by Nikki States, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center
“Imagine a house. Now open up all the windows—no screens—just fresh air and exposure to the elements. What would living in this house of wide open windows be like?”
Karen Costa starts her latest book with this powerful opening, asking us to consider not only the challenges, but the benefits of living in this type of space could have as well. She then likens this house to living with ADHD as she invites us to honor our ADHD learners’ open minds as we continue to read.
A couple weeks ago, my colleague Eric Royer and I met with a group of instructors to discuss Karen Costa’s latest book An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success. We asked participants to contribute meaningfully, listen generously, and protect the space to ensure that lessons left but individual stories stayed in the room. I am writing here today, reflecting on our discussion and summarizing the main ideas. The book is divided into two parts, Part 1 focuses on redefining ADHD and Part 2 explores practical teaching strategies that support ADHD learners.
Mirroring this formatting, we asked three questions during our discussion focusing on ways the book challenged readers in Part I to unlearn assumptions about ADHD that we have encountered, and in Part 2, we focused on what strategies we thought would work well (or not) in our teaching.
We started talking about how the one-size-fits-all approach to teaching has never really fit everyone and discussed the importance of shifting to a strength-based, but challenge-aware model when considering our neurodivergent learners. We also discussed how it is important to learn from those who have ADHD since no one individual or study can represent and fully encompass the needs of all learners.
When we shifted to Part 2, everyone said they had a hard time selecting just one strategy, since there were so many great suggestions in the book. Some of the more popular ones focused on mitigating shame by setting standards that all students can meet, having clear expectations, appropriate support, and opportunities for individual identities to be heard in class. We also talked about how to better structure our learning environments by adding in check lists or organizers that are available in multiple formats, including print copies.
Lastly, we talked about what might not work from the book. People had concerns with flexibility and how accreditation pressures mean that finding a balance between flexibility and staying on track is important.
This book has many great ideas and I encourage you to pick it up, find what parts work for you, and consider how those ideas can inform your teaching. As always, if you would like to schedule a consultation with the Reinert Center to discuss how you could apply ideas from this book, you can fill out the Consultation Request Form.
Costa, K. (2026). An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success. Johns Hopkins University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/monograph/book/135420
