The words have been said thousands of times, but the child still does not hear them, and regards what the parents say as "deaf ears", and still maintains the wrong behavior. Is this the epitome of many A-baby families?
This situation does make parents crazy, but is it possible that they just can't help themselves.
Children with ADHD run on the path of growth in their own unique way. As parents, we are not only their guides, but also their guardians, and we need to understand the reasons for the problem of children with ADHD not listening to instructions, and explore solutions together!
Why don't children with ADHD listen to instructions?
1. Defects in executive function
The executive function of the brain allows people to "work together to complete tasks in a flexible and optimized way when achieving a specific goal or completing a complex task." It's like the conductor of a brain orchestra, coordinating the different parts of an orchestra to complete a symphony that satisfies you.
However, children with ADHD typically have a 30% to 40% delay in executive function development compared to their peers (3 to 5 years and more). Deficits in executive function can lead to an impact on attentional control, cognitive flexibility, cognitive inhibition, inhibitory control, and working memory.
If we think of executive function as a "coach in the brain", this coach will give us feedback and guidance inside the brain. However, for the babies, who have poor executive function, they can't seem to take the instructions of this "coach" clearly. This makes it difficult for them to capture the key information in the instructions and thus make the same mistakes all the time.
2. Low utilization efficiency of neuronal resources
Many studies have shown that attention problems in children with ADHD are often related to executive function deficits, but if parents remind them of the same thing over and over again, why is it still the same as not noticing or hearing?
A study published in Human Brain Mapping points to the relationship between attention problems in children with ADHD and sensitivity to significant external stimuli. Thirty-eight children aged 11-16 years with ADHD and normal children were selected and studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). Participants were given a visually quirky task in which they were given four stimulus categories: frequent standard**, unique novelty**, repetitive rarity**, and target that required a specific response**. The results showed that children with ADHD showed enhanced neural activity in response to fresh but inconsequential stimuli, but showed reduced sensitivity to familiar matters.
a) Activation overlap between participants with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and healthy controls (CG). (B) ADHD patients exhibited stronger areas of activation than healthy controls (CG).
This study points out that distraction is strongly related to the inefficient use of neuronal resources in children with ADHD, and explains why children still do not perform well despite being told so many times by their parentsPeople's attention is simply not on these things that are neither new nor inconsequential.
3. Poor emotional regulation
Due to the lack of inhibitory control in executive function, children with ADHD often face emotional dysregulation, their accumulation and expression of emotions far exceed the carrying capacity of the normal environment, and when they fall into negative emotions, they often show inability to control their emotions, unable to follow the behaviors required by their parents, and show other impulsive behaviors that do not follow the rules.
4. Lack of understanding of instructions and lack of motivation
Sometimes children do not follow their parents' instructions, or the instructions are not clear enough or the parents do not take into account the child's actual level of ability.
At the same time, Baby A is always the one who passively accepts the instruction, and this instruction is often against their inner thoughts, so Baby A has no motivation to do it, and it may also cause their rebellious psychology, choosing to ignore and refuse the instruction to achieve the purpose of rebellion.
Intervention strategies
1. Targeted cognitive training
The brain is the commander of our behaviors, which is extremely sophisticated and complex, and if you want to improve the symptoms of children with ADHD, you need to start with the brain and improve the cognitive deficits of children with ADHD through training.
Cognitive training is an exclusive movement of the brain, based on the theory of neuroplasticity, using the cognitive neuropsychological paradigm to design training tasks, usually for specific cognitive deficits (such as attention, working memory, inhibitory control ability, etc.) to carry out systematic behavioral intervention training, through systematic practice and exercise to improve thinking ability and cognitive ability of the process, in order to improve cognitive function, and to achieve long-lasting and generalized intervention goals. It has to be mentioned hereIBT's digital ** product for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder aged 6-12 years old - Epitops Digital Cognitive Training.
Relying on the technology research and development of the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning of Beijing Normal University, based on the theory of brain functional partitioning, cranial nerve remodeling, and learning-neural activation, and driven by the dual engine of "artificial intelligence (AI) + big data", the digital cognitive training of Zhupiliton carries out "personalized" intervention on the children's cognition, nerve and other multi-level impairments, that is, according to the children's performance in digital cognitive training, the corresponding cognitive function impairment characteristics are matched with the multi-level cognitive training causal AI. Implement a multifaceted recommendation for intervention. Digital cognitive training acts on the executive function circuits of the brain, promotes the regeneration of neuronal dendrites and axons, the reconstruction of synapses, and the regulation of neurotransmitters to reshape the brain neural network, and improves the children's attention, self-control, memory, perception and transformation.
Epiloiton Digital Cognitive Training has passed a number of serious randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled clinical trials in many hospitals and universities. The results showed that the 24 sessions of digital cognitive training could significantly improve the performance of children with ADHD in spatial working memory, stop signal, reaction speed, contact learning, etc., significantly improve spatial cognitive ability, significantly increase the volume of gray matter in the prefrontal lobe, and significantly alleviate the symptoms of children aged 6-12 years with ADHD.
A growing body of research has confirmed the effectiveness of cognitive training in improving ADHD symptoms, providing a convenient and effective option.
2. Get noticed
Many parents like to "give orders" to their children from a long distance, such as children watching TV in the living room, parents shouting in the kitchen or bedroom to let children do homework, and children will not act immediately after hearing the instructions, or will be attracted by other things and forget what you just shouted. When parents see that their children still have no action, they may immediately rush to the head and criticize and scold their children, which will form a vicious circle.
Therefore, parents need to observe their child's performance in time when giving instructions, for example, if you know that he is watching TV, first pause and turn off the TV, let the child focus on you, and then use verbal prompts: "Now listen to me first." Then the command was given.
3. The instructions are concise and clear, and the goal is clear
Use short, direct language to make requests, and avoid making more than one instruction at a time. Children with ADHD have poor working memory, and too long instructions will make them not know what to do first and then what to do, and they are prone to forgetting everything in the instructions. It's a good idea to help your child break down the task and do it in a single step.
4. Use less "don't".
For "Don't ......The more you don't let you do it, the more you want to challenge it, and reinforce his negative behavior, and parents can turn the wrong behavior into positive behavior to remind the child, such as replacing "don't run" with "walk slowly".
5. Ask your child to repeat the instructions
After you give the instruction, you can ask your child to repeat it to make sure they understand and remember it. This helps the child to concentrate and remember the task.
6. Timely and positive strengthening
When your child has completed our instructions, please do not skimp on your encouragement, give your child praise immediately, and emphasize the process of your child's efforts rather than the result.
In short, on the road to raising children with ADHD, parents may feel helpless and frustrated when their children do not listen to instructions, but we first adjust our mentality, lower our expectations, try and interact according to the methods provided above, and shape a good parent-child relationship, which can remove many obstacles in the parenting process
References: 1] Tegelbeckers J, Bunzeck N, Duzel E, Bonath B, Flechtner Hh, Krauel K altered salience processing in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. hum brain mapp. 2015 jun;36(6):2049-60. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22755. epub 2015 feb 3. pmid: 25648705; pmcid: pmc4670482.
Article source: pixabay).Every child who is different deserves to be cared for
Every mom who gives it their all deserves to be helped