A few years ago, a customer walked in to purchase a piano at my store. We talked and he told 
me that the piano was for his son who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). According to my customer, ADHD support services said that taking piano lessons could help people with ADHD. Before I share how piano training can help individuals with ADHD, let me tell you a bit about this disorder.
What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
ADHD is a disorder that is commonly found with numerous children and adolescents, and sometimes even with adults and it affects them in various ways. A professional medical body estimates that between 3% and 5% of children have this disorder. A few experts claim that ADHD can occur in 10% of children that go to school as well. Some professionals question if children can outgrow Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This means that ADHD may be more common in adults than formerly thought.
From what I know, children with this disorder usually have difficulty to concentrate or pay attention. They are frequently frustrated with tasks, unable to follow directions, and they tend to get bored easily. Additionally, children with ADHD are impulsive and have the tendency to move repeatedly, not stopping to think before they take action. While these manners are typically common in children, they happen more habitually and are more serious in children with ADHD. As for adults with ADHD, they tend to have difficulty with organizational skills, employment, management, and general goal setting. Normally, they might also have issues with self-esteem, addictions, and relationships.
Is there any Cure for ADHD?
There is no known cause or cure for ADHD, but there are ranges of support services that can assist people with ADHD to help them focus and channel their hyperactivity inclinations. There is, however, a relatively new and impending field of therapy for people with ADHD that is aptly called, music therapy. Trained music therapists conduct music therapy with different types of sessions, which includes piano lessons. A common therapy session may comprise of songwriting between the individual with ADHD and the therapist or consist of the ADHD patient and therapist making music using different musical instruments.
How can Piano Lessons Help?
Individuals with ADHD are hyperactive, so playing the piano or making music together in either an unstructured or a structured manner with a trained music therapist can provide these individuals with obligatory time to release their creative energy in a very positive way. Many parents and custodians of people with ADHD have claimed that music therapy has helped their children to focus a great deal better.
Where is the Best Place to Obtain Lessons
I do not have many customers who have children with ADHD, but since the day that I met one that has a son with this disorder, I have been promoting piano lessons to most of my customers and people I meet through social gatherings and conferences. It is important to get your child started playing piano, particularly if you want him to start developing his mind from a very young age.
If you are looking at hiring a piano teacher to teach piano lessons, I highly suggest that you look for one who has many years of experience in especially piano tutoring. Generally, I recommend my customers to ask various music schools if they have any part time teachers who can teach from home or who will travel from one home to the other to teach children. Of course, this is feasible for those who prefer their children to learn from home, but for parents who want their children to socialize with other students at the same time, then the private or public music school will be ideal.
Would you recommend piano lessons to individuals with ADHD?
Can you recommend someone to give my 6 year old son with ADHD piano lessons. We live in Welland so I would be looking for Welland, St.Catharines or Niagara Falls areas.
Ask the Steinway dealer in the Buffalo area.
I disagree. I have ADD and not “hyper active” just a little ants at times. You missed the biggest point. ADD and ADHD it not only a behavioral or motivation problem. It is all focus. I am pushing 74 years old and my ADD doesn’t
affect my behavior or motivation. I can not focus on two things at once. I can not play with both hands. It is is like trying to read two book at the same time. i have been trying to learn piano with Playground Session for over a year. I can not get out of boot camp. Yesterday I spent 7 hours and 37 minutes on 536 attempts to play 2 measure and couldn’t do it. I made no progress after the first 30 minutes then I hit the brick wall. The only time in my life I could focus completely on the task at hand was when I was in a firefight in Vietnam. I do not think it is practicable to hire someone to shoot at me while I practice on the keyboard. I have been beating my head against the wall for a year now and all I have to show for it is a bloody wall. I need some new advice, none has been any good for me yet.
Mike look into Brain gym activities like figure 8 and crossing the midline. Sounds like you have some connections blocked but once you get the two sides of your brain connected and working together these tasks should get easier. So many studies are showing the importance of midline movement.
Mike Madrid – it may help to look into Complex PTSD, as symptoms can be very similar to ADD/ADHD.
A couple books called, “The Body Keeps the Score”, and “Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving” might help give some insights. The comments for these on Amazon will give some appreciation of content before committing to buy.
Also check out, Gabor Maté’s, books on possible causes of ADHD, from Trauma.
Medication can help improve over 2/3rds of patients, with a 1/4 or so, having significant improvement.
I admire your perseverance. For me breaking things down into tiny parts, and practising those, then building them up, and joining them together, is the way I learn.