Posted on 01/09/2008 11:21:34 AM PST by bs9021
ADHD Breakthrough
by: Amanda Busse, January 09, 2008
A new study suggests that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children may be a matter of maturity.
According to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ADHD in children is caused when portions of the brain mature at a slower pace than normal. For many, the condition eventually normalizes and nearly 80 percent of children grow out of the disorder, the researchers found.
Researchers used a new image-analysis technique to measure the thickening and thinning of thousands of cortex sites in 223 children with ADHD and 223 children without the disorder for the study. Scientists found that the cortex sites in children with the disorder reached peak thickness three years later, on average, than those in children without the disorder.
“There has been debate about whether ADHD is a delay or deviance from normal brain development,” the lead author of the study, Dr. Philip Shaw, told the Los Angeles Times, “This study comes down strongly in favor of delay.”
The cause for the delay in brain maturation which causes ADHD is unknown, but there is evidence that both genetic and environmental factors influence brain development.
At early ages, environmental factors that influence the inattention and lack of self control associated with ADHD may include certain parenting and teaching techniques, according to another study published in the same month in Developmental Psychology. The study found that self-control and maturity levels were affected by family life and filtered into the classroom setting.
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
So basically they’re showi...
Wait, what were you saying?
What foods have Omega-6 and Omega-3?
Thanks for the advice. I am finding techniques that work very well at home. For example for the flash cards of words he needs to learn this year – if I do it the normal way he looses focus real fast, looking around the room, fidgeting, anything but focusing on the word and trying to sound it out. But if I turn it into a TV-like game show and have him hit one of those Staples “That Was Easy” buttons when he knows the answer – he gets totally focused. I make it fun and offer a small prize as a goal for him, and I speak in the game show host voice. He loves it, and don’t get frustrated with him.
Thank you. The depth of ignorance on this thread is staggering.
Read about the flat earth and wonder...
Hyper compared to little girls?
I was an ADHD naysayer, before our daughter was in first grade. My wife and I were stunned to hear that our daughter could not focus in school...she simply zoned out on tasks.
This has nothing to do with the school--she attends a private, Catholic school. Her mom and I are very much interested in her school work, and otherwise have a very stable household. Our daughter is one of the younger ones in her class, with a birthday in June.
We gave it a summer, but by second grade, we had no other choice than to try medication. Behavior "modification" techniques did not work consistently. She is now on a time-released version of an ADD drug, and it's been a godsend. It's not something we'd like to do, but we know of no other method.
I agree with that part. From what I've seen the worst behaving kids go along with the least attentive parents.
Yeah. ;)
Part of the lack of structure is the lack of, or reduction of, the authority of the father in the home.
Our pussified/liberalized culture these days denegrates masculinity and patriarchal authority,
to the detriment of children in need of such boundary enforcement.
That’s why ADHD is often referred to as “Absent Dad/Husband Disorder”.
(A pre-emptive “Keep your shorts on”: I KNOW there are genuine cases out there.)
They lives are better because you had them altered through drugs?
Harvest Gold was my favorite; painted all the steel kitchen cabinets once to match my new GE.
http://www.addforums.com/forums
For all the parents and those with ADHD/ADD.
These forums are fabulous.
I run into it with clinical depression (in the extended family). People will make inane comments such as "Nothing a brisk walk around sunrise won't cure", as if any serious psychiatric condition is nothing more than a passing mood. Funny thing about ADHD, I could probably use a little more of it, being to the low energy side myself. Never had trouble concentrating, can do it happily for hours to the exclusion of any distractions including spouses and offspring! (tongue in cheek)
Very cute. Same thing that was used on me . . . and it worked. Guess what? It didn’t work for my step son. I came dangerously close to child abuse using the same method but it did not — would not — work with him. It was not within his power to stop bad behavior no matter how much you beat him with a belt.
Wait. I shouldn’t say that. I never did break his bones or really, really beat the crap out of him, you know, where he could walk or go to school or anything. Maybe I should have done that.
Should’ve followed up my thoughts.
Of course, I was long-winded as it was!
Anyway, the schools are ham-strung (mostly by themselves) and cannot deal with children in a serious manner. So, it seems they latched onto this “disease” idea to get drugs which would help control the kids! Just because they themselves can’t do it.
I think ADD/etc can be real; I just don’t think it’s nearly as epidemic as it seems in reality. I think too many scared and lazy schools use it as a crutch (never mind parents when they’re uptight about how the child is in school).
Exactly.
>>What would make you stressed out will calm them right down.
And the opposite can also be true. When I flew as a young boy, my parent’s went to their MD to get something to calm me down during the flight. I end up running up and down the aisles.
My mom wouldn’t let me be drugged up (she was a school nurse and knew what ritalin did to most kids). I mostly grew out of it, but still sometimes am spacey, scatterbrained one minute then laser focused the next. Only very challenging subjects kept my attention in school.
Like you said in another post, I often think “what box are these people talking about?”
And you didn’t call your teachers “Ed” and “Nancy”, either.
It’s called hyper-focus. IOW,
you’d stay up all night to finish something that really caught your attention.
However, if it didn’t interest you, no power on earth could make you give it a second thought.
If it competed with the ping pong balls and won, it was worth ALL your focus.
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