Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
If sport or a club is the reason a struggling student still turns up, do not let it be the first thing taken away when grades slip. Removing it usually removes what was holding the rest together.
Eligibility rules that cut a young person from the team below a certain average tend to take out the structure, the daily exercise, the one place they feel competent and the friends, all in one go. It is worth asking the school to set the bar where the student can actually reach it, and saying plainly what would happen without it. Offer something in return, such as a weekly check on work, so the ask is a trade rather than a favour.
Qur’an and Sunnah
We have assigned a law and a path to each of you (Quran 5:48), and the same passage tells people to race to do good. Different paths towards one good is the frame, and for some young people the path back into school runs through the pitch.
وَأَنزَلۡنَآ إِلَيۡكَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبَ بِٱلۡحَقِّ مُصَدِّقࣰ ا لِّمَا بَيۡنَ يَدَيۡهِ مِنَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبِ وَمُهَيۡمِنًا عَلَيۡهِۖ فَٱحۡكُم بَيۡنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُۖ وَلَا تَتَّبِعۡ أَهۡوَآءَهُمۡ عَمَّا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلۡحَقِّۚ لِكُلࣲّ جَعَلۡنَا مِنكُمۡ شِرۡعَةࣰ وَمِنۡهَاجࣰ اۚ وَلَوۡ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمۡ أُمَّةࣰ وَٰحِدَةࣰ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَبۡلُوَكُمۡ فِي مَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمۡۖ فَٱسۡتَبِقُواْ ٱلۡخَيۡرَٰتِۚ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ مَرۡجِعُكُمۡ جَمِيعࣰ ا فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمۡ فِيهِ تَخۡتَلِفُونَ
We sent to you [Muhammad] the Scripture with the truth, confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and with final authority over them: so judge between them according to what God has sent down. Do not follow their whims, which deviate from the truth that has come to you. We have assigned a law and a path to each of you. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about
Qur’an 5:48read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A meta-analysis found that young people with ADHD show a stronger preference for immediate rewards over larger delayed ones. Training that pays off this afternoon holds attention in a way that a distant qualification does not, which is part of why the sport is doing so much work. The studies measured choices in the lab rather than the effect of school eligibility rules.
Patros CH, Alderson RM, Kasper LJ, Tarle SJ, Lea SE, Hudec KL. (2016). Choice-impulsivity in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A meta-analytic review.. Clinical psychology review doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Take away the part of the day that is going well and you lose the reason for the parts that are not.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Far more people have ADHD than are ever assessed for it. If you have wondered about yourself for years, the odds that an assessment would be worth your time are better than you think.
With children, practise the hard social moment rather than explaining it. Act out asking to join a game, or losing one, a few times at home where nothing is at stake.
Explain ADHD to the child themselves, in words they can hold. Something like: your brain is brilliant at things it finds interesting and needs extra help with things it finds boring, and we are going to work out that help together.