The Power of Play in ADHD

from the University of Vermont website

It’s no surprise that kids with ADHD like to move.  But the University of Vermont has recently done a study that shows kids who exercise prior to school in the mornings were better able to sharpen their focusing skills and help them follow instructions better even later in the day.  What was the plan?  Researchers had parents provide 31 minutes of exercise to their kids in the morning before school.  The exercise included but wasn’t limited to tag, follow the leader and dancing.  There were 5 different activities included over the course of the 31 minutes.  Another group of kids was given seated craft-oriented tasks for 31 minutes.  The kids who exercised demonstrated better attention and lower impulsivity.  What’s remarkable is that the ADHD group had even better outcomes than kids without ADHD.  The next step in the research is to determine whether exercise can stimulate the release of brain chemicals involved in learning.  Pretty cool!

Tracy Stackhouse visits APT!

We were thrilled to welcome Tracy Stackhouse to our Portland clinic on March 6 and 7th.  Tracy spoke about her STEP-SI  model.  The model helps practitioners use clinical reasoning to understand our clients better and plan treatment with a deeper understanding of the impact of sensory processing, relationships, environments, arousal level, predictability and tasks.  Tracy’s work is deeply embedded in the research of Jean Ayres  who pioneered sensory integration as we know it today.  Tracy’s fun and information-packed lectures gave us lots to think about and discuss during that weekend and all our workdays since!

Thank you Tracy for an incredibly informative and dynamic weekend!

 

 

Tracy Murnan Stackhouse, MA, OTR
Tracy, a Colorado native, is president and co-founder of Developmental FX. She is a leading pediatric occupational therapist (OT) involved in clinical treatment, research, mentoring, and training regarding OT intervention for persons with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially Fragile X Syndrome and autism. She received her undergraduate degree in occupational therapy from Colorado State University and a a master’s degree in developmental psychology from the University of Denver. She received her NDT training with Lois Bly. She is SIPT Certified (Sensory Integration and Praxis Test). and was the clinical specialist in sensory integration at The Children’s Hospital in Denver as well as the OT for the Fragile X Research and Treatment Center. Tracy continued her clinical and research work with Dr. Randi Hagerman at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute during its start-up year. Tracy has written several book chapters on sensory integration and neurodevelopmental disorders, and teaches and consults nationally and internationally on sensory integration, Fragile X and related topics. Tracy and her husband have two children.

*from the website for Developmental Fx.