I think about these cognitive functions on a bell curve. Like IQ, for example. You have some people who are very have a very high IQ, and some people have an average IQ and some people have a below average IQ, or for example, reading. Some kids develop to become very fast and efficient readers, and they're at the top of their class and their ability to read. some are average readers and some are below average readers.
Same thing goes for these executive functions that I've been describing. Some kids are just excellent at planning and time management, and those kids I don't think I really need a program like HeadWorks. They're keeping up in school and not feeling overwhelmed.
And the kids at the bottom quartile of that bell curve, these kids are usually identified pretty early because they have such production problems. They're smart kids, they just have a devil of a time getting all that work on and they feel overwhelmed, and so a lot of times they'll even feel anxious and sometimes even depressed because they have a hard time keeping up with the work. Those kids are identified pretty early. And in fact, some of the kids at the lowest part of the bell curve, I think we would refer to them as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. Sometimes they take medicine that adds a little bit of dopamine, and it helps their executive functions work even when they're doing something that's not intrinsically interesting.
My biggest concern is about those kids because medicine doesn't solve these problems that they're having, it just supports them a bit. But I also have a concern about the other 50% of the kids who are in the average range school work is becoming so complicated now that these kids, even with average executive functioning, are so overwhelmed. They don't have a diagnosis that they're falling behind and getting overwhelmed. I think this is partially explains why more and more kids are being diagnosed with ADHD and treated with similar medication, even though they don't fully meet the diagnostic criteria.
But these kids also need support, so it's not that there's something wrong with them, but just developmentally being average now with executive functions is not enough for these kids. So I think this accounts for a lot of academic anxiety that you see in kids now, even depression. The point of HeadWorks is to help these kids to make sure that they don't fall behind in their work and get overwhelmed.