This family is dealing with a cycle of anxiety, and the parent is questioning if perhaps ADHD may be part of it. How can this parent tease out whether to address the anxiety or the ADHD?
Dr. Skinner: I don’t think you have to separate them out. If there’s anxiety and ADHD, that’s what we call comorbidity in the mental health field, which is very common. Your child might be anxious and might have ADHD, so in this situation, I would probably want to talk with a professional counselor who can actually do an assessment to identify what the child is actually experiencing.
And the reason why this is important is, well, anxiety would be one form of treatment, and ADHD—especially if there’s hyperactivity—might need a different type of either medication or activities that help with the ADHD symptoms.
Let me give you an example: If I have ADHD, a fidget toy could be very helpful for me in a school or learning setting. Now, I know some people are uncomfortable with that, but the research shows that when a child is moving their hands, they’re actually still paying attention. That type of activity is much better for their learning experience.
The other element is if they have ADHD, and we have a whole course on ADHD on ParentGuidance. All of the courses on ParentGuidance are free. So, if you create an account on ParentGuidance, you can have access to all these online courses. I recorded one on dealing with ADHD and helping your child with ADHD. It's been a little over a year since we recorded that one, but if you're concerned about that, I would really encourage you to go through that course on ADHD because we talk specifically about strategies and how to deal with ADHD.
When we look at ADHD itself, something that requires left-right movement is one of the more effective things we can do with a child dealing with ADHD. The reason why is that movement does something in the brain that helps with hyperactivity or attention deficits. So that left-right hemisphere movement has been found to be effective.
A reference for that is a book by John Rady—R-A-T-E-Y. In his book, Spark, he talks about the benefits of exercise for ADHD. He explains not just the exercise itself, but the type of exercise. A child with ADHD will do better with hand-eye coordination activities, such as jiujitsu, skateboarding, handball, or tennis, because the right-left hemisphere movement is really good for the ADHD brain.
In that situation, I would want to create activities for my child to do something with their hands. We know that a child with ADHD is going to have a much more difficult time paying attention in a classroom. So, using something like a fidget spinner or a ball in their hand, something they can move, could be very beneficial for them.
