Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays a significant role in the human experience of pleasure, motivation, and learning. It helps to boost our moods, enhances attention, and even helps to regulate movement and activity. It is released when we get a reward or when we are expecting a reward of some kind. When we listen to a favorite song, eat a favorite snack, or purchase something that we’ve really been wanting, we are rewarded with a release of dopamine, and that feels really good. It keeps us going and makes us want to do those rewarding activities again. Even when we attend to something that we find particularly boring, such as doing our taxes or cleaning a bathroom, most of us have enough dopamine to keep some level of motivation. We know that we need to complete the tasks, although they are not our favorites. And so dopamine boosts our motivation and keeps us chugging along.
Although studies have been conflicting as to whether or not there is an absolute connection between AD/HD and levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine (and/or dopamine receptors) within the brain, it is most certainly the case that many neurodivergent children, especially those with AD/HD, seem to seek dopamine-enhancing experiences. This also seems to be the reason that psychostimulants are often helpful for individuals with AD/HD; the medication seems to enhance dopamine levels in the brain (though again, research is vast and varied, and my explanations here are purposely oversimplified), leaving the child feeling motivated and happy, when the medicine is working ideally, at least.
In this post, it is my goal to discuss how this “dopamine connection” impacts learning and behavior and how you, as the teacher and/or parent, can use it to your advantage to create an environment that works for both you and your child. I do not plan to go into the complicated science of dopamine, but I will instead use the phrase “dopamine connection” to refer to how an understanding of dopamine and its role in the brain can help you to better understand your neurodivergent child.
Before I get any farther along, though, I would like to recount the day that the “dopamine connection” really clicked for me. I had already been working as a licensed counselor, primarily with a neurodiverse population, for several years, but it was not until I attended one particular workshop that I really had my “aha” moment. The presenter was talking about dopamine, and she mentioned how most people, whether they have AD/HD or not, feel rather bored when completing certain tasks, such as balancing their checkbooks. She said that most people were apt to avoid doing it as long as possible, but ultimately, they come around and do it because it must be done. Most neurotypical people’s dopamine levels are sufficient to keep them motivated and get them through the tedious task at hand. (The fact that balancing a checkbook is pretty much a thing of the past is largely beside the point, but it does date the workshop I attended and shed light on how much has changed in the past few decades.) The speaker then went on to say that, to a person with AD/HD, balancing their checkbooks might feel like literal torture, and they just cannot bring themselves to complete the task. I remember feeling, at first, that it seemed that she might be exaggerating a bit, using a word like “torture” to describe a menial task. And maybe she was.
But I started to think about the words my clients with AD/HD were frequently using to describe the activities that they didn’t like and tried to avoid. “It’s just so boring; it makes me feel like I might die doing it.” And I also started to think about the way that many of them described their entire lives, particularly their lives at school, not just the tasks that they particularly dreaded. They’d say things like, “I’m just so bored all of the time.” And, “I just hate school so much.” And it all started to click. These kids were trying to tell me that this feeling of boredom they had was terrible and that they were experiencing it for huge amounts of their time.
How do I know for certain that what they were trying to describe was a really, terrible feeling? Well, first of all, they were saying it over and over again. “It’s so, so boring. I can’t tell you just how boring it is.” And secondly, their feeling was strong enough that the typical motivators that kept most of their peers performing and completing their school work, were not enough for these kids. These kids were not motivated enough by grades, nor by peer, parent, or teacher approval, to push past the boredom and get the work done. And that’s when I actually started to believe these kids and to really hear them. To them, their level of boredom sometimes felt like torture.
Before I discuss some of the ways that you can address this within your child’s learning environment, I’d like to introduce you to a few different hypothetical children so that you can see whether some of this rings true for your own kids. Then we can discuss how the dopamine connection affects them and how you can create an ideal learning environment for each of them.
“Timothy” is 8 years old and is constantly seeking something new and different. He has a huge amount of energy, and his mom feels that he is always moving and is always talking. She loves that his energy levels keep the house buzzing, and she loves that his constant activity-seeking leads him to some awesome discoveries, but she also says that it can be difficult to reign him back in to get started on his school work for the day. She feels that his energy level can seem so much bigger than what is needed for many of his assignments, so he sometimes has a hard time sitting calmly in his chair and doing his work.
“Alexis” is 14 years old and seems to have a hard time paying attention to anything that she is not particularly interested in. Her dad says that she can draw for hours at a time and that she is very good at it, but when he asks her to come and do her math lesson, she disengages and seems to be “spaced out” and not really listening to him.
“Andrew” is 10 years old. His mother describes him as having low energy levels. He loves playing video games and watching TV, but when he tries to follow through on other activities, he just can’t seem to sustain his attention on them. He works slowly, slouches in his chair, and can’t seem to get enough motivation to get his work done. His mother says that he is smart and that he is also kind, friendly, and easy to get along with.
Do any of the students above sound familiar to you? Even though they all have very different personalities and very different ways that they engage with learning, understanding the dopamine connection is key to understanding how to support each of them.
Let’s start with 8-year-old Timothy. He is like the energy bunny, moving at a speed faster than the world around him and seeming to never wear out. He also seeks new experiences constantly. More than likely, Timothy is keeping his dopamine levels where they need to be by seeking rewarding situations wherever he can find them. He is also trying to avoid the bored and empty feeling he sometimes gets when he finally stops moving, stops talking, and attends to a less rewarding task. As his mom noted, there are positives to Timothy’s fast speed and curiosity. But sometimes it makes “doing school” seem so hard for both of them.
For parents of children who are high- energy, sensory seekers, who are always looking for thrill, ready to try the next new thing, and never keen to sit down for a story or a worksheet or a lesson, I have found that there are a few key factors that can be extremely helpful to creating a successful learning environment (and remember “successful” simply means an environment where learning happens in a way that works for all parties involved, in this case Timothy and his mom.)
For an active eight-year-old, it is ideal to keep all lessons very short. 20 minutes is a great upper limit for a lesson. Then give a high-energy child a movement break of some kind before beginning the next lesson. Short breaks work best, though, because it can be really difficult to get a child back who has become engaged in another, more exciting activity. So, try saying, “Timothy, I will time you while you jump on the trampoline for 5 minutes; then we will start our next lesson,” instead of, “Break time. Go play.” I have learned from personal experience that a child who is simply told, “Go play,” may never want to come back. ;)
2. Provide as many dopamine-enhancing activities as possible throughout lessons. The more “boring” a particular lesson feels to the student, the more extra motivators are needed.
3. Talk to your child about which lessons feel the most difficult to stay focused on and which ones they enjoy the least. Talk to your student about what they think might make the lessons more enjoyable (sometimes they have fantastic ideas you wouldn’t have thought of!).
4. Some lessons can really be made more exciting just by altering the format: change the order up, eliminate unnecessary parts of the lesson that the child does not enjoy, add some different types of materials (books with pictures versus books with words only), or change the curriculum altogether, if needed.
5. Add rewards and motivators. Remember, rewards equal a dopamine increase, a dopamine increase equals more motivation, and more motivation equals enhanced learning. If you are a family who is not used to rewarding a child, this can really feel like bribery at first. I was once in this camp and tried to avoid external rewards at all costs because I wanted my children to develop intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is absolutely a great goal, but if we are expecting our children to do things that they don’t like sometimes, then we have to provide the motivation, because they won’t just magically have it; this is true of most neurotypical children, as well. Adding rewards and motivators can come in many forms.
a. You can make the entire experience rewarding by building the motivator into the lesson. Use tiny candies or cereal pieces for math games or to play word bingo, move the whole lesson outside, let your child’s doll or pet come to the lesson, make the math story problems or writing prompts about your child’s favorite character, or practice math facts while playing catch. The options are endless, and the reward is built right into the lesson.
b. You can also offer more traditional rewards. For example, I keep a box of Pokémon cards on hand and let my son pull one when he completes a difficult (for him) lesson. I also give my kids points for good work during lessons, which they can then trade in for prizes in our treasure box. I see these rewards as similar to adults getting a pay check for work (that they don’t necessarily love). We all need some motivation to do our work.
c. A third way to add a motivator to a task is to give the child a great reason to do the work. Maybe their story can be published on a blog, or they can create a DIY video on the topic they are studying to post to YouTube. Maybe there is a contest that they can enter their science project into. By building in a real-world reason for them to complete the work, you are adding a natural reward for their work, the best kind of motivator that we can use in education, in my opinion.
6. Another important aspect of the dopamine connection for the highly active, experience-seeking child, is to begin to help them to self-regulate and become aware of their own experience of reward-seeking.
a. They can learn to identify what they are needing and to provide it for themselves in a healthy way. This might be through engaging in physical activity, taking a break to watch a favorite show listen to a favorite podcast, making themselves a snack, or any other number of activities that give them a dopamine boost without negative consequences.
b. They can also learn to identify some of the unhealthy behaviors that dopamine-seeking may draw them towards, such as grabbing for high sugar snacks regularly, engaging in physically risky activities, playing video games for longer than is healthy, or, as they become older, abusing substances. It is important to help them to understand that some activities are completely fine, and even helpful, in moderation, but they can become unhealthy when relied upon too heavily. Other activities are always risky and never a great idea. The younger you can start having conversations about this, the better.
c. I highly recommend teaching children mindfulness practices. There are many games, card decks, books, and programs that can help with this. Another alternative would be to use a self-regulation curriculum, such as the “Zones of Regulation” by Leah M. Cuypers. By practicing mindfulness and/or self-regulation techniques, a dopamine-seeking individual can become aware of their various states of arousal so that they can make good decisions about how and when to alter their own experience for the better.
Next, let’s talk about 14-year-old Alexis. She loves to draw, but her parents have a hard time getting her to focus during lessons that she is not particularly interested in, specifically, math. Alexis is clearly getting the amount of dopamine, motivation, and reward that she needs when she is drawing, and so it’s working for her. Drawing feels good to her, she feels successful at it, and so she continues to strive at it and to learn and grow as an artist. Math, on the other hand, seems uninteresting and confusing to Alexis. She also sees no real reason to learn it, as she hasn’t really seen it used in her life outside of lessons.
I suspect that there is more going on here with Alexis and her relationship with math lessons, but for the sake of this post, we will discuss the dopamine and motivation components only.
Determine what the “spacing out,” is really about. Many individuals disconnect, or “space out,” when an experience isn’t rewarding enough to keep them engaged. Especially with teens, it is so important and helpful to ask them for their perspectives. Alexis’s dad observed that she seems to be “spacing out” during the math lessons, so he needs to ask her what she is experiencing during these times. She might have a totally different perspective and maybe is just making a blank face while she tries to focus, but, more likely, she might explain that she just isn’t connecting with what he’s saying so she can’t stay engaged with it and, therefore, her mind drifts. Once it is determined that the student is indeed not engaged during the lesson, there are a few things to try to increase motivation and connection with the content.
Try a different mode for presenting the material. Think about what kind of activities or lessons your child does seem to engage with, and utilize as much of that as possible to design more engaging lessons. Alexis likes to draw. Maybe she learns well when a visual is added. If that’s the case, adding drawings and symbols instead of just telling her how to do something can help. Or choose a curriculum that is video-based or has a more visual component, such as Khan Academy or Math U See. Be willing to switch this up if it is not working, and try something else. (But I recommend always giving new curriculums a good 5-6 week try before ditching them.)
Alexis expressed that she feels there isn’t much applied use for the math she’s learning. It is very helpful to build in motivators by adding real-world scenarios. Add in hands-on lessons where she is applying math in real life, or write story problems that show how the math applies to real life.
Make sure that the content is not too difficult and that foundational skills required are already automatized. I will talk in much more depth about this in another blog post about cognitive load and atomization of core skills, but I do want to mention here that, when learning is too difficult or out of reach, it will be an instant killer of motivation. So it’s very important to keep the learning expectations at a place that provides challenge but not so much that the student is completely lost.
Build rewards into the lesson. Make sure that it is fun and exciting. Add engaging games or hands-on experiences. Provide a bowl of a favorite snack that the student can reward themselves with every time they get a difficult problem correct. Have the student bring a fidget to the lesson that gives them a dopamine-boost while they learn, or allow them to doodle while you talk. My daughter likes to listen to music while she does her math problems. Things like background music, fidgets, and doodling can be very helpful for some but distracting for others, so it’s definitely good to help your student determine if some of these suggestions are helpful or unhelpful.
10-year-old Andrew is a laid-back guy who thrives when he’s watching TV or playing video games. He sometimes struggles to get enough focused energy to engage in his lessons, and his parents have struggled with how to best teach him. He just doesn’t seem particularly motivated to them. He also complains of being bored, but when they suggest things for him to do, he doesn’t seem interested.
Andrew may be having a hard time keeping his dopamine levels high enough, and he finds that an easy, yet low energy way to keep going is to watch TV or play video games. These things feel good to him, but when he tries to stay engaged in tasks that require more energy, he often finds he’d rather be watching TV. This is not all about dopamine, but understanding the dopamine connection may help his parents create an environment that he can find a bit more enjoyable and can get more done.
Build in some exercise into his daily routine, specifically before schoolwork time. It would be best if it is something that he can enjoy. Some ideas are swimming, walking, biking, skateboarding, or dancing. The options are endless, but physical activity should get him alert enough to be ready for some active and engaged learning.
Someone like Andrew may benefit from the addition of something stimulating to the lesson time, such as a sour drink (we make lemonade with organic lemon juice and stevia) or sparling water, gum, or a crunchy snack. Other energizing options might be to have your him work at a standing desk or sit on an exercise ball to do his work. Just experiment and see what works. A good occupational therapist can be a huge help with this, as well, especially if you suspect your child has some challenges with sensory integration.
Children are typically far more motivated to work in areas that are of interest to them. Find out what shows he’s been watching, and have him write about the characters in the shows. Try to choose topics for science and social studies that you know have a good chance of piquing his interest.
Alternate high energy activities and low energy activities. A child like Andrew who prefers sedentary activities might need a very hands-on and engaging activity in order to stimulate him enough to be engaged. And then he might want to retreat into his lower energy world again. You can draw upon both. For example, if you are studying Ancient Egypt, you can let him cuddle with you on the couch while you read about Mummies, then get active by mummifying an apple or building a pyramid out of sugar cubes. Then consider letting him watch a pre-selected (engaging) video about the pyramids in Ancient Egypt.
Now that you’ve had the chance to review ideas for our three hypothetical students, it may be helpful for you to practice designing a lesson that will be engaging enough for your child to help keep their dopamine and motivation flowing.
Questions to Consider
In what ways does my child’s behavior seem to reflect that they may be dopamine or reward seeking? Do they frequently say they are bored? Do they seek out high thrill or high reward activities frequently?
How might the dopamine connection be impacting their learning?
What lessons does my child resist the most? Might this be related to dopamine, self-regulation, or motivation?
What lessons or activities does my child typically enjoy? Why do I think they enjoy them? How can I apply this to other learning experiences?
What are some ideas for how I might make lessons more engaging for my child or children?
What topics is my child very interested in right now? How can I incorporate these interests into my child’s learning?
An article about Reward Deficiency Syndrome, AD/HD, and their connection to dopamine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626918/