Squirming helps boys with ADHD learn, finds a study by University of Central Florida researchers. Participants were 52 eight to twelve year-old boys, about half of whom had been diagnosed with ADHD. The boys watched a series of jumbled numbers and a letter flash on a computer screen, and were asked to put the numbers in order followed by the letter. A high-speed camera recorded the children, and observers recorded their movements and gauged their attention to the task. The researchers found the boys with ADHD squirmed more and had lower rates of attentive behavior relative to the other children, but when the boys with ADHD squirmed, they performed better on the task. Among boys without ADHD, those who moved the most performed the worst.

It is important for teachers to understand that those children diagnosed with ADHD have a neurological need to move throughout the day and this need to move will not negatively affect their learning; in fact, based on this study, it will improve their performance.

To read the full article, visit the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, April 2015.

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Susie Bean Gives Team