• Swimming - Did you know that Olympic Gold-Medalist Michael Phelps was diagnosed at 9 years old? There is little downtime with swimming. The constant movement burns energy, but focusing on the end of the race or counting laps trains their brain to pay attention, too. Swimming requires a lot of self-discipline, which is ideal for a diagnosed child.
• Sports - Team sports are great for a child to participate in, whether they have ADHD, or not. Encourage them to try a few different sports to see which ones they like the best. It is ideal for them to be active in more than one. If they only play softball, they may soon lose interest after they get good. However, if they play softball, soccer, and hockey, then they constantly have to use different skills.
• Running - Kids with ADHD tend to excel at running. Like swimming, running offers constant movement and burns a ton of energy. Map out different runs, so he can see how much ground he can cover in a certain amount of time. If you a runner, the two of you can do this together. This gives you the opportunity to go to different parks to keep things fresh and interesting with new surroundings.
• Video Games - I know some of you just gasped, but hear me out! Obviously, you don't want your child doing nothing but playing video games in his spare time, especially because they don't burn many calories. However, video games do amazing things for the attention span, especially if you stick with problem solving or racing games. Get your child a bean bag chair to promote healthy posture and let him play for specified amount of time. There are some great bean bag chairs in a variety of sizes for kids of all ages which can be found online at stores like SoothingCompany.com
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18 comments :
These are some helpful tips! I'll be sharing on Facebook. Thanks
I do not have a child with ADHD but I was a school nurse. I completely agree with your suggestions. Thanks for sharing!
Both my self and my two boys have ADHD inventive but now they are saying I may be ADHD hyperactive. It is only cause I have to constantly be moving. My boys and my self have always been day dreamers.and are protectionist in different ways. Thanks for sharing.
I know a few people with children diagnosed with ADHD. I've heard them discussing some of these same things.
As a middle school teacher I work with a lot of kids who struggle with ADHD. Keeping the kids in activity of some sort really, really helps!
I love this. I'm an Occupational Therapy Assistant. I don't work with kids on a regular basis but I've heard from school based therapist about different techniques they use. I even heard one time they were having a hard time with a kid paying attention to what they teacher said. They gave them a handheld video game to play during class and he picked up almost everything. I say, whatever works to help
My friend recently put hr son in swimming and saw some great improvements in his ability to self control. I'm not sure if it is the main key but it has certainly worked for her family. Great tips!
WOW I didn't know about the video games helping. Thank you for sharing this.
I didn't know about video games either but my son is more focused when he is watching youtube videos or playing with this tablet. Thank you for the suggestions.
Those are some great tips Miki. My son suffers from ADHD and while he enjoys video games, I do let him play in moderation.
My second oldest (now grown and on his own) would say, 'See, I told you!' about video games having some benefit. :) The bean bag chair shown is cooL!
What great tips for families dealing with this! I too was surprised by the video games tip, but it really does make sense!
These are really great suggestions! I'll have to recommend this post to my friend whose child was recently diagnosed with ADHD.
As a special education teacher I'd say at least 50% of my students have ADHD. This is a great list of acitvities. I may print it out and add to it then give it to my parents as a resource.
My son has ADHD and Video Games are amazing of course the trick is to find the one he can learn something extra and not just kill stuffs
Great list of tips. Even no diagnosed kids can find these tips useful.
My neighbor is a surgeon with 4 boys. His oldest just got accepted to Berkeley and he says that his son played a whole lot of video games. So I do get ya!
I have a client who is brilliant with ADHD. She was pioneer in letting other knows that ADD is not outgrown. I have learned so much from her, and she loves swimming. I was definitely ADHD as a child and also had epileptic type seizures. I remember when they took me off medication, they "prescribed" chess because I had to "do a lot of thinking." I personally prefer that to video games, because I got to be champion :)
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