Wednesday, July 9, 2008

More

I am just going to keep writing for awhile about my experiences w/ ADHD. Let me emphasis that I am relating my personal experiences.I do realize that everyone's journey is so personal and unique, and I respect whatever choices loving parents make for their special needs kids. :)

Yesterday I recommended time4learning curriculum.

I should mention that t4l pays you for referring people to the program. If you recommend someone and they list you as the one who referred them, (at the start of their second month I think is how they work it), you get a check for $20. They even have an email form you can send out to people recommending the program. I have never done that, but just from people asking me what homeschool program I use, I unexpectedly received a check in the mail when someone signed up!

My point is that if you were so inclined you might be able to offset the cost of the program!

Anyhow, back to ADHD...

Two of my kids are diagnosed w/ it. When I first found out about the kids, I went to my pediatrician and talked to her. She recommended medication and I agreed. She is a very good dr and I trust her. They took the medication for about 4 days when I started doing some reading and just did an about face deciding that I did not want to START w/ medication. My ped. doesn't believe you can treat it successfully any other way, but other people who have written books believe you can. So I stopped the medication.

For my son, he is so skinny, and the medicine tends to make kids lose thier appetite.And my daughter, for some reason, I just feel that she is too young to start w/ such a powerful drug. I worried how it would effect her development.Honestly, I don't know if that is fear or mother's intuition or what!

Before I tell you my favorite resource on ADHD, a disclaimer is in order. Do not come crying to me when the author of this book ticks you off! Because he will. ;) I do not think everything he says is true, but his method has worked the best for us so far. Even JD's occupational therapist noticed a difference in his memory after a short time on the program. Sorry,but shortly after that we discontinued OT, so I can't update you further. What can I say? I have ADD too!

The book is Unraveling the ADD/ADHD Fiasco by Dave Stein. In a nutshell, the consequence for misbehavior is a boring timeout. Sounds simple, but what could be worse for a kid w/ ADD? :) After the time out, ask the child why he went there. If he doesn't know, then send him back to think about it(up to 3 times). This stimulates their impulsive brains to evaluate their behavior and stretches the memory.

He also says alot of things I totally disagee w/. I don't have the book in front of me(I got it from the library), so I won't list specifics. Maybe I will one day. That would be fun.

2 comments:

Mrs. Darling said...

Just dropping by to see how you're doing. That header pic must be when the kids were younger?
Glad time4Learning is still working for you!

Jennifer Sr. said...

Yes! much younger!! :)