For years, it has been said that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a problemthat patients have trouble concentrating; they can be impulsive and hyperactive. All of this makes school, employment, and home life difficult. Recent studies add an important layer of understanding. The same attention-style that hinders mundane tasks may facilitate inventive thinkingif directed by deliberate structures. Attention and creativity both activate many similar areas of the brain, based on neuroscientist Dr. Radwa Khalil from Constructor University.
In her recent publication in iScience, she suggests that the reduced, more diffuse attention often present in people with ADHD. The beam of attention is wide, more like a broad floodlight than a tight spotlight, and it can provide avenues for exploratory thinking, as well as facilitating unusual associations. As the findings, what is needed is guidance.
In a purely undefined form, the wide attention style can easily result in distraction and ongoing projects that never come to completion, but through its application in creative pursuits that work as soft guidesart music dance, or writingthe same mental approach can be an advantage. In a controlled outlet for expression, the capricious mind finds a usefully receptive vessel; thoughts continue to flow freely, but the activity gives structure to prevent the door from swinging shut. This view offers insight into a thing that has persisted for some time.
Numerous highly creative individuals both past and present have recorded ever so also experiences as those listed above for Kaitih. The attentional style Khalil sees making people capable of attending diverse events and making new, novel associations could be self-sufficient and alone be personality traits. At the same time the literature finesses any overly romantic notion of this label.
One cannot ignore the evidence that ADHD leads to significant difficulties in organizing ones time and excess energy and making an effort to work. Creativity does not overturn the deficits, but offers the possibility of weakening the implications the work may reinforce the scientific basis for other creative therapies already used in clinical settings. Art, music and movement therapies have the advantage of providing a structure through which the child is encouraged to work freely, blending subjects such as books and computers that have less flexibility.
The engagement of brain plasticity and strengthening of networks about the bodies control of attention and creative cognitive activity could prove an beneficial adjunct to current approaches for the estimated 8% of children worldwide who qualify for diagnosis of ADHD. What you can do in practice is more optimistic. Settings that require narrow and rigid linear attention may only expose what is really difficult about ADHD. Settings with open-ended circular flexible attention within defined parameters could open up the possibility of strengths. Teachers, supervisors, and parents can try some small modifications, like allowing movement during thinking-time, giving several options to complete a task, or balancing artistic projects with relaxed deadlines.
