Things that have worked!

TerryB those sound like a great idea! I have found over the years that my son literally needs to be taught how to do things. Nothing comes naturally. We do a lot of role playing! As much as I hate role playing it has really helped him deal with interacting with teachers and kids. I have often wondered if others have done anything like this. I think this thread will be very interesting!

Thank you for starting this thread.

We find that having a rest time or quiet time every day is helpful. A nap is not required. It’s more like required down time. On school days we usually have a little bit of time like this after school before homework.

Lots of hugs and kisses and positive reinforcement. My daughter is so sensitive (anxiety issues) that when she has a bad day in school she is more upset than I will ever be. She tends to punish herself worse than any punishment we could give her. That doesn’t mean there are not repercussions for inappropriate behavior. Just that I do take her reaction into consideration. I make sure to phrase things in ways that she can easily understand. I don’t make an issue of problems in school (although there are not many behavior ones anyway) because I know she works very hard and she beats herself up over little things.

Time outs when anger and tempers rise work good to diffuse a situation. Sometimes the meltdowns are pretty bad. Giving her time to vent and then pull herself together usually works well.

Gina, my older daughter who is I’m sure undiagnosed ad/hd often needs help with what to say in social interactions. We don’t so much role play as discuss different things that could be said (or not said) in response to different statements.

How nice to have a positive discussion, thank you Terry.
We tried the timer and for our daughter it didn’t work, she just never can seem to get herself going, especially with mundane, tasks that most of us do without really thinking about them, we just do them. What works for her is a check list. We’ve used printed lists on paper and dry erase boards. She now makes them herself when she needs them. She also will put up extra sticky notes when she has something out of the ordinary to do in the am or pm, like something extra for school.
Like Jen we have found that hugs and positive feedback go a long long way. Sometimes I have to wonder how many negative messages she is sending herself, too many I think.
Also, giving her some control over decision making that involves her, from her treatment plan, to behavioral consequences, to what she does and when (ie. clean her room, other chores, visit friends, shopping, etc.)
She’s a girl that NEEDS to have control over her life, so we have to balance just how much.

Explicit instruction in things that seem obviouis…not just for LD kids by the way. One of my son’s friends is a very quirky child with sensory issues and he too needs to be taught explicitly.

We are working on phone skills, so we role play before he uses the phone. Modeling just doesn’t work for a kids like this, so we give him actual lessons in things he needs to learn how to do.

OK, maybe we’re snobs but my husband and I find very little on commercial TV that is interesting for us so we didn’t watch much TV even before kids. Once the kids came along, we liked PBS and we bought Videos and DVD’s. Around age 6 my oldest started to lose interest in what screen time we allowed. She started doing arts and crafts almost all of her spare time and then she started reading a lot. She is doing very well (way above average) in these areas as a direct result. My 5 year old does not have ADHD and she is reading and doing “Math” for fun and she isn’t in school yet. We also have a lot of computer games that are educational and the youngest really gets into them. My oldest sees her sister on the computer and then wants to do it herself. The “Math” games are great for my older, ADHD, daughter.

I also think that limiting commercial TV has resulted in my kids being nicer than other kids. There are so many bad role models on TV and TV programs normalize agressive and promiscuous behavior.

Terry, can you post the names of the computer programs you’ve found that are educational and fun?

We’ve enjoyed :

The logical journey of the zoombinis

Inventions and contraptions (got that one from Laura from CA!)

Tetris (works on visual spatial skills)

For critical thinking and problem solving: All the Putt-Putt games. All the Pajama Sam games. All the Freddi Fish games.

Math and Reading: Reader Rabbit series

General academic: All the JumpStart games

My 5 and 7 year old girls enjoy these but boys also seem to enjoy the games.

Karen, what age-group are yours directed towards?

Terry

We first saw zoombini’s in first grade. Even though its advertized for older kids they all loved it. And it increases in difficulty so even adults can play it. Its for logical, analytical thinking skills.

Not sure of the published age for inventions but we got for DS when he was 9 and he still plays with it sometimes.

Anyone can play tetris. I found a freeware version on the internet.

We also limit TV as much as possible. I don’t allow some channels to even be watched. We just got a playstation 2 for Christmas only so we could get the dance dance revolution game. My older undiagnosed child really enjoys it. Previous to that I would not allow any game systems in the house. Now violent games are still off limits. The 1st grade actually has a program where they send home PS2 Lightspan games every week for all of the kids in the school. They are education games that I think can also be played in the computer. So no, I don’t think it’s snobby to limit those things!

We always have arts and crafts going on here. I have an art degree so it’s something that’s always been encouraged and available. My ad/hd daughter is a very good artist. I am very thankful she has that strength in her life. It is another thing that I find helps. It might be hyperfocusing but it sure does create some great projects when she gets into her creative state! I often wonder if my own “artsy” personality is really my own ad/hd!

One thing I did when she started struggling this year was to turn part of our computer/office room into a study area for her. Previous to that she shared an area with her sister. Now she has her own desk with her own supplies, a shelf filled with art supplies, and a white board. The computer is on a separate desk. I use the white board for things like spelling words and special messages. We often end up doing homework on the kitchen table still but she often comes in to her desk on her own and spends a long time working on things. In the beginning of the year and even now sometimes we find making a game of playing school helps get the homework done! Sometimes she even gets to be the teacher! Right now we are playing hangman on the white board while I type this message!

Some computer games she enjoys are Clifford, Little Bear’s Rainy Day Activities, Little Mermaid, Reader Rabbit, Shrek and Rugrats. They are not as educational sounding as some of the others! The least popular computer program is the vision therapy HTS program! She hates it!

HOMESCHOOLING!!!

Obviously thats not a workable solution for everyone, and I honestly dont know how long it willl work for us. My part time work from home job may fall by the wayside this summer, but I am glad I was able to get one year of Homeschooling in

He needs limited repetition and frequent change of pace. Once I found that rhythm, things went smoothly. Asking him to do 10 long division problems is asking for problems. Asking him to do 3 and then work the remaining 7 in on different days? Perfect, and he actually retains better. Theres nothing wrong with him spending 45 min on math-he just cant spend it on only ONE math concept, KWIM??

Accepting that the learning is what is important and that this kid will not likely ever be an A student. He is very bright and he will do well in terms of the big picture, but he will forget too many details to be a teacher pleaser-oh, well.

Strattera. It took a long time for it to totally do its thing, but life has become so smooth. He no longer is frustrated to tears during homeschooling, he grasps new concepts quicker, he follows family conversations at dinner, he remembers his chores, he combs his hair and brushes his teeth, and he even keeps his room reasonably clean. I swear his speech difficulties have even made decreased.

AdderallXR helped with focusing in school but it never did much else.

Perhaps the Strattera reduced anxiety? It was one of the psychologists concerns when he was originally dx’d

Marycas- I don’t want to hijack this thread onto a medication conversation but some of what you said about straterra really hit home. We just came back from a family beach vacation.

“he follows family conversations at dinner” My son’s inability to do this on a consistent basis was obvious.

Thanks for sharing that…

Marycas, Strattera does have anti-depressant components.

KarenN, if you want to learn more about strattera go to:

http://millermom.proboards23.com/index.cgi and checkout the 1st thread under the medication board. It has all the information you need to know about Strattera that were contributed by alot of people who have tried it successfully.

We go thru tons of colored index cards for my 12 year old ADHD-inattentive son. Every class has a different color, and he transfers all of his spelling words, study guides, etc onto cards. We also have him go thru his books and write the review questions, etc onto cards. This is an easy way for him to review the subjects on a daily basis BEFORE the dreaded tests come!

This isn’t something that he enjoys doing, but I’m trying to get him used to working ahead (i.e. don’t start studying right before the test, etc.) and budgeting his study time.

We also use 2 dry erase boards, one for his daily homework schedule (which he transfers from his school agenda) and one for the week ahead, which includes tests, soccer game, band rehearsals, etc.

All school supplies are kept in one place, so he doesn’t have an excuse about not being able to find something! He also keeps extra pencils and paper in his backpack incase he loses something during the school day.

Every school night he must go thru the dreaded backpack and file any papers (homework, returned tests) in the appropriate place in his 3 ring binders. I’m trying to help him become more organized.

Hey has anyone noticed the Troll trying to bring back dead controversial threads. Lets keep the good threads going.

One thing that I like to do is let my daughter pursue her areas of talent. She is very creative so we have tons of art supplies at home and we get her into art classes in town.

TerryB and KarenN I love the Reader Rabbit and Jump Start games! My son also loves the I spy CD ROM games. They really take some thinking and focusing skills to complete the tasks.

I have REALLY enjoyed reading what works for everyone. I am getting GREAT ideas! I notice some of you posted the ages of your children. It would really help me if we all posted ages. I like knowing what works for what age. Thank you! My son is 5 1/2 years old :D

I agree MLM that the Strattera thread is VERY interesting and helpful!

MLM, thanks for the link . I always forget to check over there.

I really like the idea of putting the weekly events on the marker board!

Gina, good idea about the ages. My daughter had her 7th birthday today! She held up great through her party and only started to get irritable at the end!

All the talk about excessive talking on another thread reminded me of a game we made up. It’s called the quiet game. The first person to talk after we say start is out. My kids love it and it’s one of the few times it’s quiet for a few minutes. Parents and adults can be exempt from the game. It’s real a really handy game when you’re trying to drive as that always seems the opportune time for a child to start screaming. The kids end up making faces at eachother to see if they trick the other one into laughing or saying something. Eventually, one does say something and then they start the whole thing all over!

Things that are working for us:

at school
We turned his desk around, so now he has a writing surface, but no storage area. No place for things to get lost or accumulate. He now keeps all his folders and spirals in a 3 ring binder, and his books, alpha smart, tape recorder, etc in a plastic milk crate. He no longer has a place to hide his hands while he destroys pencils or any of the other things he used to do in his desk.

He has a daily checklist at school that covers his routine. The teacher checks it at the end of the day and he gets rated with smiley/frowny faces for how he did in 3 areas: work, following routine, and cooperation/attitude.

Computer games we like: The Incredible Machine Contraptions

Molly