FOR TEACHERS, TRAINERS AND TEAMS
Use A Day with ADHD in a room full of people.
A free, five-minute interactive simulation of an ordinary day with ADHD, with a ready-made 20-minute session around it. No sign-up, no accounts, nothing to install.
Built from published research and the lived experience of a medical student with ADHD. Sources, limits and further reading.
Who it's for
- Secondary and university classes: psychology, education, health and social care, or any class with students who think quickly and finish slowly.
- Workplace and team sessions: managers, HR and learning teams building understanding of neurodiversity without a lecture.
- Parent and carer groups, and trainee teachers: especially the school run, homework evening and "a kid's school day" scenarios.
It is not a screening or training tool for clinicians, and it should not be used to decide whether anyone has ADHD.
A 20-minute session plan
0:00 Set the frame (2 min)
Say what it is and isn't. Offer the intensity choice: Minimal turns off most visual and audio effects and is the right default for anyone sensitive to flicker or sound. Nobody should be asked whether they have ADHD.
0:02 Play (8 min)
Everyone plays on their own device, one scenario each, or a pair shares a screen and talks aloud. Pick by audience:
| AUDIENCE | SUGGESTED SCENARIOS |
|---|---|
| Workplace | The Workday · The Meeting · The Admin Day · The Appointment |
| School and parents | The School Run · The Homework Evening · A Kid's School Day |
| Relationships | The Social Day · The Unanswered Text · The One-Word Reply · The Argument |
| Home and routines | The Laundry Mountain · Cooking Dinner · The 1 AM Problem |
| A balanced view | The Good Day (hyperfocus and what it costs) |
For a fuller picture, run Play the whole day: all of the original eight in a row on one draining battery. Allow 15–20 minutes for that, instead of this plan.
0:10 Debrief (7 min)
Use the questions below in pairs, then take two or three to the whole group.
0:17 Commit to one thing (3 min)
On the results screen, "Try the same day with help" shows what a single support changes. Ask each person to name one thing they would try, or one thing they would change in how they work with others. Keep it small and specific.
Discussion questions
- Which moment felt most familiar, to you or to someone you know?
- Where did the "right" choice cost less, and where did it still cost something?
- What did you notice about how the day was judged from the outside, compared with how it was felt from the inside?
- The clock line showed how long a stretch felt and how long it was. What happens to trust when two people carry different clocks?
- Which support (headphones, writing it down, a body double, a visible timer) would make the most difference in a setting you know? What would it take to make it normal?
- Which choices looked like "not trying" from the outside? What would be a more useful question than "why didn't you?"
- What does this simulation not show? (It names three things on the results screen.)
- If someone you work or live with had this day, what is one thing you would stop doing, and one thing you would start?
Facilitation notes
- Do not ask people to disclose. Some will, many won't. Let it come from them.
- Expect different reactions. People with ADHD may say it's accurate, exaggerated, or not like theirs at all. All of that is data. It's one dramatized portrayal, not the experience of every person.
- Name the limits. The results screen lists what a game cannot show: you could leave, it was playful and so safe, and it was curated chaos.
- Avoid "now you know what it's like". Aim for "now you have a small, honest sense of one part of it."
- Language and access. The simulation is available in English, Arabic, Hebrew, Hungarian, Spanish, German and French, with right-to-left layouts for Arabic and Hebrew. It respects reduced-motion settings and has a Minimal intensity mode.
- Privacy. The simulation runs in the browser. Choices are not sent anywhere. The optional community statistics are off unless a player opts in on the results screen.
Embed it in your own page
Choose a scenario and settings, then copy the code. It works in any page that allows iframes (most learning platforms and site builders do).
Recommended size: at least 360 px wide and 720 px tall. In embed mode the site hides its header links and long reading sections and keeps a link back to the full version.