Music and ADHD: Creating a Music Playlist to Improve Student Focus
WRITTEN BY CARLY TROYER, EDITED BY MONICA MCGUIRE
Is your student constantly wearing earbuds? Do they groan when you ask them to take them out? Do you wish you didn’t have to fight for their attention? New research may change your tune about your student’s music addiction, especially if your child has ADHD.
Studies show that music can be an extremely useful tool for those with ADHD, helping them regulate their emotions, manage sound sensitivity, and focus attention. Music fuels our brains. Whether we are writing a song, tapping our foot to a beat, or listening to music, our brains are constantly responding to rhythm. All music has rhythm and this rhythm has a structure. Our brains respond to this structure by creating new brain structures, which in turn can help regulate chaos in the brain..
In people with ADHD, it can be hard to maintain focus on one task, while a multitude of other background thoughts and noises are in the mix. Music played through earbuds has been proven to drown out distractions, and send signals to the brain that say it’s time to focus.
In 2016, the editors of ADDitude released a special report entitled Music for Healthy ADHD Brains: 8 Songs for Focus. The report examines how music can help people focus and achieve productivity and goes on to examine eight songs that can help listeners do just that. But what if your student is resistant to listening to the classical music highlighted in this special report? Fear not. Just because softer tones and repetitive themes in melodies are shown to have a positive impact, that doesn’t mean your child needs to limit their listening to a slim selection of music.
Leslie Josel gives tips on how to create your own playlist when she answers the question Does My Son’s Study Music Really Help Him Focus?
Create a 30-45 minute playlist of songs you love.
Choose songs you know well so you aren’t distracted and focusing on the music instead of the task at hand.
Listen to the same music each time you study (feel free to create separate playlists for each class or task). Listening to the same playlist over and over will turn the playlist into a motivator, signaling the brain that it is time to get things done.
As Neurologic Music Therapist Patti Catalano puts it best, “What helps your child may be specific to him, so remind yourself that what’s playing through his headphones doesn’t matter as much as its impact. If Eminem helps him focus, let it be.”
To explore more about the impact of music on people with ADHD or to find a homework playlist for your student check out these great resources:
Layne Rodgers, Anni. “Music Therapy: Sound Medicine for ADHD.” ADDitude, ADDitude, 5 May 2021, www.additudemag.com/music-therapy-for-adhd-how-rhythm-builds-focus/.
“TOP 5 STUDY PLAYLISTS ON SPOTIFY.” Top 5 Study Playlists on Spotify, online.illinois.edu/articles/online-learning/item/2019/11/15/top-5-study-playlists-on-spotify.
“The Ultimate Study Music Playlist.” College Info Geek, 20 Nov. 2020, collegeinfogeek.com/playlist/.
Zhang, Fan, et al. “Music Therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2 May 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6481398/.
ADDitude, Music that Focuses the Brain
https://www.additudemag.com/study-music-to-focus-the-adhd-brain/
ADDitude, Ask the Experts: Q: Does My Son’s Study Music Really Help Him Focus? https://www.additudemag.com/study-music-adhd-focus-homework/
About this Author
This article was written by Russell Coaching’s summer 2021 Intern, Carly Troyer. She is a rising high school senior at Interlochen Arts Academy and is majoring in songwriting. Her love for music started at an early age, playing violin, piano, and singing, and her adoration has only grown. She’s combining this with her passion for helping people and plans to major in developmental psychology (with an emphasis on neuroscience). Some of her other hobbies include hiking, reading, and spending time with friends and family.
About the Editor
Monica McGuire is a writer and parent who believes all relationships, including parent-child relationships, flourish under mutual respect, curiosity, kindness, and compassion. She lives in Michigan with her family where she is constantly being challenged to listen to, understand, and appreciate her teenagers’ points of view. You can reach her at monicamcguire100@gmail.com.