Impulsive behavior is another symptom of ADHD. Impulsive children will often blurt our inappropriate comments, display emotions and act without regard for the consequences of their conduct. Signs of hyperactivity-impulsivity are feeling restless, squirming while seated, running, climbing, or getting up from their seats when quite behavior is expected, blurting out answers out of turn, can’t wait in line or take turns.

Children who are inattentive get bored easily with a task or assignment only after a few minutes into it. They have a hard time keeping their minds on one thing. Homework is very hard for these children. They might forget to write down an assignment, or leave it at school, or bring the wrong one home. If they do finish homework, it is often full of errors. This can be frustrating for you and your child. Signs of inattention are being easily distracted by other sights and sounds, not paying attention to details and rarely following instructions and forgetting the tools necessary to complete the assignment.

Here are 8 suggestions you can share with your child’s teachers for classroom success.

*Be sensitive to self-esteem issues: Performing tasks in public may be too difficult for your child, so ask the teacher to provide feedback privately for your child if needed.

*Positive reinforcement: Ask the teacher to offer praise. For instance, be on the lookout for positive behaviors such as your child staying seated, doesn’t call out, but waits his or her turn instead of criticizing when he or she doesn’t.

*Have a folder for homework and parent-teacher communications: This is a excellent way to make sure all homework is completed on time and to keep in contact with your child’s teacher.
 
*Assignment breakdowns: Breaking down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces and keep instructions for these tasks clear and brief.

*Teaching good study skills: To help your child stay focused and retain information, reading out loud, note taking and underlining really helps keep your child’s mind on the task at hand.
 
*Supervise: Paring your child with a “Buddy” can help them stay on track. Just to make sure that they come and go from school with the right books and materials for the day.

*Involvement of the school counselor or Psychologist: They can address behavioral programs specific to the problems in the classroom.

*Seating distractions: Distractions in the classroom can be lessoned as easily as seating your child near the teacher instead of near a window.

Something for you to consider also is that children with ADHD and ADD are eligible for special services or accommodations at school under “IDEA” the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, and the anti-discrimination law known as Section 504.

For more information on further ADHD treatment and help with your ADHD child, please visit my website.

Technorati Tags: ADHD, child, School

Do you know why you have ADD/ADHD? Because you are extremely intelligent! No, I am not being sarcastic. In fact, I could not be more sincere. Most people with ADD/ADHD (herein called ADHD) have such a strong interest in a great variety of things, they have a hard time maintaining focus on one thing at a time. Of course, there are additional reasons too, but I am here to tell you that every person I know with ADHD (friends, relatives, and students) have an extraordinary number of talents and are all extremely bright. So, why do so many students with ADHD struggle in school?

The traditional school environment is not very exciting for most students, but especially students with ADHD. What they (and some of their teachers) fail to realize is that school is not boring because the information is too complex. On the contrary…school is boring because there is often not enough activity to keep their active minds engaged.

One common characteristic of people with ADHD is that they learn best by doing; they prefer to get their hands on something and figure out how it works rather than read about how it works. They typically represent the epitome of “hands on, minds on” learners. However, in most school situations, there is way too much idle time sitting at desks.

Many parents of students with ADHD say that their children do best when they can be involved in class by helping the teacher or having some type of leadership role. They thrive on projects and the opportunity to investigate the answer to a problem.

Is ADHD Really a Disorder?

I have always hated the term “Attention Deficit Disorder!” My observations, from knowing and working with many friends, relatives, and students who have ADHD are that they just have to make some additional accommodations to function in our modern society.

For example, I am left-handed and the whole world is backwards for me. I can never use scissors without looking like I have a physical disability. I always get ink smears on
my hand when I write because my hand glides right over the freshly written words. When I have to sign my name on a credit card machine, the stylus is always on the wrong side of the machine and my signature looks like that of a kindergartner. The desks in college were all backwards for me so I had to learn how to write on my lap and looked like I was hunchback.

Does this mean I have a disorder? Of course not! It just means that I need to make some accommodations and accept the fact that people will make fun of me when I use scissors or try to pay for my groceries. Technically, ADHD is a disorder because it is a medical condition caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain and can be treated medically, but the word “disorder” makes it sound as if there is something wrong with people who have ADHD. On the contrary. For most people, it is simply a process of making some adjustments.

What Are Those Adjustments?

There are an infinite number of strategies and tricks that may be helpful for people who have ADHD and most will be a matter of what works best for each individual. However, there are three factors that are key to making any strategy successful:

Develop healthy routines. People with ADHD have a hard time creating structure within their own minds, so they must rely on structure from outside sources and develop habitual routines to help them keep track of their responsibilities and belongings. For example, one man I know with ADHD explained, “I was always leaving things behind in restaurants and stores; my wallet, keys, jacket, briefcase, diaper bag, etc. So I started getting in the habit of looking back every time I left a table, seat, or check-out counter to make sure I didn’t leave anything. It works well. I haven’t left anything behind in years!”

Good routines to develop for school include using a planner, taking a few minutes at the end of every day to clean garbage out of your book bag and put papers in your folders, and gather everything you need for school the night before so you don’t forget anything in the chaos of the morning.

Find a mentor. When you are trying to develop routines and change habits to be successful in school, it is always helpful to have someone who can be your “sounding board,” who can help motivate you, and keep you focused. A good mentor should be a responsible and trusted adult or older student whom you trust; perhaps a neighbor, aunt/uncle, tutor, personal coach, community volunteer, peer counselor or student from a local high school or college. Try to avoid having your parent fill this role because you are likely to quickly perceive your parents as “nagging” you rather than encouraging you. A mentor may sometimes “nag,” but is often easier to take it from someone other than a parent.

Your mentor will help you identify some goals and check in with you every other day or two-three times per week to see what you are doing to reach those goals and offer you encouragement. They should be available to listen to you vent when you are frustrated and may have some suggestions to help you. Of course, your mentor will also be on hand to help you celebrate each of your accomplishments along the way, even the small ones.

Take it one step at a time. Try to figure out the one area that is causing you the greatest problem and work on this first. You may want to talk to your parents, teachers, and even your mentor to determine where to start. For example, if your teachers tell you that the main reason that your grades are falling is because you are not turning in your assignments, then you know that this is what you should try to improve first. Get help from your teachers, guidance counselors, parents, your mentor, and the free Homework Rx® Toolkit at our website to help you determine strategies that will help you with this one problem. Give it one or two months and then identify the next problem.

Do not give up! Everyone has moments when they fall backwards as they try to reach their goals; everyone from straight-A students to the CEO of a major company. This is a natural part of life. The key for anyone to be successful, however, is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep moving. You’ll see positive results very soon!

© 2006 Susan Kruger, All rights reserved.

Technorati Tags: ADD/ADHD, Confidence, Developing, School

Even though as parents we are less disposed to the notion of entrusting the welfare of our child with ADHD over to somebody else, yet there are those times when the household, or worse, the family itself is no panacea to the child’s immediate or prospective recovery. ADHD boarding schools exist for that reason: to provide foster love and care, when the family isn’t just enough.

Most ADHD boarding schools cater to younger children, usually from ages 3 to 12 years, where the child’s formation and development is the most critical. Take note, ADHD boarding schools differ largely from traditional boarding schools, since the latter usually don’t have the specialized training and resources to deal with the learning challenges of children with ADHD.

In the United States, there are several ADHD boarding schools strewn all over the continent. A good hour or a half of diligent searching can net you several choice leads. Most states by now have two or more selections that cater to this kind of problem, and most of them have online information pages where you can not only check programs and pricing, you can also learn more of the disorder. Some ADHD boarding schools even have pre-admission evaluation forms that can help you decide the right course of your child. One example is the Cedars Academy Boarding School.

Can your child with ADHD seamlessly enter the public education system without the benefit of special education services?

Popular prognoses say that regardless of treatment, children diagnosed with ADHD may experience difficulties in adolescence. However, the percentage of children meeting the diagnostic criteria dropped by 50% over three years since 1995, due to the improving efficiency of the treatments and better understanding of the disorder. Untreated children with ADHD also have lesser chances in adapting to difficulties in adolescence.

The AACAP recommends a multimodal treatment plan for ADHD children sufferers. Because ADHD has several problem surfaces and each needs to be attended; only the multimodal path is the most reasonable course of action. For instance, while pharmacotherapy can improve attention span while decreasing excessive physical activity, these treatments doesn’t address nor enhance the child’s function particularly in the social domain. (See: Evaluation and Treatment of ADHD, American Academy of Family Physicians, Sept 1, 2001)

Says Samuel Moore, Admissions Director of Stone Mountain School in North Carolina: “We can keep them safe, and that’s often not possible at home once they reach this age”.

For parents that needs advice and information on how to help their children with ADD-ADHD contact us. Or fill out this Teen Questionnaire to know whether your teen needs help or not.

Technorati Tags: ADHD, Boarding, child, School

Technorati Tags: ADHD, Ashley, Coach, High, Honors, School, treatment, w/Cogmed

Cannabis, demonetized in the 30s under the name marijuana since it wasn’t understood back then, is actually not a narcotic. It produces no physical addiction and is extraordinarily non-toxic, meaning that you can’t have a lethal overdose of it as you can with nearly all other drugs, even over-the-counter ones. So cannabis is actually more accurately classified as a herb, which is what the plant is botanically.

This herb has been found to be surprisingly effective as a natural treatment for many medical conditions as an alternative to pharmaceutical chemical drugs with serious side-affects and the significant stresses that they put on the body.

Instead of using powerful psychotropic drugs, cannabis herb has been shown to be more effective in many cases for treating Attention Deficit Disorder (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).

Oral doses and not smoking is recommended for children and teenagers. This way there’s absolutely no health concerns and the medicinal effects will last much longer delivered this way. A single dose with breakfast will last throughout the school day.

Duration : 0:4:5

Technorati Tags: add, ADHD, alternative, attention, cannabis, Children, Claudia, Countdown, deficit, disorder, Dr., ganja, hash, herb, herbal, hyperactivity, jane, Jensen, Keck, Keith, Marijuana, mary, medical, medicine, natural, of, Olbermann, pot, reefer, ritalin, School, sinsimilla, treatment, USC, weed

Duration : 0:2:49

Technorati Tags: add, ADHD, and, attention, behavior, deficit, diagnosis, disorder, hyperactive, hyperactivity, in, J&J, JandJ, JnJ, JnJhealth, Johnson, Nancy Snyderman, School, trouble

Duration : 0:0:57

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