Link: 9 Strategies
Homework, dinner, bedtime — weeknights are tough on everyone. Use these road-tested tips to smooth the everyday routine for children with ADHD who need organization help.
Link: Attention in College
Dr. Thomas Kirts, psychiatrist at DeKalb Clinic Chartered, said it is not uncommon for ADHD or ADD (attention-deficit disorder) to be diagnosed in college-level students. “Usually it surfaces in junior high or at least in high school,” Kirts said. For some, the change of environment may contribute to a student’s inability to focus. “It is harder to pay attention in an auditorium rather then a small classroom,” Genereau said. “There is less structure here to stay on track and be organized.”
Link: Thriving with ADD
Psychologists who coach people with attention-deficit disorders are helping students learn planning and organizational skills that can help them succeed in high school and college. Such strategies helped Emily Algire, 19, finish her freshman year of college with a 3.4 GPA.
Link: Drivers
"A person with ADD pays attention to someone walking down the street rather than a car coming toward them," Mulligan said. "They don't know what to focus on."
For any child with attention deficit disorder, strenuous exercise and activity in organized sports is a good thing. But, unable to sustain attention, focus, and possess self control, players with ADD are too often scolded or yelled at by coaches. Here are some ways parents and coaches can work together to make sports rewarding for youths with ADD.
More and more studies are revealing children are often misdiagnosed as having attention deficit disorder when their struggles could actually stem from their vision. Kids are often labeled as "lazy" and "unable to focus" when they may have correctable vision problems.
The ability to pay attention has long been considered innate, with children who seem to lack this skill placed on medications, writes author Maggie Jackson. But scientific discoveries indicate that practice can pump up attention skills in adults and children -- including those with ADHD -- much like exercise can tone muscles.
IN THE FAST-PACED, distraction-plagued arena of modern life, perhaps nothing has come under more assault than the simple faculty of attention. We bemoan the tug of war for our focus, joke uneasily about our attention-deficit lifestyles, and worry about the seeming epidemic of attention disorders among children.
We continue our series on learning disabilities with a problem that is not considered a learning disability by itself, but it can af fect learning. Our subject is attention deficit disorder, A.D.D., and the related form A.D.H.D., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These affect an estimated five to ten percent of children worldwide.
