Beyond Ritalin: An Alternative Therapy for Kids with ADHD

   If your child has been labeled "ADHD," you may already feel the pressure to pump him full of Ritalin. But while it's estimated that 6 million children will take Ritalin or other stimulant medications, that doesn't mean that it's right for your child.

   There are risks and side effects associated with stimulants: insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, and a sense of emotional "numbness." And while some parents swear the benefits have helped get their children back on track in school, there is a growing movement toward non-drug therapies to help kids with ADHD. One that has proved particularly effective is "cognitive skills training."

What are cognitive skills?

"Cognitive skills are the essential, but often overlooked fundamental tools of effective learning," explains Ken Gibson, founder of LearningRx, a national franchise that specializes in cognitive skills training. "Learning isn't about how much you know, but how effectively you process or handle the information you receive. Cognitive skills are the underlying tools that enable kids to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and create useful associations, and solve problems."

Cognitive skills training helps children with learning disabilities attend to and process information.

How are weak cognitive skills identified?

Because cognitive skills function behind the scenes as you process the information received from every possible source, an appropriate assessment test is essential for the identification and treatment of weak cognitive skills.

There are, however, common traits that children with weak cognitive skills often display, including:

 • Difficulty paying attention