under graduate school or to take specialty boards like the law boards or medical boards and so on so this study was done a while ago uh indeed about 10 years ago but it has been duplicated by uh other studies as well
was done by a couple friends of mine at Syracuse University and it actually looked at the first of all the rationale for extended time and then did a comparison of typical students as well as college students with ADHD in taking a standardized test under Standard Time time and a half and double time and then looked at the results on this particular test which was a reading comprehension test to see whether or not extended time was differentially beneficial to the ADHD group now keep in mind the rationale for giving extended time is based on one of
two possibilities in the case of learning disabilities such as reading disorders extended time is being granted because it takes the individual with that disability longer to read process and understand the question and then the thus individual doesn't have access to as many items on the exam as typical students would do so by giving them extra time you're kind of balancing things out and trying to level the playing field letting them have more access to more items in doing so in the case of ADHD on the other hand that not the rationale the rationale seems to
be that because the exams may require more working memory uh executive functioning self-regulation uh and freedom from distraction that we need to give people with ADHD extra time to level the playing field in other words they don't perform as well as typicals when giving the exam under Standard Time and therefore by giving them extra time we allow them equal access to the exam that is to equal items of the typical group but that presumes that people with ADHD don't do as well don't access as many items on the exam as others do under Standard time
that's an interesting question because if they do that is if they're equivalent to the typicals and how many items they're able to access and respond to then giving them extra time other than what we give the typical students is actually an advantage so it doesn't level the playing field it actually puts them well ahead of typical students in how many items they can go in and answer so uh interesting possibilities there and that's what these authors examined by comparing 38 college students to 38 typical students taking this Nelson Dy reading test of reading comprehension and
so what did they find the authors found that under standard test conditions there were no differences between the ADHD college students and the typical college students and how many items they were able to handle that is to access and respond to on the exam no differences so that undermines the rationale for the accommodation right there and then what they found is that by giving the ADHD students time and a half or even double time those students were actually able to access 60% to 100% more items on the exam than the typical students did under Standard
Time in other words it was a clear advantage to the ADHD group to get that extended time and by the way it was a clear advantage to the typical students too who were also able to as you could expect accomplish more items so in other words this really isn't an accommodation in order to Grant equal access to the exam for those who might be having trouble taking the exam because of their disability extended time actually is an advantage over Standard Time for everyone and therefore could be challenged as an accommodation as we know requests for
extended time are among the most common accommodations requested by college students with disabilities particularly those with ADHD so a very important study there now what I want to do is to show you a more recent review of the literature published just two years ago that went back and reviewed all of the literature on extended time for those with learning disorders and those with ADHD to see what would be best practices in other words what should we be granting to students if they are requesting access to the exam with extended time and the authors of this
paper that appeared over in the journal psychological inquiry and law what they found in reviewing all the literature is that for those with learning disabilities 25% extra time appeared to be warranted for them and no more right so time and a half and double time certainly are not indicated for those with LDS for those with ADHD the authors recommend that there is no evidence for this accommodation helping to level the playing field that it is clearly offering an advantage instead and they do not recommend the provision of extra time for students with ADHD uh or
other mental health diagnoses as well so uh at this point it appears to be that at least for ADHD uh this should not be a request that one makes and if they do make it clinicians who are asked to assess these individuals in college for these accommodations should understand that this is not really an accommodation that helps to level the playing field it clearly is an advantage and these authors are recommended that it not be granted so um let me hear from you on this if you're interested in responding but I thought it might be
worth looking at now that we're starting the new school year uh and there's going to be lots of people who are going to be asking for these accommodations in college or on standardized tests to get into college or graduate school if they have ADHD so well thanks for joining me everybody and uh say hi to Johnny back there again he'll be back again another time next month so meanwhile if you're not a subscriber as always think about subscribing uh if you are but you know other people who might benefit from this Channel please refer them
over to the channel for me and as always thank you all so much for watching this Channel and for your support So as always take care and be well
