Add/adhd

[JennyW]

My nephew has recently been diagnoses as having ADD. It seems that many of his classmates are afflicted with the same thing. (He's 15)

Can anyone in the field suggest why someone with ADD can attend to a videogame or some other activity that may be "fun" but not be able to pay attention in school?

It sure doesn't sound like ADD to me, but that's outside of my field.

Jen

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[dreghsSC]

hahah that is soooo me. They have to test you for IQ when you get tested for ADD (to make sure you arent just an idiot and thats why you cant concentrate) My scores for that were way above avg. But so were my scores for ADD! I can learn just about anything if I am interested in it.. but I can sit through and entire lecture and not have even the SLIGHTEST clue what the lecture was on. I couldn't even tell you the topic. When I am interested in something though it is almost weird how easy it is for me to learn it. Video games- he is interested and therefor is incredible at them. Try to get him to find other things besides video games that he is interested in. Focus on those and eventually it will become easier for him to focus on a variety of things. Avoid meds as much as possible until he is at least 1/2 way through highschool. He needs to learn to compensate, he will have this his whole life (although it is not as noticible as an adult). If he is interested in history take him to as many museums as you can. Let him learn and absorb everything he is interested in. It will probably be very very easy for him to learn what he is interested in, and because he is a child why not let him learn what he wants to. Video games... start weening him from it. It will NOT help out as he gets older and will become more and more of a distraction. Find things he likes to do that involves interaction. Sports, museums, historic village tours.... (I was interested in History if you cant tell) The best thing my parents EVER did for me while I was growing up was take me to Paris and allow me to see all of the paintings that I had been interested in. I also was taken to many historic cities in Europe. I learned more than any of my classmates and I didn't go to third grade! (We were traveling, and I was able to learn through experience.) Even if you don't go overseas, there is plenty in the states and i am sure in your neighbourhood that you could take him to.


Hope that helps...

 

[lazure]

The observation that ADD kids can focus on what they're motivated in is fairly common. As enthusiastic as the poster is above, I don't think museum trips will cure ADD if that's in fact what your nephew has...

Has your nephew had a full psychodiagnostic assessment (i.e. IQ, school achievement tests etc.) that would delineate his areas of strength and weaknesses? Has the school psychologist been involved in helping to set up an education program that would meet his needs? Have other comorbid conditions such as Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder have been ruled out? Has a psychiatrist been consulted regarding meds?

 

[mdblue]

The observation that ADD kids can focus on what they're motivated in is fairly common. As enthusiastic as the poster is above, I don't think museum trips will cure ADD if that's in fact what your nephew has...

Has your nephew had a full psychodiagnostic assessment (i.e. IQ, school achievement tests etc.) that would delineate his areas of strength and weaknesses? Has the school psychologist been involved in helping to set up an education program that would meet his needs? Have other comorbid conditions such as Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder have been ruled out? Has a psychiatrist been consulted regarding meds?

Exactly...
And typically kids w/ ADHD can focus in video games because they are too intense than regular school work. Basically the d/o is conceptualized as having a high threshold for stimulus- so any high intensity activity can help the kids to remain motivated. And stimulants does work wonders for this d/o. However as mentioned earlier make sure that the kid really have ADHD-probably you need to take him to a child psychiatrist(not a psychologist, to R/O other medical differentials) and run psych testing as suggested by him/her.

 

[Anasazi23]

Video games seem to work so well with ADD/ADHD children for at least two postulated reasons: the constant interactive feedback-response loop (much more active than 'passive television') and a perhaps more interesting notion - that of screen refresh rate. I read a study years ago that postulated that monitor refresh rates act as a sort of external stimuli visual stimuli that ADD/ADHD patients use "subconscioustherapeutically."

 

[lazure]

However as mentioned earlier make sure that the kid really have ADHD-probably you need to take him to a child psychiatrist(not a psychologist, to R/O other medical differentials) and run psych testing as suggested by him/her.

You can always take him to a mental health clinic and consult with both

 

[lazure]

One of my supervisors told me that 15 years ago it was difficult to tell families that their child had ADHD as parents had a lot of trouble accepting that diagnosis. Now, he has trouble telling some parents that their child does not have ADHD, rather his behaviour can be accounted for by lack of consistent discipline in the home and lack of attention from parents. ADHD is a fashionable diagnosis these days.....

 

[Bermiedoc]

also some kids can fixate on things that yes a) they are motivated to do but also when they don't have any distractions s b) they might not work well in a classroom full of other kids. but of course you can't put a kid with mild adhd in a self contained classroom.

 

[yeti00]

Lawrence et. al. (2002) ADHD outside the laboratory: boys' executive function performance on tasks in videogame play and on a visit to the zoo. J Abnormal Child Psych

Just because he can focus on one particular area that interests him doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't have AD/HD, to reiterate what everyone else has said. The abstract above also points to some deficits doing certain types of video games, not others, and other problems manifest by going to the zoo. How does your nephew feel about the zoo?

But seriously, I made it to med school with ADD because there are certain things I love and can concentrate on. It's probably the same with your nephew.