Supporting Student Success with Body Doubling

Some students who experience ADHD have difficulty focusing or starting tasks due to executive dysfunction. One possible way to support students who experience ADHD is called body-doubling, which is working alongside someone else to complete a task that one may have trouble starting. In this session we will discuss how body-doubling could promote student success, particularly for neurodiverse students. We will present results from our recent experiment testing the effects of working near others on productivity in a cognitive task. The session will also include a facilitated discussion of ways faculty can encourage students to create group study or work sessions. We will share student perspectives on qualities of effective study groups. Creating group study and work sessions may be an effective way to support the success of students with ADHD. This approach could be particularly useful for online students, who otherwise lack the social learning context that is typically provided during in-person instruction.