ADHD and video games
 

I have recently bought an iPad and have dicovered it is the best distraction for my 4 yr old son with ADHD/ODD. We take it everywhere and he will play til the batteries run out. He literally will open every app ( we have about 30 or more games) on the iPad and doesnt play one game for very long, but it the best distraction for him. I think he is getting his very own from Santa Clause because I never get to play with it anymore.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

my son has never been into psp, ds or video games but he loves his friend´s ipad. It has some really great cames for memory training, logic and stuff, some of it similar to the games used to test him for ADHD.

One day I think it will be possible to incorporate these types of fun engaging activities into learning at school although I know not in my child´s school lifetime.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

my son is so behind on the fundamentals like tracing letters, letter recognition, numbers, so on snd so on. So we dowlaoded alot of learning games and skill/thinking/stradegy, ect. So he is learning without realizing it. My only conern is he is gonna ask his teacher for an iPad when she asks him to trace his letters. And he is doing it all with a finger instead of a pencil. It helps me get stuff done because I can leave him in the livingroom with the iPad and twenty min later he is still there.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

DD's grade 5 teacher used an iPad in the classroom last year, so if her grade 6 teacher also uses it, I would be willing to buy an iPad for her to use in class. However, child professionals have said that any screen time is not good for very young kids, including TV and any computer.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

My 9 year old son had adhd/anxety. I also have found that the D.S can hold his attention for a long time! But after a while he gets angry at the game and I tell him to take a break and he gets even madder. I don't know if it's good or bad for him to be playing video games. On one hand it grabs his attention for a while, so I feel thats a good thing. On the other everyone is always saying how awful they are. I feel if he can learn something while doing it, it can't be that bad.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

Video Games, I love them and I always will. They got me through a lot of hard times when I used them as an escape from crappy reality, and even when my life is going okay then they help me through a lot of bored times :P

Re: ADHD and video games
 

If he doesn't spend a ton of time playing video games, he'll spend a ton of time doing something else. It's all a matter of finding something he enjoys doing - that also gives him a minimum amount of frustration. You may want to explore some other interests with him and see if he gets more satisfaction from them. He might like some sort of sport or hobby enough to immerse himself just as deeply, and if it doesn't frustrate him as much, more the better.

Now, from my perspective, when I've gotten frustrated with something I'm immersed in, it's because I'm trying and trying, and can't get it right. I don't want to stop, because I know that if I just keep going, I'll definitely figure it out the next time. Failing at it repeatedly is frustrating - and having someone else tell me to give it a rest sometimes comes off to me as them telling me that I'm not going to succeed, so I should give it up. Sounds stupid, right? Most people would understand that taking a break and clearing your thoughts is a good way to come back fresh. When you have ADHD, though, picking up where you left off is darn near impossible, and dropping something and coming back to it later is antithetical to success.

If he has trouble with the picking up where he left off thing, then video games might not be the best entertainment for him. He can't go back and review what he did before on the screen to analyze where his mistakes might have been, so he has to depend on his memory each time he restarts. Some kids don't have a problem with this, but if he's a tactile learner or a specific type of visual learner, this might add to the anxiety about stopping a game in the middle. If he's doing something instead that's tangible and three dimensional, that he can pick up and turn around, disassemble and reassemble, etc., it might be a better match for him.

Talking this kind of thing over with him will not only help you in directing his attention, but it will help him in learning how to understand himself.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

I don't have an iPad, but I do have a tablet, and it's a total lifesaver for super boring things (like gigs) or where I normally get overly antsy and can't be still.

Re: ADHD and video games
 

angry birds... YUSSYUSSSYUSS...i get pis5ed off with it quickly though and a lot of other computer games, if i get stuck i tend to quite too easily