ADHD Blog

Neurofeedback (also known as EEG biofeedback) is marketed as an alternative treatment for ADHD. Parents who are looking for a medication-free treatment option often hear about neurofeedback and wonder if it can help their child.

Finding the motivation to study can be hard when you have ADHD and having ADHD can make it harder to memorize important information when it’s not related to something that you find particularly interesting. One of the keys to studying with ADHD is figuring out which strategies work for you and doing little things to make these strategies as engaging and fun as possible. Flashcards are one study tool that can be great for ADHD. They build confidence through repetition, so you’ll feel prepared going into your exam and you can build in visual cues that make the content easier to recall on test day. You can make them interactive and engaging when you use them with friends or parents, and when you build in memorization goals and rewards.

Learning that your child or teen has ADHD or is struggling with symptoms of anxiety or depression can be overwhelming, and it’s hard for parents to know what to look for when they are searching for a therapist who can help. For your child to have the best chance of success with treatment, it is essential that parents look for a therapist who provides evidence-based treatments. Evidence-based treatments have undergone rigorous testing through scientific studies and clinical trials and have been proven to be effective for many kids with ADHD and other mental health problems (for a description of evidence-based treatments see my previous post on this topic.

Having a child or teen who struggles with ADHD can be challenging. The good news is that Evidence Based Treatments – effective treatment programs and strategies that have been tested through rigorous scientific research - are available. These treatments aren’t going to make your child’s ADHD symptoms disappear, but research findings tell us that these treatments (either alone or in combination with medication) should lead to significant improvement. Unfortunately, for many parents it can be difficult to know if the treatment being provided by their child’s therapist is actually evidence-based. While I encourage all parents to have a direct conversation with their child’s therapist about their training and treatment approach, there are also things parents can look for in the content of the therapy sessions themselves that will indicate whether an evidence-based treatment is being used.  

Rates of ADHD diagnoses in the US continue to rise steadily, with a newly published study showing that 10% of today’s children and teens are diagnosed with ADHD compared to 6% back in the late 1990s.¹ There are many possible reasons for the sharp increase in diagnoses, including increased awareness about ADHD (especially the inattentive subtype), improved health care access, and more rigid education and testing standards in public schools. These factors all contribute to higher rates of proper diagnoses for kids with ADHD who would have otherwise been missed, and that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, these same factors can also contribute to higher rates of misdiagnoses among kids and teens who are falling behind academically or are struggling to pay attention and follow classroom rules for reasons that are unrelated to ADHD. 

Plenty of students struggle to pay attention in classrooms.  But children with ADHD struggle to focus, process information quickly, and translate information into learning and understanding.  At times, traditional classroom teaching methods fall short for kids with ADHD. Fortunately, today there are a many tools and techniques available to supplement classroom teaching for kids with a variety of learning styles. Many of these tools embrace a multi-sensory approach, where kids engage with new material not just visually but also through their other senses of hearing, touch, and sometimes even taste and smell.