Can Children Outgrow Attention Defficit Disorder?

Recently, I had a conversation with the parent of a 9 year-old child who has ADHD. He expressed frustration over her inability to be organized, and fear over her future with this disorder. “What’s going to happen when she has a job and can’t remember things, or focus on a task? What happens then? She has to learn at some point how to do those things!” He exclaimed to me in frustration.

What does happen to a child with ADHD when she grows up and enters the “real world” away from her understanding teachers? A boss isn’t going to be quite as easy to please when his bottom line is affected negatively by an un-focused employee. While this father’s concern is legitimate, there is good news for children who suffer from ADHD. A new study shows that while some areas in the brain of an ADHD child are developmentally delayed, these areas, which include: planning, the ability to control thinking, and attention, do end up developing normally, they just take up to 3-5 years longer to do it.
This is welcome news for parents who are concerned about the effect of ADHD on their children’s future. While dealing with the symptoms of the disorder can be especially trying at times, it is more bearable when a parent knows that his child will ultimately outgrow the disorder allowing her to function on her own by the time she enters the “real world”.

A new image analysis technique has allowed researchers to discover this trend. In previous studies, researchers focused on the enlarged lobes of the brain, but the new technology allows researchers to delve deeper into a child’s brain. Instead of looking at 4 points along the lobe with increased thickness, the researchers are able to pinpoint 40,000 points. With the additional information provided by this imagery, they found that ADHD children’s cortex does not reach the peak level of thickness until age 10, as opposed to children without the disorder who reach that level of thickness at age 7.5.

Researchers also found, during the course of this study, that the motor cortex thickens more quickly in ADHD children while the frontal cortex (which provides a person with the ability to control his motor skills) develops later. It is hypothesized that this may be the cause of the fidgetiness and restlessness often exhibited in children with ADHD.

While these findings are exciting, there are many more implications for the study of ADHD, including the hope that a treatment will be found for the disorder. At this time, the only way ADHD can be diagnosed is by studying the behavioral patterns of children, but researchers hope that this new breakthrough will be a starting point for a conclusive test that proves that a child has the disorder.
The encouraging news gleaned from this study is that ADHD is a disorder that is outgrown. So for parents who are questioning how their children will ever learn to function in life if they aren’t held accountable for their actions, there is plenty of hope for your child. First, it doesn’t appear to be a matter of learned behavior, but a developmental delay in the brain. Second, the delay is not permanent and your child’s brain will eventually function as any other adult. In the meantime, you can best help your child by remaining understanding of the limitations that ADHD places on her and keeping in mind that she’ll be a few years behind her classmates in some areas, but she’ll catch up.

What do you think? Can children outgrow ADHD?