Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), has become a major childhood mental health disorder, but as with many mental health conditions their isn't a good grasp on what actually causes ADHD. Thedisorder makes it difficult for kids to focus or pay attention in school and other areas of life.
ADHD has received a lot of attention, discussion and debate amongst parents, teachers and the wider community because of the increase in the diagnosis of the condition in recent years. Controversy has arisen over the use of stimulant medication, such as Ritalin, to control symptoms and help manage behavioural and learning problems in children.
Most young children are occasionally inattentive, hyperactive or impulsive. This can make it difficult to diagnose ADHD in youmg children and there’s no single test to make a definite diagnosis. Assessment by an expert in the field involves putting together lots of pieces of information to make a diagnosis (a proper assessment takes much longer than an hour). Diagnosis is based on specific symptoms that occur across a variety of times and situations which again make a diagnosis hard. Some cases feature hyperactivity or impulsiveness while others only show inattentiveness and distractibility. For example girls with ADHD are often shy and self-effacing, while boys tend to be hyperactive. This is quite a different presentation altogether from the commonly painted picture of the ADHD child. It is estimated that between three and five percent of primary school children have ADHD. It is three times more common in boys than in girls and symptoms usually appear before the child starts school.
The most common symptoms fall under three categories:
Inattention- difficulty concentrating, forgetting instructions, moving from one task to another without completing anything.
Impulsivity- talking over the top of others, losing control of emotions easily, being accident prone.
Overactivity- constant fidgeting and restlessness.
It’s well documented that routine physical exercise firms up our brains as well as our muscles. We know exercise turns on our attention system, the so-called executive functions — sequencing, working memory, prioritising, inhibiting, and sustaining attention. On a practical level, it’s easy to comprehend exercise as making everyone, including ADHD children, more primed to learn. The stimulant medicines used to treat ADHD work by increasing the amount of important chemicals in the brain, these same chemicals are released during exercise. So it makes sense that a workout can have many of the same effects on children with ADHD as stimulant medications.Not all children with ADHD require medication and those that do shouldn’t be treated with medication alone.
When kids come into the box and do a WOD as mentioned above, several important chemicals are released in their brain. Endorphins, for one, hormone-like compounds that regulate mood, pleasure, and pain. This same burst of activity also elevates the brains dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin levels. These brain chemicals affect focus and attention, which are in short supply in kids with ADHD (or even in those with just AHDH-like symptoms). When you increase dopamine levels, you increase the attention systems ability to be regular and consistent, which has many good effects, like increasing alertness. The stimulant medicines used to treat ADHD work by increasing the amount of this same chemical in the brain. So it makes sense that a workout can have many of the same effects in children with ADHD.
Activities (Crossfit Kids) in which kids have to pay close attention to body movements, are extremely valuable for kids with ADHD in regulating their attention. It’s also very empowering to gain control over your body parts so a raise in self-esteem is an obvious added bonus.
This will help many children so give it a chance before medicating your child over ADHD like symptoms. A supportive base of parents, teachers and caregivers is extremely important in all young children.
Warm Up
8 Minutes
Balance Beam (line 6 parallettes up so they make one long straight line, have kids go as far across as possible)
5 Burpees
5 Situps
Medball OH Lunges Down
5 Ring Rows
5 Supermen
2 Jump To Balance (Jump off both feet onto 1 parallette and balance on top as long as possible, use the remaining parallettes)
5 Toe Touch To Back Bend
Skill
Box Push Ups (find a box height appropriate so that each kid can do hollow pushups)
1 Arm OH Lunges (kid can use anything from a baseball to a light DB, just so that arm stays above the head locked out)
WOD
3 Rounds
1 Leg Hop Down (switch legs halfway)
5 1 Arm OH Lunges
5 Box Push Ups
10 Air Squats
Skill
Skin The Cats (For most this should be on low rings on pullup structure in barn)
Game
Jump The Creek (If time left)
