In “ADHD Meet Genius” I was telling you about Homeschooling my teen son that has ADHD. While he is extremely intelligent, which is evidenced by his success at college, and his aptitude test, his behavior can be quite a challenge. I wanted to share this with you lest you think we have stumbled upon some magic formula for overcoming ADHD.

The day before he goes to college I remind him several times to get his backpack ready. Then I get more specific; “Do you have your cell phone, your lunch money, your books and your homework in your backpack?”... more

An article in last Friday’s New York Times explores the idea of teaching parents behavior modification skills to help manage their children’s mental disorders, especially ADHD. The whole article can be viewed here.

The article cites that many parents of children with ADHD (and other disorders) greatly desire to avoid medicating their children, or to at least lessen the amounts of medication their child needs. It is fairly comprehensive look at... more

We’re off and running and in our second week of Fast ForWord. Billed as a “neuroscience approach to reading intervention” this little piece of software (with a hefty price tag) is based on brain plasticity. You know about brain plasticity…the discovery that the brain grows and changes throughout our whole lifetime, instead of reaching it’s full growth in early childhood, which was thought to be true until just about a decade ago.

Well about a decade ago, Scientific... more

Part 1 deals with Auditory Processing Disorders Part 2 deals with Non-verbal Learning Disabilities

Sometimes children can have issues with their sensory processing that look a great deal like (or co-exist with) ADHD. The third article from the ADDitudes... more

Part 1 deals with Auditory Processing Disorder

One of the articles in the ADDitude Magazine on-line describes Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities (NLD) and how it is often confused with ADD. Until recently I’ve never even heard of NLD. What is it?

Nonverbal learning disorder (NLD) is a constellation of brain-based difficulties. Once considered rare, NLD is now thought to... more

“She may benefit from some pragmatics language training.” The suggestion seemed so casual and minor that until I began to explore just want pragmatics is, it sounded simple. But problems with pragmatics are anything but simple.

Pragmatic language refers to language used in social context. There are basically three components to pragmatic language:

--using language for various purposes – such as the difference between greeting, informing, or requesting. -- knowing how to adapt your language to meet the needs/expectations of the listener.... more

For the last 9 weeks, LuLu has been using Interactive Metronome. Our occupational therapist comes two times a week to administer this brain-based intervention.

What is Interactive Metronome?

The Interactive Metronome is an intervention that focuses on rhythm and timing and helps to build a person’s motor planning and sequencing abilities. As defined by the Interactive Metronome website:

The IM program is an intervention where the patient is challenged to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer-generated... more

I've been reading with great interest posts by my fellow blogger, Angela, on the Ukraine Adoption Blog. She is currently talking about ADHD, its causes and the likelihood of occurence in adoptive children.

Adrienne, over on the Russia Adoption Blog has also covered this subject, specifically how malnutrition may increase the likelihood of ADHD.

Well, I just had to chime in. Current professional wisdom is that ADHD has both genetic and environmental components at the root of its "cause".

The other... more