Quotes from an article by, Peter Gray, Ph.D., at Psychology Today:

From an evolutionary perspective, school is an abnormal environment...
School is a place where children are expected to spend most of their time sitting quietly in chairs, listening to a teacher talk about things that don't particularly interest them, reading what they are told to read, writing what they are told to write, and feeding memorized information back on tests

For good evolutionary reasons, members of our species vary genetically in ways that create diversity in personality.[6] People have always lived in communities, and communities--as well as the individuals within them--benefit from diversity. It is good that some people are relatively restrained while others are more impulsive, that some are relatively passive while others are more active, that some are cautious while others are bolder, and so on. These are among the dimensions that make up normal personality.


Read the complete article here:
ADHD and School: The Problem of Assessing Normalcy in an Abnormal Environment


I would like to see the day when we see “kids with ADHD” as normal members of our diverse community rather than labeling them as disabled, and medicating them so they will fit into the abnormal environments we have created. 

10 THINGS NOT TO SAY TO SOMEONE WITH ADHD

10 THINGS NOT TO SAY TO SOMEONE WITH ADHD

1. “ADHD isn’t real. Why don’t we just let kids be kids?”

2. “Everybody has a little ADHD. It isn’t a big deal.”

3. “ADHD is too quickly and too frequently diagnosed.”

4. “If you would just try a little harder, you would do better.”

5. “He (or she) is just lazy.”

6. “People use ADHD as an excuse for bad behavior.”

7. “That child just needs more discipline.”

8. “ADHD is caused by poor parenting.”

9. “Students with ADHD who receive special accommodations have unfair advantages.”

10. “ADHD in females is less severe than ADHD in males.”

Read the complete article at About.com

 

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Don’t say these to the mother of a child with ADHD either. Grrrrrr! And to these I would add, 11. “Stop feeding him sugar”….or….”It’s probably just a food allergy.”  

Making A.D.D Work - On-the-Job Stragegies for Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder

I checked out this book from my library and then ended up not having as much time as I would have liked to read through it. I did do a quick scan and liked what I saw and may check it out again some time in the future. 

The book is divided into three parts; Improving Your Work Skills, Finding the Right Career Path, Getting Help, which covers working with ADD coaches and professional organizers, and your legal rights.

The section on Improving Your Work Skills covers getting organized, managing your time, maintaining your concentration, cooperating with Co-workers and networking, and maximizing your strengths.

I think we all have ADD moments even if we are not “officially” ADD and so anyone could pick up some useful tips from this book.

The ADHD Autism Connection

What I am reading in this book is the information I have been searching for as long as I've been living with my ADHD kid. I would often tell people that sometimes I wondered if my son were autistic and that some of his behaviors are "autistic-like". I've also felt that his attention-deficit was a symptom of something yet un-named.

Here is a quote from the Author's Note found in the beginning of the book:

"The aim of this book is to explore the similarities that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shares with a spectrum of disorders currently known as pervasive developmental disorders. Like autism researcher Dr. Lorna Wing, I believe that these disorders do differ in clinical descriptions and degrees of impairment; however, I also agree that the population I seek to help is better served by recognizing that these disorders share similar features, especially in terms of social impairment. By viewing these as possibly related disorders, clinicians may more appropriately address the immediate needs of the patient."
"Regarding the idea that high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome are expressions of the same basic disorder, Diane Twachtman-Cullen believes that "given the nature of the similarities between the disorders, and in the absence of definitive information to the contrary, this would seem to be a most reasonable position." Because of the similarities between ADHD and Asperger's syndrome and the absence of conclusive evidence that differentiates these disorders, an important question is raised. Is ADHD most likely part of the autistic spectrum? This book examines the issue and the immediate need for further research."

Commitments for Parents

Commitments for Parents I will always love and respect my child for who he is and not who I want him to be. I will give my child space - to grow, to dream, to succeed, and even, sometimes, to fail. I will create a loving home environment and show my child that she is loved, whenever and however I can. I will, when discipline is necessary, let my child know that I disapprove of what he does, not who he is. I will set limits for my child and help her find security in the knowledge of what is expected of her. I will make time for my child and cherish our moments together, realizing how important - and fleeting - they are. I will not burden my child with emotions and problems he is not equipped to deal with, remembering that I am the parent and he is the child. I will encourage my child to experience the world and all its possibilities, guiding her in its ways and taking pains to leave her careful, but not fearful. I will take care of myself physically and emotionally so that I can be there for my child when he needs me. I will try to be the kind of person I want my child to grow up to be - loving, fair-minded, moral, giving and hopeful. Author Unknown

The Upside of ADHD

TheUpside of ADHD

Enthusiasm, empathy and high energy among traits the disorder carries

by Marilyn Lewis for MSN Health & Fitness

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) hasn’t changed, but how experts view the disorder is evolving in a new direction. Instead of only focusing on the difficulties posed by ADHD, today, the upsides are likely to be noted, too: the quick-wittedness, the speedy grasp of the big picture and the great enthusiasm for nearly everything. These traits make ADHDers endearing and simultaneously exasperating.

This change may sound like just a new way of describing the same old thing, but to those with ADHD, the difference is profound. An estimated 2 percent to 4 percent of American adults and 3 percent to 7 percent of children have the brain-based disorder. For them, it’s the difference between seeing themselves as broken and thinking of themselves as having advantages, even if they have to cope with being fidgety, distractible or easily bored.

In praise of ADHD

JetBlue Airways CEO and founder David Neeleman is famously frank about his ADHD. He was diagnosed in 2001, seven years after he realized he had it. By then, he’d already founded and then sold Morris Air. He had done so well in his own eccentric way that he felt he was doing fine without medication. Still, Neeleman says he’s not anti-meds: “I have talked to a lot of people who swear by the medication.”

Neeleman credits ADHD with his creativity and “out-of-the-box thinking”—it led him to invent e-tickets while at Morris, for example. “One of the weird things about the type of [ADHD] I have is, if you have something you are really, really passionate about, then you are really, really good about focusing on that thing. It’s kind of bizarre that you can’t pay the bills and do mundane tasks, but you can do your hyper-focus area.” He spends “all my waking hours” obsessing about JetBlue. The rest of his life, Neeleman says, would be a “disaster” if not for his wife, who manages their home and children; his accountant, who pays the bills and tracks his finances; and his personal assistant, who sends him his schedule every day and steers him from appointment to appointment, keeping him on track.

Ken Melotte, 43, of Green Bay, Wis., is quick to credit ADHD for his successes, too. “I have ideas immediately,” says Melotte, who’s on the management team of a national trucking firm. “I instantly start working on solutions, seeing different ways to do things.”

Yet, ADHD has been a struggle for him. Melotte doesn’t care for medication. The disorder vexes him most at work, as a project manager, when he had “a terrible struggle” keeping track of all the details. On the other hand, he believes that ADHD traits like empathy, intuition and the ability to motivate and inspire others made him a successful manager.

A “context disorder”

ADHD is considered a “context disorder,” Thom Hartmann says. Hartmann, an expert on the disorder, is one of the few who saw the positive side of ADHD before it was fashionable.

“If a left-handed person has a job cutting origami with right-handed scissors, that doesn’t mean they have a disability; they have a context disorder,” Hartmann explains. “Short people trying to play basketball have a context disorder.”

People with ADHD “may instead be our most creative individuals, our most extraordinary thinkers, our most brilliant inventors and pioneers,” writes Hartmann in his 2003 book The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child. He posits that the people with ADHD may carry genetically coded abilities that once were, and may still be, necessary for human survival and that contribute richness to the culture.

A spate of books has come out that echoes Hartmann’s positive spin, including Delivered From Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life With Attention Deficit Disorder, by Drs. Edward Hallowell and John Ratey, and The Gift of ADHD, by Lara Honos-Webb.

To Hartmann, “Any kind of difference, even those differences that may make life more difficult or be viewed by some as pathologies, have to have some sort of upside, outside of pure disease processes. Otherwise they wouldn’t survive in the gene pool.”

Marilyn Lewis is a freelance writer who lives in Northwest Washington State. She specializes in writing about personal technology, health and medicine, business and lifestyle. Her work has appeared in MSNBC, MSN and The San Jose Mercury News.

http://healthyliving.msn.com/diseases/adhd/the-upside-of-adhd-1?GT1=31001

Modifications for the Hyperactive Student

Modifications for the Hyperactive Student

I bought a book a while back called "It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend" by Richard Lavoie. The book is about helping the child with learning disabilities find social success.

Because life got busy I had to take a break from reading but I recently picked it up again. I skipped ahead to the chapter on Attention Deficit Disorder and immediately found something that I just had to share.
The book made a few suggestions for modifications and adjustments that could be made in the classroom that would allow the hyperactive child to function more effectively:

"These techniques take a "fight fire with fire" approach: rather than constantly battling with the child's need for activity and movement, provide the child with ample opportunities to be active during classroom activities. In effect, you are legitimizing the child's need to move by making movement part of your lesson plan!"
"For example, provide the hyperactive child with a standing desk and allow him to complete written work while standing. This simple adjustment may satisfy the child's need to be active during a sedentary activity. Give the child a clipboard to use during writing activities and allow him to work on the floor or in a beanbag chair. One teacher reported remarkable results after allowing her hyperactive students to sit in rocking chairs during silent reading activities. Another teacher assigned a child two seats in the classroom and allowed him to change seats whenever he needed to move about. Ask the hyperactive child to do classroom chores (e.g., water the plants, erase the white board, deliver messages). You can also legitimize the child's movement by doing quick (thirty-second) calisthenics between class activities. Again, these modifications recognize that the excessive movement is beyond the child's control."

I especially liked the idea of having two seats assigned to the child in the classroom. Wish I'd had this book when my son was in school.