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.

Back to School Teleseminar

Thursday August 18th: 5pm PST; 8pm EST

Join Bonnie Terry, M. Ed. BCET, America’s Leading Learning Expert for a Special Back to School Homework Help Tips teleseminar.

For the first time ever, Bonnie is opening up her private Awaken the Scholar Within Call to all parents. This is a one time opportunity to have your  homework help questions answered so that you can set your child up for a successful school year. We will be going over a variety of school tips as well as tips on homework help. You will also have an opportunity to ask your own questions.

Homework time doesn’t have to be difficult anymore!

When my children were in elementary school, my stomach would start to tie up in knots at the beginning of August. I started remembering all the homework hassles we had had the previous school year. I’m a parent too, and my kids were just like yours. They did not like homework.  Eventually I figured it out, how to make homework time a good part of family time. So what can you do to make homework time more pleasurable? Join parenting coach Susan Epstein and myself for our Back to School Homework Help Teleseminar this Thursday night!

Back to School Tips You Will Learn Include:

1. Tips on how to help your child organize their backpacks

 

2. Tips on setting up study space for easier homework time

 

3. Tips on managing homework time

 

FREE Teleseminar is this coming Thursday August 18th 5pm PST 6pm MST 7pm CST 8pm EST

Back to School Homework Help Teleseminar

Just enter in your name and email and you will be sent the call in information.

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.

………………………

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.

Is It ADD or ADHD? Attention Deficit Disorder

The term ADD attention deficit disorder is a common one today as is ADHD. In fact it is so common because the incidence of attention deficit disorder in 2007 of 4 year- old’s to 17 year-old’s was 9.5%. That is almost 1 out of every 10 in a classroom.

As an adult it is rare that I am out socializing and another adult refers to their own ADD. This happens at the park, coffee shop, even on cruises.The actual term ADD is now considered the “old” term for Attention Deficit Disorder. It was generally used for those of us who have ADHD without the hyper activity component. ADHD was ADD with the hyper-activity. Nowadays the ‘proper term’ is ADHD with the specifics added. Remember, there are a variety of specific types of attention deficit problems. Each child will deal with the problems slightly differently because each child is unique.

The DSMIV Identifies and Defines ADHD

The DSM IV combined ADD and ADHD into one disorder with multiple parts. So now the proper terms are:

ADHD-HI (primarily hyperactive impulsive)
ADHD-I (primarily inattentive)
ADHD-C (combined)
ADHD-NOS (not otherwise specified) It is rare to be diagnosed with this type.

What Is Combined Type Attention Deficit Disorder?

A combined type of attention deficit disorder is someone who has all the diagnostic criteria for both the HI type and the I type.

The diagnostic criteria for HI type are very different than for I type. You can find the diagnostic criteria for each type by simply doing a google search for DSM IV and ADHD.

Important Points to Remember About ADHD

• Attention Deficit Disorder has been recognized as a disorder for over 150 years.
• ADHD has gone through over 50 name changes in those 150 years, some of those names were pretty nasty.
• It is likely that there will be more tweaking of the diagnosis when the next revised addition of the DSM IV comes out.
• This is due to the debate about the difference in people who are inattentive versus hyperactive.

Here are 9 of 18 common symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder

• 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.

For more information on the common symptoms:

Common Symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder

Diagnosis of Attention Deficit or Is It a Learning Problem or Is It Both?

One other important point that has to be made is that a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder is not the ‘end of the world.’ In fact, there are many successful business persons with attention deficit disorder, so your child does have a lot going for them. In fact, there is much you can do at home to help your child. Additionally, there are often other issues that may compound the difficulties of attention deficit such as problems in one or more areas of visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic processing. And, sometimes a child is misdiagnosed due to problems in so many areas of perception. when one are is overwhelmed, it shuts down. This ‘shutting down’ can be mistaken for inattention. Identifying and addressing the underlying causes of any of those problems will make coping with any of the types of attention deficit easier.

Family Activities to Improve Learning Skills

Other things you can do to help your child is to incorporate learning games into their learning. This is because when your child is playing a learning game it is appropriate to move around while they are learning. They are also learning skills of getting along with others, cooperating with others while playing. Some great games that are very successful with ADHD children that teach learning skills at the same time are The Sentence Zone, The Comprehension Zone, and The Math Zone.

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!

Youngest in class get ADHD label

Parents often wonder if they should enter their child into kindergarten when they are very close to the age cutoff for entering school. Should you have them start kindergarten or wait another year?

A recent study from Michigan State University shows that kids who are the youngest in their grades are 60% more likely to exhibit Attention Deficit types of behaviors and actually be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder than the oldest children in the class.

Nearly 1 million children diagnosed with ADHD

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Nearly 1 million children may have been misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,  not because they have real behavior problems, but because they’re the youngest kids in their kindergarten class, researchers say.

Kids who are the youngest in their grades are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder than the oldest children, according to a study out today from Michigan State University, given exclusively to USA TODAY. A second study, by researchers at North Carolina State University and elsewhere, came to similar conclusions. Both are scheduled for publication in the Journal of Health Economics.

TEENS: 1/3 with ADHD drop out or delay graduation

About 4.5 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the studies.

Misdiagnosing children can have long-lasting effects, says assistant professor of economics Todd Elder, author of the Michigan State study. In fifth and eighth grade, the youngest kids in a class were more than twice as likely to use Ritalin, a stimulant commonly prescribed for ADHD, compared with the oldest students, his study says.
Read More

For more articles if you suspect ADHD

Does Your Child Struggle with

Dyslexia? Reading skills?

Writing skills? Spelling skills?

Many children struggle with learning or work harder than they need to. In fact, many children work 3, 4, or even 5 times harder than they need to. I’m not just talking about children with dyslexia or an identified learning disability, or ADHD. Children that are falling through the cracks or are average in school or even gifted also often work a lot harder than they need to. I believe all children as well as adults are talented, but sometimes there is something going on that is interfering with learning which makes reading, writing, spelling, or math harder than it needs to be.

Stressed Because Your Child May Have Dyslexia and Struggles with Learning?

That being said, are you stressed out because you know your child is bright, but you also know they struggled with school last year? Is your stomach in knots because you know the homework wars are coming? It doesn’t have to be that way any longer. Reading, writing, and spelling do NOT have to be hard. Learning doesn’t have to be hard. It is time to Awaken the Scholar Within your child.

It Is Possible for All to Learn With Greater Ease Even with Dyslexia

Typically when a child is struggling it is due to one or more areas of visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic perception not working as efficiently as they could be, should be, and can. There are answers to how to identify what the underlying problems are as well as what you as a parent can do to help your child improve their skills. Watch this video and see what parents are saying…that it is possible for this year to be different.

Be sure to read the 4 activities you can do to help your child even if they have dyslexia improve reading.

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

Can you do your own summer learning program?

Should you do your own summer learning program?

Fact: More than half of the achievement gap present in 9th grade between lower- and higher-income children can be explained by summer learning loss.

Make Learning Stick with learning games and reading fluency training over the summer. There are many things you can do at home to bridge that summer learning gap.

1. Reading Fluency using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills…and Yes…it only takes 5 minutes to do. Sally Shawitz, author of Overcoming Dyslexia states, “I urge parents to make fluency training their number one priority.”
2. Take a weekly trip …to the zoo, a local park, the pool, the river, a local factory…and afterwards as a family write down what you did and what your favorite part was…using the fill-in-the-blank forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills and create a booklet to keep for all of your weekly trips.
3. Do some nature activities such as listening to outdoor sounds, nature rubbings, shape hike, incher hikes … again use the fill-in-the-blank forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills to describe what you found or did.
4. Activities to do at home like making puppets and putting on a puppet show. Bake cookies together, have a backwards day where you eat dinner in the morning and breakfast in the evening, do add-on-stories. Again write down your favorite things or worse things about the activity.
5. Have a Game Night or a Game Day…choose learning games…they are fun as well as work on skills. Some great ones are The Sentence Zone (play & learn sentence building and grammar while having fun) , The Comprehension Zone (play & learn reading comprehension and listening comprehension), or the Math Zone (play & math calculation practice).
6. Read books together…and write a review or report on it, or have a review night where you all act as book reviewers of the book you read.

Check out the books, games, and guides here:

Reading

Writing

Math

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Bonnie

Ever since I informed my daughter’s teacher that we suspect she has ADHD and that she is on a waiting list to have tests done, her teacher seems to be worse with her rather than more understanding. In fact, she no longer has time for her. She’s constantly shouting at my daughter now for struggling with her work and not getting it finished in time and getting it wrong. She is even giving my daughter extra assignments as a punishment for it. My daughter is really stressing out about this and she stays up late refusing to sleep until she completes this work. Is it just me or is the teacher doing the opposite of what she should do?? What should I do?

Pamela

Whether your daughter is diagnosed with ADHD or not, her teacher is responsible for teaching her and creating an environment that is safe and conducive to learning. It might be that your daughter’s teacher is feeling overwhelmed with the possibility of teaching someone that doesn’t fit into her square peg or round whole, so to speak.

That being said, you do have your work cut out for you. It sounds to me that you need to do some educating of the teacher, although I don’t know how receptive she will be.

There are two issues going on here. One is the ‘yelling’ or ‘shouting’ at your daughter. The other is the additional homework assignments. Short of sitting in the classroom all day long, you are limited at this point to some extent with changing the teacher’s behavior.

First, set up a meeting with your daughter’s teacher and say something to the effect of, “I know that you are being pushed at times by your daughter’s name and I know you know her ADHD is what is interfering with her learning and it can’t be helped until we get the official diagnosis and develop a plan to address it. In the meantime, I was wondering how we might be able to work together to help your daughter’s name cope better in the classroom.”

Coming in in a non-confrontational way and ‘giving her the benefit of the doubt’ by saying that you know she realizes it’s the ADHD should put her in a more receptive mood.

If that doesn’t help, you might want to enlist the help of the vice principal, principal, or counselor and ask them what they suggest you do. I would go in saying you know your daughter’s teacher is qualified, but your daughter and she seem to be having some issues. You think it might be related to the fact that you told her that you suspect your daughter has ADHD.

I know this sounds a bit ‘nice’ when you must be fuming, but you always get more accomplished when you ‘sugar coat’ things as best you can.

If you do not get any assistance with them, you can contact your County Office of Ed or your state advocate. (Most states have them – give the Dept. of Ed a call to find out.) Sometimes just mentioning the name of the state advocate gets the ball rolling for you with a school.

Regarding the additional homework…

One thing you need to do to start with is to judge for yourself if the additional homework is beyond the typical amount of homework that a student in her grade should have. So, put the ADHD aspect aside for a moment to measure the amount of time that students should spend on homework. Students should on a normal basis not have more that 10 minutes per grade level of homework per night (3rd grade – 30 minutes). Then, realizing the complications that the ADHD adds to your daughter’s focus, add some additional time to that (30 to 60 minutes).

The National Education Association along with the national PTA suggests adding 10 minutes of homework per night incrementally with each grade level, as a general rule of thumb. Thus, a first-grader gets a total of 10 minutes, a second-grader 20 minutes, a third-grader 30 minutes, and so on, not to exceed two hours per night total in high school.

For high school Spanish teacher Michael Bolyog, homework is designed to reinforce what happens in the classroom, but should never be used to supplant class work. He sees the teacher’s role as similar to that of a sports coach: The player can go out and practice on his own for hour after hour, but the best learning occurs when the coach is right there with him, to immediately correct any flaws. Therefore, more than 30 minutes of homework per class may be an exercise in futility because the student can feel overwhelmed by the quantity of work, get distracted or bored, and end up giving it a halfhearted effort just to get it done.

Just a few more rambling thoughts…

You can share this info with the teacher, saying something to the effect that the National Education Association as well as the PTA supports this, so that is what your daughter will be doing from now on. You might also let the principal know that you have been having some issues with this, so you are going to do this from now on. You can have your daughter present when you talk with the teacher, so she knows what has been discussed and will feel stronger about not overdoing.

You might want to ask the principle or your school district office what the policy on homework is and what is the school policy about punishment is for the ADHD problems -then talk with the teacher.  (Get your information first – then approach the teacher) You can say something to the effect that: “I thought the school policy or school district policy was ___________. Am I wrong here? Or Correct me if I’m wrong, but _____________.”

Once a diagnosis is made, you need to see what kinds of adjustments need to be made in the classroom. You might request a student study team meeting or suggest a meeting to set up a 504 to see what can be done to help your daughter succeed in the classroom.

There are a number of easy accommodations that can be put into place to help your daughter throughout the day, making learning easier and less stressful for both her and her teacher.

Hope this is helpful,

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET