| When parents ask how to treat a hyperactive child, | | | | We can think of activities which I call creative fidgeting |
| they probably think that there must be ways of | | | | which we can allow kids to do while trying to |
| reducing all the fidgeting, squirming and constant motion. | | | | concentrate on the main activity of getting the |
| This is especially relevant when we have to help | | | | homework done. We can try anything from walking |
| children to pay attention, for example when doing | | | | when you are giving a child instructions, doodling, |
| homework. Well, there are ways but not perhaps what | | | | playing with a simple object or listening to music. |
| we expect. | | | | Robert Melillo's Brain Balance Music is excellent for this. |
| The work of Sydney Zentall is fascinating in this area. | | | | When we look at medication options on how to treat |
| She has written a book called ADHD and Education . | | | | hyperactive child, we know that psychostimulants can |
| Basically her research shows that we need a | | | | actually calm hyperactive children and that sounds like |
| secondary activity to actually concentrate. This could | | | | the ideal solution. However, research shows that there |
| be a mindless activity such as doodling or listening to | | | | are risks associated with these drugs. The work of |
| music but it does not prevent us from doing the main | | | | Madelyn Gould of the New York State Psychiatric |
| task. How many of us have doodled our way through | | | | Institute and Columbia University in New York City is |
| boring meetings at work? | | | | particularly relevant here. Her studies showed that |
| In looking at how to treat hyperactive child, this can | | | | there were many causes of sudden deaths in children. |
| provide us with part of the answer. It has nothing to do | | | | She had studied over 500 of these tragic cases. But |
| with actually trying to concentrate harder, pay closer | | | | one fact became very clear and that was that children |
| attention or whatever. All these sound familiar but they | | | | who had been medicated with the psychostimulants |
| will mean little to the hyperactive kid. | | | | were seven times more likely to have a sudden death |
| Zentall's work shows clearly that ADHD children can | | | | than those children who were not on any of these |
| do better academically when they are allowed to use | | | | drugs. |
| another sense. This could be fiddling with an object, | | | | Is there an alternative? Fortunately, ADHD |
| listening to certain types of music or being allowed to | | | | homeopathic remedies are without side effects and |
| wiggle around on a stability ball while sitting doing | | | | there are no recorded health risks at all. Why not click |
| homework. It is fascinating to see that doing the | | | | through to my site to see how these could really be |
| primary activity is actually helped by doing a secondary | | | | the answer on how to treat a hyperactive child. |
| activity. | | | | |