Can exercise help kids with ADHD?

Can exercise help alleviate the effects of ADHD?

Currently, medications, psychological counseling, and cognitive behavioral therapy (or a combination of these elements) form the conventional treatment for kids with ADHD. But what about exercise? Could exercise also help alleviate the effects of ADHD? To answer this question, a team of researchers analyzed scientific studies regarding the long and short-term effects of exercise as an intervention for kids struggling with mild to severe ADHD.

Here's what the researchers found:

"Acute (or intensive) exercise and regular physical activities can induce physiological and psychological mechanisms that not only promote physical and psychological health but also improve physiological and cognitive functions, including memory and executive function. Planned physical exercises are beneficial for executive function, emotional regulation, spatial memory, learning performance, mood development, and interpersonal relationships, and can induce structural and functional neuroplasticity in the brain." [1]

In simpler terms, scientists found that systematic exercise programs and directed movements helped kids manage their minds and improved their physical and mental health simultaneously. Exercise helps kids with ADHD organize and improve classwork and homework, manage mood swings, make and keep friends, and optimize their brains for learning.

Why does exercise have such dramatic impacts on kids with ADHD? 

Exercise, especially movement blended with cognitive meaning, stimulates the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which help kids regulate moods, sharpen their ability to focus, and block distractions. Exercise also floods the brain with BDNF — a chemical famously known as "miracle-gro" for neurons.

So when we get kids out of their seats, learning becomes a treat.

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Effects of physical exercise on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (1)