Helping a child manage ADHD symptoms is no easy task. Parents typically consider a wide range of treatment options, including medication and educational plans tailored to their child.

In a March 1 article on examiner.com, teacher April Brownlee discussed the benefits of encouraging ADHD kids to become involved in sports and other types of extracurricular activities:

The power of extracurricular activities should not be ignored as the right activity will help a child's motor skills, assist with improved focusing and help with social interactions.

An activity, such as martial arts or swimming will provide a child with ADHD, focus, drive and a means to learn when and how to communicate.

A glowing example is Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps who [was] diagnosed with ADHD but channels the negative effects through determination to succeed at his sport.

Labels: sports

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Children who are good at object control skills, such as catching, throwing, and kicking balls, are more likely to become active and participate in sports as teenagers.

Researchers in Australia tested 276 elementary school children for those three skills as well as their abilities in locomotion, including hopping, sprinting, and jumping. Five years later, children who showed good object control tended to participate more in sports and exercise programs.

This study appears in the journal Medicine and Sports.

Labels: sports, activities, exercise

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At a congressional meeting Tuesday, Major League Baseball officials and government leaders gathered to discuss doping in baseball. Among the more surprising discoveries was the information that "therapeutic use exemptions" for ADD-related drugs had more than quadrupled in just one year.

"'This demands an explanation. There's something fundamentally wrong [with] them going from 28 [exemptions] to 103,' said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of committee that determines the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned-substances list. 'If we had this percentage increase in the general population, it would be on the evening news as a national epidemic. It's an outrageous number.'"

The Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) clause allows players to fill prescriptions for medications that are otherwise banned, if approved by both a physician and an independent administrator. Wadler believes the 2006 ban on amphetamines is tied to the TUE increase.

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Labels: medications, sports, role_models

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