Navigating the ADHD epidemic
Inculcating focused attention in children
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has become increasingly prevalent among children across ages, all the way to adulthood. With growing awareness, it is getting due recognition during recent times, yet there would be a significant percentage of unidentified youngsters who demonstrate symptoms but remain undiagnosed.
As per a 2022 National Survey of Children’s health, 7.1 million children aged 3-17 years have been diagnosed with ADHD. That’s one in every nine children!
What has changed suddenly? How has ADHD become an accepted reality for the young generation?
Let’s begin with understanding ADHD in simple terms.
Attention Deficiency is the inability to retain attention or focus on any single activity. Hyperactivity refers to uncontrolled excessive movement / fidgeting out of compulsiveness. It is a by-result of attention deficiency. While these symptoms may not always co-exist, ADHD has become the standard classification for both conditions in recent decades.
The single defining factor for losing attention is ‘distraction’.
Distraction is the arch-nemesis of attention. The higher the distraction, the harder it becomes to focus, regardless of age or intelligence. We instinctively seek silence, quiet, peace whenever we want to do anything of high significance. Essentially, we want to work in a distraction-free environment.
Babies are born with absolute attention.
Observe a newborn playing with itself – they are completely immersed with no care of the world around them. Their five senses are the first source of distraction as they are growing up. It becomes easier to catch the attention of a baby with movement (sight), voice (sound) holding hands (touch) … and we can distract them towards us.
Parents introduce the art of distraction.
Parents have their role demands of feeding, bathing, sleeping the child to fall into a rhythm or time schedule. So they master the art of diverting the baby’s attention from whatever he is presently focusing on with new stimuli. The toddler slowly learns to choose between competing stimuli … and gravitate towards the higher intensity stimuli. Slowly parents train the child to have simultaneous attention to multiple stimuli. The child is supposed to hear our voice, come over when we call … even while they are engrossed in play or any activity. We surely need to train children to be sensorily sensitive and aware of the environment around, as a survival life skill and to operate in the outside real world. Unfortunately, we forget to ensure the child also gets extended periods of time where he is exclusively focused on the activity he is engaged in, with absolute intensity and focus – an eroding skill in the young generation.
Mealtimes become a gateway to a dangerous world.
Parents used to eat along with the child, modeling healthy eating habits, while telling stories.Sure, it was challenging and tested parents’ patience, but the child was focused on eating alongside the story. Nowadays it has become common practice to put a screen in front of the child while feeding him. The stimulus of the screen is so intense that the child is unaware of what he is eating – their sense of taste and smell is just not evolving. Their sense of sound, sight, touch are also numbed with such high intensity stimuli. Try calling, waving, moving him … the natural reaction would be a temper tantrum, to get rid of you and go back to his screen.
Parents pride in their little one’s technology smarts.
Starting age for exposure to phones, tablets, even laptops is reducing at an alarming pace. Parents are handing over gadgets to little ones as young as two-year-olds. They pride in showcasing their toddler’s ability to maneuver around screens so easily! Whatever happened to being in the outdoors, engaging with other kids and simple play? Technology is a great babysitter but at what cost?!
Smart schools further accelerate the exposure.
The onset of technology due to education has become an accepted norm today. Children earlier used to get access to mobile phones and computers in college. Gradually it entered high school as computer education become a part of the curriculum. It didn’t take much time for middle school to make internet access essential for kids’ research and assignments. The pandemic further exacerbated the dependance on technology for imparting education even in junior school. And it is just not the schools to blame … it was equally a demand from the parents to have smart schools, for fear of their child losing out.Children are getting sucked into the technology wormhole sooner than ever!
Children go on a downward spiral of no-return.
Once given access, parents are just not able to roll back. The addictiveness of technology is so intense, it spirals into a power struggle with the child. Parents are at best able to limit screen time and monitor digital usage … a losing battle nonetheless. Scrutinize the apps targeted at little ones and their singular goal is to keep the child glued for hours on end. An even dangerous trap is YouTube or social media videos – an endless stream of distraction bombarded one after the other. We now have a generation of kids who are struck in front of the screen with fleeting attention spans – trapped in enticing mind-numbing content!
The social media wave takes everyone by storm.
Whilst the technology onslaught into education was building up, social media enters the arena. It’s a new monster even for parents to get a hold on, grasp and engage with – some sucked into it, some left with a sense of FOMO, some struggling to stay relevant … it’s a completely messed up bag. Alongside their youngsters are joining the bandwagon, despite age restrictions, which have been completely thrown out of consideration. It is now an accepted reality for young teens and even tweens to be actively present on various social media platforms. The scale as well as precision of distraction of each of these platforms is unfathomable, beyond the realms of human self-control!
All roads culminate to our present state of affairs.
We have sailed quite deep into this wide ocean with our young generation and put them at significant risk in unknown waters, knowingly and unknowingly. And there are significantly powerful cumulative forces at play to maintain the status quo. Our young ones are unable to hold their attention to anything and this duration is shrinking at an alarming pace. Just think of a progression from 3-hour movies to today’s less than a minute shorts and reels … In the face of high intensity stimuli, you can only be a passive consumer or observer. To be able to do anything with intensity, the pre-requisite is no external distraction.How can we even expect them to have intense focus in the prevalent environment?
It all seems like a ‘series of unfortunate events’ in the history of parenting evolution! Where is all this leading to? Back to ADHD – aren’t the causes evident? If distraction is the culprit, isn’t the solution to avoid it? Easier said than done!
We can surely take our small or big steps to ‘control’ the problem and in our own little ways attempt to increase distraction-free attention span.
Encourage outdoor play, sports and being with nature.
Nature does wonders on us : physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. It heals,boosts immunity, enhances our sensory awareness, elevates our mood, calms us … we can keep going on. There is absolutely no alternative to being in the outdoors and taking in the fresh air with bright sunshine. Make it a mandatory daily routine for your child. Sports is a wonderful avenue to be in the outdoors, while having fun and developing oneself holistically. Besides physical fitness, sports inculcates perseverance, tolerance, team spirit, patience, accepting failure … Expose children to a variety of team and individual sports, and let them get hooked on to whatever excites them. Adventure sports is a beautiful opportunity to be with nature whilst building essential survival skills. Trekking, mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing, cycling, scuba diving, paragliding … the choices are aplenty, as suiting one’s aptitude and personality. It’s never too early to start.
Foster creativity through art, music, reading and performances.
Each one of us has a Creative Genius within, waiting to be identified. Any creative pursuit works like magic for the overall development of a child. It expands both sides of the brain, improves fine motor skills, enhances environmental awareness, enables self-expression, builds personality, develops emotional composure … the benefits are immense.Foster their creativity through formal training and guidance in art as well as music. It could be any artistic medium and musical instrument which they navigate towards. Take them to live performances of concerts, theatre, classical music, traditional dance … You never know what may pull a string in their hearts. Reading is a powerful exposure to the world’s creative thinkers as well as world builders.Inculcate the reading habit as early as possible, appropriate to the age, and consistently keep raising the bar. And do insist of physical paper books. It is a lens for them to see unimaginable worlds and possibilities, while shaping their own thought process and sense of right-wrong.
Lead by example through self-discipline and balanced lifestyle. Children learn by observing more than listening. Parents need to demonstrate self-discipline with their own technology usage to instill the same in their children. Social media presence should be curtailed for professional requirements and avoided for personal indulgence. Judiciously introspect if it is necessary for the world to know about your private life? Does it really enhance you as a person? Walk the talk! Families today are living as strangers under the same roof, because everyone is glued to their screens. There is simply no one-on-one interaction or even eye contact while conversing. Set boundaries of space and time for ‘no-gadgets’ – mealtimes, daily updates, family chats, bedtime, weekends. Enforce ‘non-negotiable’ rules around technology usage for children like age limit to join social media and daily screen time limit. Ensure exclusive family time together and indulge in joint activities like board games, sports,picnics, movies … Start practices like meditation, journaling, reflection, gratitude together as a family. Keep strengthening the family bond, connect, love, trust, support, memories!
Each one of these will absolutely bolster attention, focus, intensity – the magic ingredients.The onus is on us, as parents, to choose the path and its direction for our children. It surely is not going to be easy or smooth sailing. And we will be able to ride against the tide, only and only if we are absolutely convinced with the purpose to do so.
Cultivate an environment fostering focus and intensity …
navigating our children away from the ADHD epidemic!
The Parenting Flow #01
This newsletter is a humble attempt towards ‘parenting with awareness’ and raising the young generation to be change makers and thought leaders.
Sanket Dharod
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