New research suggests that to get kids with ADHD to have the best learning experience, teachers should let them "squirm."
Children struggling with ADHD have often been told to "sit still and listen," but the recent findings show their movement is actually vital to how they learn and retain information, the University of Central Florida reported. The findings suggest the way children with ADHD learn should be addressed in a new way, and these students could even benefit from sitting on exercise balls during class time.
"The typical interventions target reducing hyperactivity. It's exactly the opposite of what we should be doing for a majority of children with ADHD," said one of the study's authors, Mark Rapport, head of the Children's Learning Clinic at the University of Central Florida. "The message isn't 'Let them run around the room,' but you need to be able to facilitate their movement so they can maintain the level of alertness necessary for cognitive activities."
To make their findings the researchers looked at 52 boys between the ages of 8 and 12, 29 of whom had been diagnosed with ADHD. Each child was asked to perform a series of standardized tasks that determined their "working memory." They were presented with a series of numbers and letters and observed with high-speed cameras that caught their every move.
Past research has already shown children with ADHD typically only show excessive movement when they need to use their brain's executive brain functions, such as working memory. This new study proves this movement serves an important purpose.
"What we've found is that when they're moving the most, the majority of them perform better," Rapport said. "They have to move to maintain alertness."
On the other hand, children without ADHD who moved excessively showed to have a reduction in working memory.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
