How to explain this disorder in layperson language?
by Biser Rangelov
Reading time: 4 minutes
ADHD is a common mental health disorder for many boys and girls today. For the past six years I provided treatment and skills training for a number of children, adolescent and their parents both in my office and in their natural environment (home, school, and playground). I have heard different misconceptions and false beliefs from parents and teachers due to lack of knowledge and understanding about ADHD, which at times leads to refusal or non-compliance with the treatment. For example, children with ADHD can do math, read, write or control their behavior when a teacher or a parent provides individual attention and a question has been frequently raised as to whether there is “really” a disorder.
It is very important for the counselor during psycho-education to explain ADHD in understandable layperson language. A while ago, I learned from Dr. Zwingelberg the following metaphor and analogy that I found very useful in helping parents, teachers and school staff members to understand this disorder.
The fact that a child with ADHD can behave and perform more effectively when a teacher stands over them than when they are left to their own direction is NOT a reason to believe that no disorder exists---though this is the argument you will hear from many parents and teachers who disagree with your diagnosis.
Think of driving an automobile on a freeway when you are very tired. You can fight sleep, but you keep nodding off. This is what it is like having ADD-ADHD. You can fight it, but it takes a lot of effort. Now back to the car. It is two in the morning; you nod off, but awaken yourself, still fighting sleep. You awaken your friend who is sleeping in the passenger seat and say, "I'm falling asleep all the time, talk to me, make noise, help me focus." Your friend does just that. And what happens?
You find it easier to stay awake and to continue driving without the insistent need to fall asleep. Why? Because you have had an external focus of attention delivered to you. It is as if you have been given extra energy to accomplish your driving task, which in fact you have been given. You now have the energy of another person helping you accomplish the task at hand. You have, essentially, an external conscience, as well.
This is essentially what happens with ADD-ADHD children given attention by adults or others to help them stay on task and perform, to help their behaviors conform.
Essentially, and here's the metaphor, ADHD children's frontal lobes are working too slow to filter out extraneous stimuli. As you read this you are likely sitting down. Until you read this next sentence you are unaware of the facts I'll mention in a moment, but the instant I mention them you will note what I say. Your frontal lobes are filtering out extra stimuli at this moment. An ADHD child's (or adult's) frontal lobes are not as effective as yours at doing this.
Here's what you are filtering . . . as you sit there, reading, you have pressure on your behind. You can feel it now, but until I mentioned it your mind was filtering out the sensation. Now it senses the "feeling" of sitting. You likely also can hear some sounds around you, or smell something, or feel a draft of air, a fan, or even taste something or feel hungry or thirsty or . . . any number of sensual things are occurring that you have weeded out until asked to become aware of them.
The frontal lobe filters of individuals with ADHD don't filter as effectively. More impulses are coming into their brain and they have to react to them. In a one-on-one situation, such as when a child is tested by a lone psychologist in a quiet office, such stimuli are minimized. When they have an authority figure standing over them, they have extra energy to manage their behaviors . . . much as an individual with kleptomania will not likely steal something when a police officer is standing next to them. This is that external conscience, again.
In a classroom, or around activity, color, noise, movement, etc., the individual with ADD- ADHD is bombarded with sensory input you and I easily filter out. They struggle with this "filtering" because, essentially, their frontal lobes are working "slower" (part of the metaphor I'm setting up here). This is why it is most difficult for these children to behave in crowded classrooms or where there is a great deal of activity. In class, they hear the pencil sharpener, and must look to see who's there; they hear the sneeze at the back of the room, see the kids passing notes, hear the whispers of kids playing around, are distracted by their own flow of consciousness thoughts . . . and are continually distracted---unlike those with good frontal lobe filters who can weed these things out of their environment and consciousness.
To part II
It is very important for the counselor during psycho-education to explain ADHD in understandable layperson language. A while ago, I learned from Dr. Zwingelberg the following metaphor and analogy that I found very useful in helping parents, teachers and school staff members to understand this disorder.
The fact that a child with ADHD can behave and perform more effectively when a teacher stands over them than when they are left to their own direction is NOT a reason to believe that no disorder exists---though this is the argument you will hear from many parents and teachers who disagree with your diagnosis.
Think of driving an automobile on a freeway when you are very tired. You can fight sleep, but you keep nodding off. This is what it is like having ADD-ADHD. You can fight it, but it takes a lot of effort. Now back to the car. It is two in the morning; you nod off, but awaken yourself, still fighting sleep. You awaken your friend who is sleeping in the passenger seat and say, "I'm falling asleep all the time, talk to me, make noise, help me focus." Your friend does just that. And what happens?
You find it easier to stay awake and to continue driving without the insistent need to fall asleep. Why? Because you have had an external focus of attention delivered to you. It is as if you have been given extra energy to accomplish your driving task, which in fact you have been given. You now have the energy of another person helping you accomplish the task at hand. You have, essentially, an external conscience, as well.
This is essentially what happens with ADD-ADHD children given attention by adults or others to help them stay on task and perform, to help their behaviors conform.
Essentially, and here's the metaphor, ADHD children's frontal lobes are working too slow to filter out extraneous stimuli. As you read this you are likely sitting down. Until you read this next sentence you are unaware of the facts I'll mention in a moment, but the instant I mention them you will note what I say. Your frontal lobes are filtering out extra stimuli at this moment. An ADHD child's (or adult's) frontal lobes are not as effective as yours at doing this.
Here's what you are filtering . . . as you sit there, reading, you have pressure on your behind. You can feel it now, but until I mentioned it your mind was filtering out the sensation. Now it senses the "feeling" of sitting. You likely also can hear some sounds around you, or smell something, or feel a draft of air, a fan, or even taste something or feel hungry or thirsty or . . . any number of sensual things are occurring that you have weeded out until asked to become aware of them.
The frontal lobe filters of individuals with ADHD don't filter as effectively. More impulses are coming into their brain and they have to react to them. In a one-on-one situation, such as when a child is tested by a lone psychologist in a quiet office, such stimuli are minimized. When they have an authority figure standing over them, they have extra energy to manage their behaviors . . . much as an individual with kleptomania will not likely steal something when a police officer is standing next to them. This is that external conscience, again.
In a classroom, or around activity, color, noise, movement, etc., the individual with ADD- ADHD is bombarded with sensory input you and I easily filter out. They struggle with this "filtering" because, essentially, their frontal lobes are working "slower" (part of the metaphor I'm setting up here). This is why it is most difficult for these children to behave in crowded classrooms or where there is a great deal of activity. In class, they hear the pencil sharpener, and must look to see who's there; they hear the sneeze at the back of the room, see the kids passing notes, hear the whispers of kids playing around, are distracted by their own flow of consciousness thoughts . . . and are continually distracted---unlike those with good frontal lobe filters who can weed these things out of their environment and consciousness.
To part II
Biser Rangelov, MA MFC, LPC
Biss-Ann Counseling Services
3001 W. 5th St. Suite 400
Fort Worth, TX 76107
E-mail:[email protected]
Phone: 817.372.1107
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