{"id":65716,"date":"2015-04-17T14:58:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T18:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=65716"},"modified":"2018-06-27T16:41:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T20:41:44","slug":"kids-with-adhd-must-squirm-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/kids-with-adhd-must-squirm-to-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids with ADHD Must Squirm to Learn, UCF Study Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, frustrated parents and teachers have barked at fidgety children with ADHD to \u201cSit still and concentrate!\u201d<\/p>\n

But new research conducted at UCF shows that if you want ADHD kids to learn, you have to let them squirm. The foot-tapping, leg-swinging and chair-scooting movements of children with attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder are actually vital to how they remember information and work out complex cognitive tasks, according to a study published in an early online release<\/a> of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.<\/p>\n

The findings show the longtime prevailing methods for helping children with ADHD may be misguided.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe typical interventions target reducing hyperactivity. It\u2019s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing for a majority of children with ADHD,\u201d said one of the study\u2019s authors, Mark Rapport, head of the Children\u2019s Learning Clinic at the University of Central Florida. \u201cThe message isn\u2019t \u2018Let them run around the room,\u2019 but you need to be able to facilitate their movement so they can maintain the level of alertness necessary for cognitive activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research has major implications for how parents and teachers should deal with ADHD kids, particularly with the increasing weight given to students\u2019 performance on standardized testing. The study suggests that a majority of students with ADHD could perform better on classroom work, tests and homework if they\u2019re sitting on activity balls or exercise bikes, for instance.<\/p>\n

The study at the UCF clinic included 52 boys ages 8 to 12. Twenty-nine of the children had been diagnosed with ADHD and the other 23 had no clinical disorders and showed normal development.<\/p>\n

Each child was asked to perform a series of standardized tasks designed to gauge \u201cworking memory,\u201d the system for temporarily storing and managing information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning and comprehension.<\/p>\n

Children were shown a series of jumbled numbers and a letter that flashed onto a computer screen, then asked to put the numbers in order, followed by the letter. A high-speed camera recorded the kids, and observers recorded their every movement and gauged their attention to the task.<\/p>\n

Rapport\u2019s previous research had already shown that the excessive movement that\u2019s a trademark of hyperactive children \u2013 previously thought to be ever-present \u2013 is actually apparent only when they need to use the brain\u2019s executive brain functions, especially their working memory.<\/p>\n

The new study goes an important step further, proving the movement serves a purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve found is that when they\u2019re moving the most, the majority of them perform better,\u201d Rapport said. \u201cThey have to move to maintain alertness.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, the children in the study without ADHD also moved more during the cognitive tests, but it had the opposite effect: They performed worse.<\/p>\n

In addition to Rapport, the study was co-authored by Dustin Sarver of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Michael Kofler of Florida State University, Lauren Friedman of the University of Central Florida, and Joe Raiker of Florida International University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, frustrated parents and teachers have barked at fidgety children with ADHD to \u201cSit still and concentrate!\u201d But new research conducted at UCF shows that if you want ADHD kids to learn, you have to let them squirm. 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