ADHD Experts Podcast 622- A Self-Advocacy Guide for Students with ADHD: Training for Parents, Teachers, and Coaches
Sep 29, 2026
Brooke Schnittman, an ADHD and executive function coach, author, and former special education leader, explores how students can become confident self-advocates. She covers the executive function chain behind speaking up, why “just ask” fails, student-owned advocacy letters, practical scripts, teacher collaboration, rejection sensitivity, and ways parents and educators can make accommodations feel accessible rather than embarrassing.
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Self-Advocacy Is An Executive Function Chain
- Self-advocacy requires noticing, regulating, remembering, choosing, wording, initiating, and tolerating the response.
- A student may know an accommodation exists yet lose access to it when stress disrupts executive functioning.
Teach Self-Advocacy Instead Of Saying Speak Up
- Teach self-advocacy explicitly instead of expecting age alone to produce it.
- Account for developmental lag: a 12-year-old may need support with regulation, word retrieval, initiation, and response tolerance.
Turn Vague Struggles Into Specific Requests
- Use the “what funnel” to identify the real barrier: ask what feels hard, what gets in the way, and what would help.
- The final answer should become a specific, actionable request.
