NPR Book Story: 'Paying Attention' With An ADHD Mother And Son

Investigative reporter Katherine Ellison's son, Buzz, was charming and bright. But he was also driving her crazy. Both mother and son were constantly at odds, and Buzz was anxious, angry and lonely.

When Buzz was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Ellison was already familiar with its symptoms — she soon learned that she had ADHD as well.

Struggling with her own diagnosis while trying to be an effective parent was proving an uphill battle. As Ellison's and Buzz's mutual frustration mounted, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist decided to spend a year doing what came most naturally to her: investigating.

Ellison's memoir, Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention, chronicles the year she spent studying the disorder, its causes, and what worked and what didn't when it came to treating her son.



Listen to NPR story here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130404201&ft=1&f=1032

Summer reflections

Summer is here and it's a great time for parents to have some space to think about the school year that just passed and the one that's ahead. Unfortunately it's also the time when all the school work comes home and she find yourself incidentally leaving through reams of it and taken out of context it can sometimes create alarm.

Summer is a good time to try to tackle things at a gentle pace therefore:

* schedule some daily typing practice.
* if necessary try to find games that insist on words being entered as commands.
* obtain a never ending stream of books that interest your child, so they lounge about reading rather than over doing it on the Wii.
* Try to revise areas of maths from last year and look at next years curriculum to prep for what will be coming.
* Have fun and play chase!
*Talk to other parents who have children with written output problems and get some inspiration.

Major discovery: Twist n write pencil

This is the twist n write pencil that an OT gave my child to help avoid what she termed the "death grip" when he's writing. It's a real boon and will help your child. They are widely available in the US at stationary shops it appears, in Canada I am less clear how they are obtained, but will post any links I find. Ditto UK.


Please post your experiences using it in the comments section and other shops you've found to buy it.

Former Google Executive On Getting Organized

In this era of information overload, the experience of being stressed, forgetful and overwhelmed means your mind is perfectly normal. Douglas Merrill, author of the new book Getting Organized in the Google Era, writes about his own struggle with dyslexia, and how that forced him to develop techniques for remembering information.

Listen to NPR interview here

Former Olympian used ADHD to his advantage

With the spotlight on Canadian Olympians on the podium, one former gold medallist is using the attention to highlight the upside of a stigmatized disorder — ADHD.

“I found that the disorder isn’t negative infliction but it gives positive energy as well,” said Adam Kreek, who reached his pinnacle in men's eight rowing at the Beijing Games in 2008.

Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when he was six — he is only now speaking out about the condition for the first time.

Kreek said he learned to channel his energy through the rowing when he was teenager.

“Anyone with ADHD can train their mind to control the incredible energy people with ADHD have,” said Kreek, who describes himself as a high energy child who had trouble concentrating. “I found rowing to be an outlet to control my ADHD."


http://www.torontosun.com/life/healthandfitness/2010/02/19/12948646.html

Breaking things down

As the demands of the school curriculum increase with age, so does the homework. For children with written output problems this is enormously stressful. It is enormously stressful for parents also. Trying to keep the child focused and in the chair is the first challenge.

I am continually working on finding strategies to make homework less onerous. One thing is to break everything down into clear stages. Thus:

Type the first question on the computer screen. Allow the child to answer that single question.

Then move to the next one.

Don't try to copy out worksheets onto the screen and have the child fill them up. The sight of words overwhelms these children. Think of it like covering information with an A4 sheet in the book.

Another thing which exasperates these children is the concept of the length of time homework will take because of writing impediments. Therefore explain they need only consider the question they are on.

Continually find ways to break down large tasks. The work or task must feel manageable of the child's interest will fail and they will absolutely downtool.

Another challenge is their tendency to do the reverse and zoom through everything, half doing it, just to be finished. They produce inferior work that does not reflect their capabilities.

Negotiate with the teacher around the work. See if you can get agreement on quality over volume.

When they really begin to openly despair. Scribe for them. Or offer to scribe some questions (scribe can also be typing).

The critical thing is to ensure your child has understood the concept especially if it's maths. They do not necessarily need to do 20 questions to prove they've understood it.

With social science seek audio and audio visual materials to enhance learning such as documentaries or recorded books or photography.

I am going to try to find some mind map templates to upload here.

I heartily recommend inspiration software for brainstorming. It's very child friendly. There are also some new open source options.

Another school year

As the stress of the school year is now is full swing it's time to share some reflections on the latest modifications.

We are now using a computer inclass for as much writing as possible. This relieves some stress and aides output. It is not a panacea because it doesn't overcome the issue of things like worksheets and sometimes my child can become frustrated with the computer.

It has allievated much stress though and I'd heartily recommend parents to embrace technology at their earliest opportunity.

The computer we are currently using is a Dell Inspiron 12 inch. The battery power is good, but the keyboard is irritating for larger, or normal sized adult hands. It works fine for a child, it works fine for us at the moment.

Personally I prefer Mac and think that some of the software on mac is excellent. I also think if children are going to work in an interface the best aesthetic experience enhances it and mac is superior in this way.

Battery life is something mac needs to improve.

Computers -- your feedback?

Please share your experiences with computers that you've purchased for children with writing problems. I'd like to compile some reviews of the kind of laptops that are particularly practical and useful for children.

There are increasing choices and possibilities with netbooks and lightweight laptops however parents need to chose sensibly because the small keyboards can produce drawbacks etc.

I will shortly be updating our experiences.

Computers are the main bridge to overcoming output problems as far as I can tell. The laptop has aided output considerably. There are still challenges... but it's hopeful.

Maths games...? Help

Does anyone have any good suggestions for online maths games that are either free or incredibly affordable?

If so please comment or email links to writtenoutputdisorder@gmail.com

Am particularly interested in ipod games.

Naval Battle was a game we found was good for strategy.

Cheers....

Posing a question: working memory/rote learning

I'd like to pose a question or point of discussion about rote learning.

Kids with working memory problems find rote learning onerous ... I noticed this with the times tables and sometimes with spelling.

I've noticed if rote learning takes place almost as an after thought, or in tandem with some other activity it is more tolerable and beneficial. So walking along the road spelling aloud is much less of a misery than sitting at the table.

Another idea I had for phonics (though I am personally not a big advocate of phonics because my child was a whole language reader, though he does not have reading struggles at all, so perhaps I'd revise this position if he did.)
I had this idea that schools should take a small hockey goal and rig it up so you can hang sound combinations from it and then have the kids kick a ball at the hanging card, clearly labelled, and as they kick they must shout out the sound they are kicking at. Give them 10 balls to kick.

The concept is a kind of sporting, interactive reading room in a gym setting. So they could move station to station. One station of a physical nature, such as kicking at a goal and then afterwards sitting down with a text where those sounds appear and seeing whether this physical interaction with the sound helps solidify recognizing it on the page.

It could even be done in a team format with baseball. That as the kids are playing they are also identifying recurrent words or sounds. It's fun, it's active.

I've also wondered if the same thing could be applied with music and spelling, for example working with a glockenspiel that was labelled with letters and singing out the letters that you're trying to form a word with. This could almost be a computer progam where if you made an error in spelling you could hear the tone of the note changes...

Another little trick I tried sometimes if a child was struggling to identify a recurrent sound when reading was to physicalize it by pushing a pretend buzzer on the table every time they noticed the sound come up on the page.

These are all experimental ideas.. but I digress... the question I'd like to pose is really on whether there is any benefit in pushing things like rote learning on kids with working memory struggles. Does it help build working memory or not? Or does it just put the child under unnecessary stress?

I did not push the times tables because my child would get frustrated with when he fluffed it up. Now though he's quite competent in most of them and we have not really done any hard graft on them. Abacus classes have solidified number concepts in a concrete way though, so perhaps I have Soroban to thank for much of this progress.

I also found Soroban to be a great working memory aide and would encourage education/neuroscientific researchers to conduct studies on how this could be employed in our classrooms, so all children can benefit from an ancient, but relevant and proven system. This could also be of great benefit to seniors.


If you have thoughts, or ideas or good links, please post them or drop an email to writtenoutputdisorder@gmail.com

Thanks for reading.