ADHD medications are tested for 8-12 weeks and most children stay on these medications for years or decades. Do you want your child on a medication when you do not know what the long term effect is of these medications. Dr Breggin has numerous books out on medication a Harvard graduate and physician/ Psychiatrist. Some of his published books are : medication madness, toxic psychiatry and many more.
The view that ADHD is caused more by biology than environment has become increasingly popular, as has the prevalence of this disorder among American youngsters. There is also evidence that environment and stress impacts the genes in children and teens .
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that 13.5 percent of boys and 5.4 percent of girls between ages 3 and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD.
What’s interesting is the variability in how different cultures treat this disorder. Whereas 6 percent of American children are on medication for ADHD, in France only 0.5 percent of youngsters are prescribed pills.
For parents seeking alternatives to medication used for ADHD, recent research published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology documents the efficacy of a treatment option that is easy to implement, cheap and has other health benefits exercise.
For a group of children in kindergarten through second grade, about a half an hour of exercise before school had a significant impact on their attention and mood. These findings are consistent with other studies stressing the importance of exercise for all children, but particularly for children and teenagers with problems of impulsivity and concentration.
It makes no sense to expect children to sit for endless hours without the opportunity to move around, run and stretch.
These tips will help your child:
- Power down all electronics/media devices and go for a walk with your child before school. Researchers recommend 30 minutes of activity every day. However, that may not be realistic for many families. Develop a morning exercise routine, even if it’s only five to 10 minutes. Enroll your child in: dance, sports, karate, soccer, basketball, baseball, running, cross country, volleyball. The more physically active your child is the better his or her mood will be as well as school performance.
- Yoga is also excellent for children with ADHD. The breathing, meditation, and postures will help him or her with: impulsivity, lack of focus, and relaxation.
- Talk with your child’s teacher and principal about options for incorporating modest activity throughout the day. Kids get restless and inattentive. Let’s not punish them for being kids or give them a medical diagnosis for normal childhood behaviors.
Only 20 percent of children, teens, adolescents on medication are involved in any counseling program. Talk with a therapist that has expertise with children and families about how behavior-management strategies can be used to encourage a more active lifestyle in your family.
Developing a healthy lifestyle is not about running every day but rather taking a few modest steps to increase your activity. Focus on small goals you can achieve rather than lofty goals that will result in failure.
The research is extensive and aggression and spanking impacts your children in negative ways. First off your child learns that you can get things resolved through aggression. Your child will model your aggression and be aggressive toward siblings and peers. Current research shows that spanking will reduce the grey matter in your child’s brain. Why is grey matter important? It is the part of the brain that allows your child to learn rewards from consequences. It is the part of the brain that is used in making decision.
Aggression. Delinquency. Mental health problems. And something called “hostile attribution bias,” which causes children, essentially, to expect people to be mean to them.
This bias makes the world feel especially hostile. In turn, children are on edge and ready to be hostile back. Over time, across all cultures and races, the findings are consistent: Spanking is doing real, measurable damage to the brains of our children.
Many parents state that they were spanked and they turned out ok. Well yes parents made it through spanking however parents do not know what they would be like had this not happened. A parent will develop a strong relationship through healthy rewards and consequences allowing your child to learn to make good choices and learn from poor choices as well.
Research shows that spanking your child DOES not make your child improve his or her behavior it only stops them for the moment. Children will become angry, aggressive and have mental health issues the more they are spanked. In the journal of Cognitive Neuro Science it states that the more you physically punish your children for the lack of self control, the less self control the child will have. The child is not learning self control here they are learning to stop out of fear however they are not learning healthy life skills, decision making, insight into their behavior. They are learning that external forces control their behavior.
Creating behavior modification systems that allow the child to make good choices daily and be rewarded for healthy choices combined with losing privileges due to poor choices or unhealthy choices is one of the best ways to teach your children life skills, communication skills, social skills, responsibility, values, ethics, respect and much more.