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Redshirting* and Recent Research

If you’re looking for another reason to consider redshirting, you may want to consider findings published online recently in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to research done over several years on elementary to middle school aged children in Iceland, younger children may not perform as well academically in mathematics and language arts as their slightly older peers.

Additionally, children who are in the youngest third of the class are 50% more likely to be prescribed stimulants to manage symptoms of ADHD between the ages of 7 and 14.

Let me be quick to say that we don’t wish to vilify the use of medications to help with ADHD. To quote Dr. Seuss:

Not one of them
Is like another.
Don’t ask us why.
Go ask your mother.

*Academic Redshirting: holding a child back from starting kindergarten to allow for a little more maturity; often used when a child will be one of the younger ones in the classroom.

What To Do When They Just Can’t Sit Still

You know the type. You can easily recognize her in a classroom setting. The teacher’s talking, and he’s in constant motion. She’s drumming her fingers on the desk. His leg is bouncing up and down with a rhythm to match the tune in his head….except he doesn’t recognize that he’s moving.

The good news is that often, the wiggling and jiggling is an attempt to pay attention. The bad news is that the constant movement looks like distracting and annoying hyperactivity. Aside from starting gym class a little early, what can you do? Take a look at the following tried and true tips to help the ones you love who don’t love sitting:

1. Make a standing commitment. This idea worked very well for Kayla’s youngest son. When he had a task to do, he would stand at the table or desk to get things done. When he was sitting, he was distracted by all sorts of things, but standing up helped him focus on the task at hand. You may be interested in a standing desk. Or simply ask your favorite student to try standing up to work for a change; you may find it’s a simple idea that works.

standing desk recommended for adhd child — Standing Desk

2. Get on the ball. Three years ago, Robi Giuliano first encouraged her fourth grade students in West Chester, PA to take a seat on a yoga ball instead of a traditional desk chai. Guiliano never looked back: students who sit on inflatable bouncers can improve their focus while increasing their balance and core strength. “I have more attentive children, she said. “I’m able to get a lot done with them because they’re sitting on yoga balls.” Once they start sitting on a stability ball, they don’t usually want to go back to a stationary chair. The consequence of losing the privilege keeps students from “accidentally” rolling off the ball or engaging in other distracting horseplay. Sounds like a win-win situation to us! Get your balance chair for your ADHD child here.

balance ball chair for adhd — Ball Chair

3. Sit pretty anywhere. What if your fitness ball doesn’t reach your desk? Maybe your ball isn’t that tall. Or maybe you’d rather try a Fitball Seating Disk. Here’s a product that helps a student keep good posture and improve core strength, and it’s smaller and easier to move around. They can be used inconspicuously in a classroom, and are often part of an IEP or 504. Take a look at the seating discs here. Note that there are different shapes and sizes, and some come with sensory textures.

4. Change it up! My daughter’s choir teacher executes this idea brilliantly. She throws in an exercise when certain students’ attention started to wane. She might give them permission to stand up and stretch, or to turn around and speak 10 words to one person. An elementary school teacher might encourage kids to “shake their sillies out.” Sometimes a simple exercise can change things up enough to help a student regain focus.

5. Give a second choice. For some children, simply offering a different place to sit helps them focus again. Maybe one area is where a child listens better and another area is where she works better. Viva la difference!

How about you? Are you still sitting in the same place? Test some of these ideas for yourself and see if your focus is a little sharper. In the comments below, share your hear your own tried and true tips for jumpstarting your favorite student’s focus.

Joe’s Reading!

Wonder of wonder. Joe is reading. He’s deployed at the moment, and boredom may have something to do with it, but I suspect that the biggest difference is that he bought a Kindle! Once again, electronic devices have won out with him. Have any of you tried a Kindle with your ADHD child?

UPDATE: Joe is out of the NAVY now, and by his admission, he reads a lot less. But when he reads, it is on a Kindle. Another one of our boys is overseas working and studying, and he depends on his Kindle. And they have me hooked, too. I have a Kindle Paperwhite
that I love.

Brock and Lesley

Like Kayla told you last week, I’m Brock Myers, and I’ll be writing a good bit for adhd-inattentive.com. I have a 14-year-old daughter who’s ADHD inattentive, and like you, I’ve gained a lot of valuable tips by reading Who Put the Ketchup in the Medicine Cabinet?

This newsletter has allowed me to learn so much from other parents! I love the new focus that Michelle shared on the blog when she started seeing “how ADHD is really a gift and not a deficit.” It’s so true for Lesley who’s the youngest in our family. (Her brother Edison is in his second year in university, and her sister Olivia is a senior in high school this fall.) Today, Lesley has strong organizational skills, a strength gained by overcoming her perceived weakness.

Overcoming procrastination and less than stellar study skills didn’t happen overnight. (I can still remember the day-after-the-test lament of “But I read it and read it!”) Before Lesley was diagnosed, 6th grade was truly a nightmare for our family. After the diagnosis, we started learning what would work best to help Lesley learn and feel successful. Some of the worst fall-out from ADHD is that the diagnosis can make your child feel stupid – and you know that’s an incredible misconception!

Like eating the proverbial elephant a bite at a time, Lesley reconditioned herself bit by bit. At school, there was “Learning Lab” – a focused study time when one teacher supervised a group of approximately a dozen students who used the time to reorganize binders, update school planners, study for a test or schedule the steps of the next big project. At home, her dad and I were also asking questions like: what does this mean on your planner? Is this work done? What’s the deadline for….Do you understand this concept…..etc. And trust me, the PAC-kit planner can truly help with the organization and the school/home connection.

And yes, for our family, prescription medicine to help Lesley focus made a big difference; however, I want to be clear: medicine wasn’t the only tool in our arsenal. Just as effective was the laborious, not-very-exciting chore of keeping the planner updated (with 2 different sets of people checking to be sure she did!)

Breaking down a huge project into manageable steps was another valuable skill that was practiced over and over. The first book report outline in 6th grade loomed over our heads like a nuclear mushroom-shaped cloud, ready to spread destruction. Somehow the second one only seemed like a minor battle in comparison, and by the end of the year, she was adept at starting her book report without one of us coaching her through the first few steps.

Lesley’s grades last year were the best they’ve ever been. At the mid-year point, when we went in for parent/teacher conferences, several of her teachers were surprised to find out that she had been diagnosed with ADHD-I. Over and over, she was labeled as an excellent student and a leader in the classroom. Her struggles are by no means over, but she’s learned a lot about what it takes to succeed and work with her particular learning style. Yes, what we saw as a weakness has become her strength.

Today, she’s learned that it’s a good idea to start working on Wednesday’s assignment on Monday – a habit that continues to work well for her. I’m not saying Lesley’s perfect. If you saw her room right now, you’d giggle at the thought of perceived organizational skills. I still like the big picture here: good grades, room that needs work. Life would be boring without goals, right?

Ten Years of ADHD

This year marks the ten year anniversary of our first ADHD diagnosis. Before then, I thought ADHD referred to wild, undisciplined children who couldn’t be still or shut up mainly because they were hyped up on sugar and needed a firm hand. Joe was a calm, spacey child who had never (not even once) got his name on the board or been in any sort of trouble. Sure, he occasionally forgot to wear a shirt, couldn’t keep track of anything, and zoned out during class. And, yes, he was pretty annoyed at loud noises, had a terrible time getting a good night’s sleep, and approached learning in a strange way. But ADHD? Nah. I balked at his teacher’s suggestion that we have him evaluated.

I was so wrong on so many levels.

While I protested, and while Joe’s grades dropped, his teacher started making classwide modifications to help him (and his classmates) pay attention. She moved his desk so it was directly in front of hers. She provided study boxes that kids could use to limit their viewing areas. She began saying things like, “Five minutes have passed. Check to see what number you are on.” And she concentrated on making eye contact with Joe.

God bless this woman. She saved my child’s life. Had I continued just punishing Joe for his forgetfulness and poor grades…I shudder to think. But the success of her modifications and my discovery of a new term – ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type – led to an evaluation, a diagnosis, a 504 plan, and the path toward success for our son. And then we realized that two more of our sons also were ADHD-I. And the scattered, distracted, disorganized parts of lives started to make more sense! (Although it still baffles me how that I – the queen of organization – could have spawned offspring so opposite of me.)

Really, we’ve been on this ADHD journey for 20 years or so, but this year marks the ten year anniversary of knowing what sort of map we needed to navigate the path. Monday, I’ll be sharing some of the good things we’ve learned along the way. And on Tuesday, I’ll share the bad! Watch for the posts.

PS For a preview, read Focus Pocus – 100 Ways to Help Your Child Pay Attention.

College Homework and ADHD

Recently, our oldest came home from college for a weekend, homework in tow. I know the child is 23 years old, but I was happy that he was able to find the assignment (okay, so it was online, but still). I was even happier that he had the correct book.

Ron’s homework was to write a comprehensive summary of three chapters in one of his business textbooks. Talk about boring. He’s pretty interested in it, though. He explained enough to show me he had a good grasp of the subject, although for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.

We had a good discussion about how hard it is for him to write. It’s still hard for him to focus, and it’s still hard for him to get his thoughts on paper. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation:

Ron: “I’m having a hard time with this. I can’t summarize it like I want.”

Me: “Just go through the chapter and summarize the topic sentence of each paragraph.”

Ron: “How’s that going to prepare me for real life? I want it to be in my own words. I might have to write a business report one day.”

Me: “You’ll have a secretary. And it will be in your own words. Don’t over complicate things! Just get it over with. DO it.”

Good grief. He wanted to rewrite the chapter. It was a summary – not a research paper. The purpose of a summary is to summarize!

I reminded him to go through the chapter and make an outline with all the headings. He had done that already. (Does this mean that he was listening to me when he was in high school?)

Ron: “Writing isn’t as easy for me as it is for you and Ash.”

Me: “Walking into a room full of friends and being friends with everybody in five minutes isn’t as easy for me as it is for you.”

Ron: “I just can’t get it from my brain onto the paper. I can talk about this until I’m blue in the face, but when I try to put it on paper, I blank out.”

At this point, we’ve moved from a discussion to a rant, and he’s procrastinating. I know this trick.

Me: “That’s called a screen, bud. 21st century. Look at it and type.”

Ron still is frustrated by his difficulties. He still procrastinates. He’s still disorganized, although not overwhelmingly so. Ron still won’t do things that really would help – like speak his thoughts into a recorder, then transcribe them. Ron still works best in short spurts. He’d set a goal, work madly until he met it, then stop and play a video game or get something to eat. Ron is learning, and enjoying the learning, but not the studying. But at the end of the day, Ron is succeeding!

During one of the his breaks, I read him the story I’d written about one nightmare of a weekend when he left one of his assignments in his jeans pocket – and I washed it. It’s an hysterical story, one that will sound way familiar to you. Read it here, and you’ll understand I can write things like Waking Up from the Homework Nightmare.

Anyhow, while I was reading I left out his name, and when I finished, Ron said – with great disdain, “Who was that?!”

You’ve come a long way, buddy.

PS If you’ve not read Waking Up from the Homework Nightmare, you really owe it to yourself to grab a copy before your next homework nightmare begins!

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