A New Way to Help Kids with ADHD: Brain Training + Gentle Nerve Stimulation

ADHD can make life tricky for kids and for their parents/caregivers too. Focusing in class, staying calm at home, or managing big feelings can feel like a constant challenge. Medication can help, but it’s not always the best fit for every child and often it’s more of a band-aid for the symptoms than a lasting solution. That’s why researchers are exploring non-medication strategies that train the brain and body to work together in a more natural way. One approach that stood out in a recent study combined neurofeedback, mindful breathing informed by respiratory biofeedback, and gentle nerve stimulation to support kids in improving attention, self-control, and overall well-being(Vasquez et al., 2025). The study included 60 children with ADHD, ages 8-18, who completed a two-week program consisting of ten sessions. Each session paired respiratory biofeedback to promote relaxation, neurofeedback brain games to train attention, and median nerve stimulation to enhance brain activity. Some participants received real nerve stimulation (the active or experimental group), while others got a brief, placebo-style stimulation (the sham group aka the no stimulation group) to see how much the electrical pulses contributed to improvements.

All of the kids in this study handled the sessions really well, which is encouraging because structured training like this can sometimes be tricky for children (regardless of their clinical presentation) to stay focused through.

The results were really interesting!! Kids in the active/experimental group showed significant improvements in behavioral challenges, anxiety, hyperactivity, and learning difficulties right after the sessions. The sham/control group didn’t show as much immediate change, but they did improve by the follow-up check-in. One detail that stood out to me: boys improved slightly less than girls, which fits with what we know about ADHD; girls often get overlooked or underdiagnosed, even though they might respond differently to interventions. Age and medication didn’t seem to make a big difference in outcomes, which suggests this three-part intervention could work for a broad range of kids.

EEG recordings gave a peek into what was happening in the kid’s brains. Kids in the active group showed an increase in theta waves, linked to relaxation and attention, along with a decrease in alpha waves. Interestingly, the study didn’t find big changes in beta waves, which are associated with alertness and focus. For reference, stimulants are known to increase beta activity and reduce alpha oscillations, reflecting a heightened state of arousal. Still, the shifts in theta and alpha suggest that even without major beta changes, the combination of paced breathing, neurofeedback, and gentle nerve stimulation can create measurable improvements in brain activity. Some of these changes even lasted a month after the sessions, indicating that the intervention may support sustained calm and attentiveness, potentially even longer than the short-term effects of stimulants.

At Brain Builders Neurotherapy, we use similar neurofeedback-based programs for kids with ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Although we do not offer medial nerve stimulation, this study shows that combining brain training, relaxation, and gentle stimulation helps kids practice focusing, controlling their energy, and building skills that matter in daily life. The study also highlights that girls with ADHD often need more specialized attention, and it underscores the importance of including more females in ADHD research, since most studies have a skewed sex ratio.

Non-medication approaches like this offer families more options and show that there’s real hope for kids to thrive; both in the classroom and at home.

See the original study here:

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1478501