Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
Use it as a tool for a moment rather than a garment for the day: on before the piece of work that needs the most sitting still, off once that is done. Worn constantly it stops registering, and a child in something visibly different all day pays a social price for it. Watching for the point where it stops adding anything is part of using it well.
Eat from the good things We have provided for you, but do not overstep the bounds (Quran 20:81). Enough is a real place, and going past it is not extra help.
طه
كُلُواْ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا رَزَقۡنَٰكُمۡ وَلَا تَطۡغَوۡاْ فِيهِ فَيَحِلَّ عَلَيۡكُمۡ غَضَبِيۖ وَمَن يَحۡلِلۡ عَلَيۡهِ غَضَبِي فَقَدۡ هَوَىٰ
‘Eat from the good things We have provided for you, but do not overstep the bounds, or My wrath will descend on you. Anyone on whom My wrath descends has truly fallen
Qur’an 20:81read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
How much of something you give is worth knowing for each support separately, because dose behaves differently in each. Thirteen weeks of aerobic exercise in overweight children improved executive function and school achievement with a dose-response relationship, meaning more of it did more good. That pattern is not universal, which is exactly why the point where a given support levels off is worth finding.
Davis CL, Tomporowski PD, McDowell JE, Austin BP, Miller PH, Yanasak NE, Allison JD, Naglieri JA. (2011). Exercise improves executive function and achievement and alters brain activation in overweight children: a randomized, controlled trial.. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The body settles to the added pressure fairly quickly, and after that the vest is only a heavy jumper.
If a child dislikes the pressure or asks for the vest to come off, take it off, because something that has to be imposed is not doing what this is for.
Ask which direction a person's sensory difficulty runs before offering anything. Someone who is under responsive needs more input and someone who is over responsive needs less, and the wrong one makes the day harder.
Ask what happens after the course ends, not only what happens during it. A gain that fades once the sessions stop was probably never a change in the person.
Megavitamins, antioxidant products such as pycnogenol and assorted trace minerals have not beaten placebo for ADHD. They stay popular on the strength of a good story about how they ought to work.