Here's How to Lessen ADHD Symptoms for Girls
ScienceDaily.com
October 5, 2020
A new study from the University of Montreal found that girls who participate in extracurricular sports had diminished ADHD symptoms when they developed into teens. The effect was not the same for boys. The study will be published in Preventative Medicine"Girls who do regular extracurricular sports between ages 6 and 10 show fewer symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 12, compared to girls who seldom do," said Linda Pagani, a professor at Université de Montréal's School of Psychoeducation.
"Surprisingly, however, boys do not appear to gain any behavioral benefit from sustained involvement in sports during middle childhood," said Pagani, who led the study co-authored by her students Marie-Josée Harbec and Geneviève Fortin and McGill University associate medical professor Tracie Barnett.
"Past studies have varied widely in quality, thus blurring the true association between sport and behavioral development." She added: "On top of that, "past research has not acknowledged that boys and girls are different in how they present ADHD symptoms."
A chance to get organized
ADHD harms children's ability to process information and learn at school, Pagani explained. Sport helps young people develop life skills and supportive relationships with their peers and adults. It offers a chance to get organized under some form of adult influence or supervision.
"Thus, from a public-health perspective, extracurricular sport has the potential to be a positive, non-stigmatizing and engaging approach to promote psychological well-being and could thus be viewed as behavior therapy for youth with ADHD," Pagani said.
"Sports are especially beneficial if they begin in early childhood. And so, since using concentration and interpersonal skills are essential elements of sport, in our study we undertook to examine whether it would result in reductions in ADHD symptoms over the long term."
Why do girls with ADHD benefit from sports, but not boys?
"In childhood, boys with ADHD are more impulsive and more motor-skilled than girls -- as a result, boys are more likely to receive medication for their ADHD, so faster diagnosis and treatment for boys in middle childhood could diminish the detectable benefits of sport," Pagani said. "They might be there; they're just harder to tease out."
"In girls, on the other hand, ADHD is more likely to go undetected -- and girls' difficulties may be even more tolerated at home and in school. Parents of boys, by contrast, might be more inclined to enroll them in sports and other physical activities to help them."
She added: "We know that sporting activities have other numerous benefits for mental health of all children. However, for reducing ADHD symptoms, middle childhood sports in elementary school seem more noteworthy for girls."
While it may be challenging during COVID-19 to play in organized team sports, sport activities played with safety in mind with others in your niece's safe “pod,” like siblings, parents, classmates or friends – and of course favorite Auntie – is encouraged. As Pagani concludes: "Sports activities in early childhood can help girls develop essential social skills that will be useful later and ultimately play a key role in their personal, financial and economic success."
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The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanties Research Council of Canada and other funders, including the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon.Content was edited for the Savvy Auntie readership.
University of Montreal. "
Girls benefit from doing sports." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 September 2020.