Aerobic exercise can help children with ADHD improve attention, sharpen social skills, and learn more effectively. Learn how to incorporate physical activity into your child’s daily routine.
A recent study found that 30 minutes of exercise before school can help kids with ADHD focus and manage moods. It can even eliminate or decrease the need for stimulant medications used to treat symptoms. Learn why it works, and how to incorporate physical activity into all areas of your child's life.
Cartoon head and brain blue and white
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How Exercise Helps
Exercise boosts the brain's neurotransmitters – chemicals that many people with ADHD run short on. It also increases the amount of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) available. The balance of neurochemicals lets the brain make stronger connections, and higher levels of BDNF directly correlate with increased rates of learning. When neurotransmitters make weak connections, you forget!
Pupils In Class Using Digital Tablet
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Exercise + Stimulation
Exercise primes the brain for learning, and environmental enrichment helps to make the important connections happen. When kids with ADHD are stimulated in class, following exercise, it encourages the newly developed cells to plug into the brain's communication network and become members of the signaling community. Thirty minutes, four times a week, of running, jumping, or skipping should do the trick.
Nature has a great positive impact on kids. The more time they spend in a natural setting, the greater ability they have to focus and concentrate. Even 20 minutes of exercise on a tree-lined street can improve symptoms. Exposure to outdoor activities like camping, fishing, or just running around in the woods can help kids recover from symptoms like attention fatigue and increase patience and impulse control.
Father Waking up Son
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Control Aggression, Sleep Better
Being physically active can help kids with ADHD control aggression, and sleep better. Exercise helps our bodies transition between the phases of sleep, and physical exhaustion can increase the amount of time we spend in deep sleep. A half hour spent climbing a tree or paddling a canoe can mean a good night's sleep and less crankiness, anxiety and stress throughout the day.
Little girl walking with dog
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Before School
Exercising before school can ease kids' anxiety, and prime their brain for learning. Having kids take the dog for an early morning run, or ride their bikes to school are great ADHD morning outlets. If the weather is bad, even jumping rope or bouncing on a small indoor trampoline can help. Some teachers lead their students in calisthenics, yoga, or martial arts first thing in the morning.
Primary school kids running in the hallway
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At School
Kids with ADHD do best when movement is built in throughout the day with set times to jog in place or do jumping jacks. Give kids the opportunity to move around the room while helping the teacher hand out supplies, collect papers, or deliver messages — a good way to help them feel special and to blow off steam. A wiggle chair or fidget can help extra active kids sit still without disrupting others.
Playing with classmates can help kids with ADHD work on social skills, and keep them from acting out in the afternoon. Teachers should never take away recess as a punishment. Hyperactive kids need the boost from playing tag or climbing the jungle gym to improve attention, working memory, and mood.
Happy family playing together
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At Home
Get kids off the couch after school! Make a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity a rule before homework or video games. An after-school karate class, swim lesson, or soccer practice is a great idea, but free time running around the park works, too. Ask your child what he's learning in gym class, and encourage him to practice his skills. Set up play dates at a friend's. Kids are less likely to be sedentary when at someone else's house.
A ADHD boy enjoying rock climbing at indoor climbing gym, healthy and active lifestyle concept
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Sign Up for Sports
Sports can give kids with ADHD confidence and help them work toward goals. Any sport that involves running or sprinting can improve executive function. Skilled activities like rock climbing, yoga, karate, gymnastics, figure skating or tai chi help expend energy and build brain connections as well. Swimming and diving are excellent for kids with ADHD, as the repetitive motion is both soothing and physically taxing. Exercise creates a sense of well-being, and opens up a new level of concentration and perception.
At high school I needed to either walk or ride a bike to school.
If I was driven, I arrived still half-asleep.
At junior school, a group of us would run the mile to school.
At high school I needed to either walk or ride a bike to school.
If I was driven, I arrived still half-asleep.
At junior school, a group of us would run the mile to school.