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July 3, 2019

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Project a boon for 鈥榗lassroom black sheep鈥

Helping her son do school homework every day used to be unbearable for Chen Shaomei. Nine-year-old Haohao couldn鈥檛 concentrate on the pages no matter how much she scolded, or sometimes even hit him.

The situation didn鈥檛 improve until Chen and Haohao took part in a treatment project initiated by Huagao Elementary School and East China Normal University. It鈥檚 aimed at children like Haohao, who suffer from ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

ADHD is a mental health condition characterized by hyperactivity, difficulty in maintaining attention and often aggressive behavior. There are an estimated 20 million children between the ages of 6 and 12 who suffer from ADHD in China. Most of them are considered 鈥渃lassroom black sheep,鈥 and their parents never seek professional help.

Ben Yuan, headmaster of Huagao Elementary which Haohao attends, told Shanghai Daily that 56 children at the school have been diagnosed with ADHD. Some of them can hardly sit still through a 45-minute class. Many of the children actually have high IQs but their academic progress is hampered by their unsociable behavior.

鈥淭hey interrupt teachers and sometimes get aggressive with other students for no reason at all,鈥 said Ben. 鈥淲e really needed to do something, and that鈥檚 when the university approached us.鈥

The project has strong overtones of a physical education class. Wang Xiaozan, a professor from East China Normal University who specializes in physical education and sports, heads the project. A group of volunteers from the university, mostly students, assist him.

Classes for both children and parents are held three times a week. For the children, it鈥檚 mostly just games.

鈥淲e ask the kids, for example, to hold a ping-pong ball on a paddle for a long time,鈥 said Chen Meiyuan, one of the volunteers. 鈥淥r we teach them to play basketball.鈥 Sports activities help the secretion of dopamine and adrenaline, which together improve a person鈥檚 ability to focus.

鈥淭he family is a key factor in a child鈥檚 growth, ADHD or not,鈥 said Wang. 鈥淲e design games and tasks that can be accomplished only by the parents and kids working together.鈥

Families can break down because of ADHD. In February, Shanghai Daily published the story of Yaya and Kevin (https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/1902260219/), two ADHD kids who studied their own condition and took their research to Spain for a science fair.

As reported, the marriage of Yaya鈥檚 parents almost fell apart because of their daughter鈥檚 recklessness. Matters improved when the parents started paying less attention to Yaya鈥檚 problems and more attention to her talent.

鈥淓ncouragement and understanding from the parents are crucial for ADHD kids,鈥 Wang said. 鈥淭he kids often have difficulties expressing their feelings, and if the parents they trust most have no faith in them, things can start to crumble.鈥

Kevin鈥檚 mother Meng Lili was among the first who reached out to Wang for help last year.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have enough knowledge about ADHD, either,鈥 said Wang. 鈥淚鈥檓 still feeling the stones when crossing the river.鈥

The results of the project have so far been good. Many parents tell the volunteers that their children have become more polite and patient when doing homework or household chores. They are also showing more concentration in classes.

Chen said Haohao now is able to finish homework twice as fast as before, without her having to yell at him. 鈥淗e used to try to avoid school by staying in bed,鈥 said Chen. 鈥淎nd he often left home for school in tears. But now he looks forward to school every day.鈥

Haohao has never been formally diagnosed with ADHD. Chen said she doesn鈥檛 want to take him to a hospital for examination.

鈥淪ome parents are reluctant to take their kids to the hospital even if their symptoms are quite obvious,鈥 Wang said. 鈥淭hey see ADHD as a stigma, and once their kids get tagged with it, there鈥檚 no easy way to shake it off.鈥

Among the 56 children identified with ADHD in Huagao Elementary School, only 10 took part in the project. The rest of the families were afraid of their children being stigmatized by participation. There are also 26 kids in the project who are reckless and bad-tempered but not identified as having ADHD.

鈥淔or privacy reasons, we don鈥檛 reveal the names of the 56 children,鈥 said headmaster Ben. 鈥淥ther parents may panic if they hear there is one or even more ADHD kids in the class.鈥

When parents of ADHD children do take their offspring to hospital, they are often given medication that can have side effects like loss of appetite and dizziness, Wang said.

Yaya鈥檚 father Lin Wenxing told Shanghai Daily that his daughter started taking methylphenidate, a drug designed to treat ADHD when she was 9. The pills led to uncontrollable spasms that ended only after she stopped taking the drug. Her ADHD symptoms improved when she started engaging in sports activities.

The project is no magic bullet. From the academic perspective, according to Wang, its scale is too small to produce a professional paper, let alone promote it in a wider context.

鈥淭here are special schools for the blind, the deaf, the mentally ill and the autistic,鈥 said Wang. 鈥淏ut as far as I know, there is no special school in Shanghai or China focused on ADHD children.鈥

At a recent seminar at Huagao Elementary School to share the experiences of the project, Shen Zhifei, deputy director of Shanghai Institute of Education Science, called it a good start for the education and treatment of ADHD children long neglected by mainstream education.

Wang Weijie from the Shanghai Pudong Institute of Education Development told Shanghai Daily that a number of schools in the Pudong New Area have shown interest in the project. It鈥檚 a bright spot on the long road ahead, Wang added.


 

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