The Library Basket

I am going to share a very good idea with you, to help you keep track of library books and library DVDs. Get a medium-sized basket and keep it in a central location such as the living room of your house. Inform every family member to keep all library materials in that particular basket, and not to put anything except library materials in it. This will help your family to avoid library fines and the stress of having to hunt for missing items, since it will be easy to keep track of when materials are due back to the library. Before the next trip there you can check the library basket and pull out all of the materials that need to be returned. Ta-Da! No more late notices and overdue fines. Now I should tell you that although I still think that it's an excellent idea, this has NEVER worked for my family. They drag library books into every room of the house as well as every vehicle and backpack they can find. You'd think they like having library fines or something. Beckie has had a weekly paper route for years, but has yet to realize a profit because every cent she makes has to go toward library fines. That job is the only thing keeping her out of debt at the library. This morning, I got a notice that a DVD I had checked out was overdue - by a couple of weeks! That fine adds up fast, and I was appalled because I had checked with Scott the day it was due back and he thought he had returned it. I even had him double check for it to make sure, and he didn't find it which made it seem likely he actually had returned it. After I got the notice, I asked Beckie if she had seen the DVD, and she remembered seeing it "under a pile of stuff upstairs". Now, I never took it upstairs, and we watched it downstairs. So how did it end up in another part of the house? No one knows. No one remembers taking it up there, or seeing someone else take it up there. Yet fortunately someone remembered seeing it or it would still be missing. So go ahead and try the library basket idea. I hope it works for you. Just remember that it's like all the planners you buy - they only work if you actually use them.

I found it! Lost it! Found it again!

About a week ago, I heard Scott give an excited "whoop" as he yelled out to me "I found it!" Since Scott frequently loses and re-finds things, I had to go see which item had been "found". This time it was the book I had given him for his birthday last December, "ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life" by Judith Kolberg & Kathleen Nadeau. I actually met Kathleen Nadeau at the CHADD conference last fall, and had her autograph the book. I asked her to write something like "Scott, this will only work if you USE the ideas", but instead she wrote "All the best" which was probably nicer. Personally, I love organization and office supplies that help keep things neat and tidy. But it's been well established over our 24 years together that my ways of organizing do not work for Scott. I was hoping that strategies that work for others with ADD might give him some ideas that would actually work well for him, because I have no new ideas at this point. Unfortunately, the book remains unopened and in pristine (unread) condition. As I write this, the book has already been buried a couple inches deep under one of the piles of paper on the desk. Maybe it will eventually end up on the shelf next to another book that Scott lost and found and lost and found over the years. It's title is "Driven to Distraction" by Edward M. Hallowell. I just checked and it is still on the shelf, so it's possible that those two books can hang out together when "ADD-Friendly Ways" resurfaces and Scott has another "Eureka! I found it!" moment.

Should screen time be limited?

Many of our children with AD/HD and autism are visually stimulated. They love video games, computer games, and movies. These things hold their attention often longer than anything else. So should we limit the time we allow our children to engage in "screen" activities including t.v., video games, and computer games?

I don't think there's any hard and fast rule about how much time to let our children play video games, watch t.v., etc. but there are some things to keep in mind as you think about your specific child. When my son Josh was young, I limited his t.v. viewing to one hour per day. He was always able to attend to movies and video games, so it was tempting to let him do more because he actually stayed in one place with sustained attention for awhile. But I wanted him to learn from reality, and much of the "screen" world is fantasy based. I also wanted him to interact with others, and "screen" activities can be done as solitary activities. Even when there are games for more than one person to play at a time, the topics of conversation are severely restricted. I also noticed with Josh that when he was engaged in a video game or movie he would lose track of time and if allowed to he would spend hours playing screen games with really nothing gained from that time other than making it to the next level of the game. The skills learned in video games aren't really transferable to life skills, and often the content is not something we'd want our kids to imitate. For some people, screen activities can be like an addiction and can decrease both the desire and opportunity for social interaction.

On the other hand, when Josh was about 6 years old I realized that he was a strong visual learner and that he could remember what he'd seen in a movie 6 months ago but not what I'd said to him a minute earlier. So I realized that by restricting Josh's screen time I was limiting one of his best ways to learn, and started supplementing our school work with educational shows and library DVDs on topics of interest. You will need to monitor the content of any movies, but they can be a great teaching tool for history, science, and more. We also did some virtual field trips on the computer. Since Josh struggled socially, having knowledge of some video games and movies gave him the opportunity to join in conversations with others. Having a video game available made waiting rooms and long car trips more tolerable for him.

My suggestion is to consider what all the screen time might be replacing for your child, and what kind of things she is taking in while engaging in those activities. Then put some limits in place. You can be strategic and use some of the screen time to make it educational, and once your limits are in place you can offer an incentive of additional screen time to be earned by an activity of your choosing. The bottom line is that screen activity need not be entirely eliminated, but it should not take the place of real life, socially engaging activities.

Heads Up Helping!

There is a nice review of HeadsUpMom's book on The Old Schoolhouse Magazine website. The link is: http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/1637.php

Check it out!

When you get younger and I get bigger...

I've commented before on the way my children with AD/HD don't have an internal sense of time passing. If they are doing something they enjoy, they just live in the moment and don't realize how much time has actually passed until someone points it out to them or they look at a clock. If they are doing something that is less preferred (like spelling, math, etc.!) they are unable to sense how much time it will take and therefore believe they will be quite old before they complete the task. A couple days ago I remembered something that both Josh and Beckie said to me when they were preschoolers, and it made me think that they were such creative thinkers that they were not restricted to thinking that time always progresses forward. Josh and Beckie are 5 years apart in age, but their thinking patterns and development have been remarkably similar. At some point in their early years, each said to me something to the effect of: "Mom, when I get bigger and you get younger, I'll teach you." In their minds, the aging process was fluid, so that I might go in reverse and get younger while they continued to grow older. I'm sure part of that idea was the hope that they could be in charge some day. It's interesting to me that these remarks were made long after they had developed object permanence and had a general understanding of cause and effect. Josh and Beckie still don't really have a good sense about time passing and they struggle to get places on time. But they have given up the hope of my becoming younger and leaving them in charge.

The Miracle of the Fish

No, not THAT miracle! I'm talking about Beckie's fish, a pet Beta she keeps in a wall-mounted bowl in her room. It's not that she doesn't like the fish or care what happens to it. It's just part of how her AD/HD manifests, that she can remember the daily task of feeding the fish but the non-routine cleaning of the bowl eludes her attention. I noticed in July that her poor fish was swimming in about 2 inches of water in a very dirty bowl. I told her she needed to clean the bowl and add water right away, because I didn't see how the fish could survive much longer in those conditions. She said she would, but that she'd need her Dad's help to get the bowl off the wall to be cleaned. Her Dad said he would help, but he also has AD/HD so they both immediately forgot about it. Last week, I thought about it again and checked in with Beckie to make sure she had taken care of it. She still hadn't! Yet the fish lived on. So I managed to catch both Beckie and her Dad at home and called them together to remind them about the fish and to urge them to act on it right away before they forgot again. They managed to get the bowl cleaned and filled with fresh water in about 30 minutes. It wasn't that the task was too hard, it was that it wasn't part of an established routine and the fish was unable to do anything to get their attention long enough for them to take the necessary action. Though things were looking pretty grim for him in his bowl of evaporating water, Neon the fish is presently happily swimming in a full bowl of clean water.

Perception is everything

Last night I was talking with my youngest daughter, Beckie. Of her subjects, math is particularly challenging for her, so we have decided that I will work with her every night, so I can maybe catch concepts that are more difficult for her more quickly. Previously, we allowed her the leeway to work independently, and sometimes she would struggle through for weeks before I would work with her.

Anyway, I was stressing to Beckie that this is a transition year, and the schoolwork was going to be more difficult and would require her full attention. If she couldn't keep up we would have to look into making different arrangements, maybe trying a private school, etc. I thought that I was keeping my voice level and calm. I finished what I was saying and Beckie wandered away.

A few hours later, she stuck her head in my office, and asked if I was in a good mood. I thought that was an odd question, but I said yes, and invited her in. Then she said "If your not in a good mood I can come back later to work on my math with you..." and then I realized that she heard our earlier conversation much differently that I had intended. She thought that I was upset and yelling at her, but I was just trying to explain to her that the expectations were going to be higher as she enters her second year in the high school period.

Math may be hard, but effective communication is much harder!

Don't forget your flowers!

For all my fellow home schoolers, it's time once again for my annual tradition and I hope many of you join me and make it your own tradition as well. As we start back to a new school year we begin with new supplies and a fresh beginning. Some of us have taken the summer off, while others like myself have done a lighter schedule over the summer. Now it's time to get back to work again and celebrate the beginning of another homeschooling year. My tradition is to buy myself flowers on the first day of school. While reminding myself of the many reasons I home school, I can't overlook the fact that it's going to be a lot of work and even with all the advantages it is a huge commitment for me. The flowers remind me to celebrate the beauty and this season of my life. I'm already an "empty-desker" with my older two home school graduates, and have only three years remaining for my last student. I don't want to miss the joy because I'm focused on all the work. So I'm going to buy myself flowers today, along with a card that I will have Beckie sign to go along with the flowers. I will put them in the center of the table and enjoy them until one of our cats decides to chew the heads off the flowers or knocks them over. At that point, seeing it as a teachable moment (we are back in school, after all) I will remind my family once again not to leave things on the table because they might get drenched.

The Blue Lid and Snack-size Bags

I hate to buy food and have it go to waste or sit in my cupboards for months. So I try to find foods I'm pretty sure will be eaten. About a week ago I sent Scott and Josh to do the grocery shopping and when I was unloading the food I saw that they had gotten crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth. In the past I've had jars of crunchy peanut butter in the cupboard, uneaten for months. So I stopped buying it. I asked Josh why they had gotten the crunchy kind since no one eats it, and he told me he likes the crunchy kind that comes with a blue lid. (Yes, Josh is colorblind, but he can see blue pretty well.) Maybe the kids go through phases where they like a certain kind, because I know there have been times when the crunchy peanut butter was not touched for weeks. I have discovered another amazing way to get kids to eat healthy snacks. If I buy baby carrots or grapes, for example, they can sit in the fridge until they go bad because apparently it's too much work for my kids to bother washing them off. If I wash the food and put it into small snack-size Ziploc bags, the kids will eat them within a few days. There's something about looking in the refrigerator and seeing a packet of ready-to-eat snacks that makes the kids go for it. Josh will jokingly tell me that I've fixed the baby carrots just the way he likes them as he pulls a snack bag from the fridge. Unfortunately, the way I discovered this was through the realization that the kids were eating the snack-sized portions I had packed for my lunches on days I work!

Be Specific

When you have a child with a learning challenge, it is important that you be very specific in your directions. In general, struggling learners are not strong at making inferences and generalizing what they've learned. They tend to take things literally and have to be taught the meanings of figures of speech, idioms, and proverbial statements. In my family, they tend to take the path of least resistance and do the easiest and least time-consuming way to complete an assigned task. This is why you have to stay with them in the training phase and not leave them alone if you expect the job to be done the way you intended. For example, I asked Josh to remove some books that we don't need from the top shelf of a bookcase. I also showed him another high shelf in a different room and a large box of books. I explained that I wanted to replace the books he would be removing with books from the box, and put other books from the box on the other shelf. The idea is to eliminate the box of books by finding spots on the shelves for them. Josh agreed to do it, and I left to run an errand with my daughter. When I got back home, there were fewer books in the box, but the books I wanted removed were still in their location. The shelf in the other room did have new books on it, but instead of sliding the current books over to fit the new ones in Josh had just dumped them on top. He didn't leave himself enough time to do the rest of the books because he had to get to work. I did not specifically tell him how I wanted the books to be put on the shelf, so he plopped them up on top because that was fastest and easiest. When he gets home from work, I will be very specific about what I need done, and I will stay and coach Josh until the work is complete. My hope is that someday he will begin to infer more, based on what he knows of me or how I have had him do tasks in the past. In the meantime, things like this show me where the gaps are and what supports are still needed.

Are you absorbing?

I've heard that individuals with autism think in pictures, not words. Temple Grandin has even written a book (Thinking in Pictures copyright 1995 Random House) describing her very visual way of viewing and interpreting events. My daughter, Beckie, has learned to compensate for the deficits in her working memory by visualizing what she is hearing or reading. Gander Publishing has wonderful resources for "Visualizing and Verbalizing" for reading comprehension and all three of my children experienced this technique with their "Time Flies" history programs. I think being able to make associations helps Beckie retain information, and I observed one such association last week. I had been asked to come and observe some classes and do a bit of educational consultation with the instructors. I went to observe on three different days, and watched the students as they interacted and engaged in a variety of activities. I took notes as I watched the children, and as an assistant in the classes Beckie knew why I was there and saw me taking everything in. When she was leaving to go assist in the classes last week she asked me, "Are you coming in to absorb today?" It took me a moment to realize that she was asking if I was going to come and "observe" again. She corrected herself and said "I mean 'observe'", but I think the association of "absorb" and "observe" is pretty fitting for what she saw me doing. I was observing, by absorbing all I could about the classes and how they were run. In fact, I think if you really want to be observant, you should be absorbing. Thank you, Beckie, for another word picture!

Seeking God

Today some godly women are fasting and praying with me for Josh's work situation. We are seeking God and asking Him to make it clear if we should be advocating for Josh in his current position or if God wants Josh to make a change. Josh has gone the established routes for reporting incidents, through his supervisor, the HR person in his store, and even meeting with the general manager of his store. They all assure him that what he has experienced is not acceptable and they promise him that things will change. Yet nothing concrete has altered. Josh finally felt he had no choice but to take it up a level, and called the district HR person. Although she was polite and professional, and also stated that the abuse Josh has experienced is unacceptable, she took no action on his behalf and left him with the advice to report every single incident to his supervisor. Josh has already reported more than enough for action to be taken, but it's not happening. His supervisor is not always available or in the store when the incidents take place. Josh actually likes the job most of the time, and he would rather not leave at this time even though this is not his final career destination by any stretch of the imagination. But unless something actually does change, he will have to continue working with the repeat offender of verbal abuse and bullying whenever their schedules overlap. Fortunately, Josh is resilient, and I love him for that and so much more. He has been an example to me of showing grace and returning respect for inexcusable behavior by management. I can tell, though, that this work environment is taking a toll on him. So thank you, my friends, for your prayers on Josh's behalf. Many of you only know of Josh through hearing me speak at conferences or at our Bible Study. Your support means more to me than I can express. You know my mother's heart, and how hard it is to see and hear what Josh has experienced. You stand with me, and your compassion and caring ministers to my very soul. I appreciate you all, and the God who knows His child Josh better than any of us ever will. May He make His will known to us!

Motivation and Internal Drive

I'm not sure if this occurs more often with people with AD/HD or other learning disabilities, but in my experience those individuals are more motivated by external rewards and are less likely to be self-motivated. Since children who struggle need more encouragement and support, I wonder if they grow used to it and rely on it rather than find internal ways to motivate themselves. I've seen this in children who want to know up front what reward they will get for completing a task. They have become dependent on external reinforcement of some kind, either verbal praise or concrete rewards.
The mentality of "it's not my job" seems to go along with the difficulty in motivating oneself to do less-preferred activities. At my house, I often hear "It's not my assigned week to clean the kitchen." Even though the speaker is without clean dishes for his own meal, he cannot bring himself to do a job above and beyond what he is assigned and fails to see how the extra effort helps him and the rest of the family in the long run. You know the sense of responsibility is shallow when someone walks past a crumpled paper on the floor near the trash can because she didn't put it there and it's not her paper. These children don't share ownership enough to contribute and initiate outside of the specific requirements told to them by others.
When faced with a large task like cleaning her room, Beckie gives up before she even starts and concedes to living with clutter. She likes having a clean room, but can't make herself do what it takes to accomplish it. Only when threatened with consequences or offered an incentive can she force herself into action. She responds to the external prompts and can't seem to create the internal drive and motivation for herself.
I fear that externally motivated individuals will limit themselves to doing what others tell them to and will be disappointed when they don't perceive the external praises and rewards to be adequate for continued motivation.

I'm Trying!

Beckie and I are working to learn Spanish together. We are using one main program, and supplementing by using more right brain strategies to include visual images and make colorful flashcards to help us with vocabulary words. For example, one of our chosen vocabulary words for today was "el bano" for "the bathroom". With a little help from my artistic Beckie to help with the drawing part, my flashcard has both the Spanish and English written words on it along with a picture of a man sitting on the toilet playing the banjo. The banjo keeps him modestly covered, and since "banjo" and "bano" (pronounced "bahn-yo") sound similar it will help me make a connection between the word and the meaning by using that auditory similarity and the visual cue of the picture of the man in a bathroom. Beckie has a good ear for languages, it seems, and she picks it up quickly. For some reason today, she had a hard time pronouncing the Spanish word for "brings", which is "trae" and is pronounced "trah-ay". After several models and some struggling, she finally turned to me and said "I'm trah-ing!" instead of "I'm trying!" It's good that she has a sense of humor as we hammer away at our practice.

Cooking the AD/HD Way

I've been working with my kids to teach them the basics of food preparation and simple cooking skills. Their impulsivity makes the dialog entertaining (Mom: Beckie, the next thing to do is add one egg. Beckie: Crack it first?) Okay, I had to laugh at that, and eventually Beckie joined me. She knew, of course, that we don't use the eggs with the shells included. She just asks questions and makes comments without thinking sometimes. Scott decided to teach them how to make grilled cheese sandwiches, which is one of his favorites. Unfortunately, there is some waiting involved before you can flip the sandwich in the pan, and waiting is BORING especially when you have AD/HD. When I am cooking I spend the waiting time preparing additional ingredients I know I'll need or by cleaning up as I go. When my AD/HD family members have to wait, they leave the room to find something else to do. This risks them getting involved in something and not remembering that they were cooking until the smoke alarm goes off and they are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to take time to save their game before dealing with the burning food. (Hint: The AD/HD mind will say "The food's already burnt, but this game can still be saved!") Anyway, the strategy used for the grilled cheese was to set the stove timer. That way, they could leave the room but not lose track of time because the timer would beep to pull them back to the kitchen in time to flip the sandwich before it burned. Since they each wanted more than one sandwich, they got to practice this several times. I found it annoying to hear the timer going off every minute until they finished making a pile of grilled cheese sandwiches, but it was much less annoying than the burning smell and the smoke alarm would have been. I'm all about strategies, and this one seemed to work for them.

Nuts!

Yesterday I went for a walk with my son Josh. I told him I was planning a gathering for some friends, and one of them is allergic to tree nuts. I know that walnuts and pecans grow in trees, but since peanuts grow in the ground I wondered if that would be a different category of allergen. I mused aloud as we walked, realizing that I don't know which nuts grow in trees and which ones don't. I told Josh that I really like Brazil nuts, but I don't know where they come from. With his usual grin, he told me, "Mom. They're from Brazil!" And then he looked at me like I was nuts.

I have no regrets

A few days ago I was doing school with my Beckie, and she was her usual somewhat restless self. She tends to rush through school work, fearing that it will take forever, and wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. I'd like her to develop a love of learning, but we're still working on that. As we were going over some geography, I asked if a certain mountain range was along the eastern or western border of the state we were studying. Grinning at me, but without opening the book to look at the map, she confidently proclaimed "Eastern!" I told her that was incorrect, and that she needed to actually take the time to look at the book in order to answer the questions just as we always do when working on geography. Her response is typical of the impulsive, risk-taking kids I've worked with over the years. She smiled and said, "I have no regrets. I had a 50-50 chance of being right!" For me, it was about her truly learning something. For Beckie, it was about getting finished with the work. So the compromise? Beckie will learn how to find information, but doesn't have to memorize facts she cares nothing about. That way, when it does become meaningful to her she will know how to find the information for herself. And I get to relearn all the information I've forgotten since it wasn't meaningful to me when I was Beckie's age. Beckie, I understand, but I will still work to equip you for your continuing education and any life skills I can pass along to you.

Paint like Zorro!

We just had to have our thermostat replaced in our dining room, and since the new one wasn't the same size and shape as its predecessor we will need to repaint around it to cover the exposed wall. It reminded me of the time when we first painted the dining room. I'd read up about various glazes and finishes and decided to try to add some texture using a glaze applied with a feather duster. After the base coat of blue, I started applying a white glaze in my typically meticulous fashion. I was getting this wonderful cloud-like effect, but being meticulous meant very slow progress so Scott offered to take a turn. I gladly turned the feather duster over to him, and left him to paint for awhile. Scott's method was to paint with Zorro-like swipes, which was much faster. The Zorro method was a little too rough for the feather duster, though, which began losing feathers by the end. It also wiped out the lovely clouds, but clouds change their looks over time anyway and what we ended up with still looks good. The Zorro method of painting was probably more fun than what I was doing, and now I hope that Zorro/Scott will paint once more to cover the area around our new thermostat. What do you say, Scott?

Say What You Mean

Once more, I have an amusing auditory processing moment to share. My son Josh, asked me if we had any ice cream in our downstairs freezer. I told him we had some mint chocolate chip down there, and was surprised to see the puzzled expression on his face since that's one of his favorite flavors. Then a few seconds later he broke into a grin as he told me, "It sounded like you said "Cement Chocolate Chip" and I was wondering what ingredient would be so hard that it would be like cement. Then I figured out what you were really saying. So, can I have it all, Mom?"

Bitterness

Bitterness. It is so easy to feel it and so hard to rid yourself of it. I guess like many things, it's better if you can prevent it than to try to eliminate it once it's there. When you have a child who struggles, you have a greater likelihood of being rejected or misunderstood as a parent. Besides that, if you are like many of us, you also feel your child's hurts as if they are personally happening to you. In a real way, we are rejected when our children are, because we cannot fully separate ourselves from who they are - and I'm not sure we should as long as they need us to advocate for them. When a child acts differently from the norm, or in ways that are interpreted in a negative light, it is a near certainty that sooner or later we will get unsolicited advice from relatives, friends, and even strangers. Sometimes we are just given "the look" of disapproval, and that can be as painful as spoken words. The reality is, not everyone can understand your individual situation. Some people take one look at us and decide they don't even want to understand us. Here's the rub: if you let those looks and comments get under your skin it will be hard not to become bitter and resentful, and as a result you will be less effective with your child and will feel less contented than if you can rid yourself of bitterness. I've been working on this area a long time in my own life, and the most helpful thing I've found is to choose to believe that the person making the comment is genuinely trying to be helpful. Often, they have no clue as to what I've already tried, etc. but I let them off the hook in my mind. I pray a prayer of gratitude for them that they don't have to deal with the struggles I do, and then I let them go and let the judgmental comments and poor advice slide right on by.

Burning Rings of Fire

I recently had a conversation with my son, Josh, who told me he was weary of people asking him where he attends college. When he tells them that he is not in college but works full time, they look at him expectantly and ask, "But you're going to go to college, right?" Josh goes on to explain that he has taken several college classes, but with his various learning challenges it has been much harder and more time consuming for him than it is for most people. Given that experience, he does not want to take more classes until he is sure of what he wants to do so that he can make every bit of effort count toward a goal. The people who are talking to Josh share the expectation that bright, young adults who can go to college will go to college. Josh told me that for him, going to college seems like jumping through burning rings of fire to get a little piece of paper at the other end. Stop and think about that for a minute. If you know something is going to be that difficult and potentially painful, you think long and hard about whether it's what you really want before you go forward. Furthermore, you consider other options and devise strategies that increase the likelihood you will succeed. Josh is doing exactly that as he works, writes science fiction novels in his time off, and stays away from the burning rings of fire until he is sure he cannot attain his goals unless he moves through them. I think that's pretty good problem solving for a young man who knows himself and his strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps he will take more college classes someday, but for now Josh is making the decision to put that on hold and develop himself in other ways. A lot of people would benefit from taking such a thoughtful approach to why they do what they do, and to what end.
HUMom

An Honorable Man

Last week a local businessman passed away after a short battle with cancer. John McConnell, or "Mr. Mac" as he was known to anyone with more than a passing acquaintance, was one of those special people whom, it would seem, cannot come into contact with another human being without touching their lives in some way. For me, his lasting legacy was bringing an NHL club to Columbus. The cynic will say that it was a shrewd business decision and his investment has gone up in value. But Mr. Mac knew next to nothing of hockey, except that there were many sports fans in his city without a professional team for which to root. Since entering the league, the Blue Jackets have suffered seven consecutive losing seasons. The 2007-8 season was the best, when the Blue Jackets finished 11 points out of the playoffs, but were competitive right up to the last few weeks of the season.
While I may quibble a bit with the theological implications of the above quote (I believe that God and my relationship with Him is what truly defines me), Mr. Mac's philosophy is a fine and admirable one to practically direct one's life.
Mr Mac was a fine, honorable, caring, respectful man who lived a life of integrity and sacrifice for his fellow man. He will be missed.

We are still alive; Hard times

Sorry for the long delay between posts.

Last month we had an interesting experience. A longtime friend who is very well known among homeschoolers as well as the special needs community emailed us. She was scheduled to speak at a conference in Illinois, but her health just wasn't good enough to allow her a long drive and then the exertion of presenting workshops. So she was looking to find someone to fill in for her. HUMom accepted. Then we found out that she would be doing six workshops over two days. So......

HUMom learned the material from audio and video recordings, edited the handouts and I modified PowerPoint files. For six, one-hour presentations. In two weeks. In short, this was a rather stressful time. Yikes!

All went well, and actually we had a very pleasant weekend. The most difficult part was that there was so much information that HUMom could have probably presented twice as long and still not gotten through everything. Our friend has over 30 years experience with special needs children and has written dozens of books and curriculum. Her name is Joyce Herzog and if you have never run into her or seen her work, I would urge you to look her up at www.JoyceHerzog.info. She is a wonderful lady, with a huge heart for kids who learn differently.

The point of this post is that sometimes we are put in situations that are overwhelming and seem much more than we can endure. The demands and the difficult circumstances are just beyond us and we cannot win. I'd like to say that we will all overcome and have success, but that just isn't true. I do want to say that sometimes we need to look from a new angle or point of view to see what is going on. What if your definition of "success" is only one of many? Outcomes that are not what we wanted or desired can still be useful to help us learn about ourselves or life. Or they can serve to strengthen us or teach us endurance.

I have a few heros in life. One was Lou Gerhig. The epitome of consistent, reliable excellence. Until Cal Ripkin broke his consecutive game streak, Lou held the record for most games played without taking a single day off. Not only that, but he was productive - many years leading the league in RBIs, homeruns, etc. If it weren't for a fellow named Babe Ruth, Gehrig would have been known as the most prolific hitter of his time. Lou was struck down in the prime of life by ALS, which has come to be called "Lou Gehrig Disease."

Another hero is Brett Favre and here is the point for all my ramblings. Brett is another Ironman, with the most consecutive starts by an NFL quarterback. He recently retired after 17 year career. Sports Illustrated interviewed him in 2007 when they named him Sportsman of the Year.

"Ask Favre for his own favorite memory, and he is quiet for a moment. "I've got so many plays running through my mind," he says, finally. "The funny thing is, it's not only about the touchdowns and the big victories. If I were to make a list, I would include the interceptions, the sacks, the really painful losses. Those times when I've been down, when I've been kicked around, I hold on to those. In a way those are the best times I've ever had, because that's when I've found out who I am. And what I want to be."

Working with special needs children is not glamorous. Often it is not pleasant. Most times it is exceptionally difficult. But, in teaching them, you just may find out who you are. And what you want to be.

Home again.

Well, we are finally done with the convention season. Back from Washington, DC from the Children and Adults with ADD (CHADD) conference. On the way there, we blew out a tire on the trailer and had to jack up the trailer, take the tire and find someplace that had a replacement. We ended up in a Washington, PA WalMart. Thank goodness for cellphones, AAA and WalMart.

As usual, I knew that the tires were getting worn, and that I needed to replace them, but life always seemed to be too busy and other things got in the way. And I forgot. And I procrastinated.

And I paid the price.

Luckily no one was hurt, and it just pushed our time-table back a few hours. God is good, and we are thankful to Him for keeping us safe.

Melinda was able to attend many workshops and gained a lot of new and useful information. We exhibited some of our products, met many new friends, and got reacquainted with many old friends. Overall it was a good time. Beckie was the only child with us, and she had an upset stomach part of the time, but she was a trooper and a good sport.

On Saturday night, we took a "Monuments by Moonlight" tour and saw many of the memorials in our Nation's capital. It was about a four hour tour, but I think you could spend several times that long and still not see everything.

But we are still very glad to be home. Exhausted and ready for some rest.

Special Needs Homeschooling – Memory Difficulties

All children forget things they’ve heard now and then, but for some children forgetfulness happens frequently and is problematic. Parents of the chronically forgetful are faced with the difficult task of trying to determine if their child is genuinely not retaining information or is being willfully non-compliant.

One way to determine if memory issues are causing difficulties is to check in with the child is to see if she can repeat back what you just told her to do. A child who only remembers one out of three directions will not be able to comply with completing all three. Sometimes a child with working memory difficulties can repeat back what they’ve heard immediately, but the information is not retained long enough for them to act on it before it is forgotten. When memory issues are causing difficulties, there are a number of strategies to improve retention and compensate for weaknesses.

One way to help those who have trouble remembering things is to develop routines that can become habits. For example, if you want your child to do the same three things every morning, have him perform the activities in the same order and in the same location each day. Once there has been enough repetition to form a habit, the child no longer has to work to remember the three morning chores.

Some children remember sequences and lists better when using music as an auditory prompt and reminder. Try making up songs that incorporate the task you want your child to complete. Generate your own song or use a familiar tune and change the words to fit the activity.

Songs allow for repetition, which helps with memory and can aid your child in sticking with an activity for an adequate amount of time. For instance, you could sing a song about washing hands to help your child remember all the steps involved and to keep them washing long enough to get clean. They can learn a tooth brushing song and sing it in their minds to keep them brushing and remembering to brush the top and bottom teeth on both sides.

Another strategy to facilitate memory is to use visual cues in addition to the auditory directions given to a child. For young children or those with language delays, use gestures along with your verbal directions. If you need to remind your child to put his coat in the closet, point to the coat and then to the closet as you tell him to pick up the coat and hang it where it belongs.

When a child has difficulty remembering routine daily activities try using pictures, charts, and lists that can serve as constant visual reminders. This will relieve some of the burden on auditory or working memory alone. Post the charts or checklists where the child can see them at the time and place they are needed to complete the tasks. This will also help the child to be consistently reminded through visual cues without the parent needing to frequently prompt and repeat what needs to be done.

For activities that are not part of a routine, the child needs to develop strategies using internal cues to help retain the information long enough to complete tasks. For some children, repeating the directions to themselves over and over until the job is done may be effective. For example, the child who is likely to forget what he was sent upstairs to retrieve might prompt himself by repeating, “Go to the bedroom. Bring back the history book.”

My own children benefited greatly by applying the “make a movie” technique. Before I’d give them a direction, I’d instruct them to “make a movie in your mind” about what I was telling them to do. Then I would tell them step-by-step what I wanted them to do. I’d ask them to picture themselves completing the task and encouraged them to imagine themselves following the directions to completion.

The more color, detail, and even humor that was included in their movies, the easier it was for them to remember what they needed to accomplish. I’d tell them to push the “play” button and then send them off to do the errand with a reminder that if they forgot what they needed to do they could replay the movie in their minds and see if that helped them remember.

Memory challenges can be frustrating for parents and children alike. By incorporating strategies into daily activities, children can begin to develop skills and learn to compensate for their memory difficulties. It’s never too early or too late to work on improving memory.

Homeschooling? Buy yourself flowers!

With all the commercials and advertisements for "back to school", it's easy to see the portrayal of relief as parents send their children back to school. For those of us who homeschool, this time of year means getting back to work. Most homeschoolers take the summer off or do a lighter schedule during traditional school break times, so the end of summer means it's time to kick it up a notch again. There are notification forms to fill out and turn in, curriculum to prepare, and school supplies to buy or locate. Homeschoolers, it can seem as if everyone else is sighing with relief that school is starting while for you the work is about to increase. Don't buy in to those feelings of dread! We homeschool for a variety of reasons, and it's good to review them before diving into a new school year. Why did we decide to homeschool? What were those benefits again? Keep these foremost in your mind and you will find renewed enthusiasm for the tasks ahead. I started a tradition years ago that I'd like to share with you. The first day of school each year, I do a shorter school day to ease us all back into the routine. After we've finished the day's assignments, I go to a flower store and buy myself some fresh flowers. I pick out a card (okay, sometimes I pick out a sympathy card because let's face it - homeschooling is hard work!) and I have my children sign it. Then I set the flowers and card on the dining room table for all to enjoy...until the cats knock the vase over.

Pillow case, anyone?

My son, Josh, and my daughter, Beckie, both have been diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. If you've ever mistaken the words "truck sale" for "drug sale", for example, you'll have an inkling of what it's like for them. Pairing visual cues along with auditory directions is helpful, but sometimes I forget to do that. A few weeks ago we were rushing around getting ready to go to a conference. As I was taking my mental inventory of things I needed to take with me, I realized that I'd left my medication upstairs in my bedroom and would need to take a dose while we were still at the conference. So, as Josh was heading upstairs I asked him to grab my purple pill case from my bedroom so we could take it with us. He answered with his usual, "Sure, Mom" and headed upstairs. He was gone for several minutes, and when he finally came back downstairs he approached me with a baffled look on his face. He was holding up a pillow case and said, "I hope this is what you wanted because it's the only pillow case I could find. I don't know if it's purple or not." Josh's color blindness aside, I'm sure my face mirrored his bewilderment back to him until I realized that he had heard "pill case" as "pillow case" and had done his best to comply. You gotta love a guy who will unquestioningly hunt down a pillow case, no questions asked.

Ginger Ale and Latin

My son Josh has difficulty remembering things. Once he's gotten information into his long-term memory, it's there to stay. It's hard to make the transfer before the information evaporates. We laugh about some of the things he does remember, which appear to be random snippets of his various life experiences. Once he surprised me by instantly translating the words when I was reading a quote in Latin. He remembered that the Latin phrase for "Death to tyrants!" was shouted at President Lincoln's assassination just before John Wilkes Booth jumped to the stage. Not only did Josh have the receptive understanding, he was able to say it out loud without struggling to recall a single word. He had heard it one time during a documentary his father was listening to on a car trip. Another time we were talking about the time he and his Dad went on a camping trip with a group of friends. At one point during the weekend Josh wanted to get something out of our van and inadvertently locked the keys inside. Since they were in a different state than I was, I could not provide the spare set of keys so they had to call an auto service to unlock the doors. As we recalled the incident together, Josh remarked that he drank a can of ginger ale while waiting for help to arrive. There are times when he can't remember what errand his Dad asked him to do before going to work, but he remembers drinking that ginger ale clearly. Isn't memory fascinating?

I'll prioritize that...later!

Sometimes there are so many things to do that it's hard to figure out where to start. This is true whether you are organizationally challenged or not. It's easy to become overwhelmed when faced with a long to-do list. I've noticed that the naturally disorganized members of my family have a hard time with the executive functions of initiating and prioritizing, and often they start with less important things that are easier and will take less time to get done. Unfortunately, that often means that pressing matters wait while non-critical items get done first. I have tried to help my son Josh with prioritizing by reviewing his to-do lists, putting stars by the most important items or high-lighting them. (Some of you know that Josh is color blind, but he can still see differences in color contrasts.) I've discussed with him the items that are on a deadline to be completed, and the items that can wait a little longer though hopefully not indefinitely. After one such heart-to-heart chat with Josh, he pensively nodded his head before replying, "Okay, Mom. I'll prioritize that later." Aaarrgh! At least Josh realized the contradiction and gave me one of his famous "maybe being cute will be enough this time" grins as a reward for my fruitless efforts!

Literally!

Josh tends to take things very literally. As a speech therapist, I have worked with him over the years to help him recognize and understands figures of speech, proverbial statements, metaphors, and to make inferences from what he hears and reads. He has gotten better, although he still tends to take things literally unless it is a familiar phrase or concept. He has also progressed in his problem solving skills, using logic and past experience as a guide.
I am usually glad to see him try to reason things out on his own, but once when I wanted him to follow a direction literally he went in another direction. I had found a recipe for making omelets in a zip-loc bag. It was recommended for families because each member could put the ingredients they preferred into a zip-loc bag and then boil the bags until the omelet was cooked. Then each person could have an omelet exactly as he or she liked it, and it could slide from the bag onto a plate for serving. This sounded like a good idea to me, so I decided to try it out. I mixed up an omelet, put it in a zip-loc bag, and put on a large pot of water to boil. A few minutes later as I worked in another room, I called to Josh in the kitchen to see if the water was boiling. He said it was, so I asked him, "Would you please put the zip-loc bag into the water for me?" His reply was the usual, "Sure!" About five minutes later, I went to check on my omelet, and to my dismay I saw that the bag had leaked and there were rivulets of egg and other ingredients floating around like some sort of disgusting soup. Then I realized that the bag was not leaking...there was no bag! Josh had opened it up and dumped everything in the water. He remembered me saying to put the bag in the water, but that didn't make sense to him and I had never asked him to boil anything in a bag before. So, he reasoned that I must really mean to empty the bag's contents into the pot. For future reference, I encouraged him to ask for clarification if I was giving him a direction that didn't make sense to him.
More recently, I handed Josh a jar of salsa, a bowl for the salsa, a bag of chips, and a bowl for the chips. I asked him to put the salsa in its bowl and put the bag of chips into the other bowl. He said the usual, "Sure" and proceeded to put the salsa into the bowl. I continued on with other things and Josh finished what he was doing and wandered off to play on the computer. I had to laugh when I saw a full, unopened bag of tortilla chips inside a large bowl. I showed it to Josh and asked if that was really his idea of putting the chips in the bowl. He grinned sheepishly and said he just "spaced out" on that one. I am choosing to believe that's the truth.

Do You Have A Napkin?

While riding in the car with Beckie the other day, she called to me from the back seat asking if I had a napkin. I tend to keep a supply of napkins handy, and I was happy she had thought to ask for one instead of just wiping her hands on the upholstery or ignoring a spill in hopes that it would dry without Mom ever noticing it. But Beckie's next question took me by surprise, because as soon as I handed her a napkin she asked if I had a pen or pencil. As it turned out, she wanted the napkin so she could write down a friend's phone number before she forgot it. But a napkin? My first thought would have been to ask for a piece of paper to write something down on. This got me thinking about the way the AD/HD mind works. Scott, my husband, has been writing things down on napkins, receipts, paper menus, envelopes, and scraps of papers ever since I first met him. Our son, Josh, is also a napkin writer. And now Beckie has joined in the practice. The problem is, this system doesn't really work. Napkins and scraps of paper get thrown out. If I notice writing on them, I save them, but often the writer no longer remembers whose phone number is written down. So we have torn off corners of paper with lonely phone numbers lacking owners, but can't throw them out on the chance that the writer will somehow recollect the significance of the number sometime in the future. Since the scraps are often small and irregular in size, there is no good way to store them and make them look neat. I think Post-it notes would be much better to use, or even better than that would be the small spiral bound notebooks that are portable and would prevent the loss of loose napkins or torn off envelope flaps. Each of my AD/HD family members has been provided with these tools, yet each persists in napkin/scraps of paper writing despite frequently not being able to access the information at a later date. My non-AD/HD daughter doesn't napkin write, so I suspect it has something to do with the way the AD/HD brain approaches tasks. Are there other napkin writers out there?

Home at Last!

Wow! What a rush!
Last weekend was the first that we had spent at home for six weeks. Beginning in late April, all through May and the first weekend of June we were exhibiting at homeschool conventions.
We traveled to Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey. I estimate that we drove around 5,000 miles. We met lots of great people for the first time, and saw some old friends. I wish we had many, many more hours to speak with you folks. It is quite a rush to teach, learn, encourage and generally share life with people who are going through the same struggles and challenges. It is draining, but well worth it. I hope we helped many of you.

In talking with hundreds of people who are grappling with special needs challenges, there is one thing that I find most common. Everyone at some point (and often it is after a six hour session trying to teach a 30 minute math lesson) asks themselves "Am I really up to this? Wouldn't Josh be better off in public school where they are trained to handle this?" The answer is always: Yes, you are up to it and no, he wouldn't be better off. Even if you are not officially homeschooling, the fact of the matter is that you will still be homeschooling. Let me explain.
The public schools are by definition and necessity designed to serve the masses. Their weakest point is when they have to specialize or accomodate for people who learn differently or have learning disabilities. If you child falls into this catagory, he/she will get the standard issue education- whether or not it is a good fit for their needs. If they are to succeed, you as the parent will have to complete their schooling at home. Thus you will still be homeschooling.

Strengths of homeschooling are: teacher-to-student ratio (tough to beat 1-to-1),
self-paced & independent study,
wide choice of methods & curriculum,
better, personalized learning environment.

So be encouraged and be reassured.
It is frustrating.
It is exhausting.
It is also the very best thing you can do for your child.

A Way With Words

Well, standardized testing time is here again and I just got Beckie's test results back. Her highest score was for language expression, which should come as a surprise to no one who knows her. I suspect this may help explain why you can't win an argument with Beckie. She always has an answer, even if her answer is incorrect. She is never at a loss for words, and has a driving need to get the last word in during any discussion if she is comfortable with her conversation partner. If she is not at ease, she may let the verbal discussion come to an end, but I'm sure she finishes it in her head so she's still getting the final say. She is continually expanding her vocabulary by impulsively blurting something out, and then asking what a word she just used actually means. I can usually tell if it's a word she's picked up by reading, because the pronunciation is off. But Beckie also has an ear for hearing subtle nuances, and once she's heard a word a few times she's got the pronunciation down. We've started learning Spanish, and I've been impressed with how easily Beckie is producing the words. So this is what happens with the kids who were always non-stop talkers as they become teens? Not a bad outcome at all.

Communication

Everyone in my family is a native English speaker, so you'd think we'd be able to communicate with each other with ease. After all, we speak the same language, right? I don't know if this is AD/HD related, sensory processing related, or something else, but my two children with AD/HD seem to express themselves differently than my neurotypical child. This shows up most clearly when they are feeling sick. I'll ask my neurotypical child what her symptoms are, and get a precise description that's almost cellular in detail. I'll ask my AD/HD children what their symptoms are, and I'll get vague descriptions that confuse me. They can be tired, but not sleepy. Their stomachs can be queasy, but not upset. Words that most people use as synonyms have very distinct differences to them. When they do describe symptoms in ways I understand, they still express them in unique ways. For example, when my son had strep throat, he didn't tell me his throat hurt very badly. He told me, after a thoughtful pause, that it felt like his uvula had been acided off. I don't think "acided" is even a word, but I got the picture. I usually end up going through a total body checklist with them when they appear sick, asking if they have symptoms in various areas until I can pull the information together to get an overall impression. None of my children have language delays or disorders, so their inability to just state the facts of their illnesses baffles me. Even when I think I have an idea of what they are experiencing, I've learned that the symptoms may change within a few hours. What started out as only an upset stomach can end up as a sore throat or aching leg muscle. I think it may be that the way they process sensory information, including their internal sensations, is atypical. They may have a vague awareness of symptoms for a while before they become severe enough to enter into their conscious thoughts, and it may take even longer to discriminate the exact location and severity of the sensations. Since I can't get into their bodies to experience what they are feeling, I will have to continue to try and translate their use of language into something recognizable so we can treat the symptoms - whatever they are!

Conference Schedule, 2007

We will be running around like screaming banshees this year. Here is a listing of where we will be, and when. If you see a bedraggled and confused man, sitting on the ground, counting his fingers and mumbling to himself, please take pity on him and direct him to this list.
Also, if "SPEAKING" appears after the event Melinda will be presenting one or more of her workshops.

Indiana Association Home Educators (IAHE) - March 23-24, 2007 (Indianapolis, IN);
Indiana Homeschool Support (IHS) - March 31, 2007 (New Paris, IN);
Dayton Resource & Curriculum Fair (DRCF) - April 27, 2007 (Dayton, OH)- SPEAKING;
Information Network for Christian Homes (INCH) - May 4-5, 2007 (Lansing, MI);
Christian Homeschool Assoc. of PA (CHAP) - May 11-12, 2007 (Harrisburg, PA);
Fort Wayne Area Home Schools (FWAHS) - May 18-19, 2007 (Ft Wayne, IN);
Florida Parent-Educators Assoc. (FPEA) - May 24-26, 2007 (Orlando, FL);
Education Network of Christian Homeschoolers (ENOCH) - June 1-2, 2007 (Edison, NJ)- SPEAKING;
Christian Home Educators of Ohio (CHEO) - June 21-23, 2007 (Columbus, OH)- SPEAKING;
School Based Occupational Therapists & Physical Therapists - August, 2007;
Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD) - November 1-10, 2007 (Crystal City, VA);

Clean?

My AD/HD family members like to spread out their belongings, and don't really seem to notice the stacks of clutter until my twitching is impossible to ignore. I realize that organizing and noticing details doesn't come naturally to them, so to simplify the tasks I sat down and wrote step by step directions for each room in the house. I listed what supplies are needed, where to find the supplies, what tasks should be done daily, which ones only need done weekly, and some jobs that could be done just as needed. I stood in each room, reading and revising the lists, until I was convinced that if each of the items on the list were completed the room would look reasonably clean. I slipped each list into a plastic sleeve, so the items could be marked off with a dry erase marker when completed. I put each sleeve on a ring, so it could be hung on a designated hook and easily located and replaced once a room was cleaned.
I still think it's a good idea, and it should have worked. Should have. It wasn't long before the excuses starting coming in - no dry erase marker could be found, the written list had gone missing and no one remembered moving it or seeing it, or my least favorite "The room looked pretty good already." Just yesterday, I asked my son Josh to please clean the kitchen since he had been assigned that room for the week. He started the dishwasher, then informed me he had to leave for work. Before I could say anything, he pointed out "But at least the sink is empty." A glance revealed dirty dishes in both sides of the sink, although there were fewer than before he started. I pointed out that the sink was not in fact empty, but Josh just cheerfully replied that at least it looked better than it had. Somehow my AD/HD ones equate "starting the dishwasher" with "I cleaned the kitchen now" even if the sink, counters, and floor are filthy. In their minds, the kitchen is clean and they are happy with it.
Reminders to use the list loop us back to the previously listed excuses. It puzzles me that they seem to like it when things are clean and they can find what they need when they need it, but they won't put forth the effort to maintain it even when I finally manage to get things truly clean.

organizational skills

Someone wrote to me recently, asking how to help adults who have never developed good organizational skills. Lack of organization skills impacts every area of life, and can leave highly intelligent people at a disadvantage when they can't get their hands on what they need when they need it. Being brilliant won't matter much if appointments are missed or deadlines aren't met. An average person who is organized has an advantage over an average person who is disorganized. Life is complex and there is a plethora of information to keep track of, so as much as we may inwardly rebel against the constructs of organization, we must acknowledge the necessity for it. Here are some tips that my husband uses to help his naturally disorganized brain to keep track of important things. He makes as many daily tasks as possible a habit, done at the same time and the same way so he doesn't have to think about them and remember what to do next. It's just automatic. He leaves his keys on top of things he needs to take with him later, even if that means leaving his keys in odd places like the refrigerator, because that way he knows he won't leave without the item he needs. He uses reminder alarms on his computer, thus freeing himself up from having to memorize dates and times and eliminating the problem inherent in writing notes on napkins and scraps of paper which inadvertently get thrown out by some organized person who thinks it's trash. He keeps a notepad and pencil handy when he has to sit still at church or some other meeting, because wouldn't you know that's when his brain tends to think of things and he can write them down before the ideas are lost. He has used audio recording devices, which I highly recommend for use in the car. That's much safer than trying to write things down while driving or at a traffic light. The problem we had with that was that the device got lost before a habit of keeping it in a designated spot was established. Despite that, it's still a good strategy. Just start out with an inexpensive model first!

Pacing Your Work

Those with AD/HD are known for their impulsive actions and high energy. But there are also those who are excruciatingly slow for some tasks despite their hyperactivity in general. My son Josh, well-known to the homeschool groups I've spoken to, had no difficulty stretching a twenty minute math assignment to two hours. Even when he took a few college classes, one of his "two hour" finals took him over six hours, even in a quiet room with material he understood. He got a "B" in the class, but probably put in ten times the effort of the "A" students over the quarter. You can see why going to college full-time is out of the question for Josh. There aren't enough hours in the day for him to complete all the assignments at the rate he works. His work is of good quality but it takes him much longer to get results than his neurotypical peers. His keyboarding skills have also progressed, but not in a typical manner. After trying four or five different keyboarding programs, including one based on basketball, one on a favorite video game character, and one that is widely used to teach typing, Josh gave up and persisted with his hunt and peck method. He uses the index fingers on both hands, and his speed is not bad considering his unorthodox method. Since Josh is writing a science fiction novel, I asked him if he wanted to try some of the keyboarding programs again to help with his typing. His response was "I type at the speed I'm thinking, so what I do works just right for me." He has always had his own pace, and eventually gets done what he sets out to do. It doesn't match the pace that most others have, but it's a fit for how his brain works.

In her own time

Yesterday, my youngest daughter tested for her black belt in karate. She is 13 years old and has been in martial arts classes since she was 4 years old. When she first started in karate class, the flourescent lighting, ceiling fans, wall of mirrors, parents chatting in the waiting area, and other children working on various skills around the room were overwhelmingly distracting for her. She was such a joyful child in everything she did that she just went with what her brain and body told her to do. Unfortunately for her instructor, that meant holding her pony tail up behind her head and twirling it as she watched herself dance in front of the mirrors, talking to herself or anyone who was near her the entire class time. It may sound cute, but it was disruptive and painful to watch sometimes. You know the looks you get from other parents when your child isn't conforming to the expectations. I got plenty of those looks. I talked to my daughter, and tried to coach her before and after class, and I let her continue taking lessons long after everyone else had surpassed her in belt after belt, while she seemed stuck on white with a stripe or two. Kids who started the same time she did moved up to other classes. Kids who started quite a while after she did moved up to more advanced classes. I sat there in the parent waiting area, watching my sweet, dancing, singing child enjoy herself but gain few skills. She just couldn't seem to grasp right vs. left. Her memory issues made it difficult for her to retain the sequences of movements for even the simplest kata routines. I thought maybe one day the belt would wear out and at least that way she'd get a new one. But she was enjoying classes and needed an outlet for all her energy, so we stuck it out with her. Over the next couple years, she grew and matured. And one day, things started to click. It was that sudden - I remember the day it happened. I looked at the instructor, he looked at me, and my girl wasn't looking at anyone because she had started focusing and remembering what to do. She could follow directions and understand the Japanese words she'd been hearing for years. The forward progress never stopped after that day. Finally, she was able to advance from belt to belt. She could stand still. She could go without talking for a sustained period of time. She became coordinated and strong. She is able to assist her instructor with some of the younger children's classes, and she seems good at it. Now she is a board-breaking black belt and would tell you it was worth the years of work to get there.

To tell, or not to tell...

Making a decision about whether or not to try medication with your child is often an agonizing process. Once the decision is made, the results can lead you into discussions with a variety of people. Sometimes the effects are so amazing that your only regret is that you waited so long to give medication a try. At other times, the side effects are disappointing or it takes longer than you hoped to get the dosage right. It is only natural to want to talk about these things with your friends and family. The problem is, as soon as you let people know of your decision to medicate or not medicate, the unsolicited advice and commenting begins. Guess what? You are going to be judged no matter what you decide! If you go ahead and give medication a try, you will have people who are opposed to medication under any circumstance and look askance at you for "drugging" your child. If you decide that medication is not the best choice for you at this time, you will have people who are convinced you are cheating your child out of his best opportunity to function successfully by withholding medication. These decisions weigh so heavily and consume our thoughts that the tendency is to talk freely about them with just about anyone who is within hearing distance. It can come as a surprise that others hold such strong opinions about what you should or should not do with your child, and they may hold their positions vehemently. And you will always have people who believe you made the wrong choice. So should you tell others what you have decided about medication, knowing that you will be judged by some and supported by others? I'd say yes, but choose carefully to find safe people who will not blast away at you even if they disagree with the choice you've made. Share, absolutely. Just not indiscriminately.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Overdiagnosed?

I've heard so many people say that AD/HD is overdiagnosed that I've lost count of the number. Most of these people do not have AD/HD themselves, nor do their children. Interestingly, when I looked up "overdiagnosed" on an online dictionary to confirm the correct spelling I found that all the links to this word were connected to AD/HD with ads for articles in the following categories:
Attention Deficit Treatment
Adult Deficit Disorder
Attention Deficit in Adults
Attention Deficit Syndrome
Attention Deficit Disorder

You can check this out yourself at this link:

It would appear that there is a common perception that AD/HD is overdiagnosed and children are being overmedicated today. Yet a recent study by a team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO would suggest just the opposite. Their findings showed that almost half of the children who had a diagnosis of AD/HD are not receiving any medication as treatment. (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, July 2006)
It is undeniable that the number of individuals being diagnosed has increased greatly over the past few decades. I think the increase reflects improvement in our awareness of the disorder and a recognition that in today's society the impact of having AD/HD is far more readily apparent than in the past. One great advancement, in my opinion, is the acknowledgement that AD/HD is not exclusively a disorder of childhood. Adults continue to experience the effects of their AD/HD, even though it is more likely to be manifested in unfinished projects, for example, than in the blatant hyperactivity sometimes shown in childhood. For those with primarily inattentive ADD, it is often a relief to be diagnosed even as an adult if the diagnosis was not made during the school years. It helps to explain so much, and points the way to figuring out treatment options. Even adults are sometimes helped by medication, and finding a good support group or ADD Coach can be life changing. Adults with AD/HD often have children who share the disorder, and these parents are eager to help their children to avoid some of the pitfalls they experienced as children.

So here's a new thought: What if AD/HD is actually being underdiagnosed?

Learning Curve

If you have a child with learning challenges, you've probably wondered at times if they will ever master certain tasks. If learning is represented as a curved line, and the line curves more sharply with rapid learning, then slower learners are more accurately represented by a longer line with a gradual upward slope. Does it ever seem to you that your child's learning curve isn't actually curving at all but is more like a straight line extending to infinity? If so, you are not alone. I've observed it over and over with multiple learning tasks. My "neurotypical" child has a learning curve that looks pretty much like the majority of learning curves for the general population. My two special needs learners are more like bumpy lines with occasional spikes. Not stairsteps, not smooth upward curves, but jolts and spurts. I still haven't figured out what actually causes the spurts, or prevents them for that matter. What I can tell you is that they need a whole lot more repetition and practice than the average child does to master a skill. They also appear to finally "master" a skill only to have it mysteriously evaporate by the next day. Then it reappears again, not taking quite as long the second, third, and fourth time around. It's as if their neurological wiring shorts out, causing them to lose information that had been available to them only moments before. Yes, it's very frustrating - for me and for them. I don't know why that happens, but I know it is not uncommon among those with learning challenges. Frustration or not, it's what we have to deal with and we press on until another spike in learning occurs. Some of you may be visualizing large increases as are sometimes shown on charts in business meetings. The spikes I'm seeing are much smaller. Distinguishable from the bumpy line, but not huge upward thrusts like some people experience when they have a breakthrough. Yet I rejoice in the seemingly little jolts of learning for my children, because I know that eventually those small increases will accumulate and the skills will be successfully incorporated beyond the point that they could evaporate. They will still continue to learn in a manner similar to a bumpy line, but now that line is just a little higher. And if you look really closely along that line, you just might see a tiny slope emerging.

Pretend I'm Dead!

One of the toughest tasks I've faced as a parent is teaching my kids to take responsibility. I understand that my children's particular learning challenges coincide with a two to four year delay in maturity, but even taking that into account I have been only partially successful in teaching them to take responsibility for their actions, time, possessions, and other obligations. When they were very young, it took them longer than most to learn and complete simple tasks and develop routines. I admit, there were times when I went ahead and did things myself because I didn't have time or patience to wait on them. But most of the time, I allotted the time for the kids to do things for themselves and insisted that they do as much as possible independently. I taught them how to do simple chores, daily self-care routines, cook, and clean. I gave them charts, lists, and all the supplies they needed to be successful. Yet I still watched in bewilderment as my son would walk into a chair and say "That stupid chair!" as if the chair exerted its will and deliberately moved in front of my son instead of my son just taking responsibility for his own inattentiveness. My daughter would trip over one of her toys that she had neglected to put away and then turn around and kick it for being in her way. When they couldn't find their shoes, I would hear them grumbling about "those stupid shoes" and making comments like "Somebody must have moved them because I can't find them." Even though there were designated spots for shoes, books, and toys, when they couldn't find them my kids never seemed able to connect their actions of not putting things where they belong to not being able to find them later. It is easier for them to immediately ask for help rather than try to problem solve and come up with solutions on their own. My son, who has short-term memory issues, has refused to use aids like calendars, lists, and planners. So when he needs to call someone, he never has the number readily accessible. When he wants to call his Dad at work, he asks whoever is around at the time to tell him the number. Since Dad has been at the same job for years now, I figured that my son should either make an effort to memorize the number or write it down someplace where he can consistently find it. I've started asking him questions like "How are you going to remember your appointment date and time?" and "When do you think you should leave in order to get there in time, and how will you prompt yourself when it's time to go?" His usual answer is to grin and say "You'll remind me!" This week I've instituted a new strategy. I ask him my coaching questions, and then add "Pretend I'm dead!" so he has to come up with a strategy that doesn't involve me. So far, it has seemed to stimulate his taking a bit more responsibility to come up with his own solutions.

Discipline

Have you ever noticed that kids respond in different ways to discipline? Even kids in the same family, with the same corrective measures often respond in different ways. That's why I'm leary of any "Use this approach and it's guaranteed to work" programs or books. I once got a recipe for "Never-Fail Pie Crust" and I was afraid to use it since I thought I might be the first failure. I've felt like that with parenting books, too. My son was impervious to many of the techniques I'd read about and tried with him, and sometimes in retrospect I felt like they were more damaging than helpful. Our church offered a course once on raising kids, and even the title was intimidating since it claimed to be the way God would want us to raise our children. Well, I do want to please God and do things the right way, so my husband and I went through the course. The techniques no doubt worked for some kids and I've talked to people who say the program was a tremendous help for them. For awhile, I did what the program prescribed, but I didn't get the same results as the authors. Not even close. So I was left to think that either God's way doesn't work for my children - a scary thought - or perhaps He who created unique children has more than one way of loving and raising them.

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!
After the cookouts, parades and fireworks I have been reflecting on the meaning of Independence as it relates to my family.

Dr Jim Dobson has said that parenting is the only vocation in the world where you work your way out of a job just as your starting to get good at it. His meaning as I understand it is that our goal as parents is to raise up our children to the point that they are independent and don't need us anymore. This is a daunting task. It is all the more difficult when you are dealing with special needs kids.

Right now we are dealing with my son, Joshua and his struggle with time management. Sometimes it seems that Josh invented the concept of slow motion replay. Left on his own, he will finish his morning toilet, shower, dressing and breakfast just in time for... lunch. He has two speeds: "Stop" and "Plod."
We have tried reasoning, threatening, nagging, bribing and shaming. We've tried reminders, lists, prompts, voice recorders. We haven't found anything effective yet, but we will keep trying.
This is an area that is critical for his future success. And ultimately, that is what our goal is - self-reliance and independence.

Happy 4th of July.

"Fooled them again"

My dad once told me a story about Pulitzer Prize winning sports writer Grantland Rice. Rice couldn't believe that his writing was popular. In fact, it was rumoured that he would finish a column, pull the paper out of his typewriter, sit back and say to himself "Well, fooled them again!"
That's kind of how I feel right now. We just finished presenting two workshops at the CHEO convention. We had a good time talking with the folks who were kind enough to attend and listen to HUMom speak and watch our PowerPoint presentation. If they only knew.....

Last year, we proposed several ideas for new workshops to the conventions that we normally attend. Due to a series of snafus, I was late applying to CHEO, and initially we weren't going to speak at all. Later, two spots opened up and they asked us to speak - one time on an old topic and another time with a brand new workshop on "Sensory Integration." Unfortunately, I forgot to tell HUMom about that until a week before the convention. (It is a testament to her graciousness that I am still alive!) Thankfully, she already had much of it together in her mind, and was able to pull it together in time. I put the finishing touches on the PowerPoint the night before the convention started.

The next morning, I thought I would take a quick look at the other presentation ("Modifying Curriculum for Special Needs") to make sure everything was okay. What I found was that the file we had on my laptop (HUMom's laptop is in the shop for repairs) was two years old, and the presentation had been modified several times. So, I had to scramble to put the presentation together again. Things are never dull in our household!

We thoroughly enjoyed talking with all of you, and hope that you found some things that are usefull and helpful.

Trip to Florida

Well, our trip to Orlando for the Florida Parent Educators Association convention turned into quite the memorable event.

Things went pretty well until we hit Macon, Georgia. Then, Josh yells "Oh no!" and reports that "parts are falling off the trailer!" When we pulled over, I found that he was correct. The metal rock plate that was screwed onto the front of the trailer had come loose, and was flapping around. This of course, lead to stress on the other screws, which proceeded to pop off one by one, like the buttons on my shirt after a Thanksgiving dinner. By the time we got to a gas station, they were almost all gone. I bought a roll of duct tape, and that held it together for the rest of the trip. (You really can fix almost anything with duct tape.)

We were okay for another half hour when the van started lurching and sputtering. I was hoping that we had just gotten some bad gas, but another 30 minutes saw us losing power and sputtering even worse. By this time, it was 5:30. God was with us, though, and we stopped at Cordele, GA. There was a Comfort Inn, a Wendy's, a WalMart and a car rental place just around the corner. I spent the evening making phone calls, but AAA didn't have any suggestions or approved repair shops nearby. The more I thought about it, I didn't like my options - Wednesday before Memorial Day, with no way to drive the last 300 miles to Orlando. Even if we found a repair shop, it didn't look like a quick fix was in the cards. I considered getting a rental, but usually they don't like you hauling trailers with their rentals. Besides that, I figured rental for four days, plus mileage would probably run over $1,000 - and I'd have to leave HUMom there to watch over the repairs. Not a good plan.

Plan B was for everyone to stay, which would mean we miss the convention altogether, and we have to pay for the hotel until the van is fixed. And, if the van isn't powerful enough to haul the trailer, I still have the source of the problem to deal with. Did I mention that the van has 110,000 miles? Hmmmmm. Plan B isn't looking too good either.

This made for a rather restless & sleepless night for me. The only repair shops we knew of were two dealerships, a Ford and a Chevy. Plan C started forming in my fevered brain.

At 8:00 we limped into the Ford dealership, and HUMom said "We are about to make someone's day" Three hours later, we drove off the lot in a new Expedition. HUMom is very happy. Three kids in the back are very happy, watching the DVD player. HeadsUpDad is trying very hard not to think about 7 years of payments, stretching out before him. Sigh.

Executive Functions

Executive functions like planning, initiative, problem solving, and more are so important to the success of every day endeavors. Those who have them appreciate the benefits but probably don't stop to think about them very often since they occur almost automatically and without a great deal of effort. But what about those who lack executive functions? They can be taught, but only through time-consuming methods that are often difficult to implement consistently. My son, who has a lot of raw ability, lacks many areas of executive functioning. His impulsivity, distractibility, and working memory issues override his higher cognitive processes, with the result that he is like an orchestra without a conductor. The musicians may all be talented, but if they are playing different songs at different times in different keys the result is neither impressive nor desirable. This must be true for so many who feel like they are underachieving and not living up to their own or others' expectations of them. How frustrating it must be to have people tell you how much you could do if only you would get your act together. Easy to say, but excruciatingly painful to someone who is not efficient when it comes to getting things done despite their best efforts. Such a person may spend ten times as long to get equivalent results as an individual for whom executive functioning comes naturally.

Late Again

My son just left at 7:33 for a class that starts at 7:30. He remembered the class, mentioned it to me 20 minutes before its starting time, and I reminded him that he should be getting ready to go soon. It is a 7 minute drive for him to get to the building the class is in. Add another few minutes to put his things in place and be ready to begin. Cognitively, he is bright. We have talked about planning ahead to get places on time. We have discussed the scientific impossibility of leaving home at 7:30 and arriving at his class at 7:30, and he understands it. It is not just this particular class, but any appointment when he has to be somewhere that he leaves home at the time he should be arriving at his destination. It does not matter what time of day it is, he is always late. We have given watches, planners, verbal reminders, and timers. Not one of these things has been effective in getting him places on time. His father and I have tried not reminding and prompting, to see if our son will become more independent and step up to the challenge of getting someplace (anyplace!) on time. No go. Truly. Nothing seems to make any difference. We are hoping for some new ideas, since our son wants to get a part-time job, but we don't know where he could work that doesn't involve showing up at a specified time and being on time.

Got patience?

I had the opportunity to speak at a homeschooling conference in Michigan over the weekend, and one of the questions I was asked was "How can you be so happy and continue working with such distractible kids?" I've had my share of discouragement and anxiety, and wouldn't think of myself as exuding happiness, yet I've found that the perspective I have makes all the difference to my contentment or lack thereof. I used to labor over teaching my AD/HD son, watching hours of my life go by as he managed to stretch a 20 minute assignment into a two hour assignment - again. His distractibility often pulled us both off course, and my need to accomplish certain tasks in a timely manner was repeatedly thwarted. The frustration was constant and intense. One day, as I reminded myself that Josh wasn't deliberately trying to drive me nuts (although he couldn't have picked a better method if he was) I realized that Josh really couldn't meet the goals that were set for him. His difficulty with schoolwork was obvious, but I realized for the first time that Josh couldn't even meet the goals he set for himself. He was constantly faced with disappointing others with his inability to comply with their agenda, and he was continually faced with his inability to complete even his own personal plans. As frustrating and exhausting as it was for me to try and work with Josh hour after hour, it couldn't be much fun for him when there were many other things he would rather be doing. Most of us would hurry to complete less enjoyable work if it meant we could then pursue more favorable activities. But Josh never did that. He couldn't do that. I had a moment of insight that helped me through the frustrations I felt so often when working with Josh. It was the simple thought "The only thing more frustrating than trying to teach Josh right now would be to BE Josh right now." That freed me up and gave me the extra measure of patience I needed to hang in there with Josh and not give up or take my frustrations out on him.