How do adults with neurodevelopmental disorders prefer information being presented?

Abstract

Neurodiverse children do not always benefit from a typical learning environment and therefore may be at a disadvantage when learning alongside their peers. Many of these children have different preferences when it comes to the formatting of learning materials, which may impact their performance. The current study examined the preferences of 204 adults with diagnosed ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia to identify formatting preferences for formatting variables previously shown to influence performance: font style, font size, character spacing, line spacing, title design, background colour, reward icon and instruction layout. Preferences were obtained by means of a survey, where participants rated their preferences on 5-point, Likert-type scales (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Participants were also asked to rank the options provided for each formatting variable from least favourite to favourite. Results indicated consistent preference across all neurodiverse groups, with one category in each being significantly preferred across all groups. The exception to this was background colour, in which each neurodiverse group preferred a different colour.