ADHD Help

I haven’t written in my blog for a long time. That is because I have been working on my homework. Mom and dad were able to get the amount of work reduced because of my ADHD. I now have a lot less but it still takes me about as much time as the other kids spend on their work. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to do any homework, but it didn’t work out that way.
This weekend I went with Dr. C to tell kids about social skills at a ChADD meeting in Tucson. Guess what? Dr. C made a big mistake. He thought that we had to be at the workshop on Saturday, and so we went to Tucson. Turns out that the workshop was on Sunday. We were one whole day early. I got to sing the “Even Dr. C, You See, Makes Mistakes Like You and Me” song. I guess that it really is true.
The workshop was fun. I got to shrink Dr. C’s head. I always like doing that magic trick. The kids liked it too.
I’ll write more when I have time. I need to go to bed now. Mom says so.
That’s all for now from me. Elwood, signing off…

The coin flipping thing is really working. We don’t argue about who is in charge. Dr. C says we might need to time how long we do each activity so that we each get equal time, but I don’t have a watch. Maybe we will just take turns so that I get to decide every other recess and he gets to decide to the other recesses.
About all the homework, Dr. C said to talk to my parents so that they could talk to my teacher. He said that sometimes children with ADHD only have to do enough work to show that they understand the lesson and don’t have to do as much homework as other kids. This is because it takes us so much longer. He said that it was up to my parents and the teacher. I sure hope that they will all agree. It sounds like a great plan to me!
I got to go to two birthday parties this weekend and sing happy birthday to the birthday girls. One of the girls was 70 and one was 90. Do I still get to call them girls when they are that old? I don’t know. It was a lot of fun and everybody liked my songs.
That’s all for now from me. Elwood, signing off.

I did what Dr. C said. I found a kid who was sitting alone at recess. He did not look very happy. I went up to him and asked him if he wanted to play, and he said yes. It turned out that he has ADHD just like me. It was fun to play together. We did have one problem. I wanted to tell him what to do and he wanted to tell me what to do. I told Dr. C, and he said that next time we should flip a coin to decide what to do next. He said we could also just flip a coin to decide who gets to decide first and then just take turns deciding. I don’t know if this will work but I will try it. It seems like I have too much homework. I need to ask Dr C what to do about all that homework.

That’s all for now from me. Elwood, signing off.

School seems to be going ok except I don’t have any friends. Nobody likes me but at least I‘m not getting bullied. Dr. C says that it is important for everybody to have at least one friend. He said that I should look around my class for other kids who don’t seem to have a lot of friends. Then I could try to be their friend. He also said that we are going to be working with families to help the children get better at having a friend in their own family and to having friends at school. I’m gonna see if I can find someone who wants a friend like I do so that I can have somebody to play with at recess.
That’s all for now from me. Elwood, signing off.

Today was the first day of school. I always worry that the other kids will tease me and call me a dummy. Dr. C told me that puppets like me are called dummies. I told him that I preferred puppet or vent figure, and he told me that he would just call me Elwood.

The first day of school is always hard for me. I worry whether or not I will like my teacher. I worry whether I will know the children in my class, and if they will be nice. I also worry about bullies.

Dr. C. made a shirt with me on it. I say no, no, no, no, no, no, no to a bully who wants my money. The shirt is in Japanese, so all I can read are the no’s. I told Dr. C that if I said no, no, no, no, no, no, no to a bully, the bully might hurt me. Next he told me that I could tell the teacher or the counselor, or the principal. I told him that then the other children might not like me. Finally he agreed that bullies can be a big problem.

The writing on the shirt is in Japanese because Dr. C. wore it when he spoke about bullying at the Japanese Puppet Therapy meeting. I got to be there too because I am the puppet. Dr. C. said that bullies are even a bigger problem in Japan than in here in the USA. I am sure glad I don’t live in Japan because I don’t like bullies.

Anyway, probably it will be ok for me this year. Usually I have friends and nobody bullies me. Also my friends can help me if there is a bully. That’s good to know.

That’s all for now from me. Elwood, signing off.

Roy: You cheated.

Elwood: You’re the cheater.

Roy: You’re a liar!

Elwood: You’re the liar.

Roy: You’re stupid.

Elwood: You’re a dummy.

Roy: Naaa!

Elwood: Don’t make a face at me.

Roy: Come on, Elwood, let’s fight.

Elwood: I’m gonna tell…

(Scene opens to Dr. C and Elwood)

Elwood: …and that’s exactly what happened, Dr. C. Roy got into a lot of trouble for doing something so wrong! I got I trouble, too, for calling names.

Dr. C: Well, the good news, Elwood, is that you told the teacher, and you didn’t hit. The bad news is you helped to make a small problem into a bigger problem.

Elwood: How did I do that, Dr. C?

Dr. C: You did it by calling names, and arguing. It’s just like my magic chain. (Pick up chain) You can take a little problem and make it into a big problem. But the good news is you can also take a big problem, and shrink it down into a little problem.

Elwood:I get it! I get it!

Dr. C: Now, I want you to imagine a way you could have handled your problem without making it bigger.

Elwood: (looks away) Hmmm. Let me think.

(flashback to Roy and Elwood)

Roy: You cheated.

Elwood: No, I didn’t.

Roy: Yes, you did.

Elwood: No, I didn’t, but if that’s how you feel, may be we just shouldn’t play together any more

Roy: Fine by me!

Elwood: Fine by me, too.

(dissolve back to Dr. C & Elwood)

Dr. C: That would have been better, Elwood.

Elwood: And I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble, either.

Dr. C: Right. Can you think of another way you could have handled the problem?

Elwood: Let me see…Aah,. Well, we could have talked about what he thought I was doing wrong, and maybe solved the problem, and kept right on playing. Who knows, maybe I was doing something wrong.

Dr. C: I can tell that you’re really trying to act less impulsively.

Elwood: (sings) “When you act without thinking that’s impulsivity, which is the very final part of ADHD!”

Dr. C: Impulsivity is acting fast without thinking first about alternatives or consequences.

Elwood: We already talked about quinsecuansis.

Dr. C: Consequences, Elwood.

Elwood: That what I said, quinsecuansis. Quinsecuansis is what happens after you do something. But what are alternatives?

Dr. C: Alternatives means choices. You had a lot of choices available of what to do in your problem with Roy.

Elwood: Yeah, I even could have hit him, but you said, “No more hitting, Elwood.” So I didn’t hit him.

Dr. C: You’re trying, and you’re doing better.

Elwood: Thank you, Dr C. Do you have another thing I could do to…control my impulsivity?

To purchase the video, go to www.adhd1.net/adhd-dvd.htm

Elwood, who is hyperactive, impulsive and easily bored, is often the class clown.

Illustration by Rick Menard.

This is Elwood’s blog for July 21st. Yesterday I was on television with Dr. C, and we talked about PTSD, and I learned that I’m sure glad that I have ADHD and I don’t have PTSD. That’s all for today. Bye!

Today I have to go to summer school. I don’t like summer school. No, no, no, no, no, no but mom and dad say that I have to go ’cause my grades were bad. The good things about summer school, it doesn’t last very long and there’s not a lot of kids. I’m trying so I won’t have to go next year. Bye.

There’s three main symptoms in ADHD:

The first one is getting bored easily.

Hyperactivity is number two,

so loaded with energy that you don’t know what to do!

When you act without thinking, that’s impulsivity,

which is the very final part of ADHD.