Can mental exercises help your child learn if he has Attention Deficit Disorder? Would physical exercise be a better choice to "prime" his mind for learning?
To answer this, let’s talk a bit about the concept of neuroplasticity.
To put it simply, neuroplasticity is a break from the idea that the brain, once developed, remains unchanged during adulthood. Well, actually, it’s been known for decades that certain parts of the brain continue to change, but the theory of neuroplasticity is that even areas of the brain that were thought to be "fixed" or unchangeable after development are, in reality, highly plastic (changeable).
It is even believed that the brains’ neuronal circuitry can be altered by learning and by actions, especially habitual activities. New neurons are formed. In essence, thought can physically change the brain.
With that in mind, brain exercises have been suggested in order to improve brain function. DVDs like "The Brain Fitness Program" have been produced, as well as books such as The Brain that Changes Itself and Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.
I can’t knock the idea of exercises for the brain completely, as I haven’t researched it enough and haven’t experimented with any of the exercises. Maybe they work, at least to some degree. I am prone to think, though, that most kids with ADD would have a hard time with this. It’s hard enough for someone without ADD to sit down and do mental exercises in which there is little or no physical movement and most activity, aside from writing, takes place within the mind. My brother-in-law would cringe at the idea.
But there is also a lot of talk lately about how physical exercise can also cause "rewiring" of the brain. Books such as SPARK and numerous articles in health magazines discuss the benefits of exercise and it’s effects on the brain.
And here’s the thing: most ADD kids love sports and games where they get to run around, throw things and yell.
So can you improve your child’s neuronal circuitry (helping him to learn more) by mental exercises or by physical exercise? My vote is combining physical exercise with a fair share of mental challenges, like I wrote about in one of my previous posts on using exercise and physical movement to teach children with Attention Deficit Disorder.
We’ll examine this further in future posts. In the meantime, what has been your experience with using physical or mental exercises in teaching kids with ADD? Click on the title of this post, and then fill in the empty box at the boom of the post and click on the "SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT" button. We’d love to hear from you!
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Thank you for your post. I also just recently found out about this autism program, never knew that such was available. Did you ever hear about such programs before? Anyhows, keep up your blog posts, look forward to reading them.
December 17th, 2008
As a tutor I have used physical activity paired with memorization with great success. For example, I have younger elementary students play a physically active game to learn spelling words. The student spells the word and is rewarded with a “large jump” toward the finish line.
I think we limit ourselves too much by thinking of mental and physical activity as mutually exclusive.
January 4th, 2009
That sound like an effective game, Cari. Please do let us all know if you know of other such physical activities that can be combined with learning!
January 5th, 2009
I have a 6 year old daughter, my third child to be homeschooled, who exhibits many behaviors indicative of ADD. For a couple of weeks we worked on memorizing basic addition facts (doubles up to 5), with NO success. After two weeks, she couldn’t remember a single fact. One day I set her on my exercise ball to bounce while we did the facts. She got every one and has not had a problem with them since then. I have no doubt that physical movement will play a large role in wiring her brain to deal with even simple tasks.
September 15th, 2009
Reply to “mental exercises vs. physical exercise: which for the ADD brain?”