Another Daily Dose

Welcome back! If you have yet to sign up for our RSS feed perhaps it's because you don't know what the heck that EVEN means! Watch this small video to see the cool things you can do with "RSS" or if you prefer reading, check out this article and let our feed be the first on your list! Trust me, if you visit more than 2 websites on a regular basis, RSS will make your life easier!

Children with ADD/ADHD (hereafter referred to as ADHD) are creative, energetic, imaginative, and resourceful people.  They have a wonderful spirit and you wouldn’t trade your child’s personality for the world.  But sometimes, there’s school work to be done.  Sometimes, you really need your child to sit still.  Sometimes you really just want a few minutes of peace.  Or is that just true at my house?  

Learning doesn’t have to be a chore for the ADHD student.  It seems to me to be such a waste to bore these wonderful minds when it just takes a little bit of creativity on our part to keep them going.  In my thirteen years of being a parent to an ADHD child, I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t.  I’ve taught public school classrooms with students all over the ADHD spectrum.  Some have been medicated.  Some have not.  Regardless of the severity of their condition or the presence of medication or other therapies, I have found some strategies that really helped my ADHD kids to become better learners.   

 If you’re reading this article, you are probably already aware of the characteristics and symptoms of a child with Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder.  You may notice impulsivity, inattention, hyperactivity, disorganization, hyper-focus, or forgetfulness.  You may have noticed these symptoms even before your child was of school age.  Then, when he or she starts school, either homeschool or public/private schooling, you begin to have your concerns verified when you notice failure to complete assignments in a timely manner, disorganized work habits, or producing messy or careless work.  However, school does not have to be a struggle for the ADHD child or the parent/teacher.  

Some of the strategies I have found to be successful are:

• Allow for breaks in the lesson or homework.  Let the child get up and move around.
• Ask yourself, is it really necessary for my child to be sitting to do his work?  Will he get the same result if I allow him to stand to do his work?
• Provide as many hands-on activities as possible.
• Teach to your child’s strengths and talents.
• Keep things in perspective.  Remember that your child is not doing any of these things to misbehave.
• Minimize distractions.  I found that something at simple as asking my son write with a regular pencil as opposed to a mechanical pencil made a huge difference.  He liked to distract himself by playing with the lead.
• Develop a regular routine.
• Give your student something to hold in her hands while you give instructions.  Give her a piece of modeling clay or let her color while you read aloud.  She will actually absorb more of what you say when she has something to do.
• Use a written plan or contract with your child.  This gives your child a concrete goal. 
• Place something for them to touch in their work area.  A piece of Velcro works well.  It provides the student something to focus on and keeps the impulse to wander around at bay. 
• Keep the work area free of mess.  A messy area will tend to overwhelm the child.  He’ll get the feeling that he doesn’t really know where to start.
• Use binders for subjects to help your child keep her work organized.  Organization is one of the toughest things that ADHD people come up against.
• Most importantly, be flexible.  One of these tips may work one day and not the next.  You’ll need to mix things up to keep your ADHD child from becoming bored.

Homeschooling parents can find activities that are specially geared for the ADHD student at >" target="_blank" title="LessonPathways.com.">LessonPathways.com.They have many, many lessons that stretch across the curriculum and are tagged for ADHD learners. 

What can have happened? What is in the environment, kids’ food that has made the number of cases of ADHD to skyrocket in the last ten years? These are really important questions. The most common symptom of ADHD is lack of focus and most parents of ADHD kids say ‘my son can’t focus’.

The question of focus was even brought up recently in the British Parliament when an MP put forward some research which suggests that increased use of Internet could be a possible cause of ADHD. Why could this be true? More research needs to be done, obviously, but it has been pointed out that online relationships do NOT require a sensitivity to the inflection of the voice, eye contact, tone of voice or body language. Too much time online could mean that the child will not focus because of the ease of instant gratification obtained by the media. The same goes for texting and cell phones.

Many parents are unaware or simply forget that when they complain that ‘my son can’t focus’ they are forgetting the fact that sometimes hyperfocus comes into play and they forget about this. The fact of the matter is that kids with ADHD often have widely different levels of inattention and this can go from one extreme of complete inattentiveness to that of a hyperfocused state where the activity is so riveting for the child, that he becomes oblivious of everything else around him.

Often boring and necessary tasks like homework will have no appeal to the ADHD child because it does not give the instant gratification that other tasks or activities give, such as a movie or computer game. ‘My son can’t focus’ will not just include a lack of attention to detail or forgetting his schoolbag. It seems to be a much more complex issue.

When and if ADHD is diagnosed, there will be many types of treatment competing for your attention. You may not want to blast your child’s brain with powerful mind altering psychostimulants such as Strattera and Ritalin which can have some nasty side effects such as chest pains, irregular heart beat, blurred vision, liver damage and sometimes even stunted growth. What about a homeopathic remedy which will use non addictive ingredients in a gentler remedy which will improve concentration, memory and will calm your child? The child will not focus will be a thing of the past. There are no side effects either. Soon, you will not be repeating the complaint that ‘my son can’t focus’.

Any form of ADHD testing is going to involve symptom sorting?

Does your child easily lose concentration?

Do they have problems finishing their tasks?

Do they constantly fidget?

Are they constantly on the go?

Do they forget things?

Are they disorganised and easily lose things?

Do they tend to interrupt when you are speaking and not hear what is said to them?

Do they have a poor academic record?

These are the kind of questions that form the basis of ADHD testing. The main approach is a system known as Connors scale and if your child has consistently shown these kind of symptoms over a six month periods they will probably be diagnosed as having ADHD.

Many parents are desperate for help by the time their child is being tested. It may also be the case that the school are  pushing for the child to be tested and parents are not happy about the  situation.

Why does this happen?

Well usually your child will behave very differently at home to at school. There can be many reasons why a child can present ADHD symptoms at school but not at home.
In my experience there can be many reasons for this but one of the reasons could be down to early undiagnosed glue ear problems. When I was working as an educational advisor supporting behavioural problems in young people I had the privilege of knowing a very experienced head of school nurses. She was able to l look at a class register of children she didn’t know and from their records of early hearing problems she could pinpoint the children who would be presenting the  symptoms of ADHD and she was right every time.

The reason why? Early undiagnosed glue ear!

What happens is at such a formative stage of development the child cannot hear very well because the ear canal is often blocked. This means that they are unable to develop across the full range of sounds and when they get older when sound builds up in say a school hall with high ceilings or in a nosy classroom, they cannot information process the sounds and become overwhelmed with the noise. The kicking off behaviour is typical of this reaction.

One of the most effective techniques that I have used and evaluated for ADHD is using auricular candle therapy, otherwise known as Hopi Ear Treatment.

When you observe a child prior to having a treatment for 15 minutes and watch the number of times they come off tasks – then give a treatment and observe the number of times they come off task again, afterwards it is always  substantially less distraction. Behaviours improve and a calmness is restored.

This is where traditional types of ADHD test fall down – they do not address the underlying causes of symptoms

Certain additives like tartrazine (E102), an artificial yellow dye, have been known for many years now, to send children over the top and exhibit ADHD type behaviors. Other culprits lurking in your child’s diet include aspartame (E951) the artificial sweetener which occurs in so much of our food, tempting parents who think that too much sugar is probably the reason for their child’s behaviour and turn to low sugar drinks as the solution. This is sweetener is now established as a neurotoxin and is best avoided.

However, individuals can still have sensitivities to any ingredient, be it natural or artificial, so I have included a link here to a film which gives you a very simple fun way of muscle testing for yourself to find out whether or not specific additives or foods can be a problem.

It wouldn’t matter what ADHD diet you followed, if there was an unknown sensitivity to an underlying additive for example, it wouldn’t have the desired result of improving behaviour. Trying to find out which foods caused a problem would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, as the results would never be accurate or effective if the question of additives had never been addressed.

There can be no hard and fast rule of which foods to avoid generally as everyone is different and the additive can affect them in different ways. Take for example tartrazine, the one I mentioned above. This can create headaches in some people and hyperactivity in children so it is very difficult to source the root of the problem.

Ideally, of course it is helpful to take  a full allergy test with equipment like  a galvanometer. These are able to measure the body’s micro circuitry and the system established by a Dr Voll in the 1950s proved very accurate at identifying substances that varied the resistance in the flow of the body current. This gives you a powerful understanding into what can be an underlying cause of hyperactive behaviours. However not every household has access to this piece of equipment and professionals who use this method of testing may be hard to track down in your area.

The muscle testing video that I have recommended here is simple and effective and can give you a good idea of what may be affecting your child’s behaviour. To start the process of establishing a dietary suspect it is a very good idea to monitor the foods that your child takes with a food diary.