Could the Web Treat AD/HD?
In my other blog I was commenting on AD/HD. I suggested that is was an ethnogenic disorder (created by cultural conditions). Here are some of the symptoms:
1) fidgets, squirms, or is restless.
2) has difficulty remaining seated
3) is easily distracted
4) has difficulty waiting for his/her turn
5) blurts out answers
6) has difficulty following instructions
7) has difficulty sustaining attention
8) shifts from one uncompleted task to another
Attention deficit disorder? Pathological condition? Or just the work of the Brain Borers? Last week, I commented on a web site (Cosmeo) launched by Discovery Communications. It offers:
video clips, interactive educational games and other tools. Discovery says the resources were selected to comply with the curricula and education standards of all 50 states.
Now here is an experiment that any parent can try. It might be especially useful to parents of a child with symptoms of AD/HD. Provide the Cosmeo web site to the child .(There is a 30 day free trial.) Ask the child to evaluate web site and tell you whether it is more interesting than the school work that covers the same material. Observe what the child does. Write your observations. Compare them to reports of what the child does in class with similar content.
Caution! DO NOT TELL THE CHILD TO STUDY! Ask the child to evaluate. Of course, you will indicate that if the child prefers this material, you may continue the subscription.
I leave the interpretation of the results to the advanced reader. (All readers of this blog are advanced readers.) Remember, however, that this is not a treatment. It is merely diagnostic information that parents may find helpful in distinguishing AD/HD from the brain borers.
As a treatment, Cosmeo may be useful or not, depending on the circumstances. If Cosmeo provides effective and engaging instruction, the child may learn easily and get ahead of the class. But that advanced preparation could make the school work more boring. The child might have even more discipline problems is school. But the problems are less likely to be attributed to AD/HD if the child shows competence with the material.
Of course, schools can also use Cosmeo. According to the news release, some 70,000 already do. My theory is that “attention deficits” are more often caused by boring content than by neurological problems. If the Cosmeo content is engaging, schools that use it may have fewer attention deficits.
A new opportunity for entrepreneurial psychologists. I see the headlines now.
Web treats AD/HD!
1) fidgets, squirms, or is restless.
2) has difficulty remaining seated
3) is easily distracted
4) has difficulty waiting for his/her turn
5) blurts out answers
6) has difficulty following instructions
7) has difficulty sustaining attention
8) shifts from one uncompleted task to another
Attention deficit disorder? Pathological condition? Or just the work of the Brain Borers? Last week, I commented on a web site (Cosmeo) launched by Discovery Communications. It offers:
video clips, interactive educational games and other tools. Discovery says the resources were selected to comply with the curricula and education standards of all 50 states.
Now here is an experiment that any parent can try. It might be especially useful to parents of a child with symptoms of AD/HD. Provide the Cosmeo web site to the child .(There is a 30 day free trial.) Ask the child to evaluate web site and tell you whether it is more interesting than the school work that covers the same material. Observe what the child does. Write your observations. Compare them to reports of what the child does in class with similar content.
Caution! DO NOT TELL THE CHILD TO STUDY! Ask the child to evaluate. Of course, you will indicate that if the child prefers this material, you may continue the subscription.
I leave the interpretation of the results to the advanced reader. (All readers of this blog are advanced readers.) Remember, however, that this is not a treatment. It is merely diagnostic information that parents may find helpful in distinguishing AD/HD from the brain borers.
As a treatment, Cosmeo may be useful or not, depending on the circumstances. If Cosmeo provides effective and engaging instruction, the child may learn easily and get ahead of the class. But that advanced preparation could make the school work more boring. The child might have even more discipline problems is school. But the problems are less likely to be attributed to AD/HD if the child shows competence with the material.
Of course, schools can also use Cosmeo. According to the news release, some 70,000 already do. My theory is that “attention deficits” are more often caused by boring content than by neurological problems. If the Cosmeo content is engaging, schools that use it may have fewer attention deficits.
A new opportunity for entrepreneurial psychologists. I see the headlines now.
Web treats AD/HD!
posted by Selby Evans at 12:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home