By Amelia Hart October 21, 2026
A child’s difficulty paying attention deserves careful consideration, including what the child is being asked to do. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines ADHD as a neurodevelopmental disorder involving difficulties with attention, impulsivity, or excessive activity. Its guidance also recognises that symptoms can become more pronounced as everyday demands increase. That raises an educational question. How closely should schools examine those demands?
The clinical foundation remains important. Genetics contributes to ADHD risk, and difficulties can extend beyond school into home life and friendships. The CDC recommends gathering information from different settings during assessment. Understanding the classroom therefore belongs within a broader picture of a child’s life, alongside appropriate clinical evaluation and care.
A 2024 perspective paper in Frontiers in Psychiatry invites a closer examination of that context. Its authors argue that ADHD diagnosis can be understood as a useful social construct, with judgements about impairment influenced by environmental expectations. They explicitly distinguish this interpretation from suggesting that culture causes ADHD. Their argument concerns how difficulties are understood and classified, rather than whether children’s difficulties exist.
School context also receives attention. A review in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry found that children younger than their classmates were more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis or medication, although results varied substantially across studies. They emphasise the importance of considering developmental differences during assessment while cautioning that a child’s younger age should not discourage an appropriate diagnosis.
For Athena Oden, a paediatric physical therapist and the creator of Ready Bodies Learning Minds, which provides educational resources on physical development and learning, these questions warrant a broader review of school expectations. She believes educators should consider how the organisation of learning affects children’s ability to participate, particularly in the early years.
“Early childhood has changed, so the school needs to change,” Oden says. She is concerned that formal academic expectations may arrive before some children have had sufficient opportunities for developmental milestones. Her proposal is to examine the fit between children’s developmental abilities and classroom requirements, without assuming that difficulties such as restlessness or inattention promote a diagnosis.
Oden draws on embodied cognition, the current medical theory of human development, explored in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, that considers how thinking involves the brain, body, and surrounding environment. She believes this perspective encourages educators to consider children’s physical and sensory experiences when developing curriculum.
A 2025 meta-analysis of physical activity interventions found small benefits for children’s executive functions from activities involving cognitive challenges, depending on the outcome and comparison. These abilities include holding information in mind, managing impulses, and adapting when instructions change, which are all characteristics of ADHD. The authors called for further research. Oden sees such findings as relevant to broader educational and classroom design. She adds, “If this research teaches us anything, it’s that we must look at the environment, not just the individual.”
Her practical examples concern how academic work is organised. Oden recalls classrooms offering tables, floor mats, and lap boards, allowing different working positions. She also suggests having small groups solve mathematics problems together at a board. “There’s still academic work to do,” she says. In her view, flexibility can coexist with clear learning goals.
She places particular emphasis on early childhood, questioning whether pushing academic tasks into younger age groups adequately prepares children for later demands. Oden would like schools to give sensorimotor development, exploration, and collaborative problem-solving a more deliberate place in daily learning. She presents these as educational priorities, rather than evidence that every restless child has been misunderstood. Her concern is whether early academic demands for later schooling leave enough room for development now.
The risk, in Oden’s view, is that an unchanged routine may leave adults repeatedly observing the same difficulty without exploring whether the setting contributes to it. A more responsive approach, she believes, could give children additional ways to demonstrate understanding and help educators recognise where individualised support might remain necessary.
Takeaway
Oden’s argument points towards a practical starting place for school leaders. Examine a demanding classroom routine, consider the developmental abilities it requires, and explore appropriate alternatives with teachers, families, and relevant professionals. Observe participation and learning, rather than attention level alone. In her view, reviewing the environment should become part of supporting a child, alongside a sensorimotor curriculum for all.
