ADHD Coaching – ADD & ADHD Tips & Advice on Dealing with ADD & ADHD. ADHD Coaching solutions by Jay B. Gordon, Ph.D. Neuropsychologist.

ADHD diagnosis

How Does ADHD Medication Work?

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Typically, medication is most effective at reducing symptoms of ADHD, while behavioral interventions are effective at resolving social and academic issues. The process of diagnosing ADHD can be a confusing and stressful time, not to mention the confusion regarding how medications work. Keep in mind that a detailed description of this process can fill a book about psychopharmacology and that this is a basic summary of some ADHD treatments.

ADHD is linked to dopamine deficiencies in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or tiny chemical, in the body that is associated with pleasure, rewards, and coordinating and organizing behavior. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serve as the messengers between brain cells (neurons). One brain cell releases dopamine, which travels to the neighboring cell. There is some excess dopamine in between the two cells (in the synapse), which is brought back to the original brain cell for use later, in a process called reuptake.

For people with ADHD, the goal is to increase the effects of dopamine on the body. This can be done by preventing reuptake of dopamine with medication. In other words, a cell releases dopamine to its neighboring cell, leaving some excess dopamine between the two cells or synapse. Instead of the excess dopamine being brought back to the first cell, it is left in the space between the two cells. Therefore, the reuptake is inhibited, or stopped. This way, more dopamine is allowed to communicate with the next cell, thus improving symptoms of ADHD.

Contact Dr. Gordon for help with your ADHD. We have treatment and solutions available online, by phone, and in our offices.

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written by:
Brianna Malinowski
Jay Gordon, Ph.D

Hinshaw, S., & Scheffler, R. (2014). The ADHD Explosion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

ADHD diagnosis

Ways to Cope Without Medication

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Behavioral interventions alone may be enough to manage behavioral issues of ADD and ADHD; however, combination therapy, in which both behavioral and biological treatment is used, is viewed as most effective.
Here are some types of behavioral interventions that may minimize your struggle with ADD or ADHD:

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Often benefiting adults with ADHD, CBT allows people to recognize their unwanted actions or thoughts and learn to modify them. This technique, proven effective for many psychological interventions, is typically not used for children, as children often need a more direct reward system for motivation.

Direct Contingency Management

For this therapy, trained teachers and/or counselors reward children with ADHD for positive behaviors. This is often done in a classroom or summer program. Our Parent Management Training program teaches parents behavioral strategies to enhance functioning of their child with ADD or to replace oppositional defiant behaviors.

ADD/ADHD Coaching

This is an effective intervention for children with ADD/ADHD. Coaches provide education to parents and individuals with ADD/ADHD regarding the facts and management of ADHD. ADD/ADHD teens and adults or parents are taught to set goals, prompt and measure desired behaviors, give rewards for behavior, remove rewards for misbehavior, help develop environmental accommodations and develop appropriate compensatory strategies.

Social Skills Groups

Children with ADHD may benefit from a group setting in which social skills such as cooperation and teamwork are rewarded by a group facilitator. The behaviors learned in this group setting can then be applied to other environments.

Contact Dr. Gordon for help with your ADHD. We have treatment and solutions available online, by phone, and in our offices.

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written by:
Brianna Malinowski
Jay Gordon, Ph.D

Hinshaw, S., & Scheffler, R. (2014). The ADHD Explosion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

 

ADHD diagnosis

ADD Students – Homework and ADHD

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Tips for Assisting ADD Students / Students with ADHD

  • Organizing information and note taking: Students with ADD / ADHD require extra assistance to organize and prioritize their homework. At home, parents can help organize and prioritize assignments and record important dates onto a home calendar.
  • Providing a quiet environment for ADD Students: Make sure that the homework environment is quiet with minimal distractions.
  • Maintaining a routine: Routine brings order and order assists in the facilitation of focus. Homework should be completed at the same time each day in the same quiet environment.
  • Break into parts: The academic rule of thumb is that there should be 10 minutes
    of homework added on for each grade level, i.e., 4th graders should be able to handle 40 minutes of homework each night. However, for a child with ADHD, 40 minutes may be too long to sustain attention on one given subject area. Therefore, homework should be ‘chunked’ into smaller segments.
  • Manage time and set goals: After helping your child break their homework into smaller segments or chunks, set time completion goals and accuracy goals. Use a timer to externalize the time cue and provide the additional structure.
  • Rewarding: Use positive reinforcement. Keep your attention focused on positive behavior. Set clear reward for homework completion and even for completion of each homework ‘chunk’ discussed above.
  • Consequences: Adhere to the plan and set up realistic consequences for not completing the homework.
  • Communicating: Communication between the teacher, parent, and child is critical. Establish a weekly or even daily report card which reports missing assignments, test grades, and up coming projects and tests; and
  • Seek professional help: Know when it is time to ask for assistance from professionals.

students with ADHD

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ADHD diagnosis

Tips for Creating an ADD-friendly Study Environment

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ADD affects a multitude of characteristics that make it difficult to complete quiet tasks. Distractibility, short attention span, trouble concentrating, and hyperactivity are contradictory to the characteristics needed to complete homework and studying.

A recent article describes ways to create a less distracting environment for students with ADD during musical instrument lessons. These tips can be extended to creating a less distracting environment for the completion of homework and other quiet activities.

To create the best environment for your loved one with ADD, try these suggestions:

  • Clocks. Avoid ticking clocks as these can be distracting to children with ADD.
  • Phones. Silent phones during the child’s homework time. Children with ADD can be, not only distracted by the ringing noise, but also by thoughts of thecontent of the phone call.
  • Windows. Homework should be completed away from windows as weather, cars, animals, and people outside the windows can take attention away from homework.
  • Aromas. Smells of food can be especially distracting to children with ADD. Keep a closed door between the study environment and the aroma of cooking.
  • Interruptions. Unless it is an emergency, do not allow any visitors or family members to interrupt your child when he/she is doing homework.
  • Background noise. The study environment should be away from any distracting background noise including loud conversations or television.
  • Pets. Animals in the study space can serve as a distractor during homework.

Contact Dr. Gordon for help with your ADHD. We have treatment and solutions available online, by phone, and in our offices.

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written by:
Brianna Malinowski
Jay Gordon, Ph.D

Melago, K. (2014). Strategies for successfully teaching students with ADD or ADHD in instrumental lessons. Music Educators Journal, 101(2), 37-43.

ADHD diagnosis

Smartphones Helping to Increase Attention

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ADHD, while commonly known to be a disorder found in children, can persist throughout adulthood, with about 2-4% of adults living with this diagnosis. Adult symptoms of ADHD may include the following:

  • Difficulty paying attention
  • Difficulty controlling impulses
  • Impairments in working memory (temporary storage of information)
  • Difficulty planning and organizing
  • Trouble with multitasking
  • Hard time completing tasks
  • Difficulty with time perception

Improving organizational skills is an effective way to manage ADHD with the use of calendars, shopping lists, to-do lists, and alarms. Results of a 2014 study give insight into a new technology-savvy way for people with ADHD to manage their time and tasks. Participants who used various organization apps on their smartphones and who received support via texts and phones call from coaches, reported higher levels of attention, decreased hyperactivity, and decreased depression than participants who did not use organization apps or receive support.

It may help to try including organizational smartphone apps into your life! Here are some examples used by participants in the study:

  • Google Calendar (Time management)
  • N-back (improving working memory)
  • Evernote (Notes to aid memory)
  • G-tasks (to-do-list)
  • Stayfocusd (block distractions)
  • SimplyNoise (reduce distractions)

Contact Dr. Gordon for help with your ADHD. We have treatment and solutions available online, by phone, and in our offices.

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written by:
Brianna Malinowski
Jay Gordon, Ph.D

Moëll, B., Kollberg, L., Nasri, B., Lindefors, N., & Kaldo, V. (2014). Living SMART — A randomized controlled trial of a guided online course teaching adults with ADHD or sub-clinical ADHD to use smartphones to structure their everyday life. Internet Interventions, 2(1), 24-31.

ADHD diagnosis

ADHD in Children – ADHD & Homework

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Conflicts over homework are common with children and teens who have ADD / ADHD.

adhd in childrenGiven that students with ADD/ ADHD are often disorganized, forgetful, distractible, careless and lack persistence, it is not surprising that homework time leads to child and parental distress, a deterioration of the parent/child relationship, and eventual academic underachievement.

 

 

The following points may provide useful when assisting children or teens with ADHD in completing their homework:

★ Organizing information and note taking
★ Providing a quiet environment
★ Maintaining a routine
★ Break homework into parts
★ Manage time and set goals
★ Rewarding
★ Consequences
★ Communicating
★ Seek professional help

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Dyslexia Testing – Signs of Dyslexia

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Possible signs of Dyslexia or a language based learning disability include:

➡Slow progress acquiring reading skills
➡Trouble reading new/unfamiliar words
➡Mistakes with small words such as: that, an, in
➡Difficulty sounding out multi-syllable words
➡Omitting part of a word when reading out loud
➡Poor oral reading ability
➡Extreme fear or avoidance of reading out loud
➡Poor memory of dates, names numbers, etc.
➡Substitution of words with the same meaning
➡Very poor spelling
➡Frequent hesitation and pauses when speaking
➡Using the wrong word when speaking with one that sounds similar
➡Slow, labored reading, avoidance of reading and/or lack of pleasure in reading
➡Despite reading/language weakness, demonstrates strong, higher level reasoning ability
➡Better reading words when in context than as a single word
➡Poor performance on multiple choice tests and math word problems

 

adhd and dyslexiaADHD and Dyslexia

Studies indicate as many as 40% of all early elementary school students in the United States have some initial difficulty learning to read. Nearly half of these students

(ie, 15-20% of elementary students) have significant problems and continuing difficulties with reading fluency, comprehension, and spelling. Many students with ADHD also have dyslexia or another language based learning difficulty.

 

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ADHD diagnosis

ADHD Treatments

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adhd treatmentEducation: Educate yourself as much as you can about ADHD and its management. Read books, talk to professionals, and research on the internet.

Medication: Stimulant medication (methylfenadate, amphetamines) and non- stimulant medications (atomoxetine) have been shown to be effective. Seek a qualified physician to evaluate use of medication.

Parent-training: Parent-training is an affective treatment for ADHD. Parent- training helps decrease parent/child conflict, child defiance, and disruptive behaviors. Parent-training also helps reduce parent stress and household stress in general. Parent-training strategies include contingency management, effective use of commands, transition planning, positive attending, behavior management plans, and various monitoring programs.

Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy is helpful for adolescents and adults by helping them gain a better understanding of the nature of ADHD, its management, and how it has influenced who they are today. It is also useful to help with medication compliance.

School-based accommodations and interventions and Social-skills training

DEVELOPMENTAL RISKS

adhd development risks✓Academic under-performance 90% of the time
✓Retention in a grade from 25% to 50% of the time
✓Requiring Special Education in 35% to 60% of the time
✓Failure to graduate high school in 30% to 40% of the time
✓Less likely to attend college 20% of the time
✓Less likely to graduate college 5% of the time
✓Peer-relation problems 50% of the time
✓Delinquency in 25% to 35%
✓Substance-abuse/dependency 10% to 20%
✓Early sexual activity and teen pregnancy in 38%+
✓Increased risk for STDs in 16%
✓Greater health risk

 

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ADHD diagnosis

ADHD Testing – Assessing ADHD

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Find a trained professional specializing in ADD/ ADHD with whom you feel comfortable. An evaluation for ADD/ADHD should be comprehensive. The evaluation should include taking a comprehensive history including; symptoms, medical history, social history, and family medical history. When evaluating a child, the evaluation should include observations of the child. Behavior questionnaires which provide an objective behavior sampling in at least two settings are generally utilized. In some cases, psychological and/or neuropsychological testing is used to rule out other concurrent cognitive, psychological, or learning problems, and to assist with treatment planning.

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adhd coaching

What is Good Parenting?

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It is well known that parenting behavior has a significant impact on a child’s psychological health and behavior. Research has shown that there are certain parenting behaviors that are beneficial to a child’s well being.  These behaviors include being sensitive to a child’s needs, developing a positive parent-child relationship and encouraging and rewarding positive behavior.

When a parent responds sensitively to a child’s needs a child is more likely to demonstrate secure attachment.  This type of sensitivity can be seen when a parent interacts with a cooing or smiling baby.  Ignoring or acting aggressively to a cooing or smiling baby can lead to anxiety and insecure attachment.  But responding to the baby in a sensitive way the reflects the baby’s level of arousal and needs will help develop a securely attached baby.  Securely attached children are more likely to demonstrate positive behaviors as an adult.

When parents provide love and support to their children, children tend develop positive feelings of self-worth.  Research show that parents own mental health and attitudes toward parenting can impact their ability to develop this positive relationship with their children.  Therefore, it important for parents to be aware of their own psychological well being and attitudes and address any issues they may be having themselves.

Finally, there is a great deal of research to support the effectiveness of focusing on and rewarding positive behavior.  Often, as parents, we accidently do the opposite!  Without realizing it parents reinforce negative behavior by either giving in or paying a lot of negative attention to it, while ignoring our child when they are well behaved.  It is important for parents to consciously keep their focus on positive behaviors, provide attention to their children when ‘good’ behavior occurs and attempt to minimize attention to negative behaviors.

Participating in a Parent Management Training program can provide parents with the support, tools, and feedback to develop parenting behaviors that will lead to healthier children and a happier household.

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