Give Kids Your Undivided Attention — or No Attention At All

Here is what I wish I’d known, from 14-some years into this parenting gig: Leave the children alone when you must and then really be with them when you can. Or, to put it slightly differently: Alternate fully engaging with fully ignoring them.

Three Things Students Wish Teachers Knew

As the school year winds down, I thought it would be helpful to hear from students in the vein of “Five Things Teachers Wish Parents Knew” and “Three Things Parents Wish Teachers Knew.” I spoke with and emailed over a hundred students in grades kindergarten through 12, enrolled in independent and public schools all over the country, and asked them to think back on the past year and come up with just one thing they wished that their teachers knew. The top three:

1. “Be fair.”

3 Things Parents Wish Teachers Knew: We Can Handle the Truth

After I wrote “5 Things Teachers Wish Parents Knew,” parents started filling my inbox with the things they wish teachers knew — and why not? The ideal parent-teacher conference is an opportunity to give and take, a time and place for both teachers and parents to share their observations. Here’s what the parents who got in touch wish their children’s teachers knew:

1. Tell us the truth. This suggestion was, by far, the most popular I received.

LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index

The Non-Goal Directed Behavior Scenario

Imagine it's Saturday and you have seven tasks to accomplish. They have to be done by six because the movie starts at 7:30 and you'll want to grab a quick bite at a nearby restaurant first. You know that the dog needs to be walked by nine and the lawn needs be mowed by 11:30 in order to make it to Johnny's soccer game by noon. You'll have to do the groceries by three, have the kids' dinner prepared and ready for the sitter to heat by five, and be showered and ready to leave the house at six.

Got that straight? Not if you've got ADHD.

People with ADHD have a different clock system, and it doesn't tick to standard time. "People with ADHD live in the process," says Lynn Weiss. "The task defines the time."

Survival strategies for the wives of ADHD men who seem to ignore, forget, and disregard... but maybe don't mean to.

When Jessica met Josh it was love at first sight. He was affable, fun and outgoing, not to mention darkly handsome and athletic. When he told her about his ADHD, it didn't faze her. "He was succeeding in law school," she says. "His ADHD didn't seem to have much of an impact on him or on anything he did."

But Jessica soon would feel ADHD's impact on their marriage.

That's because Josh's style of coping with ADHD was to stay strictly organized and create a rigid structure for his life. From his desktop to his sock drawer, everything had to be in order and in place. "He had to have his keys in a certain place," Jessica says. "If I messed with them, he freaked out."

Beyond the Medication: Behavioral Treatment for ADHD

When most people learn that their child has attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) or hear about treatment for it, stimulant medication (Ritalin, Adderall, etc.) often is the first type of treatment that comes to mind. For many children, teens, and even adults, stimulant medication can make a huge difference in curbing ADHD symptoms. However, stimulant medication alone often does not provide comprehensive treatment. Medication improves focus, reduces impulsiveness, and enables one to sit still more easily, as well as other similar benefits. However, underlying most individuals with ADHD are executive functioning deficits that impede their ability to plan, organize, initiate tasks, use good time-management skills, and so forth.

Top 25 Psychiatric Medication Prescriptions for 2013

These are the top 25 psychiatric medications by number of U.S. prescriptions dispensed in 2013, according to IMS Health, a global information and technology services company. I’ve also provided their 2011, 2009, and 2005 rankings.

Communication Tips for Parents

Be available for your children

• Notice times when your kids are most likely to talk — for example, at bedtime, before dinner, in the car — and be available.
• Start the conversation; it lets your kids know you care about what's happening in their lives.
• Find time each week for a one-on-one activity with each child, and avoid scheduling other activities during that time.
• Learn about your children's interests — for example, favorite music and activities — and show interest in them.
• Initiate conversations by sharing what you have been thinking about rather than beginning a conversation with a question.

What Happens In Our Brains As We Read

Amid the squawks and pings of our digital devices, the old-fashioned virtues of reading novels can seem faded, even futile. But new support for the value of fiction is arriving from an unexpected quarter: neuroscience.

Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters. Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life.

Why Am I So Angry?

More evidence that there is a strong emotional component to ADHD has emerged over the past several years. Although ultimately it was not included, this emotional component was taken into consideration in determining the diagnostic criteria for ADHD in the DSM-5, the latest revision of the diagnostic manual. Folks with ADHD often have a difficult time regulating their emotions, and when faced with overwhelm, can have angry outbursts that hurt their relationships in the process.

Is anger something that is hurting your relationships, resulting in strained relationships within your family and with your friends? Here are some truths about anger when it is not controlled:

• It impedes our ability to be happy.
• It can send marriages and other family relationships off-course.
• It compromises our social skills, thus interfering with healthy relationships.
• It can result in non-productive business because of strained relationships.
• It can lead to health problems because of increased stress.

Anger is not always bad. It is a natural reaction to feelings of hurt and betrayal. It needs to be expressed at times and not held inside. However, aggressive forms of anger that are out of control can further hurt you socially, mentally, and physically. The goal of anger management is to help you find healthy ways to express that anger and resolve the issues that trigger it. 

Here are some tips for you:

• Give yourself a “time out.” Find a safe spot for yourself and try deep breathing to calm down. Close your eyes and breathe all that stress out.
• Give yourself a break. Go for a walk, get some exercise. Fresh air will do you good. Later you can come back to the problem from a new perspective and solve it!
• It is okay to express your anger in a healthy, non-confrontational way. Decide what the real issue is. Once you are calm, state your concerns while being sensitive to the feelings of others.
• Learn to recognize those ADHD moments that trigger your anger. Think about the effect your anger had on others around you. How might you handle the same situation differently from now on?
• Ask yourself this question: “Will the object of my anger even matter ten years from now?”
• Take care of yourself. Make sure that you get enough sleep, eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, and exercise regularly.
• Brainstorm positive solutions to the problem.
• Learn to think before you speak. In the heat of a discussion it is more difficult to listen. It may be easier if you pause in the moment, allowing yourself to collect your thoughts and reflect upon what the other person is saying.
• Use humor to release tension.
• Know when to seek help from a counselor.

by Terry M. Dickson

Long-term safety of ADHD meds not established

There are few long-term studies on the effects of ADHD drugs, and there's a big gap in the medical establishment's understanding of what the effects of these medicines might be.



Scant research has been done on the long-term safety of drugs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new analysis shows, though millions of American children have been taking them for decades.