ADHD Help

A few years ago I conducted a work shop on unique play therapy, a technique I developed to help me work more effectively with children and families. Unique play therapy uses unusual toys, magic, balloons, and puppets to help educate and treat children.   Next month I will be at ChADD in Anaheim. I will be demonstrating some of these techniques at my booth. I will also be using unique play therapy when I begin on line social skills training.  By incorporating these techniques, I am able to make the treatment more fun and interesting. This encourages more participation by the child and increases the chance that (s)he will remember the main points.

I use unique techniques on my ADHD videos too. Puppets are a particularly strong technique since they are communication toys. I first started using my puppets this way when I was working at a residential hospital for profoundly and severely retarded people. It has always amazed me how much more attention the patients paid to the puppet than to me.

Now, I would like to claim that I was the first one to work this way, but that would not be true. As a child I used to watch The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show. Winchell also used puppets to teach children lessons. Next I watched Shari Lewis and Lambchop. I actually spent some time with Lambchop last year in Japan. We shouldn’t forget Mr. Rogers and especially can’t forget the Muppets on Sesame Street.
Please stop by my booth in Anaheim next month and meet some of the puppets.

For more information on the videos and the adhd club, go to www.adhd1.net/at-last-the-truth-about-adhd

Ever since I have been counseling children and families, I have tried to combine my entertaining talents with my therapy skills in order to make my treatments more powerful.  I even conducted workshops for mental health professionals on how to use unique toys to improve counseling skills.  I also conducted workshops for ventriloquists on puppet therapy.  In fact, I am an honorary member of the Japanese Puppet Therapy Association.

For a long time I have wanted to use my skills to provide group family treatment for ADHD families.  However, living in a small town, it is difficult to start this type of group.  Also most people accept the fact that it is tricky to run groups for children with ADHD since they tend to set each other off.

That is why I have finally decided to run these groups online.  I am actively preparing them and hope that some of you will be interested in participating.  We can have fun while simultaneously improving the quality of family life.  More information will follow.

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.