Posted on 01/25/2005 3:21:32 AM PST by grundle
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=571&e=7&u=/nm/20050124/hl_nm/memory_adhd_dc
Memory Training Helps Kids with ADHD
Mon Jan 24, 2:43 PM ET
By Alison McCook
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A computer program that improves one type of memory appears to help kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new study findings suggest.
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After around 40 kids with ADHD completed more than 20 days of training using the computer program, their parents reported they had significantly fewer problems with attention and hyperactivity, both immediately and three3 months after the program ended.
The form of memory the program addresses is called "working memory," study author Dr. Torkel Klingberg of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden told Reuters Health. This type of memory is what we use to keep information in our minds for short periods of time, and to complete day-to-day activities, the researcher noted.
"When you walk into a room and suddenly find that you have forgotten why you went in there, it's because your working memory failed," Klingberg said.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that working memory is impaired in kids with ADHD, Klingberg added. "These deficits can explain why they forget the 'internal plan' of what they are supposed to do next, or forget what they should focus their attention on."
To investigate whether training aimed at improving working memory helps kids with ADHD, the researchers asked 53 children with ADHD between the ages of 7 and 12 to complete working memory exercises using a computer program.
During the exercises, kids practiced memorizing the locations of objects or a series of letters. Half of children were assigned a treatment program that adjusted in difficulty according to the ability of the child, while the other half completed a comparison program, which stayed at a low level of difficulty.
Kids spent approximately 40 minutes every day for 25 days using the program, either at school or home. Forty-two finished the program and checked in for a follow-up three months later.
After training, the researchers found that kids who used the treatment program showed significantly more improvements in working memory.
Klingberg added that kids using the adjustable program were also better able to tackle problem-solving tasks. "The children were able to use their better working memory in order to control their attention and keep mental strategies in mind."
Moreover, parents also reported that kids given the treatment showed improvements in attention and were less hyperactive or impulsive, the researchers note in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Klingberg noted that children may be able to strengthen their working memory using other means than the computer program. "Working memory is required for many activities, and children could get some training from activities such as mental calculation or playing chess," he said.
However, Klingberg noted that kids likely need to test their working memory to its limits for long stretches for several weeks at a time to get the same benefits as the computer program.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, February 2005.
MY father realized he had ADD when I was diagnosed. It is hereditary. He read all the books and it occured to him that he had all of the symptoms too, as a child and now.
This is an anecdote- it's true-
When my father went to Catholic school (with nuns yes) he never did his homework. Everyday when he would come home from school his mother would tell him to go to his room and do his homework.
He never knew what the homework was.
But since he had to do something he would read the encyclopedia.
By the time he was in 7th grade- HE Knew all the answers in class!
Children who had ADD and other learning disabilities often never learned to read and dropped out of school.
THAT is a crying shame!
The truth of it is, while relitively few have this type of learning disorder, it does really exist.
This FACT has enabled lazy teachers, greedy doctors, and an uncaring pharmaceutical industry to drug the current generation into a stupor.
This creates a complacent, pliable society; something ALL the governmental control freaks appreciate.
Ritalin isn't a one answer "cure." It takes one on one attention and individual help.
What does ADHD stand for again? I forgot...........
In answer to your question: No, it doesn't.
I'm an adult. I have ADD, a rather severe case of it. Being as I am a member of Narcotics Anonymous, I try to go WAYYYYYY out of my way to avoid taking anything -- even by prescription -- that is mood-altering. I've tried many memory and attention-focusing techniques, and -- while they help a little -- I still require certain medications or I cannot function to even a fraction of my best potential.
I prove to myself that ADD exists, daily.
Yes, I agree, the condition exists, but in no where near the numbers that are thrown around.
And you can blame teachers, Big Pharma and society, but at the end of the day responsibility rests with the parents. Basically, parents are drugging their kids. And, worse, nobody actually know the long term effects of these drug cocktails later in life. They're dumping high grade sophisticated chemicals on developing brains.
I was first put on Ritalin in first grade. The school didn't want to put me in a special ED class.
I didn't learn to read that year.
The next year my parents marched up to school and demanded I be put in a special ed class for second grade. Special Ed offers one on one attention in a classroom setting. There were 9 kids and 3 teachers.
I came out of that 2nd grade class with a fourth grade reading level, from not knowing to read at all. Thanks to RITALIN and individual attention.
So it's not just ritalin. You can't JUST put a kid on Ritalin
It existed then. But at that time, the children were labeled "unruly" and "inattentive", and the adults were labeled "flighty" and "lacking focus".
Where does it originate?
Apparantly, ADD is a hereditary advantage in the wild. If you are on the Serengheti Plain with a spear in your hand, the ability to focus on many different things at once gives you an evolutionary edge. You can keep track of three of your prey, the guy to your left, your right, and that nasty old she-lion way in the distance all at the same time -- all while still keeping an eye on the wind and the weather.
I dunno. There's enough evidence to indicate it is not a disease. This also remins me of homosexuals saying they were born that way - poppycock! Another example is smoking being physically addictive. I know many who have stopped cold turkey including myself. I started when I was 18, smoked 2 packs a day for 10 years and then stopped without any problems whatsoever.
The point is the mind is incredibly powerful and if one has a strong will, one can overcome many challenges including pseudo diseases and "born traits".
You're right.
You dunno.
Ever read the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley?
I need to get my hands on this program. Me too!,
The lack of developed "working memory" or short "attention span" can be improved. The earlier in life the better.
A great deal of stress in life is due to lack of memory training. Being organized and a developed memory goes a long way in decreasing life's stresses. Sounds boring - but actually it results in much more "quality" time.
I learned this too late in life, but work on it daily. I am nearing 68, and today can remember a longer string of numbers for computer entry than I could two years ago. So it seems never to late to improve your short term memory - but it is a challenge, everyday. It remains not uncommon to go into a room and have to think about why I went there - the difference now is that I can usually figure it out.
When I walk into a room and discover I have forgotten why I went there, I have a technique for figuring out how to remember. I walk back to the place I was in previously, when I had the thought, and it pops into my head. Some days I do a lot of walking but, hey, walking is good for you. LOL
Certainly, whether or not ADD exists or not, kids are worse behaved nowadays primarily because of the parents: divorce, illegitimacy, daycare, permissiveness and indulgence. In other words, indifferent, absent, yet indulgent parents. In fact, what even 30 years ago was considered normal, albeit annoying, behavior in children is now diagnosed as some sort of condition that must be "treated." Parents have so little knowledge of children and so little contact with their own that they don't know, or care, what is normal and what is abnormal behavior. A good book to read is Mary Eberstadt's Home-Alone America.
You are also correct about the unknown long-terms effects of drugging children. Ritalin is not supposed to be given to pre-schoolers, but it is.
Reading what?.... OH LOOK..theres a rabbit.
They're giving ritalin to pre-schoolers now? I should be shocked, but I'm just saddened.
What an interesting combination, God Bless you - it really might give you some advantage!
Yes, ADD does exist - and over many years I known, including myself, it seems, who have suffered. Of course, the degree of affliction varies from one sufferer to the other. However, it seems, with help it is something that can be worked on - and one's lot improved.
Many suffers have compensated, in one manner or another, and gone on to "success" in life. However, others have succumbed to drugs, etc. At 18, you head really seems screwed on right - keep the mind and body pure!
Stay on top of it and don't look for the easy way out.
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