children

Study: Having ADHD costs $1.1 million in lower lifetime earnings, even when “treated”

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 Rel­a­tive­ly few stud­ies have exam­ined the impact of child­hood ADHD on long-term finan­cial out­comes, even though becom­ing self-sup­port­ing and attain­ing finan­cial inde­pen­dence is an impor­tant devel­op­men­tal task.

An espe­cial­ly com­pre­hen­sive look at this issue is pro­vid­ed in a study by Pel­ham et al pub­lished recent­ly in the Jour­nal of Con­sult­ing and Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gy.

The Study:

Par­tic­i­pants were 364 adults who were diag­nosed with ADHD in child­hood along with 264 demo­graph­i­cal­ly matched con­trols. [Read more…] about Study: Hav­ing ADHD costs $1.1 mil­lion in low­er life­time earn­ings, even when “treat­ed”

China is harnessing brain-wave trackers and artificial-intelligence to raise better (and more compliant?) students

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A grow­ing num­ber of class­rooms in Chi­na are equipped with arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence cam­eras and brain-wave track­ers. While many par­ents and teach­ers see them as tools to improve grades, they’ve become some children’s worst night­mare. Video: Crys­tal Tai for The Wall Street Journal.

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To address grow­ing pri­va­cy issues such as those high­light­ed in the video above [Read more…] about Chi­na is har­ness­ing brain-wave track­ers and arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence to raise bet­ter (and more com­pli­ant?) students

Lack of sleep seen to cause sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) in adolescents with attention deficits

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It is esti­mat­ed that up to 75% of youth with ADHD have sleep prob­lems. And, exper­i­men­tal stud­ies that manip­u­late sleep quan­ti­ty have demon­strat­ed a causal link between sleep and ADHD behav­ior in children.

How­ev­er, there has been no pri­or work in which sleep dura­tion has been manip­u­lat­ed in ado­les­cents diag­nosed with ADHD. [Read more…] about Lack of sleep seen to cause slug­gish cog­ni­tive tem­po (SCT) in ado­les­cents with atten­tion deficits

Study: Only 5% of US children ages 8–11 follow screen time, sleep and exercise guidelines recommended for brain development

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Lim­it­ing chil­dren’s screen time linked to bet­ter cog­ni­tion, study says (CNN):

“Lim­it­ing kids’ recre­ation­al screen time to less than two hours a day, along with suf­fi­cient sleep and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, is asso­ci­at­ed with improved cog­ni­tion, accord­ing to a study pub­lished in The Lancet Child & Ado­les­cent Health.

The study includ­ed about 4,500 US chil­dren ages 8 to 11 and mea­sured their habits against the Cana­di­an 24-Hour Move­ment Guide­lines for Chil­dren and Youth. It found that [Read more…] about Study: Only 5% of US chil­dren ages 8–11 fol­low screen time, sleep and exer­cise guide­lines rec­om­mend­ed for brain development

Study shows why children with ADHD should be reevaluated each year: Attention problems perceived by teachers are far less stable than we imagine

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While the study below was pub­lished a few years ago, it makes an impor­tant point that I think is worth revisiting.

In the study, pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Devel­op­men­tal and Behav­ioral Pedi­atrics, my col­leagues and I looked at how fre­quent­ly teacher rat­ings of inat­ten­tive symp­toms per­sist in chil­dren from one grade to the next. We felt this was an impor­tant issue to exam­ine because recog­ni­tion that ADHD is often a chron­ic con­di­tion can obscure the fact that atten­tion prob­lems do not always reflect an endur­ing child char­ac­ter­is­tic, and that impor­tant changes are pos­si­ble when chil­dren move to a new classroom.

As you will see below, clin­i­cal­ly-ele­vat­ed atten­tion prob­lems as per­ceived by teach­ers are less sta­ble than you may have imag­ined. [Read more…] about Study shows why chil­dren with ADHD should be reeval­u­at­ed each year: Atten­tion prob­lems per­ceived by teach­ers are far less sta­ble than we imagine

Discouraging new findings about pediatric care for children with ADHD: Often, best-practice guidelines are not followed

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Most chil­dren with ADHD receive their care from com­mu­ni­ty-based pedi­a­tri­cians. Giv­en the large num­ber of school-age chil­dren who require eval­u­a­tion and treat­ment ser­vices for ADHD, and the adverse impact that poor qual­i­ty care can have on chil­dren’s devel­op­ment, it is impor­tant for chil­dren to rou­tine­ly receive care in the com­mu­ni­ty that is con­sis­tent with best-prac­tice guide­lines. [Read more…] about Dis­cour­ag­ing new find­ings about pedi­atric care for chil­dren with ADHD: Often, best-prac­tice guide­lines are not followed