Queens College Distinguished Professor of Psychology Jeffrey Halperin, far left, and colleagues from his AD\/HD treatment study program, Carol Yoon, center, and Jocelyn Curchack, demonstrate one of the games they use to help children learn how to better manage their disruptive behavior. <\/strong><\/p>\nIs Ritalin the right remedy for hyperactive children? Jeffrey M. Halperin, who has published more than 100 scientific papers, doesn\u2019t dispute the short-term effectiveness of such medications. His approach, however, is to develop therapies to re-train the brain. By teaching preschoolers cognitively challenging games that are fun to play, his team aims to help them lay down new or more efficient drug-free neural pathways to manage their disruptive behavior.<\/p>\n
In the past five years Halperin has garnered more than $4 million in NIH grants to study attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related disruptive, antisocial, and substance use disorders. Because ADHD is not a single disorder, notes Halperin, \u201cWe want to understand the genetic, neurological, and environmental factors that come together and influence growth and development.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADHD disrupts the lives of an estimated 5-to-10 percent of school-age children. For most, \u201cit\u2019s there by birth,\u201d Halperin notes.\u00a0 \u201cADHD is associated with delayed brain development. Environmental influences really can affect brain development.\u201d He believes that such influences are most potent when occurring in real-world natural settings. That\u2019s why his interventions take place in a social setting, not via computers.<\/p>\n
The QC Preschool Project, also headed by Halperin, distinguishes inattentive\/hyperactive children who develop ADHD from those who do not. Halperin\u2019s team originally recruited 216 families with 3-to-4-year-olds, two-thirds of whom seemed to be at risk for later behavioral\/cognitive difficulties; they are now 8-to-10.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really beginning to develop some clues and ideas about the trajectory of ADHD,\u201d Halperin says.\u00a0 \u201cFor many children, it seems as if the early hyperactivity is a developmental blip. They seem to outgrow it by 6 or 7. It doesn\u2019t mean a life sentence, although for some difficulties do persist.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of their TEAMS (Training Executive, Attention and Motor Skills)\u00a0 treatment study, Halperin\u2019s colleagues show parents how to create enriched environments and to engage their children in playful activities such as \u201cPuppet Says\u201d and \u201cFreeze Dancing\u201d (being statues when the music stops). These potentially brain-building games may involve words, memory, motor skills, focusing, impulse control, or remembering and carrying out a sequence of tasks while helping mom cook. \u201cWe want these games and activities to become part of their lives,\u201d Halperin explains. All can be \u201cscaffolded,\u201d that is, gradually made more challenging.<\/p>\n
So far their preliminary data are encouraging.\u00a0 Three months after TEAMS treatment is completed, \u201cthe children are doing a lot better,\u201d Halperin observes. Even before conducting randomized controlled trials, what he finds \u201cparticularly attractive at this point is the promise of non-pharmacological treatments\u201d to calm things down for the children\u2014and their grateful parents and teachers.
Books he recommends:<\/strong> For parents: Russell A. Barkley\u2019s Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete Authoritative Guide for Parents. For himself: \u201cI\u2019m always reading a novel,\u201d especially spy thrillers and detective stories.<\/p>\nMusical interests:<\/b> \u201cI\u2019m fairly eclectic\u201d\u20141960s folk, rock, and classical<\/p>\n
Surprising fact:<\/strong> Worked early on as a cab driver, postal worker, and census taker<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Name: Jeffrey M. Halperin Title: Distinguished Professor Department: Psychology; also on the Neuropsychology faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center Degree(s): B.A. City College of New York in 1973; Ph.D. CUNY Graduate Center in 1979. Contact Information: Phone: (718) 997-3254 Office: Science Building, Room A350 Email: jeffrey.halperin@qc.cuny.edu “Environmental influences really can affect brain development.”- Jeffrey M. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"page_category":[],"wf_page_folders":[137],"class_list":["post-1230","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1877,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1230\/revisions\/1877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page_category?post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}