Joan Oates Life Coaching Blog

There continues to be an ongoing debate about how much violent video games affect kids. A recent study in England has shed more light on this subject. The study was limited in its scope yet the results were unexpected in some ways. The study participants were boys between the ages of 12 to 15. The goal of the study was to determine whether playing a violent video game resulted in negative behavior on the gamers part after playing. One conclusion of the study was that kids that spent more than two hours a day playing games and kids that did not play games at all had the most significant behavior problems. Researchers expected the kids that played more than two hours a day to have problems what they did not expect was the kids that did not play at all had equal problems. The conclusion for this is that gaming is so common amongst kids that not playing at all sets one apart from the mainstream as much as being an over user does. The study also found that kids often felt better and more relaxed after playing. Kids reported that they were able to play out real life conflict in the game, identifying a game character with a real life person they have an issue with, in the game they are able to challenge this person and win. Gamers stated this made them feel less of a need to confront that person in real life. The study also concluded that kids that seem more worked up or agitated after playing may have other issues like anxiety, attention deficit disorder or disruptions in the home. Conclusion being allow your child some computer game time, less so if you have an ADHD child. Pay attention to how your child behaves after playing and let that be your guide to how much is too much.

The term ADHD is used to refer to both ADHD individuals and ADD individuals. ADD’ers are defined as “ADHD without hyperactivity”. The diagnosis of ADHD comes from a medical doctor, either a pediatrician, family doctor or a psychiatrist. Teachers are a valuable tool in alerting a parent to the possibility of ADHD, however teachers do not the make the diagnosis of ADHD and by law teachers may not recommend the use of medications to treat ADHD. The diagnosis for ADHD comes from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV).

To qualify for the ADHD diagnosis an individual must meet a very specific set of behaviors over an extended period of time. This criteria is spelled out in the DSM-IV. Diagnosis of ADHD can be difficult. Keep in mind that ADHD behaviors are normal childhood behaviors, yet in excess. The individual who is defining the excess matters, the level of tolerance of the reporting individual needs to be considered in making this diagnosis. I have had children in my practice that are diagnosed as ADHD when they are not, they just happen to be the lone extrovert in a family of shy introverts. The opposite exists as well, children who are clearly ADHD and the parents just don’t see it. Sometimes these parents are ADHD themselves and either their child’s behavior goes completely unnoticed or they are more tolerant of the behaviors because they as the parent do the same behaviors themselves.

Being diagnosed with ADHD is not a bad thing, many very successful people have ADHD. Our current education system however is not a good fit for the ADHD student and many of these children are presented up as failures in this system. This however does not translate into failure in life. I assure parents that this is not a curse and that there is a positive way to manage this condition.

Earth Day is in April every year. This is a perfect opportunity for the ADHD child to meet with success. Children with ADHD deal with a lot of rejection and failure in their young lives. The feelings and experience of success are not something they experience often. Volunteering is an ideal way to foster feelings of success and connectedness. When the right activity is selected it is virtually impossible to have failure. This is why Earth day is so great, it provides the opportunity, not only to accomplish a task to the end and feeling like you made a difference, it also contributes to a greater sense of community. ADHD children feel on the outside of things. They have trouble in school, at home and on sports teams and feel like they don’t belong. Community oriented volunteering like Earth Day events are a perfect way to promote positive feelings of accomplishment. Consider adding some type of year round community volunteering to your ADHD management plan.

This past weekend my husband and I were out for a drive and listening to NPR (National Public Radio). The interview was with a psychologist about happiness and the keys to happiness. While they talked about several ideas one of the things that stood out for me was the psychologists comments on ruminating and how destructive it can be to the pursuit of happiness. I have found that ruminating is also very much in play with my anxiety and OCD clients. “Ruminate” as defined by Websters is “to go over in the mind repeatedly and often.” Anxiety disorders and OCD cause people to ruminate sometimes almost constantly. Ruminating is a bad mental habit to get into. To stop ruminating one must practice awareness of thoughts and thought patterns. A plan for implementing some sort of distraction or, specific subjects to transfer thought too, will go a long way in curtailing ruminating.

Parents have known for many years that certain foods seem to affect their child’s behavior. Most studies on this subject though have been done by the food industry to prove there is no correlation between preservatives/additives and hyperactive behavior or attention. The medical journal “The Lancet” published a study titled “Artificial Food Additives Increase Levels of Hyperactivity in Children in the General Population on Sept 6th, 2007. This study drew a direct correlation between behavior and attention to the ingestion of specific food colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate. This British study was conducted by a sponsor independent of the food and preservative industry. By study standards the numbers are relatively low, however the results were impressive enough to prompt the British Food Standards Agency the equivalent to our FDA to warn parents to remove food products from their child’s diet that contains these ingredients. Children of two age groups were studied, three year olds and eight to nine year olds. All kids were given a juice drink either with the specified ingredients or a placebo. Neither the testers or the participants knew who was getting which. One hour after ingestion kids were tested for attention and rated for activity. Evaluating was done by parents, teachers, and computers. Both age groups were significantly affected in groups that received the additives, surprising to researchers was that despite their larger body size the 8 to 9 year olds were more severely affected. The study was six weeks long and the drink equaled about one to two servings of candy a day. You can read more about this study at Medscape.com . The compounds studied are listed below

colorings : tartrazine E102; ponceau 4R E124; sunset yellow E110; carmoisine E122; quinoline yellow E104; allura red AC E129.

preservative: sodium benzoate

 Last year I read a book titled “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv. This book explores the relationship between stress and the outdoors, and how being outdoors is a counter measure to stress, especially in our children. It touches on the theory that many ADHD symptoms in children with this condition improve when these children spend more time outdoors. Recently two people have asked me if I had read this book, mentioned that they had and loved it. I too, loved this book and strongly recommend it.