» Treating ADHD With Inattention?
In an article on USAToday.com, researchers are trying to use NASA research to develop video games to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by neuro-feedback, which, “teaches patients to self-regulate brain-wave patterns to improve learning.”
Okay, MY solution is to switch projects when one becomes boring, or double up on something interesting when another task requires more time (carry on a conversation, look soemthing up, feel out a bit of research). I have no idea HOW COOL this video game must be, but if it quits responding when I quit responding, you can bet that disk would be out and the next cartridge would be loaded up. This is like teaching parents to ignore a child that isn’t responding; the child is taught, “They’re ignoring me AND letting me do what I want.”
You wanna keep our attention? Keep giving us new challenges from time to time, then bring back some old ones! Some of the more recent 007 games switch between first person shooters and driving simulators seem to do a good job. But if the game is just plain interesting to begin with, “hyperfocus” will set in (and Heaven forbid you try to pull us away then!)
Shouldn’t these researchers be looking for a way to train ADHD afflicted individuals a way to apply their concentration where needed for as long as needed and then tear it away as required? Anything else is a waste of time… ours, to be specific.
2 Comments so far
Leave a reply
Should we realized ADHD is almost completely and totally B.S.? If a child can sit down to play a video game, he doesn’t have attention deficit, he’s just not interested in the other things and/or was never taught self discipline. Isn’t it amazing that this “disorder” has been discovered in the last 20 years and something on the order of 80-90% of those diagnosed with it are young boys? I have yet to hear of any neurological means of diagnosing this problem, that it is all a subjective thing that is sometimes made by such trained psychological professionals as government school teachers. Isn’t also strange that for every child diagnosed with ADHD the school district often gets extra money from the federal goverment because the child is now a “special needs” child.
Are you saying that there isn’t a behavioral pattern that can be labelled “ADHD” or that it shouldn’t be considered a disorder?
I think that there is a pattern of behavior that or wiring of the brain that can be collectively categorized as attention deficit hyperactivity (let’s just call that ‘ADH’). I MUST occupy myself with multiple and often unrelated projects (although I try to find activities to group as many together as I can) and I also find myself focusing either on one thing (hyperfocus) or everything (panic mode). You can train yourself to stave off ‘panic mode’ by what I like to call ’soft hyperfocus,’ or working on a problem/puzzle instead of dealing with everything else; it works. When hyperfocused, however, problem-solving skills go into active overdrive, and results are usually quick in coming.
It’s the word ‘disorder’ I have the most problem with, especially now that we have so many disorders, aka “not what we quantify as normal.” If society or science acknowledged that people’s brains are wired differently, it’d be much harder to create educational requirements or even laws to govern specific behaviors. It’s easier to say that someone has a disorder and segregate them from the population rather than integrate them with tolerance… unless they need their computers fixed or an anethesiolgist to monitor lifesigns during a twelve-hour medical procedure.