ADHD Help

What does the Norway Spiral have to do with ADHD?

As I was looking at the video of the giant blue and white spiral lights in the sky over Norway, my thoughts turned to children who have ADHD. What, you may ask, does the Norway Spiral have to do with ADHD? Those spiral lights are a phenomena to which many ADHD children could successfully attend. People who have ADHD are able to attend to things which really grab their attention. Things that are new, different, exciting, or rewarding, can hold their attention. Even though one of the three main symptoms is getting distracted easily, there are exceptions.

Parents often come to see me after being referred by a teacher who believes that their child has ADHD. Many immediately tell me that their child can’t have the disorder because the child is able to pay attention for long periods of time to video games or attractive cartoons. They only seem to have problems with schoolwork.

I explain to the parents that people with ADHD have their biggest attending problems with boring and redundant tasks such as school work. These problems are so severe that they really are unable to stay on task unless someone continually supervises them one on one.
I am writing this short article to remind you that just because your child can play a video game for long periods of time or can complete work when you closely supervise, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that he or she has ADHD.

If you think your child might have ADHD, get an evaluation and find out. The proper diagnosis and treatment can really 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

This weekend Elwood and I led a workshop on social skills training for ChADD in Tucson. About 40 people attended, including 17 children. My goal was to present in such a fashion that it was attractive to the children as well as to the adults. I began with a vignette with Elwood in which we discussed the importance of communication, cooperation, kindness, and conflict resolution. After that Elwood shrunk my head. I am going to try to put the head shrinking up on my page. Everybody seemed to enjoy our presentation.

I have been thinking a great deal about how to conduct attractive and productive video seminars. I think that I will alternate between sessions for the parents and special entertaining therapeutic shows for the children. I will let you know when more information is available.

My thoughts have turned to 9/11. Currently I work at Fort Huachuca, an Army post in Southeastern Arizona. Not only am I remembering 9/11 but also quite aware of the impact the attack has had on young soldiers. I sincerely hope that peace will be with us in the near future.