ADDA (Attn Deft Dsrdr Assoc) Focus and Motivation Tips to Boost Focus and Motivation

ADHD and School 

Homework Help for ADHD – Tips for children with ADHD. (National Resource Center on ADHD)

Supporting School Success – Including how to get your child organized, enlisting the school’s help, and seeking evaluation. (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry)

A Parent's Guide to Section 504

Book Recommendations

A Bird's-Eye View of Life with ADD and ADHD: Advice From Young Survivors by Chris A. Zeigler

Dendy & Alex Zeigler, Patricia Harmon, and Chris Carr & Alex Zeigler. Cherish the Children,

2007.

ADHD & Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table by Blake E. S. Taylor. New

Harbinger Publications, 2008.

Teenagers with ADD and ADHD: A Guide for Parents and Professionals by Chris A. Zeigler

Tips for Teens With ADHD

Most teens experience life “in the fast lane,” juggling considerable academic pressure with

extracurricular sports, music and arts, part-time employment, along with complex peer relationships, romantic relationships and family activities. Imagine being a teen “in the fast lane,” struggling with poor attention, high levels of distractibility,

impulsivity and inability to finish each task started. For a teen with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), life can be even more difficult to manage.

ADHD is a set of enduring symptoms beginning in childhood that characterize either inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, or both.

Tips for coping with ADHD in school

* Carry a daily schedule if your classes vary on different days of the week, and look at

     it each morning.

* Make sure that you are seated in class so that you can see and hear the teacher.

* Request a seat change if this is not the case.

* Make outlines of what must be contained in any complex homework project or report,

     and follow the outline in order when working on the project, so you don’t forget to

      include every portion.

* Discuss with your school counselor how to obtain more time or a quiet place to take

examinations if you feel that this would optimize your performance. (Some schools

call this a “504” plan.)

* Whenever possible, obtain two sets of books so that it is not necessary to remember

which ones to bring home or leave at school.

* Always carry an “assignment” book, and write down daily assignments; do not rely on simply 'remembering' them

* Speak to your teachers directly after class to clarify assignments or due dates for

    assignments rather than leaving class with doubts!

* Begin homework shortly after school ends, and review what is due for each class

    before starting homework. Do the most difficult homework before the simpler work.

* Assign yourself multiple short breaks during any homework period, based on

     finishing a small segment of work. Then get back to work.

* Talk with your teacher before the work is due if you believe that you will be unable

     to complete the assignment on time and want to request an extension.

* Design “rewards” for yourself for completing difficult tasks, and stick to them.

ADHD and friends

* Get a “date” book, and write down times and places of plans with friends whenever possible.

* Keep your friends’ telephone numbers in a book that you carry with you, in case you find that you need to change an existing plan with a friend.

* Call friends before you leave to meet them to clarify times and places if these are not completely clear to you.

* Plan to leave to meet friends excessively early if you have a habit of showing up for social events late.

* Give a trusted friend a duplicate of your locker key, combination, or other

information that can serve as a backup if you need it.

* Make choices of activities to do with friends that will minimize frustration. (For

example, don’t go to a movie on the day it opens if you have great difficulty waiting in lines. Instead, pick a movie that has been showing for some time.)

* Choose to spend time with friends that bring out the best in you, rather than the worst in you. (For example, be with people who do not exacerbate your difficulties with their difficulties.)

* Spend more time with friends who support your efforts to keep organized, to

remember belongings, etc. Spend less time with peers who are critical, intolerant or disrespectful.

Tips for managing family life

• Help educate your family members about ADHD by explaining your own challenges, as well as providing reading material so that they understand what you are dealing with day-to-day.

• Request that your family be involved in some aspect of treatment if it includes

• medication, school services or psychosocial (behavior modification counseling/therapy)interventions.

• Let your family know what they can do to support you, as well as communicating to them when they are being too critical or expecting you to be a “different person.”

• Whenever possible, communicate to your family the strategies that you are using to help yourself, and invite them to participate in some way. Ask your family for help in concrete terms rather than assuming that they will not support you.

• Request help from your parents to help advocate for school services when you

• believe that they are needed.

• Find acceptable ways of letting your parents know that they “don’t understand what you are going through” when it happens, and take the time to explain your perspective.

• Remember that most of your teen-age challenges are not different from those of teens without ADHD.

Symptoms of inattention

* difficulty staying focused and inability to finish tasks

* inability to pay close attention, making repeated careless mistakes

* overwhelmed with tasks requiring organization; difficulty following directions

* unable to concentrate when spoken to directly

* easily distracted by external stimuli or internal thoughts

* often forgetful and misplaces objects necessary for school or work

* Symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity

* perpetual fidgeting, feelings of restlessness or difficulty remaining seated

* often on the go, feels “driven like a motor”

* often talks excessively

* inability to sit still for expected amount of time

* difficulty waiting in lines

* often interrupts, intrudes or blurts out answers before questions are completed

If a teen you know perpetually struggles with many of the above problems, some of the following tips may be helpful for school, family and peer relationships.

Nine Things Every Parent with an Anxious Child Should Try

Four  Things Worse Than Not Learning to Read in Kindergarten

Screenagers: Next Chapter, Delaney Ruston & Laura Kastner  Delaney Ruston is a primary care doctor and a mother, who wanted to understand the risk that smartphones and other screens pose to kids. "If you give an anxious teen and a non-anxious teen a scenario you will see the anxious teen have more firing in the brain in the amygdala (the emotion center of the brain) particularly around anxious feelings light up more [on a brain scan]. 

My Sixth-Grader is Anxious About Middle School

Developing Coping Skills

Healing from Trauma and Abuse

Classroom Accommodations

Treatment for Kids With Dyslexia

Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids with Dyslexia

Help Your Child With Reading At Home

Grief and the Middle School Student

Loss is an inevitable part of life for everyone.  Grief can be defined as the natural and necessary reaction to a significant change or loss in our lives.  It is typical to think of the feelings of grief resulting from the death of a friend or loved one.  It is important to note that grief may result may result from other significant changes in one’s life such as moving away from friends and a school where the student has been established for a long time, dealing with a divorced household, being separated from an important family member, having a close relative go to jail, etc.  

Typical Feelings Associated with Grief:

Shock               Denial               Numbness

Anger                Depression        Sadness

Guilt                 Isolation            Fear/Anxiety

                  Acceptance 

This range of emotions used to be referred to as “stages” but current research shows that the term “stages” is misleading, implying that all mourners follow the same path in their journey of healing.  These feelings may emerge and reemerge throughout the survivor’s life.

The task of a grieving student is to reconstruct meaning in the wake of significant loss.

Six Basic Principles of Teen Grief:*

1. Grieving is the teen’s natural reaction to a death or trauma.

2. Each teen’s grieving experience is unique

3. There are no “right” and “wrong” ways to grieve.

4. Every death is unique and is experienced differently

5. The grieving process is influenced by many issues

6. Grief is ongoing

Local Help With Grief & Loss

Family Moves and Children 

Changing Schools: Helping Kids Change Schools

Teens and Sleep "Sleepiness can make it hard to get along with your family and friends and hurt your scores on school exams, on the court or on the field."

What Happens in the Brain During Sleep? 

How Much Sleep Do I Need?

Ending Bedtime Madness

Why Late Nights Lead to Crankier, More Emotional Teens

"There isn't a single tissue in the body or process within the brain that isn't enhanced by sleep when you get it  or fundamentally impaired when you don't get it." click to listen to an information-packed podcast by Dr. Matthew Walker

If we sleep too little, we become unable to process what we’ve learned during the day and we have more trouble remembering it in the future.  

Children Getting Enough SleepFive Ideas for Better Sleep

Kids ages 5 to 12 need 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night.

When you get enough sleep you can:

• Pay attention better in school *Be creative and think of new ideas *Fight sickness so you stay healthy

• Be in a good mood *Get along with friends and family *Solve problems better

Without enough sleep you can:

• Forget what you learned *Have trouble making good choices *Be grumpy and in a bad mood

• Have trouble playing games and sports *Be less patient with brothers, sisters, and friends

• Have trouble listening to parents and teachers

Sleep for Kids-A Service of the National Sleep Foundation