sarah's Arty Dreams

great video! There's many ways to treat "ADD/ADHD" without the use of psychotropic drugs. Some parents think it's easier to drug their kids than to actually be parents and discipline them, or change the foods that the kids are eating. Great post, Sarah!

It is the teachers that need treatment.I couldn't agree more.

Thnx
Den

Funny cartoon, but that's the way teachers used to control their classes years ago when I was in school. And parents allowed it. Yeah kids need more discipline in class, but these days I would be afraid to take a firm stand if students were misbehaving. Years ago I wouldn't let my class leave until they had settled down, cleaned up the class and given me an apology. Well, a few of the brats decided to take revenge on me and told some lies that almost cost me my job. I was definitely not innocent until proven guilty.

But, I take offense to the comment that teachers need treatment. That's kind of a blanket statement. People seem to expect teachers to now do the job that parents should be doing. It's difficult to deal with over sized classes in which there are kids with many learning difficulties as well as ADHD. We always counsel parents to look at alternative treatments to drugs to control behavior. Diet is a major factor in the control of ADHD.

I taught for a lot of years, privately, so I guess I had a little more latitude. Some kids only need a very soft word, and then there were others - one I secretly called "Five Asprin Andrew"! One thing that worked well for me... do what I tell you or we'll call your DAD (not Mom) and you can explain to him why you don't want to do it and why we're bothering him at work.

First I want to start by saying this a great blog.

I am sure I have ADHD and every other letter of the alphebet you can throw together for a mental issue. It however is something that I leanred to deal with as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult and then again as an adult. I am sure certain people suffer from differant levels, symptoms and other control issues so maybe I had a lite case of it; therefore, I am definitely not an expert.

I feel strongly that proper parenting and location can control these problems better then any drug can. Drugs simple sedate the child so the parent doesn’t have to worry about it. It’s an easy way out, mostly because the parent doesn’t want to be bothered; and in those cases that person doesn’t need to be a parent in the first place. I know those are harsh words and I understand that people might not share my view but well its my opinion and I will leave it at that. I dealt with a lot of children in that were ADHD and everything else while coaching. It was so easy to see the children that were drugged up. It was so easy to see their lack of drive, their lack of desire, the lack of social skills. It would break my heart to watch the parents blame the child for the lack of improvement etc… It was amazing that the parents didn’t figure it out.

I was born in a very small town in upstate New York, and I lived on a 200 acre farm until I was 10 years old. The farm was lacated above a lake. Near the farm was a gully (small revine with a stream running at the bottom), a water fall, fields, 4 barns, abandoned shacks, and many other distactions. My brother and I had free access from as early as I can remember. We would often walk the mile or so to the lake, following the stream down drain pipes etc… I remember climbing the frozen waterfall in the winter, sliding down the rocks, sledding, and all other great outdoors activities. If that didn’t distract us playing in the barn, or at anywhere else was fun as well. We would leave early in the morning, have lunch at a friends house and return for dinner. It was great and I have very fond memories of that. Never had a problem with school, sports or anything else at that time. I didn’t even know what the term bored meant.

When I turned 10 we moved to Atlanta GA. What a culture shock to say the least. Unlimited access or free rain to control in a matter of weeks. It was a good idea because that was the time of the Atlanta child murders so I understand it now as one of the bodies was found within a mile of our apartment in a location where my brother and I frequently played. It was at that time that I started to have issues with school, paying attention, listening and other systems of ADHD. My grades dropped, I could have cared less about school. Luckily I was still involved in sports and it was the only method I had to release that built up energy. It was not enough and the next 8 years spiraled downhill. Regardless of the teacher involvement, spanks in the principles office, or anything else I wasn’t motivated to do anything.

Regardless of anything other factor it was that simple change in lifestyle that affected me the most. Children can not live a sedementary life style and be that perfect little child every parent dreams of. If a person leaves the dog in the house all day and night there will be a mess. It’s the same thing with a child. Parents simply need to do their primary job, which is to raise a productive child that has the ability to be a positive influence in society. This means interacting with the child and providing that basis for adulthood. Discipline, strong parenting and an active lifesytle are the only true cures for ADHD.

Its amazing if you follow the time line. The more advanced out society gets the more issues like ADHD we have. Usually with those advances come longer hours for parents and work and less involvement in their childrens lifes.

Parents want to blame teachers and society for their lack of parenting. They need to wake up, get a back bone, and educate their children for their future.

Just think of the things our grandchildren will be dealing with. Screw ADHD they will suffer from LAZYASID10T syndrom and need to take “x” just to get off the freaking couch.

Well that is my two cents worth.

Sorry for being a blog hog.

That's great news Sarah. Does she take Omega 3's at all?

When I grew up ( and I am only 40) parents actually raised their children. They did not put them on drugs just because they were too lazy or stupid to discipline them. Yes, we had hyper kids but it wasn't a disease. If your kid was hyper you found something for them to do, play a game, jog around the block, paint a few houses, stuff like that.

I think it is a shame that these children are placed on drugs they do not need and will do can do permanent damage to their personality and minds.

In my retail job I have seen first hand the lack of parenting that exists today. But when I do see a well behaved or well mannered child I am sure to express to their parents what a great job they have done. This is way too rare these days.

wsh writes: It would be lovely if any of you had any research behind your opinions. I working with kids with learning disabilities every day. The medication does not "sedate" kids- it is stimulants that bring their brains up to a level where they can learn effectively (See research by Jensen et. al. http://www.jlcbrain.com/ While I don;t think medication is the solution to every school problem, and behavior midification along with mmeds have been shown by the ntional Institutes of health to be the most effective treatment for ADHD http://newideas.net/adhd/treatment/nimh-improvement-adhd-treatment and http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd/complete-publication.shtml I know people don't understand ADHD in kids or adults- self-medication with Starbucks is so much easier than dealing with underlying issues, huh? But rather than jump on a band wagon with all the "Im my day...Kids were seen and not heard" crap, how about making an informed decision based on clinical research????

When you teach, your job is to impart knowledge. But that is only the first part. It is in this position as a teacher or parent that you have the opportunity to also teach those kids a lot of other things including how they learn best. Most of us learn best in one of three ways; from being shown, by reading about it or by hearing it. I felt my job as a teacher was to show the kids these different styles of learning and help them to find out which one worked best for them, then show them how they could apply this to math, geography - to life itself! I believed that if one lesson could teach one thing. Good. If that same lesson could teach 2 things, it was 2 times better.

The same thing applies to everything else, learning disabilities, ADHD, whatever. Teach the child to work around these issues, if possible, turn them into positive things.

My youngest son had ADHD for a long time before it was diagnosed - actually before it even had a name as far as we or the pediatrician knew. He had other problems (learning) and maybe that masked the ADHD. He had the top diagnostician in Canada who said he had a learning disability, but she could not give it a name, it was something she had never seen before. The school was ready to provide Aaron with a tape recorder and laptop because they had no expectation that he would ever be able to learn to read or write. All his work was to be done verbally to the end of university. Aaron was always different and I could see he needed a lot of very specific attention. Everyone who taught him said the same thing, that he had the most unusual way of learning they had ever seen and no one was able to break through and make any kind of suggestion. He had an extremely high IQ and some thought that was the problem, but it didn't make any sense to me.

He was in trouble 100% of the time unless he was kept extremely busy, always the most unexpected things, not like the mischief normal kids get into. Fortunately, I was a stay at home mom and able to work with him. I saw a lot of problems with his dad and I could see where we were headed (which was very bad) and that was very helpful. He got a lot of attention - we walked every day when he was a pre-schooler and either we discussed some scientific fact or he learned a new word. We listened to classical music every morning and discussed that. Anything and everything to channel this whatever it was into learning. This is what kept him out of trouble. After he started school, I relaxed a little, but soon found he needed a more active schedule especially on holidays and summer vacation. While we were doing all this, I was also teaching him that he had a problem - one that was very bad for him and drove the rest of the world nuts and that he needed to help find a solution and keep working at it all his life.

Long story short - I know, too late - but we worked through this without medication. He still has ADHD, but knows exactly how to deal with it and he now puts this energy into working and learning - he works as a cook in a restaurant and studies quantum physics after work. He has maintained a relationship with a lovely young lady for almost 10 years and they are getting married next month.

As for the learning disability - when we left Canada he was in 2nd grade for the second time and could not read words like 'the' or 'and'. Two weeks after we moved, he was able to read 'Federal Express'. I was shocked! I asked how he learned this and his response was, "the teacher said I had to, she said she was there to teach and I was there to learn, so sit down and get busy" this was basicly the same way I taught him - no choice - not mean or anything, but this is how it is so let's get to work. I asked why he couldn't learn to read in Canada, he explained that he didn't feel it would have any application in his life, so he wasn't going to bother.

No, I would definately say from this experience that discipline should be the first treatment, nothing mean or horrible, just firm rules and lots of parent and teacher participation. Maybe in extreme cases medication is necessary, but even if it had been available, I don't think I would have chosen it because doing it the way I did, although it was a lot of work, it taught him how to deal with this problem the rest of his life without medication.

Well, I never felt dedicated or anything, just saw something that needed to be done and no one else would do it, so I had to step in. your light bulb story!! My dad said something like that to my daughter one time, that I had raised them well, she responded that someone had to do it and there was no one else. I'm sure I made plenty of mistakes too.

In reference to WSH's comments.

If there is so much great research that has gone on to resolve these issues then why:

Do we have children who are on some of these drugs selling them in school for a profit? Ritalin is becoming one of the most widely sold illegal drugs in schools...

Sounds like a great drug with huge benefits to me.

As for other things. As I said in the beginning I am not expert, dont claim to be, nor CARE to be. However, first hand experience in coaching some 75-100 kids who dealt with it, watching one athlete commit suicide while on those drugs gives you some insight into the larger problem. So although you do your research, maybe you might look for a differant alternative other then a pill or list of drugs that have just too many harmful side effects for the patient.

Regardless of what lab work is done, the patients safety should always come first. It usually doesnt when research is involved. Profit comes first, patient care is usually 5-6 on the list.

But then again that is just my simply opinion that you can disagree with, argue you, or whatever you choose. as that is what a blog is for.

Once again, I didn't get notification of this one.

I can't agree with you more about the whole putting kids on drugs thing. That REALLY pisses me off.

The really interesting thing about ADHD or ADD is that it is not an inability to focus. These kids are distracted because they focus on everything, they notice everything, every new sound, new action, new sight. It's quite remarkable the things they notice. They can be working quite diligently and then all of a sudden, "What's that? What's that sound?" Or, "Look, there's spot on the ceiling. Why is there a spot on the ceiling?" And then that becomes the focus of their concentration.

It seems that half my time while teaching is used up in bringing my students back to focus on the task at hand. Think about how impossible this would be for a classroom teacher who has to monitor 20-30 students. I have only one at a time.

That is why you get paid the big bucks.

Big bucks, yeah right.

Wow...Lots of input here..
I didn't watch the video...(dial up) so thanks for the explanation!
I think the #1 problem in North American kids today is...
Lack of Proper discipline by the parents...
I have to say from what I see on a regular basis...parents are afraid of their kids...and kids dominate the household. That carries on into the classroom as well.
I agree with Sandy though about the diet thing and it's effect on the child's behaviours.

It's a cop out to pump them full of pills...it is, to me, the lazy way out.
I have a couple of kids..that I would say could be bordering on ADD..
They require more of my specific attention...they need better boundaries.. I do have to monitor their sugar and 'junk' food intake.
It's not an easy task..especially today..to raise up children properly. I think there should be more help for those parents who run to the doctor to have their children diagnosed and then medicated.

I really hope I haven't stepped on anyones toes here.

"Den, you mean they need to carry a ruler in their hand"

My kids are grown up now and in a better time. There were many bad teachers out there then. If I offended some teachers that is too bad. NOT every teacher is good.How many get fired in your district? I see too many screwed up kids out there. with the primary objective of the teachers being to calm them down, with a pill. My neighbor has a job that entails JUST giving such pills. SAD

Chickenlady is correct.

Den

KNOW I can't speak for everyone in this, but the sugar in Aaron's diet created a huge mountain of issues. If his sugar level was stable, he was happy, cooperative - a real angel, it didn't matter if it was high or low, but if the sugar was going up or coming down... look out - he was beligerant, rude, horrible and completely unmanagable.
I mentioned it to our doctor, he said sugar had no effect whatsoever on a child's behaviour. However, I know it did in Aaron's case. I could tell by his behaviour exactly when he had sugar. Interesting, in the following article, Dr. Smith mentions that other doctors do not support him in this because they never had issues with diet/behaviour, if they did, they would never have made it through medical school since it was so necessary to be able to focus on the tasks at hand.
I used to see Dr. Lendon Smith on TV. http://www.mercola.com/2001/jan/7/lendon_smith.htm. I was very impressed with his ideas - he would have maybe 10 little kids on the show that were sweet, quiet, all playing together nicely. Then he would give each one of them candy and wait 20 minutes. Then you would see the kids acting up, fighting, screaming. He was excellent at predicting exactly what behaviour would result in children of different ages after being given different foods.
If I remember correctly, his major complaint was white sugar and white flour, white because of the bleaches used to process these foods.
Sugar may not be the problem with a lot of kids, it may be, like Aaron, that it was the blood sugar fluxuating that caused the trouble.

I once worked for a man in Naples. For a birthday gift, he sent his wife to Montreal for a concert and she was to be gone several days. He was babysitting his 3 children, who were badly behaved even at the best of times. One day, he came into the office with the 3 kids in a little parade behind him, each with a brown paper bag clutched in their hands and big sticky smiles on their faces. He proudly told me he found a way to make them quiet - give them a bag of candy. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe anyone could think this is a good idea. I didn't tell him - he found out about a half hour later. He never admitted it, but I could see over the next few days he wasn't getting any sleep.

Just to clarify my lazy comment. I was refering to the parents who simply put their children on drugs because they dont want to be bothered with anything else. Because their childs behavior is a distraction from their usual life. Most of the parents I dealt with who treated their children with drugs, were very very upper class. Parents who's had weekly social events and the children who acted out embarrased them. I am sure you can all figure out which ones I am talking about.

I guess my age is showing!!! Well, I AM a grandma! But I'm not totally old - I listen to Metallica - that should count for minus a couple of years!!

Hey! I like Simon & Garfunkle, too!


Can we keep that a secret?

Sarah -As a man I can say I have never babysat. But if I did my goal would be to have the children in the same condition as when I started. That is pretty much all you could ask from someone with no maternal instincts. Great topic here, enjoying all the comments.

Yeah...but it's not like me to enjoy that type of music. If word gets out, I'll never hear the end of it!

Meh...oh well...screw it. This is me. Take it or leave it.