Michael Kofler, FSU – Insights into ADHD

We’re learning more about ADHD.

Michael Kofler, a psychologist at Florida State University, presents new research on the condition.

Dr. Kofler’s primary research interests center on improving long-term outcomes for children with ADHD. This research follows two interrelated pathways: a) identifying internal and contextual strengths/assets that contribute to resiliency and positive outcomes for some youth with ADHD within a positive youth development framework, and b) understanding neurocognitive factors that contribute to ADHD behavioral symptoms and functional impairments. The long-term goal of these interrelated lines of investigation is to further our understanding of relationship between underlying neurocognitive factors and associated behavioral and functional outcomes, and translating this knowledge into effective, efficacious, and strengths-based interventions for children with ADHD. His recent experimental work suggests that underdevelopment in key components of working memory appear to underlie many of the hallmark features of ADHD, including inattentive behavior, hyperactivity, impulsivity, response variability, social problems, and behavioral disinhibition. He is currently working to translate these findings into a novel, non-pharmacological intervention with the potential for sustained, generalized improvements in functioning across settings.

Insights into ADHD

When parents and teachers talk about children who have ADHD, they often say that the child can’t stay still, they can’t concentrate, and they can’t focus.

But, what if it is the moving —the fidgeting — that gets the juices flowing and lets them engage and learn as other children do?

Perhaps, you need to let children with ADHD squirm to learn.

That was the idea behind a research study I conducted with scientists from University of Central Florida, University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Florida International University.

Our previous work had shown that kids with ADHD aren’t always hyperactive – it’s only when they’re engaged in challenging cognitive tasks like schoolwork that they move more than their peers. So, we wanted to explore that concept a little further.

To do this study, we conducted comprehensive evaluations and observed children with and without ADHD. So, we looked at 52 boys ages 8 to 12. Of those children, 29 were diagnosed with ADHD.

During the testing, each child was asked to perform a series of tasks designed to test their memory. For example, they were shown a series of jumbled numbers and a letter on a computer screen and then asked to reorder the numbers from smallest to biggest, and to say the letter last. Children completed these tests several times over a four-week period. Cameras recorded the kids, so we could record their movement and also their attention rates.

We found that for most children with ADHD, the more they moved, the better they performed on the memory tasks. Conversely, the boys who did not have ADHD tended to perform a little bit worse when they moved more.

When I was in school, it was a ‘butt in chair, feet on floor’ mentality. That doesn’t seem to help for kids with ADHD. Instead, our research says we should encourage them to fidget, squirm, stand, sit on an exercise ball, or otherwise move while they’re doing their schoolwork. That doesn’t mean free reign to run around the classroom — it means we want to reward them for working on their assignment, not whether or not they’re sitting properly in their chair.

Read More: FSU News: Sitting Still in Class May Not Be the Best Learning Technique for Children with ADHD