It’s no secret that physical activity offers several benefits, including weight loss, maintaining good heart health and improving blood pressure. Additionally, it’s advantageous for the child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: According to the Mayo Clinic, “regular exercise may have a positive effect on behavior in children with ADHD when added to treatment.” Specifically, experts have found that physical activity plays a role in improving cognitive performance as well as brain function during tasks requiring greater executive control, areas in which those with ADHD may struggle.
[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids’ Health.]
But what kind of physical activity is best for kids with ADHD? Many young children may be inclined to participate in sports, yet he or she may be hesitant because of their uneasiness regarding their inattention or hyperactivity — behaviors that could potentially impact the social and physical skills required, especially in team sports. Parents may even wonder if their child could be at an increased risk for injury.
Those concerns seem logical. After all, as child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Menefee tells the Cleveland Clinic, “kids with ADHD may have problems with coordination or playing at the same level as their peers,” which can make them feel bad about themselves. Add the fact they often have trouble focusing, she says, and “they may not be picked to be on team sports in school.”
But parents and their children with ADHD may be able to rest easier, thanks to some new findings as well as tips from athletic professionals.
Researchers from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center conducted a study that took a closer look at the role sports plays in people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The findings, which were presented at the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting in May, noted that people with ADHD were more inclined to gravitate towards team sports versus individual sports, which could increase their risk of injury.
But Dr. Trevor Kitchin, a primary care sports medicine fellow at Wexner Medical Center who was involved in the study, encourages people not to focus so much on the injury aspect and instead turn their attention to the positive side of sports participation among people with ADHD. Although he notes that some people with the disorder tend to be “more impulsive or aggressive,” which may carry over into their actions in sports, he reinforces that it’s the nature of contact sports in general that can increase the risk for injury. Kitchin homes in on the fact that the school’s 2012 through 2016 incoming athletes — the ones studied — mostly opted for team sports versus one-on-one physical activities, which include things like tennis and wrestling, as well as track and field, swimming and cross-country. He explains that while these one-on-one sports do indeed involve other participants, they differ from team sports because they’re activities where the primary emphasis mostly rests on an individual and doesn’t involve as much constant engagement in close proximity with several other people at one time.
[See: 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Counseling.]
This preference for team sports, Kitchin says, may be beneficial. But he explains that the researchers were mostly expecting these people to engage in individual sports. “In our experience with other athletes,” Kitchin says that “most with ADHD choose one-on-one” activities.”
Team Sports and Socializing
“Team sports help with socializing skills,” Kitchin explains, and can even play a role in non-sports related activities, such as academic interactions requiring group involvement.
Menefee says that while any sport can be beneficial, team sports in particular can be helpful because they “help your child develop social skills and learn to work on a team.” But it doesn’t necessarily have to involve multiple people; she says that any physical activity is helpful. It “helps kids develop their planning ability, decreases impulsivity and improves mood.”
What Sports Are Ideal?
As for what kind of physical activity a person with ADHD chooses, Menefee says that martial arts can help in the areas of structure and organization. However, she stresses that what matters most is that the child has a genuine interest in the activity.
“Overall, participation in sports can play an important role in the lives of children diagnosed with ADHD,” Menefee says. “Physical activities can improve social skills, enhance coordination and increase a child’s self-esteem.”
Goal-Setting and Keeping ‘The Main Thing the Main Thing’
Sports participation “reinforces goal setting, sets objectives and helps put realistic plans in place in terms of obtaining a desired outcome,” explains professional counselor Karen Johnson-Cromwell of No Limits Counseling in Woodbury, New Jersey. There, she helps athletes with or without clinical issues, providing them with mental skills training to enhance athletic performance.
For example, if she works with an ADHD basketball player, she says an inability to block out the crowd and surrounding sounds may exist. Buzzers, voices in the stands and other distractions may prevent players from giving it their all, so she says she’ll often suggest they engage in thought-shifting habits. She may encourage them to focus on the ball instead of crowds, frequently telling the athletes she works with to “keep the main thing the main thing.” The key here is for athletes with ADHD to shift their thoughts from a distraction and instead think about next-step options that are pivotal to their team’s success. In the case of basketball, she says this may involve concentrating more on a teammate who has the ball or making quick decisions about whether to keep a ball in play or to shoot it.
[See: Hoarding, ADHD, Narcissism: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities.]
Reinforcing Successful Habits
Additionally, she also assesses athlete success based on the Nine Mental Skills framework of Jack J. Lesyk, director of the Ohio Center for Sport Psychology. Among these traits are maintaining concentration, emotion management and effectively dealing with others, all areas Cromwell says everyone struggles with occasionally, but more often experienced by people with ADHD. She explains that she may use Lesyk’s list to gain preliminary insight about an athlete and learn more about where he or she has “the least mental skills.” She’ll then build on these areas by suggesting appropriate techniques to help improve his or her game.
Such improvement is beneficial, she says, because sports participation also reinforces many of the skills that an ADHD person is usually taught in the academic or home environment: people skills, concentration and goal reinforcement. But involvement in sports can also add to what’s taught in school or by parents. Cromwell explains that sports coaches help teach visualization skills and build upon the good habits they’ve already learned to help manage their disorder.
“Everyone should be active,” Kitchin says, “but especially those with ADHD as it can help improve symptoms. It helps decrease impulsivity and inattention and decreases anxiety and depression.”
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Can Sports Help Kids Manage Their ADHD Symptoms? originally appeared on usnews.com
