SENECA — On Thursday, school psychologist Bridget Briley didn’t just talk about Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Speaking at an Oconee Alliance meeting, Briley let the audience experience the condition themselves.

Alliance guests were asked to read a brief text, projected overhead, within a couple of minutes. The text, however, was interrupted every few seconds with flashing images. A soccer game. Windows. Bright white light.

The effect made the assignment almost impossible. After time elapsed, the audience was asked to take a brief quiz. The result: failure.

“I’ve worked with a lot of children with ADHD, and — if there’s anything about what I say today — I really want you to hear the message they can be productive citizens,” Briley said. “They can do things just like everyone else can. How they do it may be a little bit different.”

Briley said that after eight years of working with ADHD children, she had yet to meet one not of average intelligence or better.

About 5-8 percent of school-aged children have ADHD. The rate for South Carolina students is slightly higher, between 7 -8 percent, according to 2003 Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures. In addition, 2-4 percent of adults are believed to suffer from the disorder.

Symptoms include forgetfulness, being easily distracted, hyperactivity, difficulty focusing, carelessness and poor listening skills. Briley emphasized schools do not diagnose ADHD — that’s left to medical professionals. However, schools can help provide intervention and hopefully, a helping hand.

According to Briley, teachers can improve ADHD-diagnosed students’ learning using a variety of measures. The adaptations are just as unconventional as the youths they are intended to help. Some include using music as a learning tool, giving hand signals to communicate boundaries crossed and instructors moving in close proximity to ADHD children during lessons.

Occasionally, more conventional tactics — including utilizing smaller classrooms and workloads — are also used.

“The key is to keep the child in a regular classroom and learning,” Briley said.

A graduate of Southern Wesleyan University, Briley is also an adjunct instructor at SWU and Tri-County Technical College. As the mother of an 8-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, she’s afforded a parent’s angle on child learning development.

The causes of ADHD are somewhat hazy, although they’re believed to include chemical imbalances. However, Briley said the assumption that “bad parenting” could cause ADHD was a “myth.”

During a question-and-answer session, Oconee County Superintendent Mike Lucas, who was in the audience, offered an administrator’s perspective. Lucas said he believed ADHD is over-diagnosed and the medicines used to treat it over prescribed.

“ADD (attention-deficit disorder, a form of ADHD) is not willful behavior,” Lucas said. “My concern is that we get those two confused: willful acts and ADD. I will tell you our society is too quick to say ‘ADD’ when it’s not. It’s a willful act: a lack of structure, a lack of discipline.”

Although ADHD can present educational challenges, those afflicted can thrive in the work place, Lucas said. He cited iconic inventor Thomas Edison as an example. However, according to Briley, for ADHD sufferers to excel at work, it’s essential employers recognize talents of such persons and play to those strengths.

“If you look at people with ADHD, usually they’re really fun to be around,” Briley said. “They’re excited and peppy. It’s not a deficit in skill. These people have skills, but sometimes they struggle with performance.

Briley lauded the Public Broadcasting Service documentary, “Misunderstood Minds,” and its accompanying Web site, pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/, as a wellspring of ADHD concepts.

Alliance Executive Director Jim Gadd said ripple effects of ADHD made the subject relevant for the group’s meetings, where speakers can riff on fiscal issues.

“The Alliance is always interested in economic development and quality of life,” Gadd said. “And when you talk about ADHD, you talk about quality of life for those students, and as they graduate to the work force, it does affect employers.”