What is ADD or ADHD?

Bonnie Terry, America’s Leading Learning Specialist is on FOX Morning News again, this time talking about attention deficit disorder often referred to as ADHD.

First off I have to say that ADHD isn’t a child’s fault. Attention Deficit Disorder is a brain disorder that causes youngsters to have trouble with concentration, ability to complete tasks, or plan for the future.  It affects 5% to 10% of the population. And there are 6 different types of ADD – not all ADD children or adults have the hyperactivity component.

6 Types of ADD or ADHD

Some experts such as Dr. Daniel Amen classify ADHD (attention deficit disorder) in 6 ways.

1. Classic ADD
2. Inattentive ADD
3. Over-focused ADD
4. Temporal Lobe ADD
5. Limbic ADD
6. Ring of Fire ADD

Other doctors classify ADD in these 3 ways:

1. Combined Type which is a combination of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
2. Hyperactive and Impulsive Type where children or adults are both hyperactive and impulsive but can pay attention.
3. Inattentive Type which used to be known as ADD. These children are not overly active. They don’t disrupt the classroom or other activities. This is the child or adult that may seem to stare off into space. They are usually compliant so you don’t even realize they have an attention deficit disorder. There symptoms are often not noticed in the classroom.

The important thing to note here is that no matter what type of ADD or ADHD children or adults have, they may not perform as consistently as peers who have no problems with focus and concentration.

 What are the common symptoms of ADD or ADHD?

1.    Attention span difficulties
2.    Distractibility
3.    Impulsivity
4.    Restlessness – fidgets or squirms in their seats
5.    Doesn’t seem to listen to instructions
6.    Have problems completing things

What are the Treatment options for ADD or ADHD?

First remember that attention deficit disorder, no matter what type, isn’t a child’s fault. It is no one’s fault and there are many things you can do to live well with it.
Treatment Options
1.    Diet
2.    Behavioral Therapy
3.    Supplements
4.    Medication
5.    Tutoring – Educational Support
6.    Improve Parenting Skills
I always say to try everything else first, but if you need medication you need medication. If your child needed eye glasses you wouldn’t deprive them. If they needed a hearing aid, you wouldn’t deprive them. So if you have done everything and still need medication, do it. But remember, medication is not used alone. You still need to work on behavior, classroom as well as home management – at home you will want to do short activities that build skills – that will help your ADHD child with the instruction that is often missed due to the inattention in the classroom.

What can you do at home to help your ADHD Child?

Additionally, things you can do at home are to provide short quick activities that will also improve your child’s skills. Hands-on games will also improve your child’s attention span. Some great ones are checkers, chess, playing cards – even fish or The Math Zone as well as board games like the Comprehension Zone, and The Sentence Zone.
There is a hands-on exercise – Brain Efficiency Exercise that you can do to help with listening skills. This easy exercise helps you to focus attention on hearing and relaxes tension in the cranial bones for clearer focus. It also improves your ability to focus on relevant information. We teach parents how to do this as well as other tips and tricks to help their ADD or ADHD child in our coaching program Awaken the Scholar Within.

The following article was contributed by Jeremy Fordham

Long-Term Effects of ADHD Medication

Oftentimes when a child is diagnosed with ADHD doctors and parents alike are quick to prescribe  medication as a treatment. This is largely due to the fact that the effectiveness and safety of these medications are espoused by mental health professionals. Furthermore, medication is an easier and less time-consuming treatment than behavioral therapy or other forms of treatment for ADHD. However, as most parents who are making the treatment decisions for their children have not had the opportunity to attend Ph.D. programs in medicine, they are typically not versed enough in health care to know that there has been controversy about the long-term effects of ADHD medicine.

Most Common ADHD Medication

The most common ADHD medications children are prescribed are stimulant drugs, like Ritalin. Unfortunately, there are many different possible side effects that accompany ADHD stimulant medications, such as appetite suppression and erratic eating patterns, growth suppression, irritability when the medication is wearing off, headaches, stomach aches and facial tics. However for the most part ADHD medications are relatively safe; and if someone taking the drug does experience side effects from it, the dosage can be lowered or they can be prescribed a non-stimulant alternative.

It is generally agreed that ADHD drugs may help control symptoms and behavioral problems of some children with ADHD on a short-term basis. However as Eric J. Marsh and Russell A. Barkley point out in their book “Treatment of Childhood Disorders,” the long-term prognosis of individuals with ADHD who are treating their illness with medication is less clear. Similarly, it is also unknown what effect, if any, taking ADHD medications for extended period of time will have on a person’s health. What is known is that many patients eventually stop taking their medication after months or years of treatment. This could be due to unwanted side effects or the feeling that the medication is no longer helping to improve focus.

Ambiguous Nature of Long-term Effectiveness of ADHD Medication

Despite the seemingly ambiguous nature of the long-term effectiveness of ADHD medication, some mental health professionals argue that, on average, individuals receiving pharmaceutical treatment for ADHD do better than those without it. Yet there is one caveat: not all individuals respond to the ADHD medication that they are prescribed, and those who are good responders early on have a better long-term prognosis than those that have a hard time finding a medication that works for them.

Other mental health professionals question that point of view. A 2009 study showed that although ADHD medications were helping children with ADHD a year after therapy had begun, these same children were no different than the control group after eight years. Thus, the results of this study bring into question whether ADHD medications help on a long-term basis at all.

However one of the alternatives ADHD medication that has been proven to benefit children  on a long term basis is behavioral therapy. Likewise, certain lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet low in sugar and processed foods, getting enough sleep and exercising can also have a positive effect on ADHD symptoms.

Clearly it is very big decision to start a pharmaceutical regiment to treat a child’s ADHD. As such it is important for parents to keep in mind that ADHD medication is not a cure for ADHD and it may not even be effective in some individuals, whether they take it on a short- or long-term basis. While ADHD medication does help control ADHD symptoms in some patients and improve disruptive behavior and lack of focus in school, it is certainly not the only treatment option and others, such as behavioral therapy, may be worth exploring.

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Bonnie Terry’s Additional Comments on ADHD Medication…

Remember, sometimes children as well as adults that have been diagnosed with ADHD also have other learning issues that can be magnify their ADHD. These are learning problems related to auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic processing. There are 9 different areas of vision, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic processing that affect learning. Often when you address these processing areas the ADHD isn’t as problematic as it was to begin with. Again, you want to check out all avenues to make learning easier for your child. You don’t want to leave a stone unturned. Your child is priceless. To find out if there are other root causes interfering with your child’s learning, see our Learning Disability Screening Tool or give Bonnie Terry, M. Ed.,BCET a call for a 30 minute complimentary consultation (530) 888-7160.

Misdiagnosed Attention

Deficit Disorder – ADHD

Nearly 1 million children in the US are potentially misdiagnosed with ADHD simply because they are the youngest and most immature in their kindergarten class. This is according to Todd Elder’s research at Michigan State University as reported in Science Daily.
Think about this for a minute. Almost 1 million children are potentially misdiagnosed with ADHD. And what happens when a child is misdiagnosed? More often than not that child is prescribed to take behavior-modifying stimulants such as Ritalin and they don’t need them!

Diagnosing ADHD or Misdiagnosing ADHD

There are two important criteria to look at in the diagnosis and misdiagnosis of ADHD. The first is the most obvious criteria. Look at the behaviors a child is having, doing, exhibiting. For example, can they sit still for a lesson or while you read to them? The second criteria is critical! What is the age of the child doing the behavior, and do look at others of the same age. If a child can’t seem to sit still but he is only 5 and the rest of the children are 6 or close to being 6, that is a big difference! It is much harder for a 5 year old to sit still than for a 6 year old to sit still. Teachers and medical practitioners need to remember this when evaluating whether a child has ADHD.

Additional Situations to Look at Regarding Diagnosis and Misdiagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder – ADHD

1. Is the problem you are seeing situational (e.g. Only one parent sees it as a problem; at school they don’t seem to have the problems, when they are with dad they don’t seem to have the problems, or when they are with mom they don’t seem to have the problems.)
2. If only one parent is having problems with the child, it may be a problem with parenting skills (e.g. Yelling at the child such as “You don’t act like you want to be part of the family.” or “Get up right now or else” and then not follow through with a consequence.).
3. If the teacher is the only one having a problem it may be a problem with the way the teacher is dealing with the child or it may be an inexperienced teacher.
4. Other times a child is misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder is when the actual problem occurs through a shutdown of either their auditory system or their vision system.

• When the auditory or vision system becomes overloaded, it shuts down and needs a break. When either of these systems shuts down temporarily, the child often appears to be not paying attention. What is happening is either the vision system or the auditory system is resting.

• Unfortunately, often the child has trouble bringing themselves back to the activity at hand. A gentle reminder to come back to the activity is all that is needed in this instance, and it may need to be given each time they aren’t paying attention until the child learns to come back on their own.

Remember, a diagnosis of ADHD requires evidence of multiple symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity, with these symptoms persisting for six or more months — and in at least two settings — before the age of seven. The settings include home and school.
Additionally, teachers cannot diagnose ADHD, but, their opinions are often used in decisions to send a child to be evaluated for attention deficit disorder. You know your child. Remember, the diagnosis requires evidence of multiple symptoms in at least two settings, so if the school is seeing symptoms and you don’t see symptoms at home the problem might not be one of ADHD. That is NOT to say that you don’t want to look into it. Obviously something is going on that is interfering with your child’s learning and you do want to see what you can do to make learning easier for them.
“Many ADHD diagnoses may be driven by teachers’ perceptions of poor behavior among the youngest children in a kindergarten classroom,” Todd Elder states. “But these ‘symptoms’ may merely reflect emotional or intellectual immaturity among the youngest students.”

So, what happens educationally when your child has ADHD?

Educational Problems Caused by ADD/ADHD

Although attention deficit disorder (ADHD) is not a learning disability, ADD/ADHD obviously affects performance in a school setting, as well as affects other parts of their life. Kids and adults with ADD have neurological gaps that interfere with the cognitive processes of memory, concentration, and attention span.

In other words, kids with attention deficit disorder have often missed out on instruction because they were distracted and attending to other things instead of the instruction that was being given. Assignments, especially homework may be missed because they were distracted and attending to other things instead of the assignment that was being given. When kids aren’t paying attention in class, they often miss bits and pieces of skills, content, and the easy tricks to becoming efficient learners.

Dr. Daniel Amen states that school problems can include:
o Restlessness
o Short attention span and distractibility
o Impulsiveness
o Procrastination
o Trouble shifting attention
o Forgetfulness
o Writing disabilities
o Reading disabilities
o Visual processing problems
o Auditory processing problems
o Unusual study habits
o Difficulties with timed situations such as timed tests.

ADHD and Learning Disabilities or Dyslexia

About 70% of kids with ADHD also have dyslexia, learning difficulties or learning disabilities. School age kids may have problems with reading, spelling, writing, penmanship, or arithmetic.

The question then becomes one of, how do I help my ADHD kids to do well in school when they have such trouble attending to the instruction? How do I help them to improve their memory, mental energy, organizational skills, and expressive vocabulary so they can succeed in the school setting?

There is a lot you can do to help your ADHD child in school. The key is to determine what specifically is interfering with their learning. Is it only the ADHD, or have they been misdiagnosed with ADHD? Are there other underlying causes interfering with their learning in addition to ADHD? For more information on the underlying causes of learning problems, you will want to check out our comprehensive behaviorally based learning assessment.

It is critical to your child’s success, whether they have attention deficit disorder or not or whether they have been misdiagnosed with ADHD or not, to find out what other underlying causes may be contributing to your child’s educational struggles. Once you know exactly what is going on, there is so much you can do to help your child whether they have ADHD, have been misdiagnosed with ADHD or have a learning difficulty or learning disability.

Common Symptoms of Attention

Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD)

A lot of emails have been coming in regarding attention deficit disorder, often referred to as ADD and ADHD recently.

Parents are wondering if their child has attention deficit disorder.                                                                                                                                                                                                Some parents are being told by their child’s teacher that their child has ADD. Others are questioning it themselves.

ADD or ADHD is nothing to be scared of. I know life can be quite difficult at times when you have a child with ADD. Not only have I taught many students over the years with ADD, one of my son’s also has ADD. The good news is there is a lot that can be done to get through life and learning with greater ease once you know what is going on. One of the most critical things is to understand what is going on, then you are able to deal with it and cope with greater ease.

Here is a list of common symptoms of ADD/ADHD:

Eighteen typical symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) are:

• Not following through with instructions.
• Not paying attention appropriately to what they need to attend to.
• Seeming not to listen.
• Being disorganized.
• Having poor handwriting.
• Missing details.
• Appearing to be easily distracted.
• Appearing fidgety.
• Being verbally impulsive.
• Difficulty waiting for their turn.
• Acting on impulse regardless of consequences.
• Do not give close attention to details or make careless mistakes in schoolwork or other activities
• Have trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities
• Fail to finish schoolwork or chores
• Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn’t want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time
• Often loses things needed for tasks and activities (e.g. toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools)
• Is often easily distracted
• Is often forgetful in daily activities

Note: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD)

Remember, not all people with attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) have all of these difficulties, and they usually do not have all of these difficulties all of the time.  It is also important to know that everybody has some of these symptoms some of the time.

There are many things you can do as a parent to help your kids with attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD). Look for part two where I will go into more depth on attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) In the meantime, for more information on attention deficit disorder you will want to check out

We suspect ADHD…Help!

Help Your Kids Improve Reading Skills

As a parent you do have the power and ability to help your kids improve their reading skills. There are 4 easy to implement activities that each take just a few minutes a day to improve reading.

1. Improve reading fluency in 5 minutes a day
2. Improve spelling and learn the 8 ways we put letters together to make words
3. Improve reading comprehension by playing a reading comprehension game
4. Improve writing skills using specially designed graphic organizers

Today I’m going to talk about the first activity you can implement in just minutes a day.

Improve Reading Skills: Reading Fluency Training

Reading fluency training is one of the easiest activities for parents to do with their kids to improve reading skills, and it only takes 5 minutes a few times a week to make a dramatic difference. Reading fluency training works to improve reading skills whether you have LD, dyslexia, are falling through the cracks, or are even gifted.

You may not realize how important reading fluency and accuracy is, so here is an example on how it impacts your reading or your child’s reading.

For example, you are reading a passage and read Susan can go to the store. You finish reading the selection and go to the questions and there is a question that asks, Why couldn’t Susan go to the store? You think to yourself – What…I read Susan can go to the store. This question doesn’t make any sense to me. BUT, what the sentence actually said was…Susan can’t go to the store. Your eyes skipped the apostrophe t…The whole meaning was lost.

That is one of the things that the Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills reading fluency training program corrects. With improved reading fluency, you don’t skip or omit words or parts of words. You don’t miss out on important pieces that are critical to reading comprehension. That is why it is important to have accurate reading for reading comprehension.

The CNN Survey concludes that at some point most parents turn to medication as a treatment to deal with their child’s ADHD. The second most effective treatment parents have used is to make a switch in schools – to a school that is better equipped to work with children with attention deficit disorder.

When I speak to parents about attention deficit disorder I always try to be sure they are in the know on what they can do as well as what some of the best ways to advocate for their child in the school system. Many teachers are not equipped to deal with attention deficit disorder and don’t want to deal with it. However, I don’t know that there is a classroom in the US, or worldwide for that matter that doesn’t have at least one ADHD student in the class. (Approximately 9-10% of the population has ADHD).

So, in my opinion what is key is for parents to build a strong working relationship with their child’s teacher to help them help their child navigate through their education while learning to deal with their ADHD. There are many behavioral ways of dealing with attention deficit disorder that can be easily implemented in the classroom. Additionally, medication is sometimes warranted, but I always say, exhaust every other possibility first. Then if you still need to go the medication route, do it. If your child needed eye glasses you would not ‘blink an eye’ over the decision, you would get them glasses. If your child needed a hearing aid, again, you would do it. If your child does need medication to be able to function in a classroom because every avenue has been pursued and they still can’t focus, do it.

But, medication is only one piece of the puzzle. Even with medication, behavioral interventions often still need to be in place and followed through on. So educating your child’s teacher is often imperative in helping them have a good school year. When you create a good working relationship with your child’s teacher you will have greater success in helping them understand what they need to know and do to help your child.

Here is a link to the CNN survey

What can you do during the winter weather to help your kids improve their skills? This question is a frequent one for me. Parents are always interested in helping their kids, but it is sometimes hard to stay motivated, especially during the winter months.

The following activities work well with all kids, whether they have dyslexia, LD, ADHD, are falling through the cracks, or are gifted. I have done the activities successfully with all of them!

I have two favorite things to do to not only help my kids, but to stay motivated doing it too. The first thing is to have more frequent game nights, playing educational games – learning games like The Sentence Zone, The Comprehension Zone, or The Math Zone. When you play games with your kids, they build skills while having fun and get a lot of modeling from you too. At the same time you get to have quality family time, so it is a double win situation.

The other activity I like to do is to have an evening where I might turn the heat up a degree or two, and everyone gets dressed in ‘summer’ clothes, and we have a ‘picnic’ on the floor of the living room. Afterwards, we might tell stories to each other – what I call ‘add-on stories.’ In these stories one person starts off and then the next person adds on to the story. We keep going round and round and the story gets longer and longer. The only thing is, the kids have to pay attention and so do you, so what you add on makes sense to the story. This builds listening comprehension and memory as well as a really good time.

Hope this is helpful!

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

I just read this by Lindsey Petersen of 5kidswdisabilities and thought you would all appreciate it. It rings true for so many parents, not just those of ADHD kids.

Hope you enjoy…
The ABCs of ADHD
December 27, 2009 by 5kidswdisabilities

The ABCs of ADHD/ADD

I’ve read the articles and books on ADHD.  I know the discipline methods, rewards and time outs, the methods of Ross Green (from The Explosive Child) and the medications that work best.  But I also know the realities of ADHD, having 2 children with ADHD and 2 with ADD.  In real life terms, the ABCs of ADHD/ADD are:

Attention! Always on alert for dangerous situations due to impulsive behaviors, such as running across streets without looking, grabbing a butcher knife to cut the end off a banana, running up the down escalator, and grabbing the dog or any other animal roughly and the dog (or other animal) retaliating by biting (or scratching.)

“Be careful!  Be careful!  Be careful” is the parent mantra.

Climbing climbing climbing:  out of the crib at age 15 months, out of the bedroom window when a teenager, on rock walls and curbstones and couches.

Don’t touch that!  Don’t do that! Don’t hit her!  Don’t pull that!  Don’t eat that! Don’t hurt it!  Don’t break it!

Exhausted parents trying their best to keep up.

Friendships are difficult.

Go!  Go!  Go! They’re always on the go!

Helpless parents, unable to control their child’s behavior, especially embarrassing in the grocery store under the staring eyes of others, judging them.

If only he’d…    If only she’d….  Parents dream for a different lifestyle.

Jumping Bean:  he goes here and there from friend to friend to friend, never staying long enough to establish a real friendship.

Kitchen walls are written on, bathroom doors have holes kicked in, curtains are ripped, bedrooms are messy.

LOVE.  Parents give unconditional love, but the behavior doesn’t change because the  ADHD remains…

MEDICATION!  MEDICATION!  MEDICATION! Alleluia when it works!!!!

Not paying attention in school so schoolwork suffers: not paying attention for homework, so it’s a nightly fight: not paying attention to other’s feelings, so no friendships are formed.

Overload happens easily and tantrums result. Keep it quiet.  Keep it simple.  Keep it under stimulated for peace.

Psychiatrists are our best friends!

Questions!  Questions from them all the time! Especially hard to escape when you are stuck riding in the car together.

Rewards for good behaviors; stickers, ice cream, Playstation, tv.

Self-esteem is low, parent  and teacher patience is limited so he’s always the troublemaker and never measures up.

Time-outs in the seat till we’re blue in the face.  All the time spent in time-outs would add up to a year in the life.

Understanding is needed from parents, family, friends and teachers; understanding is often in short supply.

Very draining on all, child and adults.

Whining, whining, whining until their parent’s ears hurt.

X-rays, CAT Scans and emergency room visits:  active behavior results in injuries.

YIKES! What has he done NOW?!?!

Zest for life would be a polite way of putting it…

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Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

This comment was just left by trexpaddock after viewing the following video. I wanted to go into more detail for you on this post.

It is difficult to tell if you don’t understand learning disabilities well, or are just ‘dumbing down’ the material to the point it becomes confused.

Hi Trexpaddock,

I do try to make things clear and somewhat simplified – rather than speaking in technical terms.

The breakdown I was referring to between the brain and the hand is actually called finger agnosia. It is written about in the book Windows Into the ADD MIND by Dr. Daniel Amen. Finger agnosia is when a person struggles with the mechanics of writing or when you try to write your brain becomes scrambled. Common symptoms of finger agnosia include:

1. Messy handwriting
2. Trouble getting thoughts from the brain to the paper
3. Staring at writing assignments for long periods of time
4. Writing sentences that don’t make sense
5. Frequent spelling and grammatical errors
6. Many erasures and corrections
7. Timed writing assignments are particularly hard
8. Printing rather than writing in cursive.

This is very common in people with ADD and occurs in part because the person has to concentrate so hard on the actual physical act of writing that they forget or are unable to formulate what they want to write.

Suggestion for dealing with finger agnosia:

1. Print as often as possible
2. Learn to type or use a computer
3. Try out different types of pens and pencils – also different types of pencil grips
4. Break down assignments and long reports into parts (an easy way to learn how to do this is by using Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills
5. Write an outline of the assignment to help keep you on track – use graphic organizers that are in Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills
6. Write down your ideas before worrying about spelling and grammar
7. Whenever possible, dictate your answer or report first
8. Use a binder/organizer to keep your writing assignments together
9. Modify writing workload
10. Avoid timed situations; give tests orally if necessary
11. Avoid having other students grade your work

Hope this is helpful.

Don’t forget to ask a question AND get your FREE Teaching & Homework Tips!

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

http://bonnieterrylearning.com

Back to School…

What can you do to make your life a lot easier? Anna Weinstein from education.com contacted me earlier this week and asked if she could interview me about what parents of LD children could do to help there kids have a great start to the school year. We recorded the interview, so you can hear it here.

Here are a few of the highlights that you will hear Bonnie talking about:

At 4 min: There is a special tip regarding school supply tips to help your child be more organized.
At 6 min: How do you organize your homework area
At 7:29 min: Specific supplies that help the homework time
At 15:53 min: How much time should kids spend on homework – especially when they have dyslexia or LD?
At 17:30 min: How do you talk to teachers?
At 21:05 min: Specific things to tell the teacher to set your child up to have a great year
At 25:40 min: Can you just contact the teacher via email or does it have to be in person?
At 29:44 min: Isn’t there a system put in place already for me to meet all of my kid’s support team?
At 31:54 min: Doesn’t the teacher already know what my child needs – he was pulled out last year for services?
At 38:45 min: Why you want to have a clear understanding of what is going on with your child
At 40:00 min: Ways to keep track of your child’s assignments
At 42:40 min: Parent self care & support for parents
At 47:30 min: Evening family routine
At 51:27 min: Best way to speak with the teacher or principal

Listen to it here!