Many parents are interested in alternative therapies for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, because of concerns about medication. ADHD is a disorder diagnosed in childhood and characterized by problems with attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Brain exercises, including cognitive training and neurofeedback, may be able to help treat ADHD. Talk to a health care provider to determine the best ADHD treatment for your child. Remember that alternative treatments should be considered adjunct therapies, not sole treatments.
Significance
Nearly 9 percent of American children have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to the "Washington Post." Children with ADHD often have difficulty paying attention in school, leading to lower grades. They may also have trouble with social skills, causing relationship problems. While ADHD medications may calm your child down, they may not improve grades, peer relationships or defiant behavior over the long term, according to "Scientific American Magazine."
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback may work to treat ADHD symptoms, according to NPR. This intervention involves sitting in a chair facing a laptop screen with electrodes applied to your scalp. Special software monitors rhythmic patterns known as theta and beta waves, electrical activity in your brain. The image on the screen changes depending on the attentiveness of your brain state. This training can take 40 sessions or more, and typically costs thousands of dollars.
Working Memory Training
Children with ADHD have problems with working memory, the ability to hold in mind information to guide behavior. Using cognitive training software programs can help children with ADHD improve working memory, according to a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Children treated with behavioral therapy only may function just as well as children treated with medication, reports unpublished data from the Multimodal Treatment Study. Cogmed, a company that produces working memory training software, claims their product can improve attention, concentration, focus, impulse control, social skills and complex reasoning skills.
Theory
Neurofeedback may work by normalizing the functioning of the anterior cingulate cortex, the key neural substrate of selective attention, found a 2006 study in Neuroscience Letters. Cognitive training may work by mimicking the effects of psychostimulant medication on the brain, according to a 2010 study in Human Brain Mapping. Elseline Hoekzema and colleagues found that children who completed a 10-day cognitive training program displayed enhanced activity in neural structures closely related to ADHD, including the orbitofrontal, superior frontal, middle temporal, and inferior frontal cortex.
References
- "Scientific American Magazine:" Training the Brain
- "Washington Post:" 9% of U.S. Kids Have ADHD
- Cogmed: Frequently Asked Questions
- Wiley Online Library: Enhanced Neural Activity in Frontal and Cerebellar Circuits After Cognitive Training in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
- NPR: Train The Brain: Using Neurofeedback To Treat ADHD
- Science Direct: Effect of Neurofeedback Training on the Neural Substrates of Selective Attention in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
