Thursday, December 30, 2010

Coaching and Youth with ADHD

by Jodi Sleeper-Triplett, MCC, SCAC


ImageFOR ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS WITH ADHD, it can be both difficult and daunting to step out on one’s own into the world and try to be successful. This is where a coach can come in and help a young person transform daily life from chaos into clarity.

Coaching provides a reliable, trusting environment in which a client can create a vision for his or her life, brainstorm on how to bring that vision into reality, and engage with a supportive partner—the coach—along the way. Imagine the value of such an environment to a client who not only is young and just gaining access to a world in which he or she has greater responsibilities and more need to direct his or her own life, but who also needs to figure out how to manage all of these things while struggling with challenges in executive functioning, attention, and focus.

From an emotional and life-skills perspective, adolescents with ADHD are typically not prepared for the transition from dependence on parents, teachers, and other important figures in their lives to the increasing independence they face as budding, near adults. These young people are typically behind their peers in terms of their readiness for independent life and lack the skills necessary to make good choices or to understand the consequences of their actions. They often find it hard to understand what’s going on around them and don’t know how to react appropriately in different situations.

Coaching offers young people with ADHD a supportive structure through which they can explore life options, learn new skills, and start to be more independent while in a safe space. Coaching provides a sounding board, a source for ideas, and a safety net that all help the young person with ADHD try new ways of operating, go after what he or she wants, collect him or herself when things go differently than planned, and then try again, each time growing a little wiser and a little more confident.

How is coaching useful?

When coaching focuses on social skills, the coach helps young people understand that a future full of friends and positive relationships is out there for them. Young adult clients begin to realize and recognize that they may not get what they want right now, a big area of frustration for the more impulsive and immature, but they also learn that with the support of a coach and a solid plan for success, they can move along a path toward their goals in a more independent fashion.

By offering coaching to young people, coaches have an opportunity to help bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood while simultaneously helping parents to step back and allow the maturation process to proceed at a pace that is right for their child. Oftentimes, parents have a difficult time accepting that adolescents and young adults with ADHD and learning disabilities are still in their preteens emotionally. Parents and others often expect these individuals to be mature enough to manage their lives. Yet, there is no “one size fits all” timetable for maturity. Coaches guide and support these young people in getting ready for the future while moving forward at their own pace.

ADHD coaching can help young people with ADHD in a number of ways. For example, it can help individuals
Image become organized, learn time management skills, and learn how to prioritize
Image develop and maintain focus and concentration
Image create and maintain a medication journal (I like to call it “Meds & Moods”)
Image gain independence and self-advocacy skills
Image enjoy a safe space to work on social skills
Image manage ADHD issues at home, at school, and at their job.

These positive aspects of coaching are all in addition to the benefits of more general coaching, in which the young person receives support in creating plans and setting goals in an environment of structure, support, and encouragement.

How ADHD coaching differs from life coaching

ADHD coaching is like life coaching in that it involves helping clients through the process of exploration, goal-setting, identifying and taking action steps, and checking in to maintain accountability. In addition, as with life coaching, ADHD coaching provides structure, support, and encouragement. Where ADHD coaching tends to be different from life coaching is in terms of the degree of support and structure offered, with ADHD coaching involving an increased amount of support and structure and a higher level of accountability between coach and client to facilitate results. This becomes evident in the kind of questions that a coach poses.

Let’s imagine that a young client comes in with the question of “How do I approach my professor with the problems I’m having in class?” If that client doesn’t have ADHD, the coach might ask, “How would you like to approach your professor with this problem?” and “What would you like to see as the outcome of your conversation with the professor?” In this case, the coach volleys fairly general questions to the client because the client has the capacity to discover what he or she wants with minimal prompting from the coach and mainly needs a sounding board.

In contrast, if the client has ADHD, the coach will still ask the client some general, open-ended questions, but the coach will also ask more specific or in-depth questions that prompt the client to consider each and every action step needed to accomplish a goal, taking into consideration that the client struggles with initiation and follow-through. So when the client says, “I will talk to my professor sometime this week,” the coach might ask, “When will you do this?” “What do you need to do to make this conversation a reality?” and “How will I know when you have talked to your professor?”

Of course, the line between providing ADHD clients the structure they need and not becoming overly directive is an important one. For example, the coach doesn’t want to say to the client, “You can’t go in to talk to your professor without an appointment!” even if the coach suspects that this is the case. Instead, the coach might ask open-ended questions to help the client think through relevant issues for success, but it is not the job of the ADHD coach to tell the client exactly how to accomplish something. Doing so would do a disservice to the client, who needs opportunities to practice generating solutions and testing out action plans in the real world.

In addition to asking smaller, more specific questions that help a client break action plans into small, achievable steps, ADHD coaches also hold their clients more accountable, which involves a tighter check-in plan between coaching sessions and more frequent contact than in general life coaching. For clients with ADHD, coaching sessions typically occur at least once a week, which is more often than in many life coaching or executive coaching programs.

Check-ins occur between client and coach to provide more structure and serve as a brief connection to confirm action taken or not taken or to update the coach on progress toward stated goals. In ADHD coaching for adolescents and young adults, the check-ins may be set up as often as daily. It is the consistency and frequency of contact that helps make ADHD coaching so effective. Typical means of contact for this regular accountability include e-mails, text messaging, check-in calls, and some form of follow-up if the client doesn’t call in at the designated time. The specific details of the check-in plan are best established in the intake and revisited throughout the coaching relationship.

Although ADHD coaching involves greater structure and support than more general life coaching, the structure and support serve as stepping stones for the client, not crutches. Because individuals with ADHD tend to have a track record of falling down a lot, they often have a self-belief of “I can’t do anything.” By providing these individuals with sufficient structure and support, coaches help them experience success in their lives, often for the first time, so that they start to build a track record of accomplishment rather than failure. Over the course of their work with coaches, individuals with ADHD develop self-confidence that motivates them to pursue goals rather than give up. They build a toolbox of strategies that they can use now and in the future and begin to internalize the voice of the coach into their own thought processes. The coaching work thus often becomes part of the way the client thinks and operates, leading to lasting change.

Parents and coaches need to work together

Truth be told, young people don’t always want to listen to adults, especially their parents. They may listen to their friends, use the Internet as their main information resource, and sometimes make unwise choices out of inexperience or perhaps just to ruffle the feathers of the adults in their lives. Coaches can help young clients find ways to grow, explore, and express themselves in a manner that supports independence after first taking stock of the pros and cons of their choices. Coaches and caring adults have the opportunity to champion these young people and applaud the steps they take in moving forward with greater awareness of the world, their responsibilities, and their abilities.

PARENTS AND COACHES NEED TO WORK TOGETHER and be a part of the adolescent or young adult’s learning process. It may take longer for young people with ADHD to learn new skills, increase self-awareness, and communicate effectively with others than it does for other young people, and it typically requires a greater commitment on everyone’s part. It can help to remember that the journey is a steady marathon and not a sprint. Sometimes parents think that the challenges are never going to end, but with coaching, there can be a light at the end of the tunnel. With possible therapy and/or medication, guidance, and support, parents, coaches, and other caregivers can make a difference in the life of a young person with ADHD.


Resources on ADHD Coaching

The Institute for the Advancement of ADHD Coaching defines ADHD coaching as “a designed partnership that combines coaching skills with knowledge of Attention Deficit Disorder, a neurobiological condition. The coaching process enhances quality of life, improves performance and supports growth and change. The purpose of ADHD coaching is to provide support, structure and accountability. Coach and client collaboratively explore strengths, talents, tools and new learning to increase self-awareness and personal empowerment. Together they design strategies and actions and monitor progress by creating accountability in line with goals and aspirations.”

Professional coaching organizations:

Image ADHD Coaches Organization
Image Institute for the Advancement of ADHD Coaching
Image
ADD Consults

See also:

CHADD’s National Resource Center on ADHD updated introduction to coaching
CHADD’s NRC What We Know #18, Coaching for Adults with AD/HD
Edge Foundation


Jodi Sleeper-Triplett, Master Certified Coach and Senior Certified ADHD Coach, is the founder of the movement for ADHD coaching for youth. She is cofounder of the Institute for the Advancement of ADHD Coaching and director of coach training for the Edge Foundation. Sleeper-Triplett trained with the Coaches Training Institute, Success Unlimited Network, and the American Coaching Association. She has been working with young people for nearly thirty-five years. A resident of Northern Virginia, she is a longtime CHADD volunteer at the national, regional, and local levels.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

And to All-A Good Night's Sleep!

Personal health is often a low priority for people with ADHD. Lack of organizational skills and an inability to prioritize make it difficult to establish and maintain the structures and routines needed to sustain good health habits. Because staying healthy has a positive effect on everyone—especially people with ADHD—it needs to be a goal, and strategies for achieving and sustaining a healthy lifestyle need to be incorporated into your life.

But even if you’re determined to live a healthy lifestyle, along come the holidays to interfere with established routines. For many people, it becomes even more difficult to keep up with things like getting enough sleep, exercising and eating regularly, eating healthy foods, taking medications regularly, and keeping up on personal hygiene.

Sleep can become especially challenging during this busy and sometimes overly exciting time of year. But it’s estimated that up to 80 percent of people with ADHD experience sleep problems anyway, even when it’s not the holiday season. You can find a lot more information on this subject in the article by Gina Pera, “ADHD Never Sleeps, But Children and Adults with ADHD Can,” in the December 2010 issue of CHADD’sAttention magazine.

Here are a few strategies I recommend to my clients that can help at any time of year. You may find them particularly helpful now when there’s even more temptation to burn that midnight oil.

Create (and stick to) wind-up and wind-down routines.

Waking up on time hinges on going to bed on time and getting a good night’s rest. Set routines to help you “wind up” in the morning and “wind down” at night. They can consist of anything from showering and watching the nightly news each night, or having coffee and reading the paper each morning. The idea is to ritualize the routines you have created around getting up and going to bed.

Wake up and go to bed at set times.

Establishing consistent times for sleeping and waking really works! Don’t keep irregular hours, even on the weekends—especially during the holidays. Wake up and go to bed at the same time each day. This will increase the quality of your sleep by letting your body enter into a rhythm, and help to de-stress you by knowing when your day starts and ends. Not everyone requires the same amount of sleep, but consistency is the key, so establish a routine and stick to it.

Know what your traps are.

Problems with transitions can contribute to the struggle of going to bed and waking up. Because people with ADHD struggle with ending one activity and starting another, it’s important for you to know your traps and be vigilant in avoiding them. If you know that talking on the phone, watching TV, or checking e-mail keeps you up past your bedtime, post signs reminding you to stick to your schedule. For example, don’t allow yourself to go on the computer or answer the phone past nine o'clock at night. Ask for help from those around you so they know not to distract you from your goal. I had one client who knew he would sit and read for hours in his home office, losing track of time, so he bought light timers and set them to turn off all the lights in his office, jolting him into closing his book and going to bed.

Set a bedtime alarm.

Use a wristwatch with an alarm or set an alarm clock in your home to go off one hour before bedtime so you have time to get ready.

Have a system for waking up and staying up.

Always have a back-up system—use three alarms if necessary! Set one in the bedroom, one in the bathroom, and one in the kitchen. If you turn off the one by your bed, you’ll still have the other two ringing, forcing you to get up and turn them off. Or switch off with a friend, calling each another in the morning, and commit to it. The buddy system works.

Other strategies some of my clients use involve their senses: pre-setting their coffeemaker to go off so the aroma can reach them, or purchasing alarm clocks with dawn lights that gradually fill the room with bright light. Some even sleep with their shades open so the morning light will wake them up.


Whether you're trying to stay on a healthy track this season, or just beginning to recognize how good health habits improve your ability to manage ADHD, I hope you'll find these strategies helpful. Here's to healthy and happy holidays!

http://chaddcoach.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Schedule an Evaluation

Do you wonder if you or someone in your family has ADHD and needs treatment? Contact our office to arrange for an evaluation. Call (205) 344-6169.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Stay Cool Through the Yule


ImageA primer for parents

by Clare B. Jones, PhD

PARTIES! RELATIVES! PRESENTS! NO SCHOOL! Weather changes! New plans! Visitors! Traditions! Social gatherings!

Remember last holiday season, when you vowed “never again!”? When the pressure of the season and so many things to do really got to you? Well, those days are back. The holidays are upon us and most families have begun to feel the excitement and yet the pressure of too many things to do and too little time.

Families coping with the challenges of ADHD may find the holiday season even more stressful. The marked variability in behavior patterns of individuals with attention disorders, from day to day and moment to moment, seems to escalate during the celebration season when the inconsistency of schedules becomes the status quo. Parents and relatives can help children with ADHD by understanding that the frenzy of the holiday season will affect their kids’ daily lives and by expressing some empathy for what they are going through.

Many behavior problems with active children can often be improved by explaining new situations before they occur. When there is to be a change in the routine, children with ADHD need to have the change described in detail and in advance. Tell children what is coming, offering encouragement before and after the change. For example, “We’re going to have to go back to the grocery store; you will sit in the cart. I need you to carry this list for me, so I don’t forget anything this time. If you do a good job, you can pick out your own fruit from the counter.”

Model behaviors you expect from the child when you know a challenging time is ahead. Example: “The guests will be coming around six o'clock tonight. Let’s practice how you will greet them and how you can help with their coats when they come in the door.” Act as if a real guest has arrived. When you see the child exhibiting an appropriate behavior, praise the child immediately. Example: “It is so nice to see what a big helper you are. Thanks for being such a great host.”

You have some idea what is ahead for your family during the coming season. Think ahead to social situations that may be difficult. Try to plan in advance a variety of “cooling off” activities that can help you gain control of your active child during these stressful times and make it a more enjoyable experience.

Here are some suggested cooling-off children’s activities to review and prepare before the chaos sets in.

ImageFor young children

Image With a small child, the cooling-off activity could be as simple as “come and sit on my lap.” Put on some seasonal music and sing along softly stroking the child’s neck and shoulders.
Image Turn on some seasonal music and encourage the child to dance or march. Provide colorful silk scarves, fabric or crepe paper streamers to wave as part of the dance.
Image Leave an extra bowl of cookie batter (that you do not intend to cook) in the refrigerator and let the child mix and work with it.
Image Give your child a special treat that he or she particularly enjoys. You might make a game of giving the treat and then sitting down and enjoying it with your child as a cooling off activity.
Image The use of a massage or warm bath can also be helpful. Let the child apply lotion or talcum powder to his or her arms and shoulders.
Image Have a marshmallow fight. Using small bite-size marshmallows. Clear a room of breakables and allow kids to toss them at one another. Play music and stop it sporadically. When the music stops, kids must sit down and eat any marshmallows they have caught.
Image Plan one cooking event where the child helps you prepare the item. Make it something simple.
Image Most highly active children love water play, so let them splash a bit with a bar of floating soap in the kitchen sink.

ImageFor older kids

Image Make a series of “busy time” envelopes for anticipated difficult periods. For example: The Office Pack—fill a large manila envelope with office supplies, pens, stapler, tape, labels, colored dot stickers, paper clips, stamp pad and date stamp; or The Sticker Pack—fill the envelope with all types of stickers including mailing labels, scented and animal stickers, story board stickers and a glue stick.
Image Have an audiotape of your child when he or she was younger singing, reading or reciting a poem. Let the child listen to what he sounded like as a younger child. Or have your child record an audiotape for fun.
Image Let children “pack” their lunches in a paper bag and take lunch to a different spot. Example: park bench, bleacher seats in a high school stadium, by a statue, across from a waterfall or water feature.

For all ages

Image Use a special book or CD that you borrow from the library or buy for the holiday season. Bring it out as a distraction when behaviors are just beginning to escalate.
Image Purchase a master seasonal calendar for the family and one for each child; hang the family calendar on the refrigerator. Color code and highlight special events and dates. Let each child cross off the day on his or her own calendar nightly with a favorite color pen. Tape a favorite television program or find an old video and replay it when necessary.
Image Introduce a unique, highly visible timer to set limits and to enforce quiet times.
Image Try art. Let the child make a large mural with butcher-block paper and colored markers. Let your child wet brush a chalkboard. Or give your child a box of colored chalk and let him or her color a square of sidewalk by the front door or in the garage. Provide materials to make a paper or popcorn chain for the Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush.
Image Make a grab bag of things to do on a boring afternoon when you have lots to do and your kids are underfoot. Fill a paper bag with small squares of paper. Each paper has an activity to do for your youngsters. They reach in and do the activity until they are bored, then choose another. Examples of activities could include: call your grandma, sweep the front steps, take a walk, count all the windows in the house, count all the doorknobs in the house, line up all the cans in the pantry in alphabet order, clean the mirror in the bathroom, make a snowman out of cotton balls.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THINK ABOUT YOURSELF. You will need quiet time to regroup and to refresh yourself. Take care of yourself with small pleasures like a walk by yourself, a call to a treasured friend or just quiet time with a book. Mark these private times on your holiday calendar in advance. Your positive attitude and your careful planning can make this holiday season a success for your entire family. Enjoy the YULE!


Clare B. Jones, PhD, was a diagnostic specialist, author of Practical Suggestions for AD/HD, and nationally known presenter on the disorder. A past member of CHADD's professional advisory board, Jones received the CHADD Hall of Fame Award in 2001.

Monday, December 13, 2010

In need of a support group?

Online support for families dealing with AD/HD: CHADD provides our members with a secure place to ask questions and share each other's experiences. We have a number of private online communities, including one for parents and one for adults with AD/HD. This avenue of support is one of many member benefits that you can use to get information and support for you and your family.

Central Alabama Satellite of CHADD: 334-546-0353.


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Managing Your Holiday Stress


ImageNew ideas to try this season

by Anne Teeter Ellison, EdD

THE HOLIDAYS ARE GENERALLY FILLED with great expectations and dreams. We all have a vision of what constitutes the perfect holiday, the perfect family, the perfect child, or the perfect spouse. Sometimes these visions come close to reality, other times they are way off.

When your hopes and expectations match your reality, it is generally because you have come to embrace how AD/HD affects you and your family during the holidays. This article offers some tips, strategies, and reflections that might help you in the coming weeks.

First, you need to identify your stress points. What has shattered your dreams for holidays in the past? Here are some classic examples.

Pain from holidays past

Many adults and families affected by AD/HD have memories of holidays that were painful, stressful, and anything but cheerful. The time you drank too much and screamed at the kids. The time your spouse was angry, yelled at you and the kids, and ruined everyone’s day. The time your child with AD/HD was so wound up that she broke your favorite serving dish, the one you inherited from your grandmother. Or maybe your family was dysfunctional and holidays were filled with anger, hostility, and/or chaos.

These memories may affect how we experience the holidays today—we may dread them and not even know it. We may still be angry with relatives for wrongs committed years ago, for hurt feelings that have never been resolved.

Creating that “perfect” holiday

The holidays were made for Martha Stewart (or maybe the holidays made Martha Stewart)! She makes everything by hand: those lovely velvet stockings that are filled with homemade candles, strawberry jams, potpourri sachets, and bags of chocolate-dipped apricots wrapped in silver tissue paper. She always looks great and always seems to have more ideas, talent, and time than we could ever hope to possess.

The stress to create these perfect homemade goodies may be further fueled by your mother, mother-in-law, or sister-in-law who always makes at least five kinds of holiday cookies for all her dearest friends, including the postman, the hairdresser, and the cashier at the local grocery. Or these pressures may stem from your interactions with that one friend at work who seems to have everything under control. She’s already finished her shopping, wrapped and mailed everything to out-of-town relatives and friends, and she’s also hosting the office party! You are a mess and you haven’t even started shopping for your immediate family.

Our dreams, visions, and fantasies about the perfect holiday include those in which everyone is beautiful, happy, and fulfilled. Commercials show families that can’t wait to see each other, and homes that are filled with greenery, sparkling lights, and presents wrapped in gold and red. Everyone is standing around a candlelit piano singing holiday songs with eggnog drinks in colorful mugs. These fantasies have been fashioned by savvy Fifth Avenue types who encourage us to buy their products, but often leave us feeling sad or depressed because these scenes simply do not exist in our homes—nor in most others either!

Buying everything on their wish list

We want to give everyone what they want—like the expensive computer game, CD, video, leather jacket, athletic shoes or other popular item they’ve been dying to get. We run around at all hours of the day and night trying to find the one toy or game that is understocked at all the stores. Television ads have been running for months, but of course no one in town has any left, and your child can’t live without it.

Last-minute shopping

Then there is the moment when you remember that one special gift your son, daughter, or husband looks forward to every holiday. You get into your car at 4 PM on the eve of the big day knowing that the mall closes at 5. You are a good thirty minutes from the store that carries the “must-have” item. You speed in and out of traffic. Your heart is jumping out of your chest. Your head is pounding from all the stress. You begin to swear at the little old man in front of you to move out of the passing lane. You are never going to make it!

Been there. Done that.

ImageSIX HOLIDAY STRESSBUSTERS

How can you avoid these stressors this holiday season? Here are some tips that might help.

1. Plan ahead.
Get your calendar out and make a schedule of important timelines and activities. Give yourself some wiggle room. Even the best-laid plans generally have to be revised.
2. Create gift-buying and other holiday traditions that don’t bankrupt your future.
Make a gift budget and don’t spend a penny more than you set aside for each member in your household.
3. Avoid excessive drinking.
Decide ahead of time how many alcoholic drinks you are going to have and stick to your decision. Drink sparkling water with a twist of lemon or lime before and after a glass of wine.
4. Avoid excessive eating.
Eat healthy snacks before a party to avoid filling up on sweets.
5. Do something nice for someone else.
Participate in a charitable holiday event in your community. This is a perfect time to involve the whole family. Your church, temple, mosque, office, or community may have a gift or clothing drive. Share your good fortune with others who have less.
6. Seek out professional help if things are really too overwhelming.


ImageTRY SOME NEW IDEAS

Don’t be afraid to try some new ideas either.

• Play hide-and-seek with small inexpensive gifts. Hide a handful of holiday treats wrapped in tin foil or colored tissue.
• Create a holiday tree with the kids.
• String popcorn or cranberries. Hang them outside when the holidays are over. The birds love them.
• Glue things onto a Styrofoam ball—cranberries, old costume jewelry, velvet ribbons.
• Make a paper chain out of colored paper.
• Create a holiday family album. If you don’t have a great camera, buy a few of those disposable cameras for each family member.
• Use the computer to make or download holiday cards and pictures.

You might be thinking, “This woman must be kidding! Living with AD/HD during the holidays is just too stressful. It’s too exhausting. These ideas will never go over with my kids or my family. Just reading this article stresses me out. My kids think doing things together stinks. We argue about everything. The last time I planned a family project, it was a total failure.”

TRY WHAT MAKES SENSE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. Try only one new thing at a time. If it doesn’t work, have a good laugh! Remember the holidays don’t have to be perfect, but shouldn’t they be fun?


Anne Teeter Ellison, EdD, is professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A former member of CHADD’s professional advisory board, she is also a past president of CHADD. She is a member of CHADD’s board of directors and serves on the editorial advisory board of Attention magazine.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Signs and Symptoms of ADHD

It is normal for children to have trouble focusing and behaving at one time or another. However, children with ADHD do not just grow out of these behaviors. The symptoms continue and can cause difficulty at school, at home, or with friends.


A child with ADHD might:

  • have a hard time paying attentionclassroom of children
  • daydream a lot
  • not seem to listen
  • be easily distracted from schoolwork or play
  • forget things
  • be in constant motion or unable to stay seated
  • squirm or fidget
  • talk too much
  • not be able to play quietly
  • act and speak without thinking
  • have trouble taking turns
  • interrupt others

Types

There are three different types of ADHD, depending on which symptoms are strongest in the individual:


Predominantly Inattentive Type: It is hard for the individual to organize or finish a task, to pay attention to details, or to follow instructions or conversations. The person is easily distracted or forgets details of daily routines.

Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type: The person fidgets and talks a lot. It is hard to sit still for long (e.g., for a meal or while doing homework). Smaller children may run, jump or climb constantly. The individual feels restless and has trouble with impulsivity. Someone who is impulsive may interrupt others a lot, grab things from people, or speak at inappropriate times. It is hard for the person to wait their turn or listen to directions. A person with impulsiveness may have more accidents and injuries than others.

Combined Type: Symptoms of the above two types are equally present in the person.

Causes of ADHD

kids playing on ballsScientists are studying cause(s) and risk factors in an effort to find better ways to manage and reduce the chances of a person having ADHD. The cause(s) and risk factors for ADHD are unknown, but current research shows that genetics plays an important role. Recent studies of twins link genes with ADHD.

In addition to genetics, scientists are studying other possible causes and risk factors including:

  • Brain injury
  • Environmental exposures (e.g., lead)
  • Alcohol and tobacco use during pregnancy
  • Premature delivery
  • Low birth weight.
  • Research does not support the popularly held views that ADHD is caused by eating too much sugar, watching too much television, parenting, or social and environmental factors such as poverty or family chaos. Of course, many things, including these, might make symptoms worse, especially in certain people. But the evidence is not strong enough to conclude that they are the main causes of ADHD.

For more information about cause(s) and risk factors, visit the National Resource Center on ADHD or the National Institute of Mental Health.

Diagnosis

Deciding if a child has ADHD is a several step process. There is no single test to diagnose ADHD, and many other problems, like anxiety, depression, and certain types of learning disabilities, can have similar symptoms. One step of the process involves having a medical exam, including hearing and vision tests, to rule out other problems with symptoms like ADHD. Another part of the process may include a checklist for rating ADHD symptoms and taking a history of the child from parents, teachers, and sometimes, the child.

Treatments

physician speaking to familyIn most cases, ADHD is best treated with a combination of medication and behavior therapy. No single treatment is the answer for every child and good treatment plans will include close monitoring, follow-ups and any changes needed along the way.

Get Help!

If you or your doctor has concerns about ADHD, you can take your child to a specialist such as a child psychologist or developmental pediatrician, or you can contact your local early intervention agency (for children under 3) or public school (for children 3 and older).


To find out who to speak to in your area, you can contact the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities by logging on to http://www.nichcy.org/ or calling 1-800-695-0285.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sponsors the National Resource Center, a program of CHADD – Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Their Web site has links to information for people with ADHD and their families. The National Resources Center operates a call center with trained staff to answer questions about ADHD. The number is 1-800-233-4050.

In order to make sure your child reaches his or her full potential, it is very important to get help for ADHD as early as possible.

For testing at the Neuropsychology Clinic in Tuscaloosa, contact us at (205) 344-6169.

Neuropsychology Clinic, P.C.
100 Rice Mine Road Loop
Suite 303
Tuscaloosa, AL. 35406

Phone : (205) 344-6169
Fax : (205) 344-6171

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts.html

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Finding ADHD Friendly Gifts for the Holidays

As the holiday season nears, many people struggle with finding those “perfect gifts” for their children, and parents of children with ADHD are no exception.

The National Resource Center’s webpage Parenting Children and Teens links to the Toys’R’Us Toy Guide for Differently-Abled Kids, offering the Top Ten Tips for Buying Toys for children who have disabilities and disorders such as ADHD. The list was prepared by the Lekotec Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making play accessible for children with disabilities. When searching for toys, the guide offers the following advice:

  1. Toy should have Multi Sensory appeal.
  2. The method of activation should not be too difficult for the child
  3. Consider where and how the toy will be used. Can it be used in a variety of positions, such as sitting down, laying down, on a wheelchair tray, etc.?
  4. Can the toy be used in a variety of ways, with no defined right or wrong way to play?
  5. Is the toy in line with current trends so the child will not feel different from peers?
  6. Does the toy allow the child opportunities to be creative and expressive?
  7. Is the toy adjustable for appropriate levels of height, sound, speed and difficulty if needed?
  8. Is the toy developmentally appropriate and does it reflect the child’s interests and age?
  9. Is the toy durable and safe for the child?
  10. Is the toy interactive and will it foster social interaction with others?

The Toys’R’Us guide follows the Lekotec information with a listing of current toys and lists which areas each toy is of benefit. There are different colored icons that cover such areas as auditory, language, gross motor and visual development.

Books can be another practical gift for children with ADHD. The Staff of the National Resource Center on AD/HD has produced list of child-friendly books about ADHD. All of the titles aim to explain the diagnosis of ADHD, and describe the symptoms of the disorder using language that children and teens can easily understand. However, the NRC “Staff Favorites” book list contains only a small sampling of titles available that explore the diagnosis of ADHD in children. Many more titles like the ones on our list can be found by searching in the CHADD bookstore.

A final point to consider is to make certain that a gift for a child with ADHD is not vastly different from a gift for any other child so as to avoid stigma. But above all else, when shopping for the perfect gift for the child with ADHD keep in mind that you are not trying to find the best gift for a child with ADHD, you are trying to find the perfect gift for that child.

National Resource Center on AD/HD: A Program of CHADD



To view this and other information regarding ADHD online visit here.