Imagine a child who can play legos for hours. He loves to build the most intricate fantasy lands with castles, bridges and towns. He is also a fantastic artist. He pencils very creative cartoons. When he is doing either of those two activities, he is able to direct his concentration for long periods of time. He couldn’t have ADD or ADHD, right? Wrong.
Many parents witness their children concentrating on interesting hobbies or events and become confused as to why their children cannot maintain that same level of focus in the classroom or while cleaning their rooms.
Why Does This Happen?
The paradox of being able to focus for long periods of time on something interesting, but not being able to pay attention to something boring is a common symptom of ADD and ADHD.
The ability to pay attention, concentrate and focus comes from the brain's capacity to work at a certain speed and rhythm. Children with ADD have a speed and rhythm that is different from their classmates.
Interest and excitement about certain activities like drawing, video games, or building with Legos keep the activity in the processing of the cortex. Sweeping the floor and school lectures on World War II can be boring and so the brains of children with ADD and ADHD are not able to maintain their attention on the task.
What Are The Possible Solutions?
There are many solutions that parents try to work with this issue:
Rewards work for the short term. The pleasure of the reward helps children with ADD and ADHD maintain the focus they need to achieve the reward. However, in order for this to continue working, the reward must get increasingly bigger, so that the excitement over it is enough to help the brain stay focused. At some point, even with rewards, children with ADD or ADHD will not be able to hold their focus enough to reach the goal.
Punishment is another option that parents find works for the short term. The fear of the punishment helps to keep the goal in mind in order to achieve it. Unfortunately, for this technique to continue working, the punishments need to get increasingly bigger. At a certain point, even with large punishments, children with ADD and ADHD are not able to fulfill their parents' expectations and parents start to feel frustrated about the increasing amount negative interactions with their children.
Medication is another route. While the medication is in the system, it works to speed up the brain’s timing allowing children to pay attention, concentrate and focus. However, when the medication wears off, so do its affects. This solution is helpful to many children. However, some people are concerned about the long term affect of their children taking stimulants and some people find the benefits do not outweigh the side effects they feel. Parents should also explore a natural treatment for ADHD and ADD that can provide solutions without subjecting them to a constant regiment of medication.
Increase Millisecond Timing is a way to help the brain permanently increase its speed and rhythm to the timing that is appropriate for the child’s age group. This gives children with ADD and ADHD the natural ability to pay attention, concentrate and focus so that they can begin to catch up on the academic skills lost during the years that they struggled. Once this is achieved, students can leave behind the poor grades, low self esteem and attention issues and move on to succeed in school and life.
For more help with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, visit http://www.SuccessfulStudentNow.com and fill out the checklist specially designed to help you do an initial assessment of your child’s learning problems. Your child CAN have a positive classroom experience this year. Be sure to check out our educational videos about ADD Attention Deficit Disorder and ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder.