reading and writing

I am sorry, SEVERE ADHD is extremely difficult to change w/o medication. You need to be right there, giving feedback constantly. Many of these students like the computer and will learn on the computer if you can find programs for them. Learning to keyboard via a game format is a good start.

I love “Ask Dr. Silver.” He really tells it like it is in the ADHD department. As a teacher who has watched children who could benefit from meds. struggle w/o them, my heart really goes out to them. We have a child diagnosed w/an anxiety disorder that is so severe she cannot relax and learn in school. She is always preoccupied. Her parents took her to a psychiatrist who prescribed meds. but parents won’t use them. I hate to see learning and social interactions compromised when a medication would almost surely alleviate the symptoms enough for the child to function at school.

Hooray for the parents who refused medication!

People need to do some research and understand that there is NO SCIENTIFIC evidence that “medication” has any salutary effect on ADHD or anxiety (or depression).

Happily more and more doctors are finally coming out with their opinions on this. See Dr. Peter Breggin’s web site [www.breggin.com] or see Gary Null’s site [www.garynull.com] for some documentation.

Look for scientific evidence. Pyschiatrists can say anything, but what is their evidence? You will not find any scientific studies to support medication for ADHD because there isn’t any. This is a myth perpetrated by pyschiatrists.

PLEASE do some research before you commit to brain-damaging drugs for your children. do the research, then form your own opinion.

Excuse me, I have been involved in this firsthand. It does make a significant and a HUGE difference for many children. Would you like to come by and observe sometime? Or, would you prefer that children with these neurological disorders spend their lives experiencing the highly unpleasant side of them? By the way, I am on two of them myself with notable success. Hold your comments, please unless you have direct experience.

I gather you are NOT an educator. If you had ever seen little fellows and girls who are written up for fights weekly and scorned by their classmates, not to mention unable to learn due to their condition and the refusal of their parents to consider meds, you might be willing to reconsider.

Did you realize that a significant number of ADHD teenagers and adults suffer from deleterious side effects of the condition? These can include depression and very frequently self-medicating with alcohol and illegal drugs.

I have been on all sides of this issue. Once I was deadset against meds. Once I thought good teachers could handily teach even severe ADHD in their classrooms. We have a small few children whose condition is so severe that they are highly dysfunctional, regardless of who is teaching them. Medication frequently helps these children to create a decent life for themselves.

Breggin is a minority opinion. We have plenty of evidence that there are neurological differences afoot and that they are modifiable when the individuals involved believe the condition is severe enough to warrant medical intervention.

I have found REAMS of SCIENTIFIC data about ADHD, ADD and learning with and without meds. Personally, I have seen meds make incredible improvements in many individuals both children and adults, with ADD, mental illness and diabetes. So are you saying people who are schizophrenic or have anxiety, epilepsy or other medical conditions should not take their meds? Is that all in the head of the physicians as well? Medication is good. It helps people reach their potential. I have formed my own opinion and what is best for one person isn’t the rule to measure for all.

I would figure out a behavior mod program with my goal being focusing hard on teaching that kid whatever behaviors it will take to get him not to be disruptive in the classroom, so that I could teach. I wouldn’t add into that mix that he is necessarily getting all the academics. Before the flames start, while I’m dealing with his behaviors, 29 other kids aren’t getting any academics, *and* probably neither is he, he’s getting behavior mod and fighting it. I”d also document concerns about his behaviore and get them on record. THese guys usually get better and disrupting through the years.

Try these two sites. Both of them specialize in Functional Behavioral Analysis and developing support plans. There is a lot of information out there- you cannot imagine how many people have questions like yours:)

Robin

http://www.nu-world.com/~jls/

http://www.disciplinehelp.com/ychta/default.htm

I agree with Brenda that you need to document the behaviour. Sometimes you can see a pattern of behaviour developing and identify some of the triggers, times of day etc which may help you prepare and plan for the behaviour.

I have found it good in these instances to a predetermined process in place so I am not always caught off gaurd. Sometimes it works and sometimes not!!!!!!!

The records of behavuiour have often come in handy when speaking to parents about the outbursts, helping them see that you are not just talking about isolated instances. Sometimes they need to see that the frequrncy of such instances is out of the range of normal age outbreaks.

Good luck.

helen

Thank you all for your help. I am still hoping to find a good reading program- any suggestions. I am in a sticky situation that I am stuck in for another year, then I can go back to reality. For now I am doing the best I can with the ADHD child. The problem is we share our classroom with another SPED teacher and it is soooooo loud. She bounces off the walls with the noise level. We are trying something new after christmas and I put in for a FBA to be completed on her. Thank you, though many opinions vary I too agree the individual case is what you should form you opinion from and this child NEEDS meds. She is so sweet, and smart and is just falling more and more behind. SO thanks again and any good SPED reading programs would be great or web sites, or books to order, I am dying here can you tell! thanks, amy

Rasheeda,

Drugs are usually an imperfect solution but it’s often the only one we’ve got. Someday I bet there’ll be ways to directly stimulate the brain to do what it needs to do but we’re not there yet. I’ve seen drugs make phenomenal differences in people’s lives, changing them from hospital in-patients to working, contributing members of society.

I’ve also seen first-hand what happens when an individual refuses drugs. My 45 year old sister spent a lifetime refusing medications. As a result, she was in and out of psychiatric hospitals involuntarily because her uncontrollable rages would take over. She couldn’t hold a job for more than a couple weeks at a time. She had no friends; her family fared the worst of all, taking the brunt of her rage. When she was finally forced, against her will, to take medication, the change was phenomenal. She’s now at peace, stating that she feels terrrible about what she said and did prior to meds. For the first time in her life, she’s buying and making Christmas gifts for relatives; she barely recognized they existed in the past. There are some genuinely good and kind parts of her that were completely hidden before but are now coming out.

She started out ADHD as a child. Back then, it was rare for people to go on meds for it. As she grew up, it turned into a major psychiatric disorder. She suffered her entire life and I regret we didn’t, while she was younger, petition the state to have meds given to her involuntarily. She was too ill to know what was best for her. Now I’m not saying that Ritalin would’ve solved all her problems, but it likely would’ve helped her as a child. And, had she been on Ritalin, she also likely would’ve been seeing a counselor or dr. who’d have been aware of the changes that occurred to her as she aged. With Ritalin, she may have been able to see more clearly and understand what was happening to her so SHE could ask for help rather than have to hit rock bottom before being forced to get help.

There are thousands of people just like her. You have only to visit awhile with the homeless population to know people like her. Many, many of those people can be helped through medication but they’re too ill to know it and their families have either lost contact with them, are scared of them, or don’t know what to do. While drugs aren’t perfect, sometimes they’re all we’ve got. And they can make a bad situation better, maybe not perfect. Please don’t ever champion anti-drugs as an “ism”. While there are compelling reasons for some people to not take meds, there are equally compelling reasons for some to take them.

Damage control might be your real priority here. If the noise level’s what sets the kid off, can you get her headphones? ear plugs?

LD InDepth has lots of good info on reading. It’s kinda hard to juggle individual needs around a classroom, though. Again, thinking damage control, try not to set the kiddo up too often to be staring at a book pretending to read while everybody esle is actually learning something. See if your librarian has books on tape, or if she could sneak off to the library to have someone read to her — while she’s not reading, she’s losing language development.

You just have to ride out the year, but…. yea, you knkow :( This is another reason to really document things well so the next teacher doesn’t end up riding out the year, too, and the next…

As far as a comprehensive reading program that includes decoding, comprehension and spelling, I strongly recommend Lindamood-Bell’s programs. Their “LIPS” program addresses the phonemic awareness/decoding. “Seeing Stars” handles the spelling part of it and can be worked seamlessly into the LIPS program or be taught separately. I usually combine it with LIPS. Their “Visualizing and Verbalizing” program is a reading comprehension program. Go to their website for more info. Both “Seeing Stars” and “V&V” are very cheap and can be done with nothing but the cost of each book and some materials you’d already have around the house or classroom. They’re also easy programs to understand - the books are very readable.

The “LIPS” program is also easily done - the only part that takes a little time for you, the teacher, is learning the terminology and how your mouth moves when making sounds. It comes from a speech and language pathology base. But the book is full of practice lessons and you can really teach straight from the book, with it open in front of you, as you become familiar with it. The lessons given are perfect for that. They even have sample lessons in how to treat student errors: how to respond, how to error-handle.

Of course, LMB wants to sell you all their materials but I’ve found that I can get by without any of them. The book has black line masters you can use and the other items, like little colored blocks, can be easily found much cheaper. You might even have them as math materials already. They’d like you to buy their letter tile sets but if necessary, you can still use paper ones or you can do what I’ve just done, and use scrabble pieces, writing on the blank backsides.

Thank you soooo much that was exactly the reply I was looking for. Amy

Amy,

I have just ordered this book on the recommendation of MaryMN and others here on this board: Reading Reflex. The method is called Phono-Graphix and it is written about frequently on this board. The book costs under $13 at Amazon, and the worksheets for one child can be ordered from the web-site www.readamerica.com, I think for about $39. (You can get class sets which allow you to photo-copy for a little more). I am also extremely interested in Lindamood Bell, but I think this might be easier to do than LiPS without training from what these experienced people have been telling me here. You might want to post a new question asking about Phono-Graphix if you’d like to know more about it.

Janis

I tried www.readamerica.com and it said it was for sale??Did they change sites?
Thanks for the idea I am ordering the book. I was wondering if there were any good companies to order supplemential stuff from to acompany this or aweb site? Thanks amy

oops!!! That’s www.readamerica.net

I am SO sorry! They do have the supplemental stuff on the web-site.

Janis

Thanks!