Washington: DC Jul 29, 2005
The purpose of this release is not to necessarily supply the answers, but to present a few compelling and exciting ideas that we hope will allow you to draw your own conclusions. The ideas presented here are the basis for a just released book, Fidget to Focus by Roland Rotz, Ph.D. and Sarah Wright, M.S., A.C.T.
The main premise of this book is simple. For anyone with ADD, there is an ongoing and unidentified dilemma of whether this event is boring or interesting. If something is boring, it is very difficult to do. Often things must be interesting before they can be accomplished. The difficulty is maintaining your interest to complete the task. In other words, keeping focused. Interest equals focus with ADD. What seems not to make any difference, is how important that task is. Despite how important something is, if it’s not interesting, it’s very hard to do.
There is a homeostasis in our neurobiological system that attempts to keep us in a comfort zone; not overwhelmed, but not under whelmed either. People use their own built-in sensory mechanisms for self- arousal, which, from an ADD perspective, allows one to increase and improve focus. In essence, our distractibility is really attractibility to interesting things around us. Our restlessness is not an expression of trying to get our fidgetiness out to become calm, but rather an attempt to self-arouse to become focused.
Many mechanisms exist that allow us to maintain a facsimile of focus throughout our day. Often this is done by persistently maintaining a range of arousal strategies varying from doodling to fidgeting to chewing gum.
SIMULTANEOUS SENSORY-MOTOR STIMULATION STRATEGIES
Simultaneous sensory-motor stimulation strategies, or what we call fidgets, provide short-term modulation of a deregulated system. Just as it implies, two or more senses are used simultaneously to allow for increased neural activity and therefore increased focus during dull, boring or monotonous events. It is an ongoing adjustment for how you are coping at the moment. It is a strategy to increase your focus during boring or tedious events. What if you began to take advantage of fidgeting to help you focus? Let us share some examples with you that have made a difference in the lives of others with ADD. (Note from Kay: While all of these are "fidgets," they may not be healthy ones, like smoking!)
Movement strategies: Wiggling, rocking, or moving during a dull or tedious event. For example: wiggling toes, balancing on back two legs of a chair, rocking or other rhythmic movement, doodling, running, walking, pacing, standing up. Touch Strategies: Holding, feeling, or handling something during a dull or tedious event. For example: playing with hair, clothing, coins, or keys; clicking a pen or mechanical pencil; tapping or drumming fingers; whittling; knitting or sewing; petting an animal. Sight Strategies: Watching, noticing, or tracking something during a dull or boring activity. For example: glancing out a window, channel surfing, playing video games, using colorful tools, noticing details in the environment. Sound Strategies: Listening to or hearing something, while doing something dull or boring. For example: music, white noise, whistling, humming, talking to yourself. Taste Strategies: The taste of something during dull or boring events. For example: tart candies, Altoids, highly spiced foods, salty chips or pretzels, hot or cold drinks, bubbly sodas or seltzer. Mouth Strategies: Put something in the mouth during a boring event. For example: smoking; biting nails or cuticles; chewing on hood strings; sucking or biting lips; chewing on pens, gum or ice, sucking on hard candy. Smell Strategies: The aromas noticed during tedious or boring events. For example: the scent of flavored pens, room fresheners, or lemon oil; inhaling fresh crisp air; smelling salts.
Not everyone is the same, so the same fidgets won’t work for everyone. They won’t even work for you all the time, or in all situations. There are all sorts of possibilities! Now that you’ve been introduced to this concept, pay attention to what you already do. Then try some new strategies and see how they work. You’ll have to do some experimenting to find out what works best for you.
One final point. We don’t believe that all fidgeting is good. We do believe that fidgeting, rather than being part of “the ADD pathology”, is a perfectly natural adaptation to living with a brain that is at it’s best with a higher level of stimulation than is a typical brain. In advocating fidgeting, we do not advocate disruptive behavior. To be a good fidget it must not only work for you, it must also be appropriate for the situation and respectful of those around you. It is not a good fidget if it helps you focus, but distracts everyone else!
TO ORDER: Fidget to Focus
OR CALL: ADVANTAGE BOOKS at 888-238- 8588
