Researchers have questioned whether or not there is a delay in the brain maturation of children with ADHD or whether children with ADHD are characterized by a total difference in typical brain development. In a study funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), Shaw et al. (2007) found, in groundbreaking research, “that in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the brain matures in a normal pattern but is delayed three years in some regions, on average, compared to youths without the disorder.” The areas of the brain that reflect difficulties for children with ADHD are those that control self-regulation in their thinking, attention, and planning, which I believe, affects not only academics but social skills as well.
Therefore, the maturation of the brain is quite normal, but merely delayed, which should assure teachers and parents alike that these children’s symptoms should diminish as they mature because at some point, the child will have normal brain maturation. This new information should offer teachers and parents great optimism concerning the academic prognosis of children with ADHD. If your child is 13 years old and has ADHD, he therefore, due to the developmental nature of ADHD, may be behaving more like a 10 year old.
What does this mean for parents and teachers? We all have to change our expectations for these children's behavior, for one thing, as well as changing our expectations concerning how these children plan their academic work, how and if they inhibit anything that interferes with their work as well as how they execute their work. The research does not as yet explain why some adults have ADHD, but we cannot expect all of the answers at the same time! If you would like to read the research article, I will send it to you if you give me your email addresses. You can send them to me at my gmail account which is on my profile.
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