Good design can enhance learning outcomes for students with ADHD: sharing our expertise at the 2025 AADPA conference
How can inclusive design principles enhance the classroom experience for students with ADHD, and contribute towards better outcomes for learners and educators?
We are proud to announce that Giarola Architects has been invited to participate in this year’s Australian ADHD Professionals Association (AADPA) Conference, taking place in Sydney in July 2025.
The conference theme is "ADHD: A Shared Focus. Clinic + Community + Classroom" and the event brings together a diverse range of professionals who are committed to improving the lives of people with ADHD through innovation, practical application, and cross-disciplinary care.
Cassandra was invited to join a multidisciplinary panel discussion to explore the evolving ADHD care landscape. The panel will touch on topics such as medication access, cross-sector collaboration, and inclusive strategies that span healthcare, community, and classroom settings.
For more than 30 years, we’ve been committed to shaping educational environments where all children can learn, grow, and thrive.
And we’re grateful that our inclusion on this panel reflects a growing recognition that ADHD, Autism, and other neurodivergent experiences are not only shaped by clinical care or classroom teaching, but also by the quality of the spaces in which people live and learn.
This is particularly relevant given the increasing recognition and prevalence of AuDHD, in both student and adult populations.
AuDHD is an unofficial term that refers to individuals who are Autistic and also have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These are two separate neurological conditions but they sometimes present with overlapping symptoms, which can make diagnosis challenging.
Some of the overlapping symptoms include:
Sensory processing – how we perceive sights, smells sound and textures in our day-to-day life.
Emotional regulation – how we manage, control and respond to our feelings, and
Executive functioning – how we manage our thoughts and actions to achieve our goals.
For years now, Giarola Architects has worked alongside educators to better understand how physical spaces can either support – or hinder – students who are neurodivergent. As a result, we’ve been at the forefront of the movement to reimagine classroom layouts, transitioning spaces and outdoor learning environments so that they better cater to the needs of different kinds of learners.
At the AADPA Conference, we look forward to sharing insights from our experience designing inclusive educational spaces, and also to learning more from others who are working across the ADHD ecosystem, from clinicians and educators to people with lived experience.
We believe that when clinicians, communities, and classrooms work together, with architects at the table too to improve the quality of spaces, we can create environments where all children can feel safe, focused, and able to reach their potential.
If you’d like to join us at the conference, registration details can be found at: https://aadpa.com.au/aadpa-conference.
Or if you’d like to talk to us about a new project at your school, call our studio on 07 3878 3330 to get the ball rolling.