Children With ADHD need to be Active in School

A new study just published in the journal of Child Neuropsychology from UC Davis, shows what many parents of children with ADHD already suspect:  allowing movement (instead of trying to curtail it) contributes to better long-term behavior and learning.

The physical activity appears to allow the child to focus better on difficult tasks, including cognitive activities.

"It's not anything conscious, but you see children use hyperactivity to boost their attention," said study co-author Julie Schweitzer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and head of the UC Davis ADHD Program.

"They go up and down the room, and jump on chairs and dive under the tables when something is very demanding or boring," she told NBC News. "When they are concentrating hard, their tongues are moving. There is always movement." 

"The ADHD students with the highest number of correct answers, showed the greatest degree of movement. There was no correlation between movement and cognition in children without the disorder."

Not only is activity important for the correctly diagnosed hyperactive child, but also for those who are not hyperactive, but who are kinesthetic, mechanical learners.  We all learn in multiple ways, but the kinesthetic learner needs movement in order to process new information.  This is the child that might tap on his desk with a pencil or finger while studying or listening to the teacher during a lesson in class.  I have personal experience with a kinesthetic, mechanical learner and his teachers were not very understanding...probably because the different intelligent pathways with which we learn are not widely taught in colleges to teaching students.

My advice is to share this information with your school principal/teachers and to always advocate for your children. I chose to home school as our remedy and that was highly successful.  There are many other ways to chose; it's just what's best for your child.