Can Working Memory Training Help in ADHD Treatment?

Not all chil­dren ben­e­fit from med­ica­tion, some expe­ri­ence intol­er­a­ble side effects, and many con­tinue to strug­gle despite the ben­e­fits pro­vided by medication.

Behav­ior ther­apy can be dif­fi­cult for par­ents to con­sis­tently imple­ment, and does not gen­er­ally reduce behav­ior dif­fi­cul­ties to nor­ma­tive levels.

In response to these lim­i­ta­tions, researchers have shown grow­ing inter­est in whether cog­ni­tive train­ing - gen­er­ally done via com­puter - can induce more last­ing changes in children’s abil­ity to focus and attend. One approach that has shown promise in help­ing youth with ADHD, and which is now widely avail­able, is Work­ing Mem­ory Training.

Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing is based on find­ings that Work­ing mem­ory (WM) - the abil­ity to hold and manip­u­late infor­ma­tion in mind for sub­se­quent use - is fre­quently com­pro­mised in youth with ADHD and may con­tribute sig­nif­i­cantly to symp­toms of inat­ten­tion. WM deficits also to con­tribute to the aca­d­e­mic strug­gles that many chil­dren with ADHD expe­ri­ence. Devel­op­ing an inter­ven­tion to enhance WM in chil­dren with ADHD could thus be extremely helpful.

Category(s):Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Source material from Sharp Brains