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(June 16, 2003) Noah Mitchell stretches out on a couch with headphones plunked on his head in the small Boulder, Colorado office of Dynamic Listening Systems. When prompted by the music, the 6-year-old bleats animal sounds into a microphone.
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At Dore Achievement Center in Louisville, Dylan Docker stands strapped in a harness on a platform that moves unexpectedly. The 13-year-old's movements and sway are being recorded by a computer and will be analyzed for a movement-based treatment.
At the neuroAgility center in Boulder, others watch a computer screen of their brain waves, trying to modify their brain patterns to fall in the normal range.
In all three cases, children are trying medication-free treatments for learning disabilities related to focus, concentration or processing sound.
Whether to use stimulant medication to treat attention disorders is a hot topic among parents, teachers and doctors.
Attention Deficit Disorders and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders plague an estimated 3 to 10 percent of children, many of who carry symptoms into adulthood. Individuals with ADD usually are inattentive, easily distracted and disorganized. They tend to daydream, be forgetful and procrastinate. They often lack motivation and can be disruptive in school settings and difficult to educate. Those with ADHD are also hyperactive and impulsive.
On the one hand, some physicians and parents feel strongly that stimulant medication is the only solution. They say it works quickly and effectively, giving those who take it the ability to choose what they want to attend to instead of being distracted repeatedly.
"Medications consistently turns out to be very helpful and very
effective for most children, with minimal side effects," says Randy Ross,
a psychiatrist and associate professor at University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center. "Other forms of treatment are not as well studied and in
general tend to be minimally effective."
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Dr. Earle Shugerman, a board certified psychiatrist and one of several Boulder practitioners who offer neurofeedback, says he doesn't oppose medication and will prescribe it. But he prefers alternative treatments.
"Stimulant medications work when you take them and stop working when you don't," Shugerman says. "Neurofeedback is a lifetime change, which is a strong advantage compared to stimulant medications."
The decision is difficult for parents who try to navigate the situation at home and in schools. Some may have been pressured by disgruntled teachers to put their children on stimulant drugs.
Earlier this month, a new law took effect in Colorado requiring each school district to adopt a policy prohibiting school personnel from recommending the use of psychotropic drugs for students.
Others criticize the cost of alternative treatments, which are usually not covered by insurance and may cost thousands of dollars with no guarantee of success. Typically, medications cost between $20 and $120 a month. Those costs often are covered in part by insurance companies.
"Anecdotal evidence is not enough to spend that kind of money on these things," says Dr. Bert Dech, a psychiatrist at Children's Hospital in Denver. "There is a general consensus that they (drug-free treatments) are not for patient care as much as for financial gain."
But some parents don't like the ideas of their kids taking medications.
"I don't want him to think when there is a problem in life, a pill will
fix it," says Westminster resident Kendra Docker, Dylan's mother and also
an employee at the Dore Center.
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But some parents are pleased using drug-free methods. Lafayette resident Catherine Mitchell, Noah's mother, says she has seen a big improvement in the 18 sessions since her son started the program. Noah is doing auditory processing because he can't hear certain sounds and because he is easily frustrated and throws tantrums, she says.
"His frustration level is way down," Mitchell says. "We can talk him through."
• Students Abusing Drugs Used to Treat Hyperactivity Disorders
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![Noah Mitchell tells knock-knock jokes into a microphone that relays his voice into his headphones during his speech and language session.](javascript:popup("http://mas.scripps.com/BDC/2003/06/16/0616fit_e.jpg",350,450))
![Chelsey Weliever is fitted with a harness for a balance test administered by Shalene Barrera at Dore Achievement Centers in Louisville.](javascript:popup("http://mas.scripps.com/BDC/2003/06/16/0616fi2_e.jpg",350,450))
![Chelsey Weliever runs in a circle around a chair during a break from testing at Dore Achievement Centers. Weliever uses the exercise to help develop her cerebellum to counteract learning disabilities.](javascript:popup("http://mas.scripps.com/BDC/2003/06/16/0616fi3_e.jpg",350,450))
