Children With ADHD May Benefit From Fidgeting

It has been a common problem for parents and teachers of students who fidget and move around the classroom too much to get them to concentrate on tasks and lessons. Now a study has shown how it may be a good idea to allow these children to fidget whenever they want. According to a New York Times blog article, a research was made on subjects who are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD.

One of the symptoms of ADHD is hyperactivity, or the inability of a person to sit still for a long period of time. Since it has been observed that students with this condition tend to make certain movements especially when they are not interested, researchers wanted to know whether or not this level of hyperactivity is always simultaneous with attention deficit. They want to know whether hyperactivity can occur without diminishing the amount of attention that children are capable for certain activities.

Julie Schweitzer, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, asked the same questions along with her colleagues.  Dr. Schweitzer and her colleagues studied 28 boys and girls who were diagnosed with ADHD with ages ranging from 10 to 17. They also added 18 students who were not diagnosed with this condition.

In the laboratory, the subjects were asked to strap on ankle monitors that could track down the number of times that they move and on how intensely they shake their legs.  They were then ordered to answer some computerized test that involves giving the right direction for an arrow which appears on the monitor. The specific arrow moves alongside other arrows which are pointing simultaneously at other directions. They have to get the correct answer as quickly as they can for a period of time.

The researchers found out that those diagnosed with ADHD were able to answer far better when they moved their legs compared to the time when they did not move as much.  The more actively the said subjects moved their legs, the more accurately they punched the button with the correct arrow direction. These were also compared to the corresponding readings from the ankle monitor straps.  As for the subjects who were not diagnosed with ADHD, there was no relevance between their movements compared to how they accurately answered the test.

This can give substantial ideas on how to directly manage ADHD and other neurological conditions in the classrooms and at home. There are several ways, according to Brain Balance Centers, that movements can be incorporated in the daily lives with these conditions. These could be through providing fidgeting objects and incorporating movements in the lessons, among others.