Speaker 1: A group of psychologists is fighting to make schools more inclusive for students with learning disabilities. The Department of Education reports 7.3 million students with learning disabilities were enrolled in U.S. schools in the 2021-22 school year. Now these advocates say small classroom changes can make a big difference for those students. Let's bring in Cynthia Martin, senior director and psychologist at the Child Mind Institute Autism Center, all part of our series, The American Classroom, as we mark this American Education Week. Cynthia, thanks so much for coming on. The American Academy of Pediatrics says neurodiversity diagnoses are on the rise, with two of the most common being ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, and those are also considered learning disabilities. So can you explain what challenges these students face in the classroom?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so neurodivergent students who have autism or ADHD, they can have difficulty navigating the social environment of the classroom. So making friends and keeping friends can be much more challenging than a child who is not neurodivergent. They can also have difficulty with the executive functioning aspects of their academic coursework. So although they're very bright and they can, they have the ability to complete grade level or in many cases above grade level academic work, the actual organizing of themselves and completing the task from start to finish, keeping their attention on the task, motivating themselves to start the task, and knowing how to do the task in the way that the teacher is teaching it versus the way that they would like to do it or the way they understand it can be more challenging. And then thirdly...

Speaker 1: Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Cynthia.

Speaker 2: Oh, I was just gonna mention also, thirdly, it can be more difficult for them to adapt their behavior to meet the demands within the classroom. So they can be more prone to having outbursts or challenges in the classroom that can be seen as being more of a behavioral challenge.

Speaker 1: People often think of this as an issue with younger kids, but one, not everybody gets diagnosed as a young child, and two, this isn't something that just affects you at a young age. It's something that affects you for life. So how do schools go about supporting these students at those younger ages and also as they continue to develop?

Speaker 2: Great question. I think we see three key areas where it's really important for schools to be supporting and intervening for kids. In the early years, we really need to build up their academic readiness skills. So they may need some specialized approaches to learn the rules and the routines of the classroom, to learn the behavioral expectations of the classroom. Young kids who are neurodivergent due to autism or ADHD may be less likely to go along to get along. So they need to be explicitly taught, what are the expectations in this environment? And it needs to be taught to them in a way that it's meaningful, meaning that they're going to be more motivated to do these things. They're also going to need support in learning how to make friends. So all the things that all children in early childhood are working on, making friends, keeping friends, the neurodivergent child is going to need a bit more support in that area. Then we start to see when kids start to get a little bit older and hit middle school is when we see more of the needs around executive functioning emerge.

Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the physical changes you'd like to see in the classrooms? I know some things mentioned were a visual schedule where students can see that clearly or having a designated safe person for that child to be able to go to if they're frustrated. Talk a little bit about kind of the concrete examples where you feel like small changes can make a big difference.

Speaker 2: So visual schedules and other kinds of what we call antecedent support. So thinking about preventative strategies, how can we support this child's behavior and functioning and social functioning in the classroom before a problem arises? So the way we can do that is take a look at the classroom. How is the classroom organized? Are there dedicated centers and stations? Is it going to be clear to the child when they walk into the classroom what they need to do from the time they walk in to the time the class starts? And then if that's not as clear to that individual child, break it down more for them by providing them a visual schedule. And that can be a picture schedule or a written schedule. And take each aspect of that schedule and identify, is the child able to do each of these things independently or not? And if they're not, then break the skill down, help them work on it and scaffold it until they are doing it independently. So antecedent supports around visual schedules can make a big difference. Also looking at things like sensory aspects of the classroom. Are there certain lights, sounds, noises, sounds that can be unpredictable, can be something that can be more challenging for a neurodivergent student? So that's an easy one to survey the classroom to see, is there anything here that might be distressing or difficult for this child? Thinking also about the child's seating arrangement. So a child who has ADHD or autism, making sure that they have preferential seating. So they're near the front of the classroom. They're near where the action is going on. So they're near the teacher who's going to be teaching. Have them seated also by peers who are going to be good role models and are less likely to be disruptive. So having a child in an optimal place where they can attend and concentrate on what's being taught can make a really big difference.

Speaker 1: All right. Cynthia Martin, senior director and psychologist at the Child Mind Institute Autism Center. Cynthia, I could talk to you about this for hours, but unfortunately we're out of time. We so appreciate you coming on. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone.

Speaker 3: George Stephanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel. And don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.