ADHD and sports / extracurricular activities

[Midgeymoo12]

Hi

We have a 6 year old boy I believe has quite severe ADHD - we are hoping to try medication soon. I’m just wondering what peoples experience of joining sports such as football and rugby are? I would love him to get some exercise and imagine these sports / classes could help develop his social skills. However, he struggles to follow the rules in these classes. He causes some disruption and can be disrespectful to the children and coaches - I’m mindful this isn’t fair on other children in the classes. It can be uncomfortable viewing. He says he enjoys the classes.

Did you find joining sports classes to be a positive experience or give up?

I think team sports where the players are face to face with one another and competing in an atmosphere that can get passionate, is asking for trouble for many dc with ADHD, who struggle to contain their impulses, and, very often temper.

However, exercise is good.
What about swimming ? Youngsters can train often, and get the 'buzz' that exercise brings and use the energy up each day, but they are working on technique and trying to improve own times (more as they get older) and not "facing" competitors as you do in football or rugby.

In my experience it can really depend on the teacher and also the child's interest. Swimming is great as it's an individual sport so he can progress at his own pace, martial arts can also be good as they teach attention, focus and children can progress at their pace.

If he really really wants to do football - there are 'pan disability' football leagues - awful term but I find children with additional needs can thrive in these leagues.

At that age, my son hated any form of ‘organised fun’ ( although as mentioned above, he loved disability football). We tried so hard with so many activities, but his confidence would drop and his anxiety increase. In retrospect, I regret the energy I put into cajoling him into activities that just weren’t right for him ( you live and learn!).

Lockdown meant we took a step back and, at 10, he now enjoys several activities that are right for him, with no cajoling needed. Interestingly, none of these are team activities or need to be competitive. All kids are different, but the things my son now lives are karate, golf, riding, bouldering, proper country walking ( including geocaching, alpine snowshoe walking and foot following our local hunt, where he’s very popular with the older ladies and hounds).

If I was to do it again, I’d relax more about this. With encouragement, he will find activities he loves and you’ll learn about new hobbies you never knew existed!

My ds is 15 now and totally obsessed with weight lifting and martial arts, so I’d agree that individual sports is the way to go. When he was primary/early secondary he did trampolining and tennis, then moved to ju jitsu. The more exercise the better with ADHD I think

I was recently thinking about this. I thought ds might benefit from joining cubs (potential ADHD - awaiting diagnosis) but I'm not so sure if this will suit him.

Yes to swimming. DS really enjoys this.

DD2 gets a lot out of Cubs, and previously Beavers.

Also kickboxing - but mainly because it's a really inclusive well-run club and they really do want all the students to succeed.