Written by: Arin Lee
Edited by: Benjamin Hewitt
Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, behave much differently than adults with ADHD; they are prone to lashing out, throwing temper tantrums, and having impulsive outbursts (Miller, 2024). However, associating only these behaviors to every child with ADHD can lead to some pretty harmful stigma surrounding the disorder and the way children with the disorder are viewed. It’s also important to recognize that those behaviors are not direct symptoms of ADHD, but are indirectly caused by the symptoms themselves (Miller, 2024). Symptoms like inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity can cause children to become frustrated with their environment and/or the people around them, resulting in behaviors that are seen as disruptive (Miller, 2024). In order to regulate the symptoms that underlie these disruptive behaviors, guardians of these children can look to various forms of treatment.
The most effective treatment for ADHD in children thus far has been oral medication. This form of treatment is limited to mainly two classes of stimulants: methylphenidate-based medications and dextroamphetamine-based medications, both of which can elicit quite a few negative side effects such as problems with sleep, decrease in appetite, moodiness, irritability, delayed growth, and even the onset of tics (sudden, repetitive, and involuntary movements or vocalizations that are not rhythmic) (Boorady, 2023). Plus, a medication that works for one child with ADHD might not work for another child with ADHD, requiring parents to “experiment” with various medications to find the best fit. Even after long runs of trial-and-error and finding the supposed “best” fit, children with ADHD often still have to suffer with a few negative side effects due to the sheer nature of taking stimulants.
Other forms of treatment for ADHD in children include therapeutic measures such as discipline strategies, parent training, and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) (Miller, 2024). Discipline strategies may have limited efficacy as ones used for children without ADHD may not work for children with ADHD (Miller, 2024). Providing a proactive structure with a focus on optimizing the parent-child relationship through scaffolding and parent training has been shown to be effective in conjunction with stimulant medications (Miller, 2024). Therapeutic measures can be effective, but can also come at the expense of the parents’ patience as well as the child’s willingness to cooperate.
So, for children who don’t want to take oral medications or struggle to incorporate therapeutic measures, is all hope lost? Not at all. In fact, there has been a good amount of recent research showing that exercise can be a useful tool in diminishing ADHD symptoms in children.
Research has shown that aerobic exercise such as running or cycling for a minimum of just 20 minutes has positive effects on executive task performance in children with ADHD (Mehren et al., 2020). In comparison to children with ADHD in a control group, children with ADHD in a moderate aerobic exercise condition saw improvements in response inhibition, attention, and impulsivity as tested by the flanker task, Go/No-Go Task, and Stroop task (Mehren et al., 2020). This can be explained by the fact that exercise causes an increase in the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine, two of the most important neurotransmitters responsible for regulating attention systems in the human body (Lara, n.d.). ADHD medications work similarly to increase the amount of norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, but have more risks in terms of side effects as mentioned previously, as compared to this natural approach (Lara, n.d.). This makes exercise a viable possibility for reducing the symptoms of ADHD in children who may be reluctant to try traditional ADHD treatment interventions.
Children with ADHD don’t need to run a 5K or cycle 100 miles to improve their symptoms; they can participate in a variety of fun activities, all equally beneficial in their own ways. Even though research has mainly been conducted using running on a treadmill as the primary form of exercise, participating in more complex activities that are just as challenging on the body such as ballet, ice skating, rock climbing, and gymnastics seems to benefit children with ADHD more than aerobic exercise alone (Lara, n.d.). Participation in more complex forms of exercise can also elicit a greater sense of fulfillment in children, which can contribute to their overall mental wellbeing.
While it may be tempting to immediately prescribe exercise as a potential “cure” for ADHD, there just simply isn’t enough research to do so. Even with exciting developments in research for exercise-related improvements in ADHD symptoms, there isn’t enough evidence to draw any significant conclusions, especially for ADHD in adults (Mehren et al., 2020). Despite this, children with ADHD can still learn to make a habit of prioritizing physical activity as a potential way to combat their symptoms and develop healthy patterns (Jacobson, 2024). Until more substantial research has been conducted, exercise is a suitable supplement to traditional ADHD treatments.
References:
Boorady, R. (2023, October 30). Side effects of ADHD medication. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/side-effects-of-adhd-medication/
Jacobson, R. (2024, May 3). ADHD and exercise. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/adhd-and-exercise/
Lara, M. (n.d.). The exercise prescription. https://chadd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ATTN_06_12_Exercise.pdf
Mehren, A., Reichert, M., Coghill, D., Müller, H. H. O., Braun, N., & Philipsen, A. (2020). Physical exercise in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – evidence and implications for the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-019-0115-2
Miller, C. (2024, April 2). ADHD and behavior problems. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/adhd-behavior-problems/
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