Children with ADHD Have Greater Risk Crossing the Street: Study

Parents naturally worry about a child’s safety when he or she is crossing the street but for parents of children with attention problems, there is even more reason to be concerned. Children with ADHD are more prone to pedestrian injuries.

A research done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and published in the Journal of American Pediatrics, studied 78 children, ages 7 to 10, half of whom were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study showed that children with ADHD were at more risk for injury because they chose hazardous behavior when crossing an intersection.

The testing was done in a virtual environment so no children were actually in danger at any time during the study. Three stages of pedestrian crossing were studied: first how children assessed the environment before crossing, how they behaved at the time they decided to cross and finally during the actual crossing. Participants completed 15 simulated crossings over the course of 90 minutes.

The biggest hurdle for children with ADHD during the study was not processing information properly in their assessment before crossing or undertaking risky behavior. The research suggests that children with attention deficit disorder were unable to plan a safe crossing or control impulses to dart out into simulated traffic during unsafe conditions.

One way to help children deal with distraction in situations like dangerous crossings at intersections is through behavior modification. Eileen Bailey, co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to ADHD explains that behavior modification works by increasing the frequency of a child’s acceptable behaviors and decreasing unacceptable behaviors, usually with rewards, positive feedback and consequences.

In addition to behavior modification, the University of Alabama study suggests that practicing crossing scenarios with virtual reality tools could help children with ADHD learn to make better choices when crossing at intersections. The authors of the study also note that using fear-inducing tactics might also help children with ADHD to be safer pedestrians although they note that this aspect of training is controversial.

Important Considerations of this ADHD Study:

• The children in this study all stopped taking attention deficit medication at least 24 hour prior to participating in the study
• Researchers note that the lack of controls, the selection process and under-representation of higher income children for this version of the study warrants further research
• 71 percent of the children in the study were boys