ADHD Resources

This ADHD resource section was created by Tucker Bayly in partial completion of his senior project at Moscow High School in 2023.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized behaviorally by poor attention span, impulsivity, exceedingly high energy (hyperactivity), poor planning, disorganization, and numerous other related behaviors. ADHD is the most frequently diagnosed disorder of childhood. According to the CDC, around 10% of children are diagnosed with ADHD, 25% of whom will never receive treatment. With the average class size in the United States being 24 students, that means an average of two students with ADHD in every public-school classroom — a very high number for a disorder that can create so much distress and academic struggle. As rates of ADHD and other attentional issues rise, so do suicide rates in younger generations of boys, who appear to struggle with ADHD more frequently than girls. In correlation with this mental health trend, and as society continues to move indoors, recess and free play time have been reduced drastically both in and outside of schools. Play has been shown in numerous studies to be vital for neurological and social development, and could be key to reversing and preventing symptoms of ADHD and the struggles that come with it.

To understand treatment and management of ADHD, as well as modern methods of diagnosis, it helps to first understand what's causing the disorder from a neurobiological standpoint. The most widely accepted theory today is the Low Dopamine Hypothesis. This theory stems partly from the fact that people with ADHD are far more likely to become addicted to stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, and others) that increase dopamine and norepinephrine — and partly from the fact that the drugs often effective at alleviating ADHD behaviors (Adderall, Ritalin, and others) are also stimulants that affect the brain in a similar way.

Dopamine, the neuromodulator most associated with motivation and reward, can act as both an inhibitor and an enhancer for different brain networks, making it key to cognitive regulation. A low amount of dopamine helps explain impulsivity and disorganization: the brain wants dopamine quickly, leading to difficulty with long-term planning or thinking through decisions, and favoring the immediate benefit of an action over its later consequences. This also connects to the high rate of addiction to dopaminergic substances among people with ADHD, since taking stimulants lets them feel "normal" while ignoring the long-term risks.

Dopamine is also essential for regulating brain networks related to attention and focus. Two relevant networks are the Task-Related Network, active when someone is focused on completing a task, and the Default-Mode Network, active when someone is in a state of introspection, focused on their own thoughts and feelings rather than outside stimuli. In a well-regulated brain, these networks are anticorrelated — not active at the same time, since their functions would otherwise interfere with each other. When dopamine is in short supply, as in ADHD, both networks can become active simultaneously. This creates the experience of being spacey and distractible: someone trying to focus, or even trying to relax, finds the other network activating and pulling their attention elsewhere. Through an electroencephalogram (EEG), these brainwaves and networks can actually be measured, supporting more accurate diagnosis and addressing some of the limits of a purely behavioral diagnosis.

The low dopamine hypothesis also explains hyperactivity and hyper-focus as the brain's way of pursuing more dopamine. From the perspective of affective neuroscience, play arises from a very primal part of the brain and functions, in part, to raise dopamine levels through interacting with the environment — other people, or some other activity. It becomes an ultradian cycle: dopamine rises through stimulation until reaching a threshold of inhibition, where a person feels satisfied and ready to stop, and the brain begins inhibiting the behavior that previously stimulated it. Dopamine is stimulating up to a point, and inhibitory past it. Many aspects of hyperactivity, then, may really be a kind of hyper-playfulness — a state of extended playfulness in which a child never quite reaches that natural chemical stopping point, and stays high-energy and playful long after their peers have moved on. That can explain some social friction: a neurotypical child may be ready to be calm or serious, while a child with ADHD is unable to settle down.

This applies to focus and learning as well as play, often described as hyper-focus. When someone with ADHD finds something they're very interested in — something that brings them a lot of dopamine — they experience that same effect, but directed at whatever they're focused on. They can sustain that focus, again without reaching the threshold of inhibition, until they physically exhaust themselves or must move on for other reasons. Learning to manage this double-edged sword is crucial to functioning well with ADHD, and one of the best early-childhood treatments has simply been shown to be more play.

Typical treatments for ADHD tend to be medication, primarily stimulants. These are generally effective at reducing ADHD behaviors, but recent studies — including those that emphasize the value of play — highlight lesser-known but serious side effects when these drugs are prescribed at a young age. Children who start stimulants young are statistically shorter than their peers, and behavioral changes can hold them back in other ways too. Tied back to the ultradian cycle of play: where play is a natural way to raise dopamine until the brain has had enough and then taper off, medication essentially hijacks that system, raising dopamine without any preceding behavior. That can be behaviorally effective for symptoms, but it can also discourage children from engaging in play — and that lost play can be detrimental to a child's social development, since play is where children learn to socialize and pick up lessons that naturally raise dopamine in a healthier way.

Tapping into these deeper cognitive functions and basic biology is key to finding alternative treatments for ADHD, with the tradeoff that behavioral treatment takes more time and consistency than simply taking a medication. In a broader study of the impact of diet on behavior and cognitive function, it was found that minor food allergies, and limiting foods that create small amounts of antibodies or inflammation, can meaningfully improve cognitive and physical health — since neurons can experience mild inflammation from small food allergies that limits their ability to function at maximum efficiency. Supplements like fish oil that reduce inflammation have shown a similar effect in easing mild symptoms of neurological disorders and building a healthy nervous system. That said, diet alone has shown limits as a treatment for ADHD compared to modifying behaviors specifically related to play and physical activity. A study by Jaak Panksepp demonstrated this in rats — though the experiment hasn't been directly translated to humans, its implications, and the broader body of research on play, support the idea that they apply. Panksepp lesioned the brains of rats to simulate ADHD, then separated them into groups: a healthy control group, one allowed free play time with other rats, and one kept isolated. The rats allowed to play tested nearly identically to the control group, while the isolated rats continued to show ADHD symptoms. It's a simplified summary of a complex study, but it points clearly to the importance of play — not only in preventing, but in treating, ADHD.

This basic understanding of ADHD is crucial for parents, teachers, and people with the disorder themselves to manage it well. But turning that understanding into specific, practical steps in the classroom or daily life is easier said than done, and it can feel overwhelming to find the right balance. Below, you'll find advice from people with years of experience navigating ADHD, along with more specific ways to bring this understanding into the classroom and everyday life.