Just medication is not going to improve your child’s academic performance!
A recent research study by Dr Jeffrey Epstein of the Center for ADHD at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio indicates that just following pediatric guidelines for treatment of ADD, didn’t result in functional changes for children with ADHD. Just proper medication didn’t change their school performance at all.
More simply put:” Pills don’t teach Skills!”
The study suggested that ADHD kids needed additional training in organization and academic skillls to improve academic performance. This finding flies in the face of the “just give ‘em their meds and they’ll be all right.”school of treatment. Medication by itself will not help your child improve his or her grades.
This research combined with the research on the importance of working memory to academic performance (see Working Memory beats IQ in School, 02-23-2010) builds a strong case for the importance of computerized cognitive retraining (CCR) for improving academic performance of kids with ADHD.
I personally am more confident recommending CCR for students with ADHD after reading these studies.While the effectiveness of CCR in improving working memory is well-researched and well-proven, the extension to improved academic performance is now firmly established.
CCR improves academic performance. Period.
If your child is struggling in school, you need to strongly consider CCR. Approximately 30 sessions over a few months time will make a big difference.
Working memory is more important to academic success than IQ, according to recent research. Why is that important to ADHD parents and what the heck is working memory anyway?
Working memory is the ability to keep information in awareness until a task is accomplished. An example would be when you tell your child to do three things and only two get done ( if you’re lucky). People with ADHD have very poor working memory, so your child’s difficulties in school are likely related to difficulties with working memory.
The research was recently published in The Journal of Experimental Child Psychology by Dr. Tracy Alloway. It indicates that working memory is more important to academic success than IQ. Working memory is also the best predictor of reading,spelling and math
IQ is a very unreliable predictor of academic performance. Indeed, if I only had a nickel for every time a parent has told me– “He’s very smart , he just doesn’t get good grades.”
So, the bad news is that here’s another problem for ADHD kids.
The good news is that working memory is something we know how to improve. The research on neuroplasticity indicates that the brain adapts and adjusts to the demands we make on it.
Computerized Cognitive Retraining(CCR) is a very effective, well-researched and efficient approach to improving working memory. We have known that CCR improves working memory,but we haven’t had direct evidence that it impacts education directly. Now we do.
This research also explains why tutoring for ADHD kids is frequently not effective. It’s not aimed at the right target. Its not designed to, nor does it improve working memory.
CCR can specifically target working memory and improve it . The improvements take 20-30 sessions of CCR to become noticeable and they last because you’re training and structurally changing your brain. MRI studies show that CCR causes growth in the specific part of the brain targeted by the program.
The part of your brain that’s involved in working memory actually gets bigger and more dense. (Density is good in this case because it means more dendritic connections, that is your neurons are talking to each other better.)
If you have questions about CCR and ADHD and/or school performance, feel free to contact me.