- Note - See also the story about there
being no evidence that school homework is beneficial to children http://www.sightings.com/health/homework.htm
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- Hyperactive children could be suffering
from the modern world's restrictions on play.
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- The BBC's Horizon programme, Beyond a
Joke, says there is evidence that restricting play at schools in the USA
increases attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
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- In the US, one in 18 school children
suffers from ADHD and half are being treated with the psycho-stimulant
drug Ritalin.
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- The number of children with the disorder
has risen by a huge 600% since 1990 and the US has five times more cases
than the rest of the world put together.
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- But the problem is growing in the UK
as well. There were 2,000 prescriptions for Ritalin six years ago. There
are now more than 90,000.
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- Children with the disorder are extremely
hyperactive and find it difficult to concentrate for even short periods.
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- They act on impulse and often appear
to have no sense of danger.
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- Sitting still
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- Professor Alan Fridlund, an American
behavioural psychologist, says he believes part of the reason for the steep
increase is restrictions on play.
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- "There is increasing emphasis on
children being able to sit still for a long time. Play suffers as a result,"
he said.
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- "There is a danger in pathologising
and medicating ADHD."
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- He said this could lead to children being
"doubly victimised" by being denied playtime and being treated
for the resulting problems.
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- An international team who studied children
in schools in Georgia concluded that children were more likely to fidget
and lose attention the longer they were deprived of exercise.
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- Boys were more likely than girls to have
problems paying attention in class.
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- Professor Tony Pelligrini, one of the
team members, said: "There is a danger in minimising the importance
of play," he said.
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- Some US schools have replaced playtime
with more academic classes, which researchers say may influence ADHD.
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- They say fears about traffic and crime
are also inhibiting children's ability to play.
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- Drugs
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- Professor Sydney Zentall, a clinical
psychologist, says teachers also restrict play as a punishment when they
should be doing the opposite if they want well-behaved pupils.
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- She is worried that parents and doctors
may be becoming too reliant on drugs such as Ritalin.
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- She says it is good at improving attention
in class and ability to do subjects like mathematics, but has bad effects
on creativity and problem-solving.
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- There are also concerns about its long-term
effects.
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- The causes of AHDH are not clear. It
is thought that it may be an inherited condition.
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- Scientists have found that the frontal
lobes of the brains of children with ADHD are around 5% smaller than average.
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- Neuroscientist professor Jaak Panksepp,
who is based in Ohio and has been researching animal emotions for many
years, says rats who have had the front part of their brain shrunk are
more playful as a result.
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- He says this is because reducing the
part of the brain which controls conscious thought makes rats less able
to regulate their primary impulses.
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- Sociable
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- Scientists believe play helps humans
learn how to be sociable.
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- They say it is related to laughter which
is one of the first reciprocal interactions between mother and baby.
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- Professor Robert Provine, a US neuroscientist,
has researched the sounds of laughter and says they are "equivalent
to an animal call or a bird song".
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- He found that laughter was often automatic
and spontaneous and could often not be provoked in laboratory conditions
through watching comedy videos.
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- He says laughter is about social relationships
rather than humour.
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- Professor Panksepp's study of animals
found that rats also "laughed" and enjoyed play.
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- Using a highly developed sound monitor,
he measured chirping noises coming from rats when they were tickled.
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- He deduced that laughter and play was
an ancient response and part of the evolution of mammals.
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- His research was backed by a chance finding
by a neurosurgeon in Los Angeles.
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- Professor Itzak Fried discovered, when
he tried to locate the area of the brain which controlled an epileptic
patient's seizures, that she would laugh when one part of her brain was
stimulated.
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- Ancient and modern
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- Professor Provine believes that laughter
is both an ancient and modern response.
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- He thinks the fact that humans laugh
spontaneously and also laugh at jokes shows that they have taken an ancient
response and developed in a more advanced part of their brain.
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- British research also shows how the brain
suppresses pleasurable sensations which have no social purpose.
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- Sarah-Jayne Blakemore at the Institute
of Neurology found that patients were more likely to laugh if tickled by
a robot than if they tickled themselves.
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- "It may be that there is no point
laughing to your own tickle because it is not biologically important,"
she said.
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- Children with ADHD have problems with
social relationships.
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- They are likely to have poor self esteem
and feel rejected by their peers.
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- Teachers and professionals often do not
understand them and they feel blamed and their parents are under great
strain.
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- Constant stimulation
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- Jacky Coole's son Louis has AHDH. She
said he only slept for two hours a night as a baby and by the time he was
seven the family were at their wit's end.
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- He was put on Ritalin.
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- "No mother or parent wants their
child on any form of drugs," she said. "But Louis cannot manage
socially without medication."
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- In the USA, however, the University of
Los Angeles' Child Development Center is trying to develop alternatives.
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- It teaches children with ADHD how to
learn through play by keeping their minds' constantly stimulated and building
their self esteem.
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- But even so, some of the children still
need drugs and the work is expensive.
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- Scientists are still looking for alternative
ways to deal with ADHD as the numbers of children affected continues to
rise.
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- Horizon's Beyond a Joke is on BBC2 at
9.25pm GMT on 5 November 1998.
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