ADHD: What's going on in their heads?

OK, welcome back! I'm so glad you returned to learn more about ADHD! I have so much to share that I want you to learn about and understand!

Today I want to talk about the brain. Specifically the brain inside a person with ADHD. So let's not waste time, shall we?

I'll start with giving you some key points to remember about how ADHD affects the brain. In ADHD brains, there is a 10-12% reduction of the size of key brain areas. Brain activity show abnormal patterns, and, this one is seriously important and significant, there is a THREE YEAR delay in brain maturation! Let's look at this implication. For first grade teachers like me, you've got 6 year old children with brains that, in some areas, function like that of a 3 year old! Fifth grade teachers, you've got 11 year olds with the coping skills of second graders... and middle schoolers with the needs of elementary kids. That's BIG!

The good news about the maturation is this, they DO catch up! When kids with ADHD become adults, their brains do catch up with them and mature on up. Adults still have many of the struggles and difficulties because of their ADHD, but some of the symptoms can and do improve. But overall, despite what some may think, you do NOT grow "out" of ADHD. Instead, some symptoms change, some improve, and the older you get, the better the coping skills.

ADHD is also linked to a 30% developmental delay, this of course is because of that delayed brain maturation, so naturally certain skills take some time to develop and appear. Let's look at a special case with my own son, Joshua. He is your poster child, and I do not mean that lightly; he is THE poster child for ADHD. *smile* He is also intellectually gifted. (more on that later) When he was a youngun, between the ages of 15 and 28 months, I felt a mother's concern because he was not learning speech as well as he should have been for his age. We taught him sign language, as is common in children, and I was almost wondering if it was keeping him from speaking. Then I worried about his hearing, as when I was a child, I had some problems with my ears and my hearing. Had him checked out, all good. They could find no physical reason why my son was not learning normal speech. He started speech therapy to help him develop his speech. A little after 2, he grew out of the program he was in, and I couldn't get him into the other available one because his cognitive abilities were too high, it was simply his speech that was delayed. The therapy he was in did help, but still slow going. But, his speech did come, and he had no slur, impediment, or anything. It just came late. And the way he talks now, you'd NEVER know that he started talking late. *smiles again*

Ok, so the point is, many skills that you would expect children to have could be delayed because of ADHD. Most of you I'm sure just don't know, or think about that. Now maybe you will. :)

Now, like many other disorders and diseases, ADHD occurs in varying degrees, depending on the level of brain activity and delay. There may be mild, moderate, or severe cases of the disorder.

Let's talk about the executive function again, which I mentioned in my last post, the conductor of the orchestra, if you will. Let's talk about some of the key brain functions that are controlled by executive function. It controls many aspects of the brain, such as working memory and recall, activation, alertness, and effort, problem solving, analyzing, organizing, planning for the future, ability to "self-talk," control of emotions,  and transitioning and inhibition.  Students with executive function deficits have limited working memory space, which basically means that they can't handle as much as others can when working. While your "average" student can read a word problem, think about the pieces, the numbers, the question, and the steps they need to take to solve the problem, your ADHD child is still trying to figure out how what the question is. To make a child successful, we have to limit the demands on this limited working space. More good news here, these deficits in executive function will continue to grow and develop well into the ages of 30 and 40.

Well, I think I've worked your brain enough tonight learning about the ADHD brain, so I'll stop for now. Next installment I'll discuss other disorders that commonly occur concurrently with ADHD and medications. Have a good night!

I want to give some acknowledgements about this and future installments. The information I am delivering to you has come from a variety of sources. A great deal of it came from an organization called CHADD, which I encourage you to check out on your own. I credit the book CHADD Educator's Manual on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Dr. Mabe at Georgia Regents' University, my son's private doctors, and my own ongoing research and experiences, all of which help me learn more and more about this complex condition, in order that I may share it with you.