The Activities for children with ADHD Which I will explain in this article will allow you to reassure them, help them concentrate and improve their well-being, which will affect the personal and collegial life of infants.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has not been without controversy.
Many have questioned its existence and others argue that its prevalence has grown over a few years ago.
It constitutes, together with the child allergy, the most frequent pathologies within the infantile sector, reason why it offers future challenges of investigation on this disorder.
You may also like these exercises .
What processes should we keep in mind when working with children with ADHD?
In ADHD there are deficits in the executive functions, which is what we must take into account when designing activities to work with them.
One of the difficulties, for example, is inhibition. Thus, the subject with ADHD can not stop acting when he should, can not interrupt his actions, can not protect his thinking.
People with ADHD have no internal sense of time, live the moment, are not able to use their past to think about the future and prepare for it.
They also present difficulties in working memory (operational memory), which is what allows us to keep the information in our brain at the time we require it.
On the other hand, regarding the internal language, people with ADHD can not speak to themselves nor use language as a guide.
This leads to their inability to follow instructions and rules to do what they are ordered, so they will have difficulty in understanding, to understand what they hear, read and see.
With this ability people are able to predict the probability of response, anticipating the consequences in each of the possible variables and finally choose one.
With regard to emotions, children with ADHD show their emotions and desires more than other individuals, so feelings like anger, frustration and hostility, must be controlled and channeled to make their social relationships healthy.
This explains why there are children with ADHD who will develop Disorder Oppositional Defiant.
Motivation is another key point for the compression of this disorder, those who suffer it can not motivate themselves, so there is a lack of persistence towards the goal, manifested as a lack of motivation.
The ability to play with oneself mentally is the one used to plan and solve problems.
Children with ADHD have lessened their problem solving skills. They are little fluent in their language and actions, and if for example we ask them what they read a few days ago we will get unrelated thoughts, little organized or without argument.
The greater the capacity for emotional self-control, the greater capacity for organization and behavioral planning, which greatly reduces the chances of impulsive action and therefore misunderstanding.
Executive skills offer a broader view of the problem. They explain, for example, excessive speech.
21 activities to work with children with ADHD
Play Memory
A good exercise to be able to work the lack of attention that the children have is to play Memory .
For this, according to the child's age, it can be adapted to their needs and in different degrees of difficulty.
It is about generating cards in pairs (with photographs, drawings, numbers...). There must be two equal cards. You can make them yourself by adapting it to the child's tastes, so that you find it more interesting.
To do this, after having a lot of pairs of cards, what you should do is shuffle them and place them down.
The game consists in that, when all the cards are shuffled face down and in turns, the child must lift one of them and fix in the drawing that there is (for example, a car) and then raise another one (that can be, for example, a balloon).
The child should pay attention to the placement of the cards and look at the drawing of each card, so we train the attention deficit.
When on your turn you are able to lift two cards with the same drawing, keep them and continue to play. The game ends when all the cards have been lifted. And the person who has saved more pairs of cards wins.
Simon
The game of Simon also serves to pay attention, which is one of the biggest deficits that children with ADHD present, besides working Impulsiveness .
It is an electronic game in which the colored quadrants are randomly illuminated and emits a sound of its own.
The child must wait for the device to stop executing the sequence and then enter the sequence shown in the correct order. This game allows the child to develop the capacity for self-control and the memory .
One of the advantages of this game is that there are different levels, as you are hitting the sequences increases the speed of execution.
There are also applications for the Tablet that allow you to work in the same way. Some of them are: Neurogames - Effective learning made fun!
They are created by the child neuropsychologist Jonathan Reed. Among them we can find the"Impulse control"or"memorise".
Tower
One of the games that also serve to work the impulsivity is"the Tower".
It is a game of physical and mental ability, where participants must remove blocks from a tower in turns and place them on top until they fall.
This game has one of the advantages of table games, such as the establishment of shifts.
In addition, play requires the child to stop for a moment by inhibiting their impulsiveness and planning their next move.
The child must carefully remove the piece, thus working the fine motor And oculo-manual coordination.
Relaxation techniques
To reduce the hyperactivation of children with ADHD can be used Relaxation techniques .
For children, for example, the most appropriate ones may be those of Koeppen, which is an adaptation of Jacobson's famous Relaxation Technique but suitable for children.
Children usually tend to be active and playful, but they also need moments of relaxation and calm, and more children who have the symptom of hyperactivity.
Koeppen's relaxation technique is based on tension and distension, so focusing on different parts of the body (arms, hands, face, nose...) makes children feel the tension and later relaxes it so that Be able to notice the difference.
Mikado
He Mikado Is an old and fun game very useful for children with ADHD, since it allows them to work fine motor and impulsiveness.
This game consists of a group of very fine sticks with colored bands at the corners.
To start playing, all the sticks are joined and placed vertically, letting them fall on a surface. At that time, and by turns, you start to play.
The sticks will fall in a certain way and by turns must be extracted sticks without the other sticks move. When you have managed to get all the sticks, you will add who has more points.
Mindfulness Activities
The Mindfulness For children is an extremely beneficial activity, as it allows them to work attention and reduction of hyperactivity.
Mindfulness is based on awareness and mindfulness, which allows you to exercise attention, in addition to achieving a state of calm and well-being that counteracts hyperactivation.
Puzzles
Age-adapted puzzles can also be a fun activity to work with children with ADHD.
The puzzles allow them to focus on a task and work attention and motor skills.
Drive a straw
The straw game is fun and useful for working attention and impulsivity. For this, you need continuous paper, a marker pen, some paper balls and a straw.
To do this, we will take continuous paper and draw a road with curves. With the paper balls, we will place them on the road and blowing with the straw will try to have the child carry the ball on the road.
Search for hidden objects in films with distractors
A good activity for working with children is to look for objects inside sheets that have many things.
Look for pictures with very complete drawings (for example a city where there are many buildings, different shops, people on bicycles, animals...). The more elements the drawing has, the more difficulty the task and the greater the requirement.
It is about encouraging the child to look for certain elements, for example"how many buildings do you see in the picture?","How many cats are there?","Find the bakery","find the girls with long hair".
This will help the child to focus on a task and maintain attention.
Labyrinths
Another easy, fun and useful activity for Work the attention And planning are the labyrinths.
To do this, get different labyrinths and instructions such as"pay attention and remember that you can not chafe the lines of the edge of the labyrinth","do it calmly and attentively, start here and find the way out of the labyrinth."
The child should pay attention to the task and plan how to do it to find the way out.
Maps
A simple activity that allows children to work attention is the maps. You can adapt it to the child's difficulty and also Will allow you to study And review school concepts.
For this, you only need maps: the Autonomous Community itself, the Country, Europe, the World or also a ball of the world.
To do this, you are asking the child in front of the map to find you a specific place, for example,"find Malaga","find Paris", etc.
In this way, the child must pay attention to the task to solve what is being demanded.
Physical activity
Physical exercise is a very good activity for children with hyperactivity. To do this, do physical exercise and sport.
It points the child to some sport that interests him and allows him to interact with other children.
In addition, allow him to do a lot of physical activity: offer activities where he can move: go to the park, excursions to the park, go on skates...
Self-instruction: stops, thinks and acts
To work the self-instructions, the premises are"Stop, think and act". It is a cognitive technique that aims to work with children's impulsiveness.
It is about selecting at the beginning, for example, an inappropriate behavior that is often repeated:"getting up from the table while eating"or"getting up from class while doing an activity".
Self-instructions should be tailored to each child, seeing what is necessary for each child. They should be mentally told and applied to impulsive behavior.
To do this, self-instructions are useful so that when the child notices the urge to get up, he should think,"Stop. What do I have to do? I have to be seated right now. I can get it. I'm going to be a little more seated."
In this way, it is intended to delay the impulsiveness of doing this behavior a little more at that particular moment.
Working with the Stroop Effect
He Stroop effect is very useful for working impulsivity. This is a task where the color does not match the word.
For example, the word YELLOW is written in red, the word RED is written in blue or the word GREEN is written in yellow.
It is a question of the child saying the color in which the word YELLOW is written, ie he should say"red", but he will tend to read the word, so he must inhibit and say it correctly.
The Turtle Technique
To work with impulsivity, the technique of the turtle may also be very suitable.
We have to tell the child that at certain times, we are going to become a turtle and must know how turtles behave.
They may walk with their heads and feet on the outside, but when they feel threatened, they hide and reveal only the shell.
We must tell them that they can behave that way. Thus, when he feels that he can not control himself, he can become a turtle and hide inside his shell.
You are encouraged to think pleasant things, to let up angry or unpleasant emotions and to relax.
Similar games
To work the attention, we can print and laminate many images with different color drawings.
We will print lots of images or figures in red, others in blue, green, yellow...
When we go to work with the child, we will mix them all and we will ask for a series of slogans. For example,"give me only the cards with red objects".
If they are geometric figures (we include big circles, small circles, big blue squares, small green squares...). We can make all combinations and ask the child for specific instructions.
For example:"give me only the small triangles","give me the big blue circles". Obviously, this task will be adjusted to the level that the child has.
Bingo
Bingo is also a very suitable activity to work the attention, given that we give the child a series of numbers that we read aloud and he, with different cartons, should focus attention to find out if he has the number that has been extracted.
If you do not pay attention, it is very easy that you are not able to follow the game.
Strategy games
Many strategy games allow the child to work attention and concentration. In this sense, for example, you can use the domino, the three in line, the chess or sink the fleet.
Find the differences
The games find the differences are also very useful to work the attention. For this, we present the child with very similar drawings but with small differences and we encourage you to find where the differences are.
In this sense, variations can be made. For example, we establish a starting drawing (a star) and in vertical we establish to its side 8 different stars, one or several can be exactly the same and the others with some difference.
We ask the child to find which stars are the same and which are different. This exercise can be done with very different objects.
It is also possible to establish series of numbers, for example:"3 4 5 6"and next we can put"3 4 5 6"or"3 5 4 6","4 7 4 6"and we ask the child to select the ones Are the same and those are different.
Listening Tasks
These tasks pretend that the child listens carefully and then answers some questions we have asked.
It is worth telling you stories, descriptions, invented stories, jokes, riddles... anything that comes to mind, and then we can ask you questions to focus your attention.
We can also ask you to describe the environment in which you are or different illustrations: where each thing is, the colors, the space in which they are...
Completion Tasks
There are many completion tasks that allow you to focus attention. We can present an image that lacks some component and its task is to say, indicate or draw what is.
You can also present some drawings as a model and a series of incomplete versions of the drawing. Its task is to see and inform and then finish the parts until they are identical to the original drawing.
Another useful activity is to order bullets, for example, since the child has to focus their attention and find out what happens in the story by ordering them.
What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity is a disorder with neurobiological origin. It is a disorder characterized by levels of impulsivity, lack of attention and activity that do not fit the child's developmental age.
These children have problems in regulating behavior, when it comes to adjusting to norms, and therefore have difficulty adapting to the different environments in which they develop (school, family, relationships...).
They are children who usually perform below what would be expected for their abilities and accompanied to it may present other behavioral problems and emotional problems.
ADHD should not be conceptualized as a behavioral disorder, but rather as a cognitive disorder of executive functions.
Thus, people with ADHD have a self-regulation , A deficit in executive control, which basically implies difficulty in self-regulation of behavior and in organizing behavior from the present to the future.
Symptoms of ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders are defined by the presence of three symptoms. These are:
- Attentional decrease
- Hyperactivity
- Impulsivity
When we speak of inattention, we refer to different aspects such as:
- No attention paid to details
- Forget about daily activities
- Easily distracted by stimuli external to him
- Lose or forget things that are necessary
- Can not maintain focus on activities that enhance
- Does not listen when spoken to and has difficulty following conversations
- Does not follow instructions
- Forget conversations where you have to do a lot of sustained mental effort
As for hyperactivity, we refer to:
Is uneasy
- Get up from the seat when you should be sitting
- Go from place to place when I should be
- Speaking in excess
- It acts without stopping as if it were moved by a motor
- Has difficulty playing quietly
And regarding impulsivity:
- He has difficulty waiting his turn
- Interrupts and annoys other children
- Answer the questions before they have just been formulated
Characteristics of Children with ADHD
Behind the majority of children diagnosed with ADHD is an academic performance lower than expected for their chronological age and intelligence. This can be explained by the symptomatology of the disorder itself.
Hyperactivity, impulsivity, or attention deficit are not good allies for an adequate learning process.
In addition, ADHD is often associated with learning difficulties or disorders, especially reading, narrative skills, writing, calculus or math.
For example, it is estimated that 50% of children with ADHD have problems learning to read, writing or mathematics that have a negative impact on academic performance and the level of education they achieve.
Over time, the prevalence of people with ADHD has been increasing, which has not been without controversy. The age of diagnosis has also decreased.
The prevalence has been around 4-6% for some time and some data indicate that they are between 10-20%.
The Clinical Guide to ADHD indicates that it affects between 3-7% of children of school age.
It has been indicated with prevalence of males versus females, something that is being left aside and is currently considered to be similar in both sexes, predominating in women the lack of attention and in males the hyperactivity.
It has also been considered as exclusive to the infanto-juvenile stage, something that is not true since it remains in the adult stage.
Children with ADHD may show symptoms as early as age, but are discovered and treated more often later, between the ages of 7-9 years.
And you, do you know other activities to work on these aspects?
References
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Treatment Options for Attention-Deficit Children and Adolescents: Review of research for parents and caregivers.
- [Links] How to improve the child's care. Pyramid, Solar Eyes.
- Working Group of the Clinical Practice Guide on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents. Fundació Sant Joan de Déu, coordinator. Guide to Clinical Practice on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents. Quality Plan for the National Health System of the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality. Agència d Informació, Avaluació i Qualitat (AIAQS) of Catalonia; 2010. Clinical Practice Guidelines in the NHS: AATRM No 2007/18.
- Pascual-Castroviejo, I. (2008). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Spanish Association of Pediatrics.
- Perote Alejandre, A., and Serrano Agudo, R. (2012). ADHD: origin and development. International Marketing & Communication, S.A.
- Schneider, M., and Robin, A. The technique of the turtle: a method for self-control of impulsive behavior.
- Snel, E. (2015). Quiet and attentive as a frog. Kairos.