Are Children with ADHD Divergent Thinkers?

Adults who find it difficult to focus and prioritise, leading to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings or social plans. An inability to control impulses can range from impatience waiting in line or driving in traffic, to mood swings and outbursts of anger. As a participant in a brainstorming session you may find it easy to let your mind wander and come up with new ideas. However at the subsequent phases of implementation and conclusion, you seem to have difficulty focusing on getting your thoughts together and converging on the final touches to get things right. You may be struggling to prevent your mind jumping to other topics.

A child who can't seem to sit still, fidgety, excessive talking, interrupting conversations, who doesn't finish his homework, who seems to be daydreaming, and unable to concentrate.

These are just examples. If you relate to this or know adults who display these, or have children in class or at home with the above symptoms, you are in all probability looking at individuals with ADHD. All of them are likely to be high in divergent thinking and low in convergent thinking, as is common among people with this condition.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, better known as ADHD, is a complicated neurodivergent condition that can affect a person's behavior and cognitive skills. It affects an individual's capacity to focus, control their impulses, and stay organized.

However, there are many positive things that people with this condition get to experience. Some ADHD brains may experience hyperfocus, one of the ADHD symptoms that is also seen as a positive trait by some. This focus can help people with ADHD be more creative and come up with new ideas. As a result, a person with ADHD sometimes produces divergent thinking, which also gets associated with an immense sense of creativity.

Lets review the latest findings in the field.

ADHD tends to be associated with a better divergent thinking ability, while doing badly on convergent thinking. Here are a few reasons to support the above statement.

What are divergent and convergent thinking?

Convergent thinking and divergent thinking describe different types of problem solving abilities.

Convergent thinking is being able to evaluate separate pieces of evidence in order to find the best solution to a problem.

● A common example of a task requiring convergent thinking would be a mathematical problem in which logical deduction is used to find the correct solution. In psychology, convergent thinking is often tested using the ‘Remote Association Task’, in which respondents must find the common element among three words (e.g. round/work/dining/ are all types of tables).

Divergent thinking also called ‘free thinking’ is characterized by an ability to produce a larger amount of information, data or solutions to a problem from a simple prompt. They construct theories by linking concepts together through free association and random connections. It is similar to creativity.

● A common example would be to think of a catchy headline or a clever message on a greeting card. In psychology, divergent thinking is often tested with the ‘Unusual Uses Test’, in which respondents are asked to come up with as many uses as possible for a single object (e.g. a tea cup – drink tea, plant something in it, decorative piece, pencil stand etc).

Children and almost anybody afflicted with ADHD tend to think off the conventional track and outside the box as it were. Their minds might sometimes wander and produce exceptionally good ideas that are not based on any logic or rational order. Colleagues and team members may find it difficult to follow their unique train of thought and understand what the child or the person is thinking.

Two well known examples of ADHD affected divergent thinkers and creators were Thomas Edison and Leonardo da Vinci. Both have etched themselves in history as geniuses.

A study using the ‘Torrance Test of Creative Thinking’ was done on college students, to see if there was a connection between ADHD and creativity and whether such individuals had an advantage in creative problem-solving tasks.

Researchers found that those with ADHD scored higher on creativity tests compared to those who didn't have ADHD traits

3 reasons why ADHD is connected with divergent thinking

1. Divergent thinking increases as inhibition decreases.

As our inhibition to think or a rational feeling to suppress illogical or irrelevant ideas are killed, our innovation and creativity increases. Our minds will start to explore different ideas and thoughts. This starts the process of divergence.

2. People with ADHD take in more sensory information

People with ADHD exhibit above-average levels of resting-state brain activity (associated with calmness).These individuals generate an abundance of low-frequency delta or theta brain waves, and less of high-frequency beta brain waves. Active thinking is generated normally in the beta range. This suggests that people with ADHD are taking in a greater volume of sensory information when compared to normal individuals. This should explain the tendency for such people to feel overwhelmed by sights and sounds that others find almost unnoticeable. However this Increased sensitivity to sensory information is also associated with greater imagination, creativity, and inventiveness. This is what facilitators at schools should understand and aim for.

3. Divergent thinking is closely linked with creativity and dopamine

Those of us with ADHD will recognise dopamine for its important role in motivation, but this neurotransmitter also affects creativity. We know that those with ADHD can struggle with dopamine regulation. Research has indicated that, in ADHD brains, dopamine's role of providing a surge of positive feelings and motivating task completion is disrupted.

ADHD afflicted people live under stress, sometimes so severe they cannot tolerate frustration, and when they are frustrated, they are likely to become angry. The anger tends to come suddenly and explosively, accompanied by slamming doors, harsh words, tantrums, and leaving important meetings in a frenzy.

To help support those struggling with this disruption, we must try to introduce dopamine to act from external sources of pleasure and reward. Suggestions from successful interventions are listed. Take a look, and remember, what works for one person might not work for another, so don't be surprised if your own stimulant seems to be different.

A few examples of a quick dose might be:

Take a few deep breaths

A quick Gym workout.

Pet an animal

Dance vigorously

Listen to Music

Make a snack

Make the Bed / Arrange the wardrobe.

Longer term effects might be accomplished by:

Read a book

Sing or play music

Visit a friend or go to a park

Go for a swim / Have a shower

Cook a meal or go out for it.

Dress up

Visit a mall / museum / movie

Play online games /online shopping

Social media

Plan a holiday

Embracing the Creative Edge of ADHD

ADHD often fosters a unique form of creativity, allowing individuals to think outside the box. This style is characterised by divergent thinking, enabling fresh perspectives and innovative solutions. While ADHD does pose challenges, it also primes the brain for exceptional creativity, as so often seen in problem-solving abilities and rich imagination. Leveraging these creative strengths, especially in children, involves understanding how ADHD influences thought processes. Facilitators should encourage this distinctive thinking style in the classroom, while parents do so at home. By embracing and nurturing the creative abilities of children, we at specialised learning centres like our “Yen’s World School”, can turn this aspect of their condition into a powerful asset and help them evolve into exceptional and gifted individuals.

However, one of the challenges we face is that having a creative mind is sometimes limited by low self-esteem and discouragement. Even though we may have academic achievement and a brilliant creative mind, we may be discredited or discriminated against, because of our condition. This is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow. Our ADHD brains can certainly handle these kinds of tasks, but people won't let us because we exhibit ADHD symptoms that they think will affect the desired outcome.

Managing ADHD Divergent thinking and Creativity in School

Drawing, painting, creative story-telling, singing, dancing, acting — these are talents to be celebrated and encouraged. Make time for it as one would homework or sports. We have a proclivity not to value art as much as pure academics in education, but art is so much more than making something pretty.

Research studies have shown when your brain creates art, it nourishes a host of other systems that affect learning, such as motor skills, brain-wave patterns, attention, emotional balance, dopamine / serotonin production etc.. In short, creativity can help to strengthen overall learning — something parents of children with ADHD strive for.

When children are given creative projects to complete, we should allow them to handle it at their own pace. This may sometimes entail taking some time off from the task and letting their brains relax for a bit so that they can come up with better, fresh, and more ideas. This is the way to maintain a positive relationship with their ADHD minds.

Often a counter-productive feeling experienced by an adult ADHD afflicted person is burnout. Burnout is an ever-present danger for people with ADHD, especially when it comes to creative tasks. It's easy for us to become fatigued if our ADHD brain is overloaded. This is why taking intermittent rests are so vital. Research suggests that having a defined schedule and alternating tasks with rest periods can benefit us in the long run and help us come up with fresh ideas.

Because creativity can have a calming effect on the nervous system, time set aside in a creative outlet can have a similar impact on the brain as meditation or yoga. Before diving into homework, allow your child some quiet time with his/her preferred medium. Beginning homework in a relaxed state, after an activity at which a child feels skilled, can empower him/her to tackle it with clearer perspective, more energy, and less emotional dysregulation.

We must remember that ADHD children view the world innovatively, which can help them problem-solve. Because these kids face many difficulties, emphasising something they’re good at can make the difference between having positive self-regard or registering a failure. Remember to praise and focus much on their talent.

Try to allow them their own flow and not regiment them to our system. Provide materials and the opportunities to learn, then stand back. Let art be the place where they can be messy, express themselves, and not follow anyone’s rules. No matter their talent level, comment positively on specifics, such as use of colour and materials, their song/dance, or story choices. It would be good to make a place and time to exhibit their creations or hold a recital for their performances.

Creativity is a strength, but a child’s ADHD symptoms may hinder the development of their talent. Often they will leave paints open, or not pay attention at piano lessons. While bursting with terrific ideas for stories, they may not be able to get them on paper because writing is hard. Children may be amazing actors but might still find rehearsals boring, or find it hard to memorise their lines or dance steps, or struggle with learning to read music. Facilitators and parents need plenty of patience and think preventively to set them up for success.Teach them how to organise. They will need our continued support in managing the symptoms that get in their way.

We must remember a common symptom of ADHD is being enthusiastic to begin tasks and projects, with an inability to finish them. It is likely that a wealth of divergent thinking capacity and a deficit in convergent thinking capacity contributes to this problem. This inability to complete a task is a core symptom in children with ADHD. By focusing more on creative tasks like singing, dancing, and art, it helps them to reset their brains through a dopamine reward, building confidence in their own ability and performance.

Convergent and divergent thinking types are useful as subjects of cognitive science, but they are also helpful in reminding us that you can be not so good at solving one type of problem and excellent at another. Self-efficacy – feeling that you are good at something – is consistently associated with better performance on a large variety of tasks. So it is both mentally healthy and productive to focus on the kind of problem solving that works for you.

The “Yen’s World School’s” philosophy of letting children pursue an art, interest or activity of their own choosing anchors many of the therapeutic methods described here, into their way of life. There can be nothing better for an ADHD afflicted individual’s therapy - helping to restore confidence and boosting dopamine rewards and in turn performance, and a steady stream of divergent thought processes.

Another Leonardo in the making? Who knows?

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