ADHD coaching is an intervention that has been receiving growing attention because recent studies have shown that students who received ADHD coaching services show significant improvement in their ability to organize, direct and manage cognitive activities, emotional responses and overt behaviors. ADHD coaches empower students to develop structure, support and accountability on their own terms so they can take charge of their own lives.

Unfortunately in many cases, students often reject coaching merely because it is introduced by their parent.  Furthermore, based upon the nature of the coaching relationship, it simply will not work unless the student steps up and owns his or her disability and is willing to partner with a coach.

“We often hear frustration from parents who are at their wit’s end trying to help their child,” says Robert Tudisco, Edge Foundation Executive Director. “A parent recently told me ‘If my boy gets his butt moving at all, if he shows any interest, I’m there to help him with the process, but he’s got to show that he cares first.’”

 Edge Foundation Offers Parents Support

What is a parent to do when they see their son or daughter struggling, but know that they have to step back and let them stand on their own?  While there is no magic answer the following are some guidelines that may help.

• Motivate, but don’t dictate – A coach should never be a punishment for a student who is not performing. If a student is indifferent about something, parental pressure will often prejudice and polarize them.  Educate yourself about coaching and how it works.  Speak with a coach and understand the process and benefits sufficiently so that you can motivate and encourage your child.

• Seek assistance from a coach – Many coaches specialize in working with parents to convince their child to participate in coaching.  A coach can empower a parent to address the situation in a productive way that won’t polarize her son or daughter. Edge Foundation has coaches available to work with parents and provide the support and guidance that parents need.

• A coach can be the key to promote your independence and theirs – Tudisco advises parents to explain to their son or daughter that a coach is resource for them. Using a coach can ease the parent/child tensions because a parent knows her child is getting the support he needs to accomplish his responsibilities.  Parent/child relationships often improve when an ADHD coach is added to the mix.

• Encourage them to find out for themselves – The best way for parents to do this is to encourage their son or daughter to speak with a coach about the process and how it works, and better yet, to speak with other students just like them who have been coached.  The Edge Foundation has coaches ready to help.  At the Edge Foundation web site students can also access videos and interviews with students just like them who have been coached.

The bottom line is that some students may not be ready to own their disability nor are ready to be coached.  If that is the case, pushing the issue can often make things worse.  In these circumstances, parents may need to step back and revisit the idea later on.

Robert Tudisco has personal experience with ADHD; he was diagnosed as an adult.  He offers this advice, “Don’t give up, and remember that you are not alone.  We at Edge are here to help and support you and your children.  We don’t want them just to survive in school.  With the help of a coach, ADHD student can thrive in school and you and your child will have a healthier relationship dynamic to boot.”

For more information about how to get started with an ADHD coach, visit http://edgefoundation.org/parents/get-adhd-help-now  or call 914-924-7597.

As children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) grow older and enter adolescence, some of the outward signs of their condition may decrease. Although they may be less active and have more control over impulsive behavior, many middle school and high school students continue to experience problems with focus and attention in the classroom. Issues related to poor concentration and distractibility may intensify, affecting their grades and their ability to learn. Without intervention, many teenagers with ADHD develop poor self-esteem, difficulties in relationships and substance abuse problems.

The U.S. Department of Education has identified the following three components of a successful educational program for students with ADHD and this may be of some help to teachers who struggle with keeping the focus of their students.

Academic Instruction Tips for ADHD Students

Many students with ADHD have problems staying organized and keeping track of assignments. Strategies can be adopted in middle school and high school that will help these students throughout their academic career. One of the ways that teachers can help is to provide a daily organizer and devote classroom time for copying assignment information (all students can benefit from this type of support). Daily expectations for each class should be clearly defined and posted in written form.

ADHD students in middle school and high school can also benefit from assistance in developing study skills. Teachers can provide instruction for note-taking during class. These students can also benefit from tips on how to keep their workspace uncluttered to minimize distractions.

Whenever possible, teachers should identify areas where an ADHD student needs extra assistance and create strategies that will help the student review material that was previously presented in class lectures.

Feedback is also important for ADHD students. Providing timely progress reports to parents can help keep older ADHD students on track. As with any student, parents and teachers should avoid criticism and sarcasm when discussing areas for improvement, and should instead try to provide reassurance and support.

ADHD Behavioral Intervention

Many older students with ADHD are still learning to control their behavior. A variety of intervention techniques can be used to help these students with self-control in the classroom. Using punishment for poor classroom behavior is a temporary solution that rarely changes a student’s attitude. Instead, teachers should use consistent and sincere verbal praise to help reinforce positive behavior. Providing an ADHD student with an “escape valve” (such as leaving the classroom on an errand) can sometimes be used to defuse undesirable behavior and allow the student to burn off excess energy.

Parents of ADHD students should be viewed as partners in the educational process. Teachers should communicate frequently with parents about behavioral concerns and involve them in intervention strategies.

Peer mediation can also be an effective tool for mediating disputes between students and reinforcing positive behavior.

ADHD Classroom Accommodations

Many of the classroom strategies recommended for younger students with ADHD are still effective for students in middle school and high school. Teachers should try to seat ADHD students at the front of the classroom or near the teacher’s desk to make it easier to monitor their progress and attention level. An alternative seating arrangement is to place an ADHD student near a peer role model who can provide academic and social support. If space permits, a quiet area of the classroom with few distractions should be provided to ADHD students for study sessions and test taking. Teachers should be discreet about assigning students to this area to avoid any stigma or the appearance of punishment.

Additional recommendations that can help older students with ADHD succeed in school include classes with low teacher-student ratios and regular meetings with private tutors or peer tutors. The Department of Education also suggests using technology and audiovisual materials for instruction and homework, as these media can be more interactive and thereby increase focus.

Editor’s note:  For more ideas on accommodations that help ADHD students and can benefit your entire class to become better learners, visit http://mypage.iu.edu/~rllsmith/ADHDweb.htm or http://www.ldonline.org/article/8797/.

WHAT?!

You heard right — use music to motivate you and keep you on track in the morning.  You probably already have a “Workout Playlist” on your ipod.  But do you also have a “Get out the Door Playlist”?

Here are some tips for setting up a playlist to get you out the door on time.

• What gets your motor running?  Figure out what songs you like best.  Do you like to wake up slow and quiet or are you more likely to use calm music as a way to roll over and head back to sleep?
• Block out your tasks: wake up, shower, shave/make-up,  get dressed, prepare breakfast, eat breakfast, daydream/reflection/day planning, find your stuff, head out the door.
• Block our your time: Decide how much time you need for each time block, pick music for each time block.
• Download your playlist to your ipod and make sure you leave it (charged) next to your alarm so it’s ready to go in the morning.
• Use the music.  Each song group becomes a timer to keep you on track.  For example, get your makeup on while “Last Friday Night” is playing.  When it’s over, it’s time for you to run downstairs and get breakfast.
• Mix it up.  When you start ignoring the background music, it’s time to set a new playlist.
• Don’t limit yourself to what’s hot today.  Songs like James Brown’s, (I Got You) I Feel Good, have been used for generations to get moving.  Many old tunes can be downloaded for free using Freegal and a library card.

Some hot hits today you might consider for your morning playlist are:

• Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO
• Blow, Kesha
• Fabulous, High School Musical
• And here’s the classic, James Brown motivator:

And a few more ideas:

• You can also use a playlist to keep you on track for studying.  Classical music has been shown to improve learning and retention.
• You don’t have to spend a lot of time engineering your own mix.  You can find playlists that have worked for other people on services like playlist.com or share and build your playlist with your friends using Spotify.

So what’s on your playlist?

My inspiration:

When my son was in elementary school, I set aside one day a week to volunteer in his classroom.

In the third and fourth grades, children are told that they need to learn to pay attention, stay in their seats, behave appropriately, and follow instructions. It is considered grade appropriate and age appropriate to do so. Well, anyone who understands ADHD in children knows that this is not easily accomplished and that grade and age don’t equate to capability.

Many times, when I arrived at my son’s school to help out, certain students were identified for me to work with one-on-one outside the confines of the classroom. In effect, I was coaching the students with ADHD, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and the like, while supporting their learning. I found myself making a connection with those students who did not get the attention needed in the classroom to achieve at the level of their peers.

JST Coaching beginnings:

When I opened my coaching business in 1996, ADHD coaching for adults was still a new concept. In conversations with adult clients with ADHD, I repeatedly heard “I wish I had a coach in high school,” or “Where were you when I was in college?” That’s why I decided to focus my coaching on children, adolescents, and young adults with ADHD to help young people reach their potential with fewer struggles than the previous generations.

Within a few years, business was booming and I was receiving coaching requests from around the globe (no kidding)!  A few local coaches and educators asked me to train them in my coaching methodology for youth with ADHD; and JST Coaching coach training programs were born.

Creating the flagship course, Coaching Teens & College Students with ADHD, was a labor of love. I had learned so much about ADHD and related difficulties from my young clients and their families and had the privilege of watching my clients learn, grow and succeed after protestations of “I can’t do that!”

When it came time to create an official course manual (followed by my first book, Empowering Youth with ADHD) I had a huge amount of information at my fingertips:  ADHD, executive dysfunction, family dynamics, teen angst, college transition, life coaching, ADHD specific coaching skills, organizational tools, student and parent feedback and more.

Unique approach:

Coaching Teens & College Students with ADHD is a one-of-a-kind training program focusing on the intricacies of ADHD youth coaching. What makes it unique is that the coaching model is designed to coach the young person in all life areas, not just around academic issues. This is a critical distinction in this coach training program, in addition to the in-depth training around ADHD, EF and LD to help coaches understand how their clients learn most effectively and tailor the coaching to meet the needs of each client.

How it works:

JST trained youth coaches, including all Edge Foundation coaches, look to the young person to provide insight on what is and is not working for them in all life areas, including academics. In addition, they gather information from the parents and from the client’s professional team (with permission), before guiding the young person to set goals and create an individualized coaching plan, called a PCA (Personal Coaching Agreement).  By taking this global approach to youth coaching, we are able to help our clients see how their day-to-day life choices impact their ability to succeed in life.

One student may need to create a routine for taking his medication on a regular basis, while another may want to block out time for sports, friends and schoolwork each week.  Coaches trained in the JST coaching model have the tools and knowledge to effect positive change in the lives of young people with ADHD.  When you hire an Edge Foundation coach, you can rest assured that you are getting a well-trained coach for youth with ADHD.

• James Oliver, Star Chef
• Karina Smirnoff, Pro Ball-room  and Latin dancer
• Will Smith, Actor
• Michael Phelps, Olympic Gold Swimmer
• Jim Carrey, Funny Man and Comedian
• Ty Pennington,  Extreme Makeover Actor
• Richard Branson, Funder of Virgin Airlines
• Paris Hilton, Heiress/Socialite
• Christopher Knight, Actor
• Howie Mandel,  Comedian
• Terry Bradshaw, Former NFL Quarterback
• James Carville , Political Commentator
• Paul Orfalea, Kinko’s Founder
• Pete Rose, Baseball Star
• Michelle Rodriquez, LOST Star, Actor
• David Neeleman, Founder, Jet Blue Airways
• Bruce Jenner, Olympic Decathlon Athlete & Kim Kardashian’s dad
• Solange Knowles, Singer, Sister to Beyonce’

You know there’ve got to be countless other successful people out there besides them – so why not you include yourself on that list?  You might not be famous (yet) but you’ll never reach your dreams by telling yourself you can’t make it.

If you are discouraged, however, an ADHD coach can help you get back on track.  Today is a good day to start putting your application together for Shire’s ADHD coaching scholarship that includes a $2000 academic grant.

There may be reasons you aren’t on the ADHD A-List, but your ADHD isn’t one of them.  What are you waiting for?

Jesse told us he figured out he had ADHD when a friend was diagnosed.  “So I went to get screened. After what ended up being a three-month-long process of tests and doctor visits, I was diagnosed.”

College is a particularly difficult time for students with ADHD.  Academic demands, increased independence, more free time, and a distracting environment, creates an environment where many untreated ADHD students are likely to fail.

“If I hadn’t got treatment,” Jesse said, “I can basically guarantee that I would have flunked out.” Fortunately Jesse found a medication that helped with focus, accommodations that allowed him to take exams in less distracting environments, and, perhaps most importantly, he found an ADHD coach.

ADHD coaches are commonly used in ADHD treatment, and students who received ADHD coaching have been shown to show substantial gains in their overall approach to learning. Neil Peterson, founder of Edge Foundation explains, “Medications do not work for everybody. They are not ‘the’ answer because medications do not teach skills — but coaches do.”

Edge ADHD Coaches work by helping a person with ADHD to organize their life on their own, rather than telling them what to do. The coach meets with a student once or twice per week, and helps him or her with goal setting, prioritizing, focusing, confidence, etc. The students set weekly goals and action plans to meet those goals and have e-mail and phone support from their coaches to help keep them on track.

Now Edge is teaming up with the Shire foundation to offer 50 more scholarships for students with ADHD.  Students Shire Expands Scholarship Program for Individuals with ADHD.  The Shire ADHD Scholarship includes a $2,000 monetary award and offers a prepaid year of ADHD coaching services provided by the Edge Foundation. Fifty one-time scholarships will be awarded on June 12, 2012. The deadline to apply is March 30, 2012.

For information, including eligibility requirements and scholarship application, visit www.ShireADHDScholarship.com .

Don't get caught short without ADHD medication

It’s been nearly a year since we first started hearing about ADHD medication shortages and it looks like the end is not coming soon enough.

When the shortages were first reported, all parties thought it would be a short-term problem.  But now apparently the problem is getting bigger, not smaller.

Last week CHADD published an editorial outlining the reasons for the shortages (essentially the DEA makes a “guess” each year about how much production to allow of the controlled ingredients used in ADHD drugs.  Hint: they guessed wrong.)  Short acting ritalin prescriptions seem to be most at risk for shortages at this time.

Plan ahead!  The Short Term Outlook is not good:

The medication production cycle is 8 to 12 weeks long and on top of that the DEA application process is long and cumbersome.  Thus there is a significant time lag between the identification of a shortage and its correction.  This year it looks like the shortages will not be resolved until next spring.

According to CHADD, which has following this issue closely, “Many of the companies that manufacture the short acting stimulant medications report they have no inventory left or limited inventory… it is unlikely that the 2012 DEA approved medications will get to market until March at the earliest.”

What can you do to protect yourself?

1. Be sure to order your medication early. Don’t wait until you take your last pill to take your prescription to the pharmacy.
2. Schedule a reminder for yourself to bring your prescription in for a renewal 1 week before it runs out.
3. Make friends with your pharmacist.  If you do they’ll give you tips about what works best for their particular pharmacy.
4. Need other ideas?  Check this article for more tips.
5. Take the CHADD medication survey.  CHADD has been organizing an advocacy group to address this issue with the FDA, DEA and Congress.  At this time the group includes  the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and patient advocacy, clinician and pharmacy related associations.  The information you provide on the survey will be helpful to this group as they work to help create a solution that avoids shortages in the future.

Protecting Disabled Students’ Rights to Accomodations

The Government Accountability Office has studied this issue and issued a report earlier this week recommending that the Department of Justice become involved in ensuring the testing industry provides accommodations to all eligible individuals.

AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And Disability) is in the process of revising its guidance on best practice for testing accommodations to place less emphasis on diagnostic tests to determine eligibility and more focus on educational and accommodation histories of individuals.  They are a great resource if you need more information on this subject.

A complete copy of their press release on the subject follows:

GAO calls on the Department of Justice to protect students’ rights

Each year, millions of people take standardized tests in pursuit of a college education, graduate studies, and professional certification or licensure.  The Americans with Disabilities Act requires companies that administer these tests to provide test modifications to best ensure equal access for individuals with disabilities.  The high stakes testing industry has generated considerable controversy, a significant number of law suits and voluminous complaints to federal agencies and concerning who has a disability and how to determine what accommodations are necessary to provide equivalent access.

At the request of Representatives George Miller, Pete Stark and Cathy McMorris Rodgers the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined the process including the types of accommodations requested, factors companies consider when making decisions about requests, and how federal agencies enforce ADA compliance within the industry.

AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And Disability) and a number of its members participated in the GAO study’s interviews that helped provide a context for the GAO’s reviews of relevant laws and regulations, testing company policies, data provided by the testing industry, and federal complaint data.

The report recommends that the Department of Justice develop a strategic approach to enforcing the ADA in the high stakes testing industry to ensure the timely provision of accommodations to all eligible individuals. Justice has reviewed the report and agrees with its approach and conclusions.

This report, the amendments to the ADA, the regulations recently issued under Title I, II and III (particularly Section 309) along with a string of recent court cases clearly confirms an emerging approach to reviewing accommodations requests that is anchored to individual disability histories rather than the snap shots provided by diagnostic testing; more often asking “Why not” in response to a request for accommodation rather than “Why?”.  This approach will require a more thoughtful and commonsense approach to determining accommodations relying more heavily on unique experience of the individual and the  recommendations of clinicians and health care providers in order to achieve the broad goals of the ADA in connection with high stakes tests.

AHEAD (Association on Higher Education and Disability http://www.ahead.org) has been revising its guidance on best practices in documentation and expects a Spring release.  The revisions will place less emphasis on diagnostic tests to determine eligibility; focusing instead on the educational and accommodation histories (formal and informal) of individuals, their supporting narratives and the surrounding context including the development of new technologies.  AHEAD encourages other organizations to review their practice and is happy to offer technical assistance; contact AHEAD via e-mail or call (704) 947-7779.

The full report Higher Education and Disability: Improved Federal Enforcement Needed to Better Protect Students’ Rights to Testing Accommodations (Report to Congressional Requesters AO-12-40 United States Government Accountability Office) can be found at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-40.

Last week we talked with Dr. Michele Borba about the basics of bullying.  This week we explore how ADHD plays into bullying and what to do about it.

Edge:  Can you tell us more about how ADHD and bullying are related?

Borba:  ADHD contributes to both ends of the bullying cycle. First, students are OFTEN bullied because they are different AND LET’S FACE IT – ADHD children are sometimes quirky. And children who are different – AND STAND OUT – are the most likely to be bullied. On the other side of things, ADHD children (and adults) often have to work harder at emotional skills and self control leading to them act or be perceived as bullies.

Off the top of my head, here are a few of the issues that students with ADHD face:

• Poor impulse control:  The person with ADHD often gets set off too fast.  They aren’t able to put on their emotional brake system on and have an opportunity to think before reacting.
• Slower to develop emotional intelligence:  Kids with ADHD often can’t pick up on or read another child’s cues. This means they can’t see the other person is upset by their actions.
• Voice tone: I’ve observed that children with ADHD often speak too loudly or too quickly and more difficulty conversing in a give-and-take fashion. These qualities can intimidate others and set up a power imbalance that leads to bullying.
• Lack of tact: Back to impulse control. People with ADHD have a more difficult time stopping and thinking before they speak. They just blurt things out.
• Anger management:  Part of the challenges of ADHD is it is harder to regulate one’s emotions and identify you are getting out of control.  An important quality of healthy relationships needs to stop and slow down when you are upset.  People with ADHD often speak before they think when they are angry. This leads to saying hurtful things that can set up a bullying cycle.
• Lacking social skills: Have you noticed interrupting is a symptom of many people with ADHD?  Well-liked children are good listeners; they smile and encourage others. Some ADHD kids also have autism spectrum or depression because of this they may appear to be angry or unfriendly.
• Poor problem solving abilities:  Research is emerging that reveals people with ADHD have delayed development in their executive functions – including problem solving skills. There is a high correlation between poor problem solving skills and a child being a bully or being bullied.

Edge: How do you teach kids how to stop being a bully?

Borba: You can train kids with strategies to compensate for their ADHD deficits, but parents and teachers often make the mistake of trying to tell kids with ADHD what they need to do.  This approach won’t work.

1. You need to SHOW, not tell, any new skill: just like in sports.  A football coach demonstrates a good throw before asking the player to try it.  Then the coach gives feedback and suggestions on how to improve that skill. And the player rehearses the throw over and over before they have mastered it.
2. Identify the skills your child needs. Your child will need a “replacer skill “to take the place of the behavior that you want to replace. Figure out where to being by watching your child in a social situation to observe what type of behavior is getting child in trouble, causing him to rebuff the other kid, or act as if he isn’t coping.
3. Don’t teach too many skills at once.  Start with one small skill.  Work with the child until she has mastered it before layering on a more complex one. Don’t try to do too much at once. Each skill takes a long time to learn and internalize it. Don’t have you child try too many different strategies at once. Instead figure out what skill the child needs, teach it, and have him get a ton of time to practice it, build confidence and integrate it into her second nature.
4. Give kids an opportunity to practice, practice, practice any new behavior you want them to learn. You don’t teach someone how to calm down in the middle of the meltdown.  They need to rehearse the new skill in a calm moment to rewire their brains to react in the heat of the moment.
5. Start now! The earlier you start teaching the better. Habits start early and become entrenched; entrenched habits are harder to break.
6. Don’t try to do it alone. Get the help of at the other adults in the child’s life – be it a teacher, Big Brother, grandparent, school counselor or ADHD coach. Therapy only occurs once a week for an hour.  A child needs regularly, hourly feedback.  This can happen when all adults share the same behavior plan for the child.
7. Make sure your child is surrounded by caring supportive people. Bullying is a relational problem– who you hang out with makes a huge difference on whether you are involved with bullying. Become friends with your child’s friends, visit the school occasionally, and keep your eyes open.

Edge: What are the steps to take if your child is being bullied?

Borba:  Talk to your child first.  Don’t try to figure out what caused it, but instead where and when it is happening. Here are some questions to ask your child:

1. Where is it happening?
2. Who are you with? Are they giving support?
3. Did you tell?
4. Work with staff to work in what can we do to change the situation.

Keep in mind, your child may not be able to give you these answers, so don’t press. He honestly may not know. You’ll need to find an adult who sees your child in a different setting – such as a school where the bullying may be happening – and give you the perspective you need.

Edge: What are some of the social skills that kids with ADHD need to learn to help prevent bullying?

Borba: There are tons of discrete social skills we all use.  Here are a few places to start to learn more:

• Alan E. Kazdin, The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child
• Arnold P. Goldstein and Ellen McGinnis, Skillstreaming the Adolescent: New Strategies and Perspectives for Teaching Prosocial 
• Michele Borba Ed.D., Nobody Likes Me, Everybody Hates Me: The Top 25 Friendship Problems and How to Solve Them [includes 25 charts of the steps can be used by parents and kids to build important social skills.]

Dr. Michele Borba is a former classroom teacher who has worked in regular education as well as with children with learning, physical, behavioral and emotional disabilities, and in a private practice for troubled youth. She earned her Doctorate in Educational Psychology and Counseling from the University of San Francisco, an M.A. in Learning Disabilities and B.A. from the University of Santa Clara, and a Life Teaching Credential from San Jose State University. Michele is the “go-to” expert on parenting, bullying prevention, education and child/teen issues for numerous news organizations including the NBC Today Show and Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers. We are all fortunate that she has devoted more than 30 years of her life to developing a framework to strengthen children’s character and build moral school climates. Read more about here.

Have you been bullied?  Do you feel having ADHD has affected your school yard social life positively or negatively? Let us know in the comments.