“Then let’s put another layer on top of that. So let’s assume we understanding that the diagnosis of ADHD also comes with executive dysfunction. If we think of all the executive functioning skills that come into play in the prefrontal cortex, and it develops relatively slowly, over up to 25 years or longer, that perhaps there’s a, there’s somewhat of a, I hesitate to use word delay, but there’s somewhat of a delay in the development of organized thinking skills…”
Podcast Transcript
I have a very precise question that I want to talk about.
And as I’m networking more, and talking about ADHD, around adults that are not in education, space, and don’t have children with ADHD, the conversation is slightly different. And many of the adults I talked to, when we go into the subject, have the sort of tilt head tilting question where they’re either outwardly asked or in play it and the question is, do I have ADHD.
And there’s a prevailing narrative that is going around adults with just my ADHD or just I’ve got a touch of autism. That’s a phrase that I’ve been hearing. Or it’s just my OCD talking. And it’s really interesting, because each of those things are really heavy mental medical diagnoses that often come with quite extreme interventions, medication being just one of them.
And we throw out these flippant comments. I don’t think they’re flippant, actually, I think they are very precise questionings of ourselves, where am I? What am I? What is my thinking? And I don’t think adults are looking for the diagnosis. I think they’re exploring themselves. And they’re exploring and the acceptability of themselves, and the in acceptability and acceptability of themselves.
So when when someone who’s around by the age of 30/35, talks about or starts to question, sure, what are these things? You’re saying? Do I have ADHD?
And I think the answer is not in the diagnosis. I think it’s in the understanding of what we mean. So historically, ADHD is seen as the problem of little boys in school, and it’s an attention problem and they get medicated. I think about it very differently.
It’s based on very interesting research that’s come out recently, my experience with children with ADHD, varied experience field experience over the last 12 years. And I want to talk about when when we have inattention is really inattention.
And I think we could probably, I thought about it more, I could probably list all the different types of attentions that we have. And if I researched or refreshed my research, I can come up with a list. But let’s talk first about our thinking. Do we have all let’s position them into two different kinds of thinking, divergent and convergent thinking?
I think that an ADHD brain moves from divergent thinking, so they scatter the brain out and they collect things from their environment. And when they find the answer, or the path that they’re looking for, they the brain switches to a convergent way of thinking. And that looks like scattered attention. And then it looks like hyperfocus.
So if we think about it in that way, we don’t see it as a disorder.
Then let’s put another layer on top of that. So let’s assume we understanding that the diagnosis of ADHD also comes with executive dysfunction. If we think of all the executive functioning skills that come into play in the prefrontal cortex, and it develops relatively slowly, over up to 25 years or longer, that perhaps there’s a, there’s somewhat of a, I hesitate to use word delay, but there’s somewhat of a delay in the development of organized thinking skills.
So now that’s interesting, right? So I do think we see a lot of children who are hyper intelligent, that could be labeled as or diagnosed with ADHD.
Because they might be maybe somewhat scattered, or they don’t learn to use their executive executive functioning. They don’t need to learn to use their thinking skills, because they might have a photographic memory or remembering facts or understanding facts might come really quickly to them.
There might be powerful auditory learners and listening in class really gave them the knowledge they needed. They didn’t need any additional help or thinking about it. So now you’ve got a hybrid intelligent child who perhaps does look scattered and all over the place.
And it could possibly be that they’ve never had to engage their executive functioning skills, which are skills like planning, organizing, time management. There’s some self control in there.
I’ll think I’ll put up a list of all the executive functioning skills, metacognition, so they never have to actively engage, deliberate thinking, it automatically automatically comes. So then they get to matriculate, they get out of school, they get into their 20s. And perhaps different problems hit them. And they can’t deal with those, and they maybe take on some coping skills, or they maybe take on Splinter skills. So what I’ve always found is that people always have a ceiling.
When if they don’t address the underlying difficulty, or if it’s not identified and addressed, they typically always hit a ceiling. And when you hit the ceiling, you really feel it, your head bumps up against this white eye. This was so easy before, why is it hard now? And the answer to that has to be okay, so what skill Have I not developed? And what skill do I need to develop. And I think when I’m dealing with children at a primary school age, that they hit this ceiling relatively early on in life, and they hit it hard, and they couldn’t get through it. And all we really need to do at a very basic level is develop those skills so that the child can bump past a ceiling that can can smash into pieces, and they can move through it. But all of us hit ceilings in life. So let’s go back to ADHD.
I think when we find ourselves labeled with it, and the option we’re given his medication, this, there’s validity to that there’s medical scientific validity to that. But from an educators point of view, and from a parenting point of view, or at least the point of view I’m coming from is if ADHD is understood as executive functioning delays, and perhaps scattered attentional, divergent attention, coupled with extreme convergent attention, then what is the problem exactly, especially from a schooling point of view, or from a social point of view, or emotional point of view, then suddenly, for me, the ADHD diagnosis is not the thing that we targeting.
In terms of remediation, what we’re targeting is the and I’m going to use this word kind of loosely, the dysfunction around ADHD.
So if a child is not concentrating in class, and we feel like the label is ADHD, and we give them medication to counter that, how is that helping to build the skill, so maybe it needs to be cut or not, maybe it has to be coupled to skill building. But then we feel that the solution has been found in the medication. And we stop solving some of the peripheral, perhaps more important challenges that a child is experiencing.
I remember reading the story ages ago, and if I can find the book, I will absolutely give it credit, because I really wish I could find the book we read this. But the author was the author’s a medical practitioner, possibly a specialist, I can’t remember. And he was he was telling the story about experiencing mental illness or a physical illness. And he needed to go to a doctor. So he’s a doctor, he goes to a doctor friend of his, and they going through the symptoms, and his friend sort of gives us gives them the diagnosis, they both agree that that’s where they think it is, and his friend prescribes medication.
So he says to his doctor, friend that he’s consulting, why are you giving me this medication for this? Because surely the resolution actually lies in an improved diet and improved exercise. And the prescribing friend says, Yes, of course it does. But I don’t think you’re going to do any of those things. So I’m going to give you this medication instead.
So let’s link that back to the diagnosis of ADHD. There is absolutely a place for medicine because scientifically and medically, we have seen that certain compounds, and I’m not medical at all. But from a layman’s point of view, we have seen that medicine helps. There’s a place.
However, when we talking about behavioral elements, and I think that when we’ve got a child with ADHD and autism, they are under the diagnosis there is a there is a medical model for that. Absolutely. But there’s a social and behavioral model as well. And that has to be addressed. And in that lies, not an acceptance of a negative diagnosis, but acceptance of I’m just normal and human and I’m okay. And if we work on these areas, I’m not going to carry around this heavy label for the rest of my life. I can carry it as Oh, and this and I supported through that.
So what I’m always looking for, in terms of remediation of children and when I’m not talking about academic remediation, that’s just a small part of it. When I’m looking at remediation of children, I’m looking at what in the end Firemen’s is causing this child to not be able to function at a level that is more functional.
Is that excessive screen time? And are we looking at addiction, addiction type behaviors and responses? Is it social anxiety? And where’s that anxiety really stemming from? And can we build that up through skills and through new experiences and reframing the child’s mind through these new experiences?
Is it a sensory thing, if children are being triggered through their senses on a constant basis that that heightened nervous system is going to look like inattention. And while we still we might still be dealing with a diagnosis of ADHD, we want to reduce, we want to increase that attention and reduce what is causing inattention, whether it be an interoceptive thing or an external thing.
So from, from my perspective, and what I’m doing in my work, is trying to tease out all the symptoms, so that we don’t throw a singular solution at a singular diagnosis. Add up add a child who is not singular, it was complex. And we can look at developing skills, and developing robustness and supporting and developing character. And providing this context for this brain that can can throw itself out into the world and pick up 100 different cues and bring it into something that has huge meaning, and then throw absolute focus at it through this convergent thinking.
And in all of that develop these executive functioning skills that not only make it easier for children to be in this world, but make it easier for them to to think and harness this beautiful brain that they have.
So I’m looking for always a multi therapeutic approach to a child and the inclusion of the child in this therapeutic approach. We are not doing things to children or grandchildren. We are working with children. And that is the most powerful approach that we can take when we want to do good work.
