As a parent of a child with ADHD, you’ve probably noticed something I observe among my patients: kids with ADHD don’t do well in the winter.  As fall turns to winter and a blanket of snow covers the streets, kids with ADHD tend to:

• Become more hyperactive or impulsive as they grow increasingly restless. In the winter, they have fewer opportunities to burn excess energy or do activities they enjoy outside of school or at home.
• Become more argumentative and oppositional due to the inability to use their regular coping skills, such as outdoor activities or sports, to help them vent their feelings and burn off excess energy.
• Become more distracted and inattentive, resulting in difficulties doing homework or completing errands and chores.
• Experience more disciplinary or legal trouble as their frustration, restlessness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity increases.

Does this sound like your child?

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We’ve discussed how squirming, fidgeting, and moving around can actually improve the focus of kids with ADHD, but were you aware that hyperactivity can also boost working memory? Although hyperactive behavior is normally associated with restlessness and boredom, a new study by Mark Rapport and colleagues in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology suggests a link between fidgeting and improved memory.   Unlike previous research on the subject, which used  flawed methodology like subjective ratings from parents, Rapport’s study used objective methods for measuring hyperactivity and its impact on working memory.

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Are you tired of punishing your ADHD child for impulses that he or she cannot control? Most parents who have impulsive ADHD children are often at their wits’ end. Children with ADHD hyperactive/impulsive type are not only unable to learn from past mistakes; their tendency to act before they think often gets them into trouble or places themselves and others in dangerous situations.  Besides natural ADHD treatments like neurofeedback, what else can you do to teach their child control their impulsivity?

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