So, your child jumps around and shouts out at inappropriate moments and, perhaps, appears to have a livelier imagination than others. What can you do to limit this behaviour in school and other places where it could negatively affect development? How do you promote an environment that is conducive to enhanced concentration levels? How do you discover what distracts and how do you go about ridding the environment of those distractions, especially when you have no authority in said environments?
If we accept that most human behaviour is a response to sensory input, whether that response is immediate or delayed, wouldn’t changing the input change the behaviour?
In what order of importance should we list the senses? Which inputs evoke most responses?
I believe that in the case of “ADHD”-listed symptoms, we could probably eliminate taste and smell for the most part and concentrate on sight, sound and, tactile inputs, in that order.
If your child exhibits the above-mentioned behaviours, have you ever really paid attention to which environments evoke the most pronounced episodes? Have you ever stopped to think that a sensitivity to what is considered a “normal” environment (e.g. a nice sunny day) would be difficult to discover due to the subject being unaware that nobody else had a problem with it and, perhaps, concluding that everyone DID have the same problem with it!? The subject may not even realise the cause of his discomfort.
Which colours, patterns, layouts, spaces, weather, light, etc., provoke most problems?
Which voices, voice modulations, music, frequencies, tones, sounds, etc., grate on the nerves, consciously or not.
Which fabrics, surfaces, temperatures, humidity levels, etc., create an unsupportable environment for your child.
Suppose your child had an internal problem with the colour red and neither you nor he knew about it? What if the application of tinted sunglasses corrected the inappropriate behaviour entirely? Does your child’s teacher report behaviours that are not consistent with your child’s home behaviour? Why, what does school have that home doesn’t?
Since the only thing you have to lose is your time, why not look into it? Anedotal posts in this case are welcomed and will be useful. Not that any findings outside your own child’s case will be of benefit to your child but that ANY findings along this line of examination may encourage others to study the environment surrounding their own child and, perhaps, find the very simple solution that may be waiting out there.
Re: Environmental Causes
Roxie,
“No, my child does not jump around and shout out at inappropriate times. Clearly you have a lopsided view of what ADHD is and isn’t.”
I appreciate that your a proud mom ‘nall, Roxie but there ARE other children out there. Or did you think I was starting a thread about your little princess?
Anyway, you just can’t allow a discussion on anything that takes away from your precious drugs, can you?
Nothing you stated above about “ADHD” being generated internally has any merit or basis in scientific fact, and is as such, worthless here. where is the scientific proof that what is labelled “ADHD” is NOT a behavioural problem caused by, or exacerbated by individual response to environment?
I happen to believe in GIGO. What I’m proposing here is an new way to identify what constitutes garbage for individuals who have trouble controlling disposal. Since the scientific jury is still out on what CAUSES “ADHD”-listed symptoms, my guess is as good as anyone’s, right?
So, Roxie, scientific facts or conditional tenses please.
[quote=”Brian1”]So, your child jumps around and shouts out at inappropriate moments and, perhaps, appears to have a livelier imagination than others.”
No, my child does not jump around and shout out at inappropriate times. Clearly you have a lopsided view of what ADHD is and isn’t.
“What can you do to limit this behaviour in school and other places where it could negatively affect development? How do you promote an environment that is conducive to enhanced concentration levels? How do you discover what distracts and how do you go about ridding the environment of those distractions, especially when you have no authority in said environments?”
What one does is completely dependent on the individual child and how they respond, or not. ADHD does not come from the outside, it is born on the inside and seen in outward behaviors. Changing the enviornment may help decrease certain symptoms, but there is no perfect enviornment to place an ADHD child in that will eliminate all ADHD symptoms.
“If we accept that most human behaviour is a response to sensory input, whether that response is immediate or delayed, wouldn’t changing the input change the behaviour?”
ADHD is not a behavioral disorder so this concept is irrelevant to the discussion of ADHD.
“I believe that in the case of “ADHD”-listed symptoms, we could probably eliminate taste and smell for the most part and concentrate on sight, sound and, tactile inputs, in that order.
If your child exhibits the above-mentioned behaviours, have you ever really paid attention to which environments evoke the most pronounced episodes? Have you ever stopped to think that a sensitivity to what is considered a “normal” environment (e.g. a nice sunny day) would be difficult to discover due to the subject being unaware that nobody else had a problem with it and, perhaps, concluding that everyone DID have the same problem with it!? The subject may not even realise the cause of his discomfort.
Which colours, patterns, layouts, spaces, weather, light, etc., provoke most problems?
Which voices, voice modulations, music, frequencies, tones, sounds, etc., grate on the nerves, consciously or not.
Which fabrics, surfaces, temperatures, humidity levels, etc., create an unsupportable environment for your child.
Suppose your child had an internal problem with the colour red and neither you nor he knew about it? What if the application of tinted sunglasses corrected the inappropriate behaviour entirely? Does your child’s teacher report behaviours that are not consistent with your child’s home behaviour? Why, what does school have that home doesn’t?
Since the only thing you have to lose is your time, why not look into it? Anedotal posts in this case are welcomed and will be useful. Not that any findings outside your own child’s case will be of benefit to your child but that ANY findings along this line of examination may encourage others to study the environment surrounding their own child and, perhaps, find the very simple solution that may be waiting out there.[/quote]
It seems to me that you are more discussing Sensory Integration Disorder. It does seem to be that those with ADHD are more prone to SI, but the two are not one in the same and treatment is most certainly approached in markedly different ways. That said, decreasing distractions can be helpful for an ADHD, however, it’s very hard to remove all possible distractions from an enviornment. A child cannot live in a sterile enviornment free of color, sound, and sights. A sterile enviornment can also never alter the inner workings of an ADHD and the random intrusive, persistent thoughts that cannot be filtered in the ADHD mind.