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Excerpts from David Lynch Foundation, USA
11 January 2008
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a developmental disorder, is the most common behavioral and psychiatric disorder among children. The disorder can have a significant effect on a child's ability to learn and progress in school.
Here are some facts science now knows about attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD):
* If left untreated, ADHD impacts the life of a child in monumental ways—it can cause impulsivity, distractibility, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness.
* Children with ADHD may also experience executive functioning difficulties that wreak havoc with their ability to plan and carry out tasks to meet their own goals or to meet goals that have been placed on them in school or at home. These bright children can have a very difficult time finishing tasks and consequently may seem to themselves to be lazy, unproductive, and unaccomplished.
* ADHD is also associated with a continuum of other problems, such as sleep disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, and other problems that affect quality of life not only for that child but also for the whole family. Many children with ADHD behave like the proverbial ‘bull in a china shop'. They go through life bumping into others at school and on the playground and ultimately at work.
* Almost 90% of children diagnosed with ADHD are on medication, most commonly amphetamines. These are powerful drugs, with many side effects—and parents and educators are desperately looking for alternatives.
Dr. Sarina Grosswald is an expert in cognitive learning who recently directed the first-of-its-kind research study on the effects of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation program on children with language-based learning disabilities.
She says the technique was selected because prior research had shown the effectiveness of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation program in enhancing brain functioning, particularly the frontal cortex—the area activated to perform executive functions like planning, memory, moving from one task to another, and self-regulation—all of which are adversely affected by ADHD. ‘Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation was the logical choice for this research,’ Dr. Grosswald says.
The three-month study began with the children being pre-tested with instruments for assessing ADHD, such as the Tower of London, the Brief survey, and the Connors’ Continuous Performance Test. The children then learned Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation technique and meditated in school for 10 minutes twice each day. At the end of the study period, they were retested using the same instruments.
The data is being tabulated and analyzed, and the findings will be announced as soon as the assessment is complete. But Dr. Grosswald emphasizes that the results will not come close to telling the real story. “The real story is how Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation has affected the life of each and every child,’ she says. ‘The numbers won’t tell about one child who now does his homework more independently because he doesn’t get as frustrated doing the work. The numbers won’t tell about another child whose previous response to stress or frustration was to lash out physically and to get into fights almost daily, and who now no longer regularly turns to violence in these situations.
‘The numbers won’t tell about yet another child who would lose hours in the school day because when he was upset he would simply shut down, and who now shuts down less often—and when he does, recovers in minutes, not hours. And the numbers won’t tell about the children who simply say that after meditation they feel great, feel happy.
‘The study results cannot convey how just 10 minutes twice a day has made such a difference in all of these children’s lives and in the lives of their families—and what a help it is to the teachers who work with these children every day,” Dr. Grosswald says.
Linda Handy, Ph.D., a lifelong educator and the current principal of the Waldorf School in Silver Spring, was the academic director of the Chelsea School during the three-month Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation study there. She says that students who could never sit still with their eyes closed doing nothing for two minutes—much less 10 minutes—were able to easily learn and practice Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation technique and see concrete benefits in their own lives right away.
‘There was an unquestionable sense of peace and calm once the students took the Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation training,’ she says. ‘In general, they appeared to be more whole and no longer exhibited the traditional symptoms of ADHD. They seemed to be empowered: they stood taller, with a greater sense of self and others. They seemed to have a sense that now they had some control over their world rather than the other way around. They are no longer impaired—they are just different.’
Josh, a ten-year-old at Chelsea School was diagnosed with ADHD four year ago. He has been meditating for just three months. He says, ‘Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation has kept me calmer and more alert in class—and I study better, too.’
Andrea, 11, reports that ‘It’s easier for me to focus my energies on one project at a time. Before I started meditating, it wasn’t so easy. I would try to work on one thing, then fidget around, then try to stop fidgeting—and the whole time I was supposed to be listening to the teacher. Now, I am more relaxed and more focused. For the first time, I have confidence I can do well in school.’
Dr. Handy adds that it’s easier for teachers to gain the attention of students who meditate—and it’s easier for the meditating students to concentrate on what is being said and absorb it. ‘Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation has a great effect on a student’s learning ability,’ she says. ‘Teachers can teach more—so students can learn more as a result.’
Dr. Handy points out that until the introduction of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation, all approaches to overcoming ADHD and Executive Functioning Disorder included a strong reliance on medication. ‘However, now we know that students with ADHD can be reached and calmed with the practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation.
We gave our students the tools for creating a more peaceful and productive inner life as well as helping to provide a school environment that is wholesome and stress free. I am convinced that Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation practice is the answer to accomplishing the long overdue goal of maximizing the potential of students who have been diagnosed with ADHD. Children are our future, and through Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation program we are giving them every advantage to lead successful lives.’
Dr. Grosswald recalls one child who was instructed in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation technique for the study. She asked him how he felt after just the first meditation. He told me, ‘’I feel like it’s a whole different world now.’’ Every child deserves to experience that world,’ Dr. Grosswald says.
Copyright 2007 David Lynch Foundation
For information about Maharishi's seven-point programme to create a healthy, happy, prosperous society, and a peaceful world, please visit: Global Financial Capital of New York.
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