Girls with ADHD - Boarding Schools for Girls with ADD

Good News for Girls with ADHD

It seems that more often than not these days, we hear dire predictions for the future of our children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Whether it's the potential for academic failure or substance abuse during the teen years or the scary prospect of carrying the disorder into adulthood - recent research appears to offer us little more than doom and gloom.

Not so with two new studies, published in separate professional journals, both of which cast a far more optimistic light on ADHD.

The first study, performed by researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and McGill University in Canada, found that the brains of children with ADHD develop in exactly the same sequence as those children without this disorder - but more slowly - by as much as 3 years.

Scientists know that the cortex of the brain develops in a back to front manner, with sensory processing and motor control areas maturing in childhood and the frontal cortex, responsible for impulse control and attention, not developing fully until the teen years. Using imaging techniques, the researchers examined the brains of 446 children, half with a diagnosis of ADHD and half without, over a period of several years to see if there was a difference between the two groups in how the cortex developed. In all cases, the process of brain development was the same, but in those with ADHD, there was a lag, especially in the area of the prefrontal cortex.

Interestingly, one region of the brain developed somewhat faster in those with ADHD: the primary motor cortex. This area of the brain helps to prepare movement based upon sensory input, which may explain the excess activity level in many with this disorder.

What does this mean for those children with ADHD? While researchers are quick to point out that the brain imaging techniques used in the study are not ready for use as a diagnostic tool, the study challenges our perception of ADHD as a deficit or flaw rather than a delay in maturation. And it also points out that we may have unrealistic maturity expectations for some children during their early years of schooling.

There is also an opportunity for development of treatments for ADHD directed at helping with brain growth. While experts currently believe that the most effective treatment for ADHD is medication (primarily stimulants) combined with behavioral therapy to learn how to control impulses, there are those who think that there may be more effective treatments aimed at exercising the brain, just as weightlifting exercises the muscles. One treatment being researched in programs such as the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California Los Angeles is "mindful awareness" or "mindfulness." Based upon meditation, it involves techniques that help children to concentrate on their breathing, practice listening, and reflect upon their feelings and actions in an effort to become less impulsive and more focused. Mindful awareness has proven effective in the treatment of teens with ADHD and in early studies, is showing to be equally effective with younger children.

A second study, reported in the Journal of Developmental Psychology, measured social and intellectual development of over 16,000 children and found that disruptive or antisocial behaviors in kindergarten, such as those present in many children with ADHD, do not predict future academic success. Those kindergarteners that interrupted the teacher, picked fights or were disobedient were performing just as well in both reading and math by fifth grade as their better - behaved peers.

The researchers found that early math ability, and to a lesser extent, reading skills, more accurately predict later school success than disruptive behavior. While experts caution that this doesn't mean that we should ignore behavioral problems in young children, it may mean that we need to focus more attention on the development of early math and reading skills - and less on sitting still and being quiet.