You bet Karate could help! Here is a success story straight from the ADDitude homepage:

Boosting Your ADHD Child's Self Esteem Through Sports

Also, see this article about picking sports for your ADHD child

I hope this helps, Dena

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I'm a mom of an 11 year old boy, when we first started he didn't want to participate then I gave him small rewards for participating. I also spoke with the teacher (sensei) about one on one lessons to start. They were great and Micha eventually participated with the entire class and moved up in belt and even came in 2nd place in competition. Karate helped him in school, here's how. In Karate children had the chance to be leaders at practice, they were leaders in going over their katas. My son began raising his had to be a lead....he would never do this, he would always hang back and act really shy and awkward. This class participation carried over into school and he became part of class discussions which worked well with his grades. His friends were in the class also which also helped a lot. I say try it out. I must also say this was our second or try at this sport in a couple of years. He didn't like anything at first..

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Thank you for your input Dena and mxb'xmom, my daughter seems very eager to start the class and I am going to let her get involved in it. Right now I just have to shop around for the good local class to put her in. Hopefully it will help as you guys stated. I told her that if I get her involved she has to give me at least 3 months, no 2 weeks and then I don't like it. She agreed to that. So I have been to 2 schools so far, I want to try to hit one more and make my choice after the 3rd one.

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I have ADD inattentive type. I was diagnosed and started with medications this year, at the age of 20. I guess my parents had big expectations for me, and I therefore tried out a LOT of different hobbies. Well, it's safe to say that it didn't go as they planned :P

My mother wanted me to learn how to play violin, so I played violin for 4 years. (WOW) My father wanted me to learn karate, so i went to a karate course until I got the green belt. My mother loved that I was so creative, so I went to a painting and drawing course. I grew up with doing a lot of downhill skiing, snowboarding and swimming. Throughout my childhood I also tried out these activities for 1 year or less: Handball, piano, swimming course..

It was terrible! One year I actually had one or two activities each day, and in the winter I went snowboarding/skiing each weekend. I never had time off to relax, and I didn't have medication. The worst activities I did was those my parents wanted me to learn(Violin and karate), and I didn't have the courrage to turn them down and say I didn't want to do those activities no more. At the end I just had to say that I just wanted a break from the activities and that I would start up again next year! That year I went from having one or two activities a day to having zero activities each day. Today I only do swimming, snowboarding/skiing, and creative stuff if I feel like doing some.

I actually learned an important lessom from this. Don't make your ADD/ADHD children do activities that you want them to do. Instead of doing courses with many other people, do either one on one courses or activities that don't need courses. Make sure your child gets enough challenges. Activities that creates adrenalinrush, or demand a lot of concentration is actually a good thing. I never felt more calm as young than when I did snowboarding/skiing and swimming. Keeping my breath and swimming under water is exellent therapy for me :)

And I have to tell you one more thing, I have wanted to learn how to play a piano for many many years, and as I mentioned I tried a one on one piano course one year when I was younger. I grew tired of it because I didn't get enough challenges, so I quit it. It was way too easy, I didn't even learn how to play a real song. But through the years I kept playing the piano on my own, and I actually learned more songs than ever. My little brother has played the piano for years now, and my mother often think it's my brother who plays the piano when it's actually me.

I'm not saying that karate is a bad idea for your child, it may be a whole other thing. Your kid is medicated and this means a great difference. Good luck! :)

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