Word: adhd
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...experience of being nervous was instructive because it mimicked, in a way, the cognitive strain under which an ADHD kid takes such tests. ADHD compromises the brain's executive functioning - its ability to master unexpected exercises. The same way I got nervous, ADHD kids get momentarily lost, their attention fractured for a few seconds. Think about when you're reading and get to the end of a paragraph and realize you haven't been paying attention: that's what it's like for ADHD kids, all the time. My actigraph scores confirmed that I wasn't operating normally...
...study was small - just 23 boys ages 8 to 12 participated - but uncompromisingly meticulous; it took four years to recruit, screen and test the participants and to analyze the results. Twelve of the boys had an ADHD diagnosis. The other 11 were developing normally. All underwent a battery of tests at Rapport's lab over four consecutive Saturdays...
Rapport also conducted a control experiment with the boys in which they watched the pod-racing scene from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. He showed me a video of a couple of the boys watching the scene, and I was shocked: even the ADHD kids who had spun around endlessly during their cognitive tests sat perfectly still while they watched the pod race. The film clip required almost no working memory, no concentrated effort. The scene simply washed over the passively watching boys, none of whom had to move around to stay alert...
Which suggests a classroom technique for ADHD kids: Don't overly tax their working memory. Rapport, who used to be a school psychologist, says the average teacher doesn't understand how ADHD kids process information. "If you go into a typical classroom," he told me, "you might hear, 'Take out the book. Turn to page 23. Do items 1 through 8, but don't do 5.' And you've just given them four or five directions. The child with working-memory problems has dropped three of them, and so he's like, 'Page 23 - what I am supposed...
When I asked Rapport whether there's a cure other than breaking down instructions, his answer was a bit depressing: no. ADHD is incurable. Drugs like Ritalin are a common answer for controlling the condition, which affects about 3% to 5% of children, but Rapport notes that they have proven to be only a limited solution. In the short term, they can facilitate a child's ability to read - undoubtedly a crucial benefit - but Rapport says longitudinal studies have failed to show that Ritalin or other psychostimulants have consistent long-term behavioral effects. (Even if they did, another question would...