Accommodating Hyperactivity in Children with ADHD

ADHD which affects approximately 7.2% of children worldwide (Thomas, 2015) presents as either the hyperactive-impulsive, inattentive or combined subtype (Willcutt, 2012). It is often first suspected by classroom teachers who witness the symptoms of hyperactivity and inattention. An interesting new study suggests that students with ADHD are more attentive when allowed to fidget.

Fidgeting as a tool to manage ADHD

While behaviour modification efforts, especially in the classroom setting, are often aimed at reducing both hyperactivity and inattention, new research published in Child Neuropsychology suggests that fidgeting may actually help children with ADHD increase focus and exercise better mental control, contributing directly to an increase in performance on cognitive tasks (Hartanto, 2015).

Professor Julie Schweitzer of the Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences department at the MIND Institute at the University of California, spearheaded the study of 26 children with confirmed diagnoses of ADHD, which saw the leg movements of each child recorded by ankle monitors that each child was wearing during a series of computerised activities testing both cognition and attention.  The results of the study confirmed that incidents of increased fidgeting directly correlated with a high level of accuracy in test performance.  Conversely, the more still the children were during the test the more poorly they performed on the tests of cognition and attention.  According to Schweitzer these results suggest that constant movement probably increases mental arousal for children with ADHD, much as stimulant drugs do.

The practical application of the study's results seems clear to Schweitzer. Adults should encourage children with ADHD to fidget rather than correct them for it, especially during activities that require a high level of focus.

While Schweitzer's research supports her conclusions, other scholars suggest that simply making accommodations for ADHD students to fidget misses the mark entirely and that the real solution for children with ADHD when trying to focus in school is one that would support the student population as a whole (Tomporowski, 2011).  

Moments as a way to enhance behaviour

That is, all people benefit from the opportunity to move around regularly throughout the day, whether diagnosed with ADHD or not, and incorporating more physical activity into the school day might alleviate the need for fidget-friendly classrooms in the first place. Harvard-trained educator and McLean Hospital alumna Nina Fiore emphasises that "Regular movement has been shown to increase focus and retention in children and adults of all ages...and diagnoses would be lessened if more movement was incorporated into every aspect of school."

Schweitzer and Fiore are in agreement about one thing, and that is that all children can perform better when they are provided with an outlet for physical activity.  It may be that in the future more schools around the world will incorporate a degree of movement into the daily schedule high enough to alleviate the need for classroom-friendly fidget solutions.  In the interim, however, Schweitzer offers some practical solutions that are designed to avoid distracting other students in the classroom.  Her ideas include:

• allowing children to stand and stretch as needed, attaching elastic bands beneath children’s desks so that they can pull and play with them in a way that shouldn’t bother other children, or using yoga balls as chairs, so the children can bounce.
• The yoga ball seat approach, in particular, has gained popularity among educators, as evidenced by three American elementary schools that have replaced classroom chairs with yoga balls entirely.  One such educator, Robbi Giuliano, who teaches 10-year-olds in West Chester, Pennsylvania, describes the switch as one of the best decisions she has ever made, saying, "I have more attentive children.  I'm able to get a lot done with them because they're sitting on yoga balls."

Many other opportunities exist for physical activities in the classroom, particularly ones that are neither disruptive nor stigmatising, and they can be used in school settings to help children perform cognitively demanding tasks.