Educational Considerations

In 2007, J.E Nowacek investigated the array of perceptions that general education teachers have on individuals diagnosed with ADHD. Here, researchers looked to see whether or not teaching modifications and other educational considerations were used in order to accommodate the different learning styles of their students.

Results had shown that general educators seemed to have a general understanding of the key elements and characteristics of ADHD. However, they provided little to no modifications for diagnosed children in their classroom.

As a prospective educator myself, it is difficult to accommodate every need in the classroom, especially when you have numerous students, some even having conflicting styles due to special learning disabilities. One thing to know, is that the majority (more than half) of diagnosed students receive little to no special education. This means that in more cases than none, these students are in a general education classroom with no direct personal help from a professional.

As a parent you can help in several ways:

• Sit down with the professionals assigned for your child's individualized education plan (IEP) and talk about the special considerations that are fitting and beneficial to your child. If through assessments and observations your child shows no improvement, a process can be taken in order to get your child the IEP they deserve.
• Try to spend time with your child at home for goal planning. Help them form their own personal goals, this could carry on in the classroom.
• Use progress monitoring: Monitor not only at-home progress but speak with the educational professionals to learn more about in-school progress. This could be on anything from tests to observing their ability to maintain relationships.

As an educator you can help in several ways:

• You don't need to have any drastic changes, because often times pleasing one student may effect a whole class. So make little changes that could help and you can learn about what types of changes could be effective if you speak to your special educator.
• Instead of using one method of assessment, for example a test, you can offer different forms of assessment, like projects or essays.
• Provide different visual and auditory stimuli in your lessons.
• Often times these individuals have difficulty paying attention with a room full of aimless pictures and objects. Keep your room educational and fun so if they are caught staring, they're atleast learning and reading about something that could benefit them.

Recognize the signs!

I mentioned in a previous post how individuals with the hyperactive/impulsive type of ADHD often exhibit more dominant characteristics which lead to earlier identification. This is compared to the inattentive type. Well, I found this clip that gave some signs to tell whether or not your childs inattentive actions could lead to a diagnosis.

TIPS:

• Remember, punishing your child for these types of actions may lower their overall self-esteem. Try your best to help your child try to justify their actions rather than assuming it all intentional.
• Try to spend a few minutes a day to focus on goals! (I want you to try to look me in the eye and understand me the next time we speak)

Barkley's Model of ADHD

 Last year I remember learning about Barkley's Model of ADHD

 Here he analyzes the psychological and behavioral characteristics of ADHD. 

His model is broken down into four main parts that are all connected to what is called behavior inhibition:

1. Working memory
2. Internalization of speech
3. Self-regulation
4. Reconstitution

In everyday terms:

Working memory: This could be anything from impairments in short term memory, difficulty keeping tasks in mind, time-awareness or management.

Internalization of speech: Here is where most people will have the capability to effectively problem solve, have an inner voice and moral reasoning. Often times, those with ADHD have impaired abilities in these everyday actions.

Self-regulation: Those diagnosed with ADHD lack in persistent goal-directed behavior. It is often difficult for these individuals to keep motivated when it comes to working towards a goal.

Reconstitution: This relates to the difficulty with verbal and behavioral analyzing. These individuals have a hard time justifying their behaviors.

TIPS:

• Understand that there is an array of symptoms that may cause your child to act or behave a certain way.
• Try to learn how your child learns best and use the rule of reinforcement!
• Try to form a structural/positive environment.

Dr. Russel Barkley is a well known ADHD expert, I inserted a link below that will send you to his official website, there is alot of great insight here!

Russell Barkley ADHD

Co-existing Behaviors

In one of my Introduction to Special Education courses, my professor talked about what we call co-morbidity. This simply means that an individual exhibits more than just ADHD symptoms and may have other behaviors or impairments as well.

Often times it entails other learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disorders, and even substance abuse.

In order to help your child cope with or adapt to the symptoms associated with their specific disorder, it is important to develop certain educational and behavioral considerations as soon as possible. This could be anything from altering classroom structure, teacher direction, functional assessments or modifications.

As you can see in the below Venn Diagram, only about 30% of those diagnosed with ADHD exhibit those symptoms alone.

Tips on Identifying ADHD Characteristics in Adults and Children

ADHD Signs and Symptoms!

Here you can see the difference in symptoms and signs depending on the type of ADHD one has and the age of the individual.



Remember: The earlier the identification, the earlier you can seek help!

Predicted age of onset

A study was conducted in 2007 by Daniel Waschbusch examining the typical age of onset of ADHD in diagnosed individuals. This study also looked  to pinpoint the certain factors that may influence this.

What was found was that depending on the type of ADHD, different ages of onset typically occur. These types consist of the predominantly inattentive type, the hyperactive/impulsive type, and the combination of both. Those who had the combination (hyperactive/impulsive and inattentive type) had shown hyperactive and impulsive tendencies at an earlier age than their inattentive characteristics.

This is often times easier to recognize because hyperactive and impulsive actions or behaviors are typically more noticeable than inattentiveness. For example, it may be easier to recognize your child's excessive hyperactivity than say their inability to concentrate during a typical conversation.

Some factors were found to have an influence on the age at which characteristics are recognized:

• Child-parent relationships: This may not necessarily cause the onset of noticeable characteristics to occur later, but it does affect when they get noticed. This seems to me very understandable. If a parent has a poor relationship or connection with their child, the psychological and behavioral characteristics of ADHD may go unrecognized for a longer period of time. 
• Unhealthy home environment: Like I mentioned in a previous post, stress and difficulties at home may enhance  ones hyperactivity or impulsive nature. A positive environment may influence your child to have better coping skills when it comes to other social environments, like school.

TIPS FOR YOU:

1. Try and recognize the dominant characteristics of your child. If any behaviors seem like more than a stage, seek other perspectives like a doctor or teacher.
2. The earlier the identification, the earlier you can seek help and develop a specific learning plan for your child.
3. Try to keep home stress at a minimum, it'll ease not only your stress, but it will not enhance the negative behaviors induced by ADHD in your child.

CBS news: Is medicine the only answer?

Lack of leisure?

Engel-Yeger and company performed an experiment in 2011 to examine the relationship between sensory processing difficulties and the child's preference for leisurely activities. They examined the children's activities based on the type of ADHD the child was diagnosed with (Inattentive, Hyperactive, Combination). So for all you parents out there, could certain characteristics caused by ADHD symptoms influence your child's interest for activity?



Well, although there are similar characteristics of ADHD prevailing in most diagnosed individuals, different children process symptoms in regards to the type of ADHD they have. In particular, the study focussed primarily on the sensory processing inabilities which is quite customary of diagnosed individuals but differs amongst the type of ADHD. What was found was that regardless of the type of ADHD the children had, they showed significantly lower preference to participate in leisurely activities compared to their 'normally developing' controls.

This came as a surprise to me, I would assume that due to the hyperactive nature that comes along with certain types of ADHD (combined and primarily hyperactive) activity would be increased. Well, the study focussed mainly on leisurely activity in those with sensory processing deficits. So, parents, no need to worry that your child simply does not want to participate in specific activities, its more about getting them to enjoy activities that pertain to their unique style.

Could chaos at home influence ADHD?

Could maternal and paternal parenting practices inhibit certain symptoms of ADHD in their children? There was a study performed by Mokrova in 2010 to see whether or not an individuals home environment influences ADHD behaviors.Well, what was found was that there is a positive correlation between the higher levels of home chaos and a diagnosed child's actions in the classroom. What this means is that more chaos in the home environment inhibits more actions associated with the symptoms of ADHD in their children. Such parenting practices that could lead to home chaos include:

• Inhibition of impulse
• Sustained attention
• Inconsistent discipline
• Type of supportive responses to children's actions

This is one way to look at how an environment can either heed or cause certain symptoms to be more extreme than normal. We can then make the assumption that a positive home environment may help children cope better with the ADHD, specifically when in the educational setting. The negative features associated  with ADHD, the inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity could lead to impaired functioning in school and any social environment. So if your child is having trouble in school or you have teachers claiming your child's behaviors have for some reason spiked, it could be due to stressful actions at home.

Here are some things to look for:

• Recent behavioral changes or outcries
• Recent drops in grades
• Isolation or new change in the social scene
• Signs of substance abuse
• Extreme stress

As you can see, most of these signs are recent changes in behaviors. However some signs can be gradual. It may be hard to recognize if your child has a recent change in friends, especially during adolescence when they tend to keep to themselves. Try and recognize, if you yourself are stressed out or having difficulties at home, imagine the impact it has on your child who exhibits the signs and symptoms of ADHD.

New Video Series: Possibly a new outlook?

At 3:50 the doctor begins to discuss parents tendencies to be hesitant towards having their child evaluated. If your child is showing signs of possible ADHD characteristics, it is ok to be scared or nervous. However, you must realize the potential psychological, behavioral and physical side effects that come along with being undiagnosed. Undiagnosed ultimately means untreated. The negative side effects that come along with not being recognized and treated are far worse than that shameful feeling of having your child being ostracized at school for his disorder. Certain side effects of living with the symptoms of ADHD undiagnosed could be:

• Self Esteem Issues ( not being able to justify your actions, feeling you have no control)
• Poor grades
• Difficulty maintaining relationships
• Rebelling actions and behaviors
• Substance abuse

Think of the over all well being for not only you, but your child. Ultimately getting your child evaluated is not to embarrass or feel that they are not 'normal'. You are here to help them live the healthiest, happiest lifestyle you know you can provide. A doctor evaluation is only one step in the process for diagnosing and individual with ADHD so do not feel that this analysis is the only judgement. There are also teacher/parent evaluations and behavioral checklists.

One of the best ADHD parenting websites!

http://www.adhdchildparenting.com

I can't say that I am the best when it comes to parenting tips, as I have no kids of my own. I do still like to explore and see some of the resources out there for parents.

I love this website! Here there is plenty of easy to read information and facts about ADD and ADHD individuals.  It also has sidebars filled with possible treatments, activities, teaching techniques, healthful nutrition and much more.

The information seems to be presented in a professional manner. It may be the knowledge from either a clinical or developmental psychologist. I particularly liked the section on natural and healthy treatments for easing the symptoms of ADHD. Here they talk about natural remedies that claim to be effective. Instead of using prescription medications, this could be a more natural alternative. Depending on the extremity of symptoms, medicinal treatments may work better however.

Early Identification

 I had always learned that there are several steps in diagnosing an individual with ADHD, and that the earlier the better. However, I was looking at a certain study and read several claims about these steps that may influence the accuracy of ones diagnosis.

Tracy Packiam performed a study in 2009 examining the effectiveness and accuracy of the most common types of behavior checklists. Here she looks at how these checklists discriminate the methods used in labeling "typically developing" children, those with working memory impairments, and those with ADHD.

Let me remind you that teacher evaluations and behavior checklists are only one aspect in diagnosing a child! Here are several complications I had found with the studies outcome:

1.) The characteristics measured and exhibited by those with working memory deficits are near similar to those of individuals with ADHD.
2.) The similarities can lead to the misinterpretation of ones behavior to be something that its not.
3.) This diagnostic can act as a bias for the later evaluations, for example, like parent evaluations.

Take home message: Behavior profiling in the classroom may seem like the most accurate means of evaluating a students behavior, however often times it is difficult to discriminate behaviors associated with ADHD individuals and those with other impairments of a similar matter.

There is hope! Now-a-days certain districts require their general educators to have at least some certification or knowledge of special education and exceptional learners in order to become one of their employees.

My goals for the blog!

Hi everyone!

I wish to provide a simple, colorful, online resource open for parents, teachers and caregivers alike. There will be plenty of tips and resources to help those who are living with those or coping with Attention Defecit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. Sometimes it may be hard to interpret what today's most popular studies are claiming and if anything, if these types of studies are done in an ethical and meaningful manner to be deemed important for readers. I will take a look at some of today's most compelling articles, videos or studies and provide a help-line for those who may just need another perspective under their belt. Combining my knowledge of Psychology and Special Education I look to provide a unique standpoint that is not only supportive but relevant to you.