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Unlock Your Potential with Superpowers For Good
What is ADHD?
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity which lead to several behaviors, many of which are not desirable in a learning environment.
Does this sound familiar?
· Struggling learner
· ·Difficulties sustaining attention
· ·Struggles with time management
· ·Difficulties following instructions
· ·Loses things often
· ·Talks excessively
· ·Avoids tasks that require sustained mental effort
· ·Blurts out answers, unable to wait their turn
· ·Fidgets, taps hands, squirms in seat
· ·Often “on the go”
There are some staggering statistics on ADHD:
5.64 million children have ADHD.
64% of children with ADHD also have at least one mental health problem.
Of these health problems:
52% have behavioral or conduct problems
33% also suffer from anxiety disorder
17% have depression
14% have a diagnosis of autism.
10.5 million adults have ADHD.
80% of adults with ADHD have at least one mental health problem.
Of these health problems:
5.1% - 47.1% also have bipolar disorder
18.6%-53.3% have depression, while 50% have an anxiety impairment or disorder
50% have personality disorders, 25% also present with two or more types of personality disorders.
12.7% of boys/5.6% of girls are affected by ADHD.
Untreated ADHD increases substance abuse disorder risk by 100% in teens and 58% among adults.
25-40% of those incarcerated have ADHD.
So, what can you do to help your child?
Many physicians will recommend medications such as Adderall, Ritalin, and/or behavior therapy. The problem with this approach is that they address the symptoms, but never get to the root of the problem to provide a solution for struggling children and anxious parents.
Let’s talk about the Visual System.
Eighty percent of all the information that our brains attain is through the visual system. The other twenty percent is through our other senses – hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. For clarity, when we discuss the visual system, we are not referring to eyesight acuity (i.e., 20/20). We are referring to the two main processing pathways in the visual system, the magnocellular stream (right side), and the parvocellular stream (left side). To make it easier, we will use the left brain and right brain.
Here is how it works:
Information comes in through the eyes, travels through the brain to the visual cortex, located in the back of the brain. The information then leaves the visual cortex and travels back through the brain to the prefrontal cortex. If the information is coming through simultaneously and the person is attending to both pathways, imagery is created. Imagery is the moment of knowing, and how we learn deeply and efficiently allowing us to retain information for the long haul.
Let’s take a second to understand what the two processing pathways are and what they do.
The parvocellular pathway is the pathway that leaves the visual cortex and moves ventrally through the left side of the brain. It travels through Broca’s area of communication before traveling to the prefrontal cortex. The parvocellular pathway, also known as the "P pathway," is responsible for processing fine visual details and color information. This pathway also influences language.
The magnocellular pathway is the pathway that leaves the visual cortex and moves dorsally through the right side of the brain. It travels through the superior parietal lobe on its way to the prefrontal cortex. The magnocellular pathway, also known as the "M pathway," is responsible for processing motion and depth perception. This pathway also influences space and time and executive planning. For people with ADHD, this is the pathway that gets neglected and not attended to, giving the “P pathway” all or most of the attention.
Neurological Development
All humans develop in the same way neurologically speaking. We start with the most primitive reflex- balance- in utero. Once born, the infant integrates other primitive reflexes, then moves on to movement/touch, auditory/verbal, and finally ocular motor and visual dominance. When a child reaches visual dominance, they are ready to learn.
Sometimes during a child’s neurological development, environmental demands exceed brain maturation, meaning that the child isn’t quite ready to learn, for any number of reasons, what we are teaching them. When we press them, they create mal-adaptations, which later can lead to learning struggles. ADHD is one of these learning struggles.
SO, WHAT NOW?
At Superpowers for Good, our Certified Developmental Educators (C.D.E) will help your child through to academic success! We assess your child to understand what their thinking strategy is, then teach them how to think more efficiently and efficaciously by balancing their attentional distribution in the visual system, allowing them to become eidetic, successful learners! The best part about it is we do it by playing games. But don’t tell them! That’s our secret!