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Joseph, a five year old boy diagnosed with ADHD, was making good progress in yoga class at school. He was coming to friendship group once a week, and his mom and dad were working with me [Lynea] on parenting skills.
For Joseph, change came slowly but consistently. He had learned how to catch himself when excited and ask for help. His breathing practice was more rhythmic and controlled. His parents were learning how to help him regulate his emotions.
Then he was put on medication for ADHD. The results were quick and impressive. He was instantly calmer and more capable of focusing in class. Parenting and teaching him were both a lot easier. But it also seemed like he’d lost some of his fire and passion.
Soon after, Joseph stopped attending yoga and friendship group. His mom and dad stopped coming for parenting classes.
Deciding whether to medicate a child is a big decision. It can give a child the chance to experience life with less anxiety and social conflict. Sometimes, medication is absolutely necessary. But often, there’s an unfortunate side effect: parents drop the skills-training and other support they were providing their child. And their child gets the message loud and clear: When you’re struggling, use medicine. No need to keep practicing your friendship skills or learning tools for attention and how to self-regulate. Put all your faith in the pills.
Yet, as L. Alan Sroufe, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, noted in a recent op-ed in the New York Times, ADHD drugs offer a short-term solution at best.
Attention-deficit drugs increase concentration in the short term, which is why they work so well for college students cramming for exams. But when given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth.
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To date, no study has found any long-term benefit of attention-deficit medication on academic performance, peer relationships or behavior problems, the very things we would most want to improve.
But in 2009, findings were published from a well-controlled study that had been going on for more than a decade, and the results were very clear. The study randomly assigned almost 600 children with attention problems to four treatment conditions. Some received medication alone, some cognitive-behavior therapy alone, some medication plus therapy, and some were in a community-care control group that received no systematic treatment. At first this study suggested that medication, or medication plus therapy, produced the best results. However, after three years, these effects had faded, and by eight years there was no evidence that medication produced any academic or behavioral benefits.
Indeed, all of the treatment successes faded over time, although the study is continuing. Clearly, these children need a broader base of support than was offered in this medication study, support that begins earlier and lasts longer.
The skills and strategies we teach in Yoga Calm, of course, aim to provide just this kind of support. Over time, the desired effect of drugs like Ritalin, Adderall and Strattera fade, while undesired effects – i.e., side effects – remain. But when we provide opportunities for kids to develop self-awareness, focus and social skills; when we safely address underlying issues of stress and trauma; when we instill and support healthy habits, we provide them with a body of skills, knowledge and experience they can draw on for the rest of their lives.
And we see this especially with children who have weaknesses in attention and impulse control – like Joseph.
Concurring with this need for a broader treatment approach, ADHD specialist Dr. Edward Hallowell, writes in Ritalin Redux, his response to Sroufe’s article, that what’s most important is
a loving, safe, and richly connected childhood. The long-term study that Dr. Sroufe cited in his opinion piece does indeed show that over time, medication becomes a less important force in a child’s improvement and that human connections become ever more powerful. It is good and heartening to know that human connection — love — works wonders over time. Love is our most powerful and under-prescribed “ medication.” It’s free and infinite in supply, and doctors most definitely ought to prescribe it more!
This doesn’t mean that, as Dr. Sroufe say[s], Ritalin has “gone wrong.” We may go wrong in how we use it, when we over-prescribe it, or when we use it as a substitute for love, guidance, and the human connection.
Indeed, continuing on the current path of biasing treatment approaches toward pills while ignoring proven and complementary behavioral interventions carries some serious risks, says Sroufe:
First, there will never be a single solution for all children with learning and behavior problems. While some smaller number may benefit from short-term drug treatment, large-scale, long-term treatment for millions of children is not the answer.
Second, the large-scale medication of children feeds into a societal view that all of life’s problems can be solved with a pill and gives millions of children the impression that there is something inherently defective in them.
Finally, the illusion that children’s behavior problems can be cured with drugs prevents us as a society from seeking the more complex solutions that will be necessary. Drugs get everyone — politicians, scientists, teachers and parents — off the hook. Everyone except the children, that is.
Consider Joseph, 10 years after first being given medication. He’s now 15. His relationship with his parents is tense. He wants more freedom. They want him to focus on school and get a part time job. As he’s grown, doctors increased his dosage. Since his latest growth spurt, he’s noticed that he feels anxious and is having a hard time paying attention in class. After an argument with his girlfriend, a friend offers him some drugs to help him mellow out.
What have we, as a culture, taught Joseph to do?
Image by jlynn11235, via Flickr
One of the things that makes Valentine’s Day such a unique holiday is that it’s the only one that doesn’t commemorate an event or honor a person or the passage of time. It’s about a feeling: love.
hint of plum/Flickr
And it can be a little emotionally overwhelming, especially for kids, as they’re still learning about their feelings. As educators, parents, counselors, therapists or others who work with children, it’s important for us to both acknowledge kids’ emotions and teach them ways of handling them.
Here, I think back to what I wrote last year about an experience with one of my Yoga Calm groups – one that showed the stress that such an emotionally loaded day such as Valentine’s can have on kids and an activity we came up with for helping them manage that stress. Jim and I would like to share it with you again in hopes that it will inspire you to come up with your own activities for making this Valentine’s Day an opportunity for emotional learning and growth for the kids you work with.
And if it does, please share your story about it in the comments section!
- Lynea Gillen
Recently, a group of five fifth grade boys in one of my Yoga Calm groups said they had something “really important to talk with me about.” It had “something to do about” their feelings.
Over the course of the year, these boys had gradually opened up about all sorts of things in our groups, from bullying to troubles with parents and siblings. Sometimes they’d cry and, most endearingly, support each other when they cried – something very hard for boys this age to do when peer and social expectations are for them to be tough.
“What’s going on,” I asked them.
They replied that they were “really stressed.” When I asked why, they said, “It’s Valentine’s day.”
“Valentine’s day?” I responded with a bit of surprise.
“Yes, the girls are asking for cards, but we don’t know what to write!” explained one boy. “We don’t know how to do Valentines.”
Trying not to smile or laugh, I asked if some girls were easier to talk to than others, thinking a friendship lesson might be in order. But I knew that wasn’t where we were going as soon as one boy said, “The beautiful ones are harder to talk to.”
“And there are a lot of beautiful girls,” added another.
Maintaining my composure, I asked if I could ask the some girls from the afternoon Yoga Calm class if they had some Valentine’s advice for the boys. “No!” they said emphatically.
“What if it’s done anonymously?” They looked at each other, then gave the O.K.
My girls’ Yoga Calm group met later that day, and during the end-of-session relaxation, I asked if I could ask an important question – one they could answer only by listening to their hearts. I told them that there were some boys who really needed advice on Valentine’s Day. At first, the girls snickered but then gave their answers:
- Tell the girl how you really feel about her.
- Don’t ask her to be your Valentine if you don’t know her.
- Tell her she has nice hair and eyes – girls like to hear that.
- Don’t use a scrawny voice.
- Act formal – and do it where no one else can hear.
- Don’t ask in front of your friends, as this puts pressure on her.
- Ask her in person instead of a letter.
- Give a compliment or two, but don’t smother her with them.
- Don’t ask twice.
- Say “Be Mine” on the card.
Perhaps, this would be good advice for all, young and old!
Upon completing our Integrated Approach to Wellness 1 workshop, Debi Doyle, a school counselor in Mukilteo, Washington, wrote to us about how she’s been applying Yoga Calm in her work with kids:
Lately, I have been focusing on breath work with my students, trying to decide how to fuse this with the social skills lessons we already do. Recently, I discovered one way.
On Mondays, I see six classes, and on this particular day, a second grade class was the first to come. As they did, I remained seated, quietly moving a Hoberman sphere in rhythm with my breath. It was my first time using this tool, and I was very curious to see how effective it could be with the variety of classes that I see.
Without a word, the students entered in their normal fashion and sat in a circle on the floor. In less than a minute, the room was filled with 25 peacefully breathing second graders.
I asked if the students knew what their bodies were doing as they watched the “breathing ball.” One of the boys answered, “I’m breathing along with it.”
At this, I gave him a turn to sit in my spot and use the sphere. As he did, I got a small drum out and drummed in rhythm to his movement.
After a while, I asked another student if she would like a turn and asked the first student if he would like to take a turn on the drum. I briefly explained the drum’s purpose to him, and with that, the pair of students began, with the class silently following for a bit of time.
I then asked the class if they had any compliments for the pair. Without question, they received some of the most heartfelt and sincere compliments I have heard a group of students give.
All this activity was a perfect transition to talk about our breath at play, rest and while learning. Using the Hoberman sphere, I showed them their recess breath, running to line up, a few big sighs and then how each of them could calm their minds and bodies just by using their breath.
In another class, I gave the sphere to some kids on the Autistic spectrum. One who rarely has a successful time in my room was able to enter my class and join us quietly that day. Without a word, he watched what was going on and followed what he saw. I gave him a turn with the sphere, which he did really well. When it was his turn to drum, he worked very hard to figure out how to find a quiet rhythm. At first, he banged loudly. Then he adjusted to a quieter strike but took the stick back with great force. I noticed many of his classmates cringing at this, then relaxing when they saw how gently he struck the drum. We saw that he was just using an arcing motion to beat the drum – the best way he found to make the sound soft.
As I watched, I noticed how I had to bite my tongue a couple times to allow him to find his way. I became aware of how often we jump in to correct those who learn in an unconventional manner. Instead of him getting the message, “You can’t; let me show you,” he was able to experience, “You will figure it out; you are capable.”
I love learning from kids.
During the following Compliments activity, many of this boy’s peers were able to express to him how they liked how he had adjusted his drumming. They told him how they saw how hard he was concentrating. No wonder he came in the next week all excited for more! This kid had rarely gotten any communication from his peers, let alone positive words. Now he was being noticed for his teamwork and perseverance.
I am really beginning to see how beneficial it is to use what I have learned in Yoga Calm and integrate it into the Second Step lessons in the classroom. At this point, I am not sure the kids would let me go back to the way we did things without Yoga Calm.
Used by permission
In a recent group at school, a young boy came in and reported to us all that a friend of his had committed suicide the week before. The other students had lots of questions – How? Why? – and the feelings of fear and loss that come up when someone takes their own life. The boy really needed to talk, and the other students were very supportive of his emotion.
Because it was such a heavy topic, I wanted to turn the focus to something more positive before sending the children back out into the world. So I gave them each a Community Circle worksheet and encouraged them to fill it with all the people in their world who help them when they are having a hard time.
Someone asked if it was okay to put people on it who had died. I said, “Absolutely. We still hold them in our hearts, and they are still a part of our community.” The boy wrote his friend’s name in his circle.
The children created beautiful depictions of the people in their lives who were “there” for them, then shared their creations. The boy who had lost his friend stated that he was going to need strength to get through this time. He said he was glad that there were so many people in his life to help him.
Good People Everywhere
The media is so full of stories of violence and sorrow. I wanted to help these students find hope and support. I encouraged them to look for the good stories in the world. We ended with the poem “Good People Everywhere.”
Good People Everywhere
Today, all over the world, millions and millions of people are doing good things.
Jessica’s mom is in a big kitchen making food for people who don’t have homes.
Hunter’s dad is building a bridge that will help people cross a very big river.
Emily, Lois and Jimmy’s Uncle Joe works hard at preparing a meal for the family.
Stewart and Lauren’s brother Joshua is in the armed forces, helping keep everyone safe,
And Zoe’s dad is in his doctor’s office, helping others get well.
Today, in a land across the sea, Veronica’s mom plants food,
Josef and his dad pick fruit,
And Robbie’s dad drives a truck full of oranges to the grocery store
So you can have a ripe, juicy orange in your lunch.
Today, Mrs. Higgins teaches math and spelling to her 2nd grade class,
And Frank Sollivan plays some lively fiddle music to bring joy to his family and friends.
Today, Devin’s father repairs homes that have been damaged by floods,
And Sarah’s mom helps build a home for a new family.
Today, Jeremiah is trying his very best to get an A on his science test.
A first grade boy helps a friend who has a skinned knee.
A big sister holds her baby brother while her mother runs across the street to bring two eggs to the neighbor who is baking brownies.
Today, millions and millions of people will do very good things,
And so will you. I wonder what they will be?
