After teachers explain an assignment, children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder might struggle to turn those instructions into action. It's one of several pathways by which ADHD can impair a young student's academic performance. "When you hear something from a teacher, you need to maintain the information in your brain, then process it and make decisions based on what you heard," said Stanford Medicine cognitive neuroscientist Hadi Hosseini, PhD.