Many children with ADHD have difficulty with transitions, especially very young children. A five year long study out of Lehigh University reviews the benefits of counting down the time before switching activities and found that at least in children, youngsters are better able to control outbursts spurred by ADHD. The five-year study, paid for by the National Institutes of Health, provided a range of behavioral-only therapies to 135 preschoolers with severe ADHD. Families were given either parent-education classes only, or parenting classes plus home and preschool visits by researchers who customized techniques for each child. After a year, aggression and other problem behaviors had dropped, and learning improved, by about 30 percent, the researchers report this month in a journal of the National Association of School Psychologists.

What helped? Stressing consistent rules and routines, and more praise for good behavior than punishment for bad. Surprisingly, both groups fared equally well, raising questions about how to tell which children need more intense aid. Preschoolers with ADHD learn best through repeated practice so the study stressed role-playing things like how to ask to share a toy. Parents were taught to reserve stronger punishments for worst cases, and to try reward systems where children gain or lose “points” for behavior instead. Even the time-out standby was to be used sparingly.

I am excited to share with you news that the adult version of the Cogmed working memory training program will soon be available in the U.S! Jonas Jendi, CEO of Cogmed, announced that this adult tool for improving focus and concentration should be arriving in the next 2-3 weeks. The Cogmed home-based software program originated in Sweden and is based on the neuroscience research work of Dr. Torkel Klingberg at the Karolinska Institute.  For those of you interested in the science behind working memory training, Dr. Torkel’s website, www.klingberglab.se, posts full journal articles on the benefits of training working memory in multiple conditions such as ADHD, stroke, and normal aging.

Over the past 6 months we at ADD Health and Wellness have had great success with the child version of the software and are pleased to now be able to extend this treatment option to our adult clients as well. Clients completing the program report signficant improvements in attention, learning, and academic skills with this brain training.

The working memory training program offers great flexibility. It can be done -

• in both children and adults
• in person or by phone.
• in individuals with other co-existing condtions or learning disabilities
• in conjunction with multiple other treatment modalities

For a free demo of the software, visit www.Cogmed.com 

This past weekend the regional ADDA conference was sponsored by Brown University and held in Providence RI. As a presenter at the conference, I thought I would share with you some of my experiences and some information I found interesting. For example, did you know that the founder of Johnny Rockets (148 Restaurants Nationwide), Lloyd Sugarman is diagnosed with ADHD. His story is inspiring and encouraged many in the audience with ADHD to remain positive and focus on ADHD strengths such as being creative, taking risks, and thinking outside of the box.

In addition to traditional approaches to treatment, there were seminars on Laughter Yoga (one of my favorites) and how walking a Labyrinth helps adults and children deal with some of the symptoms of ADHD. In addition, there were many success stories shared over the course of the weekend. During the last forum, Vicki Ball, a leader in the ADHD coaching field encouraged a panel of highly successful professionals with ADHD to answer the question: “What gadgets/strategies have helped you the most with managing your ADHD?” the responses were at times emotional and heart felt. Here are some of my favorites:

-  Always utilizing Outlook pop-ups for reminders about meetings and important due dates.

-  Using Post-it notes for urgent items only. For example, one successful lawyer described putting a post-it on her front  door with a list of items “not to forget”- again not everyday, just urgent items. Similarly she places a post-it on the  corner of her computer if she must send an email by the end of the day and places a post it on her telephone if she  must return a call that day.  

-  One heavy sleeper who had great difficulty getting up in the morning used an alarm clock for the deaf to make certain that she woke up.

-  For people who work in a cubicle, wear a headset to improve concentration on telephone calls and to limit other people interrupting you.

-  Turn wristwatch around as a reminder that something important has to be done. It was reported that the discomfort was a great trigger/reminder

-  Respect your energy! Use your energy when you know you have it

-  Ask yourself regularly: “Does it have to be me and Is it really important?”

In general, all of the panel agreed that negative self-talk was pervasive before they learned about ADHD and that it was invaluable to them to learn to “kill the ANTs” which stands for Automatic Negative Thinking. Finally, the group finished with an inspirational quote from Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right”