ADHD troubles now back at school

Having had such a long time away for school it is very likely that your child has forgotten how challenging a day at school can be. Now back at school your child's concentration, attention and behavioural problems have probably returned and are putting strain on the rest of the family because you are so desperate to help.

If your looking for ways to help your child cope and manage their ADHD then you're in the right place. Dr. Kenny Handelman has quite rightly suggested ways to manage the struggles of ADHD successfully. These tips will help get your child prepared for school.

1. Use a list of expectations for different parts of your child’s day. Focus in the areas that were very difficult last year – that may be ready in the morning, getting homework done after school or other tasks or responsibilities they found particularly challenging.

2. Create a daily schedule for your child so that they know what to expect from their day. Try and include as much detail as possible, for example break times, lunch times and after school activities.

3. Homework is often very hard to remember if not written down for those with ADHD so try and keep a homework log with the teacher. You will need to frequently remind your child to bring it home with the necessary books. It will help if your child's teacher could also have the job of reminding you child to take the work home. It is also good idea to set aside a certain time everyday for homework. Try your best to reward your child when they have finished a piece of homework.

4. Make an effort to speak to your child's teacher about their learning and behavioral needs early in the school year. Try to ensure that the resources that will help you child are going to be used. Try and make sure if there is additional teaching support available that your child is having it.

5. Consider a daily behavioral report card. This tool can help parents and teachers communicate a child's progress. It can also help recognise when to give your child rewards to encourage them to keep on track at school.

6. Remain positive with your child to help them to build on their strengths. Remember that transitioning from summer holidays to school can be especially challenging for children with ADHD. Celebtrate all successes, no matter how small – anything from a good mark, to a good report from the teacher, to making a new friend.

7. Keep track of how your child is doing in the transition back to school. Be sure to review this with your child’s doctor 2-6 weeks after the school year starts.

ADHD and Crime

The recent news items claiming that people with ADHD can be dangerous is a dreadful misconception. On the one hand a significant proportion of those in prison do have ADHD, but it is absolutely not true to say that most people with ADHD end up in prison. ADHD is a very real condition that is often caused by overloading brain circuitry. The brighter you are often means there is more going on in the brain circuitry and therefore it is more likely that the brain will go into overload. Most people with ADHD find very effective ways of coping with this overload. Sadly, however, some don’t.

If you are wondering whether it can be helped? Yes, the great news is, it can. Scientific research has shown that 85% of those classified as ADHD can become declassified at the end of the Dore Programme.

Recently I was at an industry convention with 400 industry leaders, it amazed me how such a high proportion of them showed signs of poor attention, most admitted to very rarely picking up a book to read for pleasure and so on. Did many of them have ADHD? Probably yes. Were many of them very bright and successful? Absolutely yes.

So to label those people with ADHD as dangerous is completely inappropriate.

Are Exams getting easier?

It was A Level Results last week and now today pupils notch up the record for GCSE results... and the critics are saying exams are getting easier!

They may well be for some but not for those who are challenged by reading and writing. Most A Levels are much harder for those with such difficulties regardless of how bright they are.

Does anybody else wonder when our education system will start recognising that real intelligence should not just be measured by reading and writing alone? The challenge for those who go on to university is that an even higher proportion of their learning will come from reading and individual study. This is why so many of the world’s geniuses drop out of university but go on to have enormous success afterwards.

So to all those out there who don’t find reading easy, don’t let anyone persuade you that your exam results are a true reflection of how clever you really are.

Bringing up the national average

Yesterday’s 10 o’clock news showed that 40 percent of 14 year olds in England aren’t reaching the required national standard in English, Maths and Science. This raised concern within the education system and with us at Dore.

It’s always really tough getting the phone calls we do from parents whose child has just had poor SATs results. It is agony. To all those who have recently started the programme - I am looking forward to hearing from you in a year’s time and I'm sure then it will be a very different story.

Is there a perfect single sentence for DORE?

When I travel I am often asked “What do you do?” I never seem to give the same answer twice, it is always worded differently because I never feel that I have a perfect single sentence answer (the Americans call this the “elevator speech”).

Does anybody have any ideas on how I can describe what DORE does and what we achieve in a perfect single sentence answer?

Summer Holidays

Every summer we see similar challenges - those mums with a child with attention and hyperactivity symptoms face the nightmare of finding things for their child to do for the seven weeks they are away from school. Bliss for the teacher of course (unless they have their own ADD symptoms at home!).

Often, of course, it is the very time that parents who have put their child through the programme suddenly realise that this summer holiday is nothing like last summer's daunting holiday. Of course, having dealt with hyperactivity and poor attention some discover that the level of creativity that comes to the fore creates the odd issue, albeit in a more positive vein. Chatting with Alex’s mum the other day reminded me of why some mums go grey a little earlier than they would like to!

My recent trip to Barbados

Barbados was a real eye opener, the attitude to education there is very dynamic indeed. Having been asked to do a talk there last week I decided to go and meet a number of educational professionals, I learnt a lot!

One family had been travelling to the UK every six weeks for a year to bring their son on the programme, during the talk he told his amazing story and, of course, stole the show. The bottom line is that we expect to be opening a centre in Barbados before the end of this year driven by the amazing Julia Hanschell.

What a wondferful, hospitable country.