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Breakthrough!!

 

 

Illustration by Terry McElroy.
(DAMP or co-morbid ADHD and DCD - turns out it's a thing :)

    Well, it's been more than a year since I reported. A lot has happened but it is just in the last two days that I feel I may have hit a breakthrough. I've found them in the research. My small group of children who have a hard time with attention and handwriting. They do poorly in school because they can't keep up, can't write notes - but show average or above average intelligence. They are often the "don't live up to their potential" - "seems lazy" boys. In Scandinavia there is a body of research - over the last 20 years - in a condition which doctors and psychologists there diagnose as DAMP (deficits in attention, motor control and perception). In North America these children would be considered to have both ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder) and DCD (developmental co-ordination disorder). It is about 2% of the population, which is in keeping with my 5 boys a year (the classes that I support and shadow are about 250 students large).

    This is the population that got me started on my master's journey more than 3 years ago. It was very reassuring to find them in the literature after all this time. I am not imagining them :)

     The question being asked now (by myself and other researchers) is: is this condition is a sub-set of ADHD or DCD or is it something different all together. There is growing research in weaknesses in atomization of tasks for this population. Tasks which, over time, a normally developing brain would take for granted. Tasks such as stepping over the cracks in the sidewalk, writing the letter e, getting a snowsuit on, getting your backpack off the back of your chair while putting your notebook inside and getting out of the classroom without bumping into someone. These small everyday tasks we've done a million times and don't require much thought or neurological power to do. If you have difficulty atomizing tasks, these small, everyday, activities still require a larger percentage of your neurological fire power. This leaves less "RAM" left over for all the other things: remembering your gloves, listening to and interpreting the conversation happening beside you, remembering where in the word the vowel e is placed in order to make the other vowel a long sound. 

    What if the problem here is neither attention or co-ordination but something all together different? Then the interventions and supports that we are putting in place may be all together mis-placed. 

    Do you recognize yourself, a loved one, or a student in this description? Without leaving any names or identifying information put it in the comments. I'm so curious to see if this resonates with other people as well. 

Gillberg, C. 
Deficits in attention, motor control, and perception: a brief review. 
Archives of Disease in Childhood 2003;88:904-910.





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