Attention Difference Disorder: How to Turn Your ADHD Child or Teen's Differences into Strengths in 7 Simple Steps
258
Attention Difference Disorder: How to Turn Your ADHD Child or Teen's Differences into Strengths in 7 Simple Steps
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Overview
This book is designed to help parents address their child’s Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) in 7 simple steps. Written in clear, jargon-free prose, it synthesizes scientific and clinical research in a way that makes it accessible to parents of young children and teens.
Dr. Handelman begins by dispelling many of the myths that often make parents of children with ADHD feel shame or guilt. Leaving the stigma and ignorance behind, Attention Difference Disorder offers a strength-based approach to a condition that has generally been treated negatively.
The 7 simple steps to succeeding with ADHD include: 1) Education about the condition, 2) Ensuring a proper diagnosis, 3) Parenting Strategies, 4) Educational Strategies, 5) Medication Treatments, 6) Alternative Treatments and 7) Treatment Integration.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781600378898 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morgan James Publishing |
| Publication date: | 09/10/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 258 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
What's The Difference?
this book begins with a bold title. Instead of calling the condition "Attention Deficit Disorder" (or "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder"), it is given a new name: "Attention Difference Disorder."
History has changed the name of this condition several times, and let me be clear at the outset: it is not my intention to lobby to change the name officially to "Attention Difference Disorder." Rather, I want to help you to think differently about this condition. Words can be very powerful, and the difference between considering an attention deficit vs. an attention difference can be dramatic.
Is There Actually A Deficit In Attention?
ADD is diagnosed using criteria which are published by the American Psychiatric Association in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IVTR). These criteria and how ADD is diagnosed will be covered in greater depth in Chapter 4. These criteria contain nine symptoms of inattention. These include: making careless mistakes, getting easily distracted, often being forgetful, and poor organization.
Based on the actual diagnostic criteria, there can be a deficit in attention. To even be diagnosed, one has to demonstrate quantitatively enough of the criteria which characterize these problems.
However, a diagnostic interview with parents and kids/teens can often go like this:
Doctor: "Does John have trouble paying close attention to details?" Mom: "It depends ..."
John: "Yeah ... when I'm drawing, I can pay attention to the littlest details ..."
Doctor: "Well, how about during math class?"
Mom: "Oh, well in math, there is a lot of trouble with that. But doesn't everyone find it harder to focus in math class?"
The point is this: when it comes to something you like, it's easier to pay attention to it. When it comes to something that you don't like, it's harder to pay attention to it. And while that can apply to everyone, the difference is dramatic in individuals with ADD.
When a doctor inquires about an inability to pay attention as part of the assessment for ADD, often he or she will ask about the areas that don't come as naturally and easily to the person, and also whether it occurs in a harder, more trying environment. For example, in a math class, while there are 25 other students in the room. The number of students is relevant, because if it is math class with a tutor providing one-to-one help, then it is easier for the child with ADD to focus.
Another way that a difference can manifest itself is when there is increased motivation for a particular topic. Even if your child with ADD struggles with a particular subject — let's say in a French class — and always has trouble with it, he or she can improve his or her focus if there is good reason to do so. For example, if Dad says: "John, if you pass your next French test, we'll get you the newest video game system as a reward." John will be incredibly motivated to succeed with his next test — especially if he has wanted that system for a long time. What would happen would be a disproportionate effort from John to succeed in his next French test, and he could actually do well with it. However, if he normally did well in his English class after French, he may not do well that day — because he's used up his attentional abilities on French.
Attention can vary by setting:
TABLE 1: Attention can vary by setting
SETTINGS WITH MORE SETTINGS WITH LESS ATTENTION: ATTENTION:
One on one work Large groups Fun and new Boring and routine Frequent feedback Infrequent feedback Supervised Unsupervised Fathers Mothers Strangers Family Clinic exam room Waiting room
In summary, it comes down to this: There is a difference in attentional abilities in ADD.
Is it always a deficit? Not necessarily.
But it is always a difference.
Now the critics of the condition will say: "ADD is not a real disorder — I mean, kids can focus on video games but not school work — that's just a fake disorder."
When helping to de-stigmatize mental health, I always like to bring forward other medical examples. The question becomes — are there other medical conditions which are symptomatic only under some circumstances yet not symptomatic in others?
Two examples are heart disease and asthma.
If you take your average adult male with heart disease, he doesn't have chest pains when he's sitting down and watching CSI reruns on TV. However, if he had to run up two flights of stairs, he would experience acute chest pain. In fact, the doctor could actually order a "stress test," i.e. the test will put him on a treadmill and make him run — a situation specifically designed to generate his chest pains!
Translation: In heart disease, people can have symptoms in some contexts, and lack symptoms in others.
For asthma, there are many people who get asthma attacks triggered by different things: cold weather, humidity, cat fur, allergies, etc. Again — their symptoms could be fine in one context, and then triggered in another.
So, even though people often criticize ADD as not being a true medical condition because there is no blood test or x-ray for it, shouldn't we allow ADD to have characteristics similar to other medical conditions like heart disease and asthma?
The point is clear: There is predominantly a difference in attention, which can manifest itself differently in different contexts.
Having established that kids and teens with ADD can focus better on areas that they like, we need to address a misconception often perpetuated by experts in the field. Doctors will often say that kids with ADD do better at subjects where they have to use their hands. They suggest that you should encourage your ADD child to go into the trades. While that may be great for some kids with ADD, I have seen many kids over the years with different strengths and passions. I've seen kids with ADD who read books for hours at home in their room (a quiet environment), or who love math class, or are great at computer programming. The message is simple — your ADD child may have talents in any academic area or interest — whether it is a thinking subject (reading, writing, math), or a doing subject (tech, or the trades).
The Implications of a Deficit
In 1968, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson published results from a study called "Pygmalion in the Classroom." This study demonstrated that teacher expectations influenced students' achievement. What the researchers did was inform teachers that certain students' results on a written test showed that they had remarkable potential for academic growth. In fact, these students were chosen at random. When the researchers evaluated the progress of all students eight months later, the students whose teachers believed that they had great potential had the largest improvements in academic functioning.
While this study was done a long time ago, the message is clear. Most people live up to the expectations that people have of them. This is especially true for children and teens. And it's my personal belief that kids and teens live up to the negative expectations just as readily and easily as the positive expectations.
This is where we need to come back to the concept introduced in the introduction of this book. That by continually viewing ADD from a "disorder" perspective, we are setting up potential negative impacts. By telling boys and girls that they have deficits — we are setting up negative expectations for them and for what they may achieve in the future. My contention is that if we focus on "differences," we can still address the real medical issues involved with the disorder of ADD, yet not "pigeonhole" kids into a diagnosis and a label that can be detrimental.
Is this just "touchy feely," or "hokey," or some "new age" approach to walking on eggshells and being politically correct with wording?
My contention is a solid "No."
As a doctor in the field, it is my experience that the biggest negative consequence of ADD in the long run is shame.
When kids or teens have heard so many negative things about themselves, they can start to believe the "bad press." After so many times of trying hard, only to have parents or teachers say "Why don't you just apply yourself? You have so much potential ..." After working hard to get friends only to find that an impulsive comment makes them leave for other people ... After feeling that they know that they're smarter than kids getting A's or B's, but they just can't produce the work to get the marks ...
Low self esteem develops, and shame and guilt set in.
And if the young person has the "good fortune" to go see a psychiatrist, psychologist or paediatrician (and "good fortune" is in quotes because, in my experience, most young people with ADD don't consider it good fortune to see a "head shrinker"), they are told that they have deficits and they are disordered.
This can be helpful in some ways however. Just having an explanation can help many people. That said, many kids and teens resist being labelled as disordered, and don't want to be considered different than other people.
This is where little differences can make a BIG difference. When a doctor is actually interested in what the child is good at, this is where it begins to matter. This is where, when the doctor seems to actually care, it matters to the teen. This is where focusing on strengths and opportunities can literally change a child or teen's perspective on participating in treatment and getting help ... or resisting it with all of his or her might.
And talking about differences rather than deficits can make a BIG difference in the perception of the person that it counts most for: the child or teen whose self-esteem is suffering. It is this individual who needs to accept this diagnosis and treatment plan for things to really get better.
Deficits to Differences to Strengths
By following the steps in the Attention Difference Disorder System, you are going to learn to take the deficits that your child may have as part of their ADD and change them into differences. And as you move forward, you can convert those into strengths.
Repeating: One of the themes of this book is to take your child's deficits and turn them into differences, and then turn those differences into strengths.
Taking Fire for This
Taking this stance on ADD has put me in the line of fire before, and I'm sure it will again.
Why?
Because there are doctors, researchers, experts, and people with ADD who suggest that looking at the strengths of ADD is irresponsible.
"We've worked long and hard to get the recognition for ADD as a real medical condition. Don't ruin it with this approach," they say.
Adults with ADD can say, "How can you consider the strengths in ADD, when my life has gone down the toilet because of this awful condition ...?"
Some may challenge my character, or question my knowledge. And many will say: "Show me the science to prove that ADD has strengths in it. There isn't any ..."
And I will listen to these criticisms, and the occasional personal attacks. And I will continue to have the same message:
There are differences, not deficits, and if we can get the disordered symptoms out of the way, and build on strengths, great things can come.
Having had the good fortune of helping many young people with ADD to succeed — and to find the strengths in their differences — I know that this approach can work. And I also know that it's worth carrying this message forward, even if it will cause occasional attacks on my credibility.
One child or teen's "thank you" for the help of getting their life on track — when they felt that previous approaches didn't help — is enough to propel me through hundreds if not thousands of attacks from people who don't see ADD this way.
In this book, I will share the science which has been shown to help ADD, and I will include my own approach and perspective which I have proven can be very helpful. My approach involves small differences; I find that sometimes small differences can make a big difference over time.
What about Hyperactivity?
We've spent time talking mainly about "attention differences" and we haven't yet spoken about hyperactivity. When researchers look at the prevalence of ADD, they find that the hyperactive-impulsive subtype is the least frequent manifestation of ADD in kids and teens. It is often reported as less than 10 percent. When it comes to the most common presentations, it is the combined subtype (i.e. having both the inattention and the hyperactive-impulsive subtype) followed by the inattentive subtype of ADD.
The bottom line here is that all of the strategies discussed in this book will work whether your main concern is inattentive ADD, hyperactive-impulsive ADD or combined ADD. We'll explore the subtypes of ADD in more detail in Chapter 3.
The Other Differences with ADD
There are other important differences in individuals with ADD as well. There are brain differences, genetic differences, as well as the ability to hyperfocus.
Brain research has progressed dramatically in the past 20 years. In the past, it was very hard to image the brain and reliably see what was going on while someone was alive and still using their brain. Now that technology has improved significantly; researchers are now doing brain imaging research regularly and they are dramatically increasing the science behind ADD. The brain research says the following:
There are brain differences in people with ADD.
This helps the credibility of the diagnosis of ADD, and is very important. And it is important to note that some of the treatment studies show that with good treatment for ADD, the brain differences resolve.
Family studies have shown that ADD is heritable — meaning that it runs in families. And researchers are actively looking for the genes which are involved in ADD. There are several "candidate genes" which have been identified, and research is ongoing.
One final "difference" to mention is the ability to hyperfocus. This difference presents an interesting paradox. People with ADD, who have trouble focusing attention, can increase that ability and actually focus more intently than normal — by hyperfocusing. The word hyperfocus means that there is an increase in the ability to focus on one area, often to the exclusion of other areas. People with ADD may be completely distractible, but in a crisis, they ignore everything else and hyperfocus on the issue at hand. An example: high school students who wait until the deadline approaches and then hyperfocus to get an assignment done. Hyperfocusing is another difference in ADD which can be used to people's advantage. You can harness the hyperfocusing ability by setting deadlines and using timers to induce the pressure often needed for ADD kids and teens to get things done.
CHAPTER 2The "Parent's ADD Journey"
before beginning to review the steps in the Attention Difference Disorder System necessary to succeed with ADD, it's important for parents to be aware of a common "journey" which happens with many parents of ADD kids and teens.
I call it the "Parent's ADD Journey."
Why do parents end up knowingly or unknowingly taking this "journey"?
Because they have to ...
The reality is that in many communities, it's hard for families to find experts in ADD who are able to assess and treat their kids in the short term, or provide monitoring for the long term. That's why it's so important for parents to become experts in ADD. In many cases, parents have to educate their own doctors about this condition.
This has always seemed absurd to me — patients having to teach their own doctors ... I couldn't imagine it in the area of cardiology or respirology, where doctors (even primary care family doctors) are experts. However, when it comes to mental health, particularly ADD, most doctors didn't learn enough about it in medical school, and they certainly aren't up to date. Therefore, knowing more about ADD helps your child or teen's medical care and becomes very important for achieving satisfactory outcomes. Of course there are outstanding medical experts in ADD in many communities, and you may be lucky enough to have one as your doctor.
And in many schools, the educators have some understanding about ADD — but often not enough. There are certainly outstanding schools and educators out there, and they deserve all of the credit that they are due. That said, there are still many families who struggle because the school doesn't provide the support that their child needs; and they feel that they need to advocate and educate to get the help that their child needs and deserves.
What is the "Parent's ADD Journey"?
It can be summarized here:
Student -> Expert -> Advocate
Step 1: Becoming a Student of ADD:
Parents begin their "ADD Parent's Journey" as a student of the condition. They have many questions — about the diagnosis, the treatment, the strategies for home and school, There's a lot to learn about this condition to succeed with it.
ADD is not a condition for which you just take one pill in the morning and everything is OK. There's a lot more to it. And that's why education for ADD is Step 1 in the 7-Step, Attention Difference Disorder System.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Attention Difference Disorder"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Medical Integrity Inc..
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Foreword By: Edward Hallowell, M.D.,
Introduction,
CHAPTER 1: What's The Difference?,
CHAPTER 2: The "Parent's ADD Journey",
CHAPTER 3: Step 1: Education about ADD,
CHAPTER 4: Step 2: Ensuring a Proper Assessment and Diagnosis of ADD,
CHAPTER 5: Step 3: Parenting Strategies for ADD,
CHAPTER 6: Step 4: School and Academic Strategies for ADD,
CHAPTER 7: Step 5: Medication Treatment for ADD,
CHAPTER 8: Step 6: Alternative Treatments for ADD,
CHAPTER 9: Step 7: Treatment Integration,
CHAPTER 10: Is ADD a Gift?,
What to Do Now?,
Index,
Bonus: Claim Your Free Audio Training and Membership,