Archive report of meeting

Thursday 28th February 2019
Past notice
  ADHD talk  
 

It is estimated that between 5-10 per cent of children of school age in the western world suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder – with or without Hyperactivity.

As a result teachers are constantly facing challenges with children who seem unable to focus on their studies, do their homework or keep up with the materials they are taught in class.

Rachel Langford

Rachel Langford

lectures for private groups, conferences, onlineworkshops and anyone who wants to learn about the brain.
Some of the topics she discusses are: Stress related physical and neural disorders and therapy, ADHD non-Ritalin therapy via brain-wave and oxygen patterns analysis, consciousness and awareness, brain and romantic relationships and more.
Her first book 'Wanted: a knight in shining Armour' was published (in Hebrew) in 2009 covering interviews and studies in the field of neuroscience and romantic relationships. Interviews presented are personal stories of people searching for love in different ways. The book offers an insight to relationships and emotions from a scientific aspect.
More about Rachel’s activities on her website http://www.rachelangford.com

Meanwhile parents experience problems at home; they KNOW their child is bright and can achieve a lot, but the child just doesn’t do well at school. If there is also hyperactivity in the picture, it just adds to everyone’s frustration.

And as for the child? Well, his/her difficulty is that they can’t help themselves and feel misunderstood.

They WANT to remember their school tasks, they WANT to do well at school, but they CAN’T concentrate. They feel like there is a fog in their head, masking everything else.

So what is happening?

In short, they have an imbalance in their brainwave activity that makes it so difficult for them to focus.

Understanding what happens in the brain of an ADHD child will help parents and teachers guide, help and encourage the child.

Things to keep in mind when going through a challenging time with your child

The brain develops and changes constantly from birth to the age of seven.

It is completely normal that a child’s attention span will be short, that he will be mischievous and that he will spend most of his day floating around in his mind.

So, when it comes to the brain, diagnosing ADD/ADHD should not be done before this age.

Mapping, assessing and training the brain starts at the age of seve

In the vulnerable and dynamic stage of the child’s brain, adolescence, some behaviours can be explained by the following facts:

The pre-frontal cortex (PFC) is not fully mature in this age. It is the area responsible for planning, prioritising and controlling impulses.

Major changes in adolescent emotional centres in the brain (limbic system) are happening in this age and there is no established link with the PFC, which means they express difficulty in managing emotions and thinking ahead.

Social aspects and interactions in school

Adolescents with a history of being bullied or rejected, for example, show different patterns of brain activation to certain social information – their brains appear to be more sensitive to the experience of being left out.

Many individuals with ADHD show a pattern of brain electrical activity referred to as "cortical slowing”. This is characterised by an elevation of low frequency theta waves and a reduction of higher frequency beta waves in the prefrontal cortex.

To put it in general terms:

Theta = Unfocused, inattentive state
Beta   = Focused state

IQ change over time, and can be improved by creating new synapses and nerve connections in the brain. So, anything new which challenges the thinking brain can develop new neural pathways.

This, and many other aspects that can be found in their brain activity, mean that:

ADHD is a brain disorder that is affected by the electrical and chemical functions.

Unless it is balanced, the child is constantly experiencing challenge to self-confidence and self-esteem because their brain is struggling to do the impossible: the fight to stay focused.

Happily however, the plasticity of the brain means that it is never too late to get children involved in learning.

 

 
© 2019 James Braid Society; all rights reserved