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Fat Camp
Learn about why fat camps don’t work and why the new healthy weight loss camps are so much more effective. more >>
Fat Camp
Learn about why fat camps don’t work and why the new healthy weight loss camps are so much more effective. more >>
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Stone Mountain School
Stone Mountain boarding school for boys is a long-term residential school in an outdoors environment. Stone Mountain is a boarding school that specializes in pre-adolescent and teen boys with attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, emotional issues, learning differences or disabilities, or behavioral problems. The rustic wilderness environment in North Carolina serves as an excellent teaching tool for boys with ADHD / ADD through direct experience. Specialty boarding schools offer boys with ADD a safe, structured environment in which they can thrive and succeed both academically and socially.
ADHD is Brain Developmental Delay, Not a Difference in Brain Structures
Attention deficit disorder is about delays - not differences - in brain development, according to a new study from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Researchers took magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brains of 223 children with ADHD and 223 without the disorder. They found that the cortexes of the ADHD group reached peak thickness at age 10.5, compared to age 7.5 in normal children.
"I think it is good news. I think it means that this sort of basic brain biology is intact, all that's different is the timing of it," said Dr. Phil Shaw, lead researcher. "If ADHD was a complete deviation away from normal brain development, you'd expect the sequence to be completely disrupted. It wasn't. So we think this is pretty strong evidence that ADHD is more of a delay in brain development."
The developmental delays were in front of the brain's outer mantle or cortex, which is are important in attention, planning, and controlling thought. This was a fifteen-year study and the first to use the most advanced technology to study brain development in ADHD children.
"We know that ADHD is a real problem for children and their families and schools, and it does need treatment," said Dr. Shaw. The study does not mean that parents should "just sit and wait three years and your kid will be okay."
He said that he could not explain why some children seem to outgrow ADHD.
This study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Visit 4-adhd.com to learn more about ADHD and find schools and programs for kids with ADHD.
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