ADHD: Key Mechanisms
Beyond the surface symptoms, ADHD involves specific underlying mechanisms that explain why certain behaviours occur. Understanding these helps you support your child more effectively.
When you understand the mechanism behind a behaviour, you can address the root cause rather than just the symptom. For example:
- If your child is always late, the mechanism might be time blindness - so solutions focus on making time visible
- If they can't start homework, it might be delay aversion - so you create immediate mini-rewards
- If they explode at small things, it's emotional impulsivity - so you help them recognise early warning signs
People with ADHD often struggle to feel time passing. An hour can feel like ten minutes, or vice versa. This affects planning, punctuality, and breaking tasks into manageable chunks.
What it looks like:
- •Consistently underestimates how long tasks take
- •Loses track of time when absorbed in activities
- •Struggles with deadlines and appointments
- •Difficulty knowing when to start getting ready
- •Can't estimate "5 more minutes" accurately
Strategies that help:
- ✓Use visual timers that show time passing
- ✓Set multiple alarms for important transitions
- ✓Build in buffer time before appointments
- ✓Break tasks into smaller, timed chunks
- ✓Make time visible (clocks everywhere)
The ADHD brain finds waiting uncomfortable. Future rewards feel less "real" than immediate ones, making it hard to work toward long-term goals even when you understand they're important.
What it looks like:
- •Chooses small immediate rewards over larger delayed ones
- •Struggles to work on projects until deadline looms
- •Finds waiting intensely uncomfortable
- •May take shortcuts to finish tasks faster
- •Difficulty saving money or delaying gratification
Strategies that help:
- ✓Break long tasks into short sprints with immediate rewards
- ✓Use artificial deadlines closer to the present
- ✓Pair boring tasks with something enjoyable
- ✓Create immediate consequences (positive or negative)
- ✓Make progress visible and tangible
Difficulty managing emotions is now recognised as a core feature of ADHD, not just a side effect. Emotions are felt intensely and expressed quickly, before there's time to filter or manage them.
What it looks like:
- •Quick to anger or frustration
- •Intense emotional reactions that seem disproportionate
- •Difficulty calming down once upset
- •Emotional responses before thinking
- •Mood shifts that seem sudden to others
Strategies that help:
- ✓Teach "name it to tame it" - labelling emotions
- ✓Create a calm-down plan in advance
- ✓Recognise early warning signs of dysregulation
- ✓Build in "pause" points (count to 5)
- ✓Avoid discussing problems when already upset
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of ADHD. Your child may know exactly what they should do, and genuinely want to do it, but still can't make themselves do it. This is not about knowledge - it's about activation.
What it looks like:
- •Knows homework is important but can't start
- •Has clear goals but can't follow through
- •"I know I should, but I just can't"
- •Performance varies wildly despite consistent knowledge
- •Can explain the right thing to do but doesn't do it
Strategies that help:
- ✓Reduce the barrier to starting (just do 2 minutes)
- ✓Use body doubling (work alongside someone)
- ✓Create external accountability
- ✓Match tasks to energy levels
- ✓Don't rely on willpower - change the environment
Executive function difficulties
These mechanisms all relate to executive functions - the brain's self-management system. Here's how each is typically affected in ADHD:
| Executive Function | What It Does | In ADHD |
|---|---|---|
| Working Memory | Holding information in mind while using it | Often impaired; "in one ear, out the other" |
| Inhibition | Stopping automatic responses | Acts/speaks before thinking |
| Cognitive Flexibility | Shifting between tasks or perspectives | Gets stuck; difficulty with transitions |
| Planning | Thinking ahead and sequencing steps | Starts without planning; disorganised |
| Self-Monitoring | Checking own performance | Unaware of errors or impact on others |
| Emotional Regulation | Managing emotional responses | Intense, quickly expressed emotions |
Dr Russell Barkley, a leading ADHD researcher, describes ADHD as a problem of performance, not knowledge.
Your child likely knows what they should do. They know they should start their homework, tidy their room, or wait their turn. The problem isn't understanding - it's doing. Their brain struggles to translate intention into action, especially when the task isn't immediately rewarding.
This is why traditional approaches like "just try harder" or "you know what to do" don't work. The solution isn't more knowledge - it's changing the environment to make the right action easier to initiate.
Understanding these mechanisms shifts how you approach challenges:
Instead of:
- "Just pay attention"
- "You need to try harder"
- "Why can't you just start?"
- "You knew you had to do this"
Try:
- Making the task more engaging
- Changing the environment
- Breaking it into tiny first steps
- Creating external supports