Seems like I am hearing more and more about children being medicated for ADD.
This is not the cure. Prehaps a band-aid, prehaps more damage.
The cure:
It's really very simple, learn to focus & still the mind.
Your mind could be likend to a muscle, the more you excercize it, the stronger it gets.
Just like building the body, there are many different excercizes for developing various mental strenghts & abilities.
This particular mental strength, focusing & stilling the mind is rather simple.
Make sure you have about a half hour (or more) of free time.
Pick a place where you will not be disturbed or where people will see you. (people seem to react badly to people "zoning" out and this is what you will look like to them)
First, bring the mind to a single thought. You may need to think it over and over to keep the mind focused upon it, but the key it to keep it focused.
I like the thought "God I Am Love". This is my mantra. Others may choose a different one, but what ever you choose, make it a positive high idea, simple prayer, or, affirmation.
Now, pick a point on a wall, make a dot on a piece of paper, or, choose some other focal point to focus upon & stay focused. (It would probably be best to pick a point besides your computer screen, yet what ever you decide upon, stick to it.)
The goal is to maintain your attention on this single thought & point for 15 minutes.
Some people will notice when they first start this excercize, that they will suddenly notice they have compleatly forgoten what they had set out to do in the first place, and. will find that their mind & attention will have drifted off to some other focal point and thoughts.
Don't worry. It's probably been a while since you did such an excercize. Remember learning to walk? Probably not, but we all know it takes time to develope strength.
Simply forgive allowing your mind to side track, return your attention to the original thought & point that you picked and start fresh.
Like light through a magnifing glass, focused: will start a fire ~ so will your focused attention Light your being.
Master your mind & know you attention is more valuable then gold. Be careful of what you pay it too.
For parents that are trying to help a younger child, you may find that a beginer martial arts class would be a good tool as well.
The root cause of ADD is most deffinatly a lack of development of control of one's mind. This is due to the fact that many people are never taught, that, not only can they control their mind, but also how to begin.
Many would say that the root is video games or TV due to the constant topic shifts, and though this will have an effect upon the mind, it is still secondary.