Sunday, December 28, 2008

Martial Arts & Kid's With ADHD Part 4

This series of articles on martial arts and kid's with ADD or ADHD is based on my 20+ years of teaching children with this disorder. That is the main reason for the title of the articles, it is not just what martial arts will do, but also other approaches to use that will work with martial arts training.

I had a parent recently telling me about their child's learning disability. Do you see a problem here? Remember back to when you were in school. Do you recall who the 'dumbest' kid in the class was? It was obvious to the kid's in class, the teacher and the child having the problems. But yet, through all this negative reinforcement, someone thought that this child might improve. GOOD LUCK! The situation must improve first!

A child with attention deficit disorder does not have a disease, they are not suffering from a learning disability, they are simply distracted. These children, who have above average intelligence, also have a better connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain than do other children. Therefore they receive on a continuing basis more information from their non-conscious mind than most people do.The sad part is that the education system and doctors don't know what to do about this (even if they understand it) and will subscribe drugs to stimulate the conscious mind, thus 'dumbing down' the unconscious mind, helping (supposedly) the child to focus. WRONG.

Our educational system works with what can be called 'explicit learning'. It is focused on learning using the left side of the brain, memorizing and calculating with the information provided. Children with ADD or ADHD thrive at learning in a way that is 'implicit'. Actually, that is the best way for everyone to learn anything, but that ability has been silenced by our eductional system.

What are example of implicit learning? Learning to walk, crawl, run and talk as an infant. All the rules of your primary language are learned this way. Right/Wrong, manners, much of the day to day behaviors you have were all learned implicitly.

Martial Arts instruction is an implicit learning method. This would apply to about 90% of the materials. This is a reason why martial arts is so very beneficial for children with ADD/ADHD or other similar conditions. There is one catch at this being successful! We need to work on the child's self esteem,becuase they are often being confronted by parents, teachers and piers about their alleged learning disablilities!

My final bit of advice for this article. Children will always live us to the expectations of their parents. How high are yours? If your child is not excelling is life, raise you expectations!