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From
the Lab to the Field
While Vickers emphasizes that her work is preliminary
and in no way diagnostic, her results indicate that ADHD affects
a would-be athlete's ability to quiet his or her gaze well
enough to accurately track and respond to a moving object.
What's more, this study suggests that ADHD hampers the processing
of long-duration information, while leaving the short-duration
system largely intact. This finding has significant implications
for the treatment of kids with ADHD. Right now, many therapy
programs may inadvertently strengthen the short-duration information
while further impairing the long-duration system.
"They're
strengthening the wrong system," says Vickers. "These kids
are born with an okay short-duration system. We should develop
programs to help kids deal with the long-duration tasks and
these should have both a visual and a motor component."
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Vickers
believes proper coaching and lots of practice make an
athlete, not genetics. |
Vickers
and her colleagues are currently proposing a long-term study
to do just that- develop activity programs to strengthen the
processing of long-duration information in kids with ADHD.
Vickers thinks puzzles, swimming and putting golf balls—activities
that require memory and concentration—would be useful
tasks.
"If
I had to make a prediction," Vickers offers, "I'd say the
kids taking medication and also training this way might grow
neural networks that are more efficient at transporting information
between the long- and short-duration systems."
Vickers suspects improving the communication between these
two systems would alleviate the lack of hand-eye coordination
in ADHD patients. For Vickers, giving these kids a better
chance to succeed on the playing field is enough to justify
such therapy.
"They're strengthening the wrong system," says Vickers.
"These kids are born with an okay short-duration system.
We should develop programs to help kids deal with the
long-duration tasks
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"Right
now," says Vickers, "they are so often discouraged from participating
that they reject playing sports and performing in dance and
engaging in other motor skills when very young."
According
to Vickers, virtually anybody, given proper coaching, practice
time and motivation, can find success in sports.
"It
seems like a genetic talent, but athletes grew up in a 'deliberate
practice' environment," she says. "There is a real tendency
to see sports figures as 'gifted,' just as we used to believe
kings and queens were divine."
Perceived
as untalented athletes, kids with ADHD often avoid athletics
or are cut from teams by coaches ill equipped to deal with
their special needs. Denied any chance to really play and
practice, kids with ADHD never develop whatever potential
they were born with. Given the benefits of sports and exercise—physical,
mental and psychological—Vickers hopes her work will
change professional attitudes about young athletes with ADHD.
"ADHD
kids are as smart as the next kid," she says. "Hopefully,
this study will encourage more labs to look at the visual
component in ADHD and the potential role of visuo-motor therapy
in treating the disorder."
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Photo:
Terry Canup; Canupnet
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