Helping kids cope with impulse problems - Hyperactivity - social psychology research - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Oct, 2002

Hyperactive children may avoid lives as social misfits by changing the way they approach situations, Jerrell Cassady, professor of educational psychology, Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., suggests. "Since most hyperactive children have impulse problems, many believe that if you have them count to 10, then react, they will respond better. Instead, we believe they should stop, review the situation, think about acceptable outcomes, and then react. The key is to have the children develop a method to come up with positive ways to handle a situation. Most have had many failures in social situations. They act antisocial because it fits their life experiences," he says.

The children selected for his study had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which includes significant problems with impulsivity, hyperactivity, and poor attention. ADHD is a neurologically based disorder, not the result of "bad parenting" or obnoxious willful defiance on the part of the child. About five to 12% of America's youth have been diagnosed with the disorder.

Cassady's tests included having 17 hyperactive and 17 nonhyperactive children read short stories. Students then were asked what they would do to handle the situations in them. "In one story, the children read about a student who got wet when another student's milk spilled. Nonhyperactive children gave positive outcomes, such as laughing it off or telling a teacher." The study found that hyperactive children tended to give negative responses, like fighting, yelling, and crying.

"However, when hyperactive children were asked to retell the story and then asked about possible ways to handle the situation, the answers became more positive," Cassady indicates. "Parents and teachers can use this information to help hyperactive children succeed in social situations. Teaching children to think about what has happened, come up with positive responses, and think ahead to what will happen after they respond is likely to lead to fewer social failures."