On Friday I got an early birthday present from my self-adopted dad, Dr Colin Hirsch. 😜I still need to write a separate post on him
So Colin called on Friday and asked if he could pay for me to go the ADHASA (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Support Group of South Africa) Conference on Sat. (Yes, I realise this might not be most people’s idea of a “great” gift, 🙈🎁but he knows me well and it was the absolute perfect gift for me.😁)
Without a doubt, this was the absolute best course I have been on in years. I finished my honours in learning support last year in the hope that it would make me ‘a better teacher’. Honestly
The whole day was divided up into talks by 5 specialists all focusing on different areas of ADHD. I am just going to briefly summarise ummm…9 hours of talking into bits and pieces that I found interesting and significant….😎
I have to start by explaining my personal view about handing out medication for ADHD….I feel like I often get ‘labelled as being anti-medication’ but really, I am not. What I am ‘anti’ of is children simply being put on drugs and labelled as ADHD without first having the proper assessments done so as to rule out any other possible causes for their lack of attention or hyperactivity. On average about 5-8% of children actually have ADHD. As noted in the article attached by ADHASA, it is clear that at the moment misdiagnosis of ADHD in SA is rife. (As a disclaimer: I have very little experience of actually dealing with an ADHD child at home, and I know very little about the different types of medications that are used. I am only writing from my own experiences as a teacher. 😏 – lol sorry, a friend and I (she also has her own blog) were laughing about this a few weeks ago: this constant feeling you seem to have, that you need to disclaim everything, lest it be an attempt to avoid those critical comments that will often come pointing out your lack of training.
That being said the one thing that I did learn while doing my honours was how important it is that learning support of a child, be looked at holistically. It has infuriated me no end to continually see children on ADHD medication who then come to school with lunch boxes literally packed with chips, chocolates and fizzy drinks. Another huge frustration is these children spending 90% of their time indoors playing play station or any other video games. I often make a point of trying to ask children what they did on the weekend. It’s absolutely heart 💔breaking to hear how so many never actually get outside and just play. When I suggested to one little boy last week that he try go play outside this weekend he looked at me with this weird look of bewilderment …mmm or was it disgust? ( that simply implied ‘are you crazy?’) and then he promptly said : ‘We never play outside!!!.’ It was a very stern statement.
Me: Oh do you live in a flat without a garden?
Child: No we just never play outside!!! (Like ” duh lady” ….mmm point made. 🤐) The same can also be said about the role of the family and parenting styles of children with ADHD. Children that are continually being screamed at by parents who have not yet learnt to regulate and control their own emotions are going to understandably be more stressed, less able to regulate their own emotion and less likely to achieve self-actualization. This goes for many types of learning disabilities. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs clearly depicts how important a child’s basic needs (food, shelter and safety) and psychological needs (self-esteem and love/ sense of belonging) are if the child is to successfully learn and achieve their full potential. ( https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-n…).
Random story: I sat horrified once as I saw the mother of one of the my students, in London, scream at this 7-year-old little girl, telling her to ” Shut the fuck up, I’m sick your constant shit” Needless to say this was a particularly difficult and sad child to work with. Her behaviour was literally off the poles, every single day. In trying to speak to this mother about how we were trying to use more positive re-inforcement techniques with her daughter – mums almost bitter response was: ‘But nobody has ever said any nice things to me.’ So sad, and so true…while this might be a rather extreme case the fact of the matter is how can we teach that which we have not been taught ourselves? Studies have shown that teaching-parenting styles to parents with ADHD children can significantly improve inner family relationships. By no means am I suggesting that ADHD is caused by any of these ‘other’ factors but in my mind, they do play a significant role in aggravating symptoms of the ADHD child. I can also only imagine how stressful it must be for the parents of these students and that is essentially why they need the extra support and training.
The first speaker Professor Andre Ventre specialises in the treatment ADHD. He spoke mostly about the different types of medications that are out there. He also showed us slides that he had taken of ADHD children’s written work, before and after they had been put on medication. I have to admit I was completely blown away by the stark contrast and improvement of these students work. ( He said about 30% of children will write better on medication) I was intrigued. He spoke about the significance of treating ADHD children before they were 9 years old so as to give the child a greater success rate. He also stressed the importance of exercise
He highlighted how untreated ADHD in youth put them at a high risk for developing substance abuse. He spoke about how these children are so often grounded in failure, continually being in trouble for their impulsive behaviour that they genetically they have little control over. He stressed the importance of constantly encouraging and motivating these students as they had little ability to do it for themselves. Parents and teachers need to remind these children that hurts, failures and disappointments are simply bruises in life, not tattoos. I love how he also stressed the importance of not wrapping these children up in cotton wool but allowing and encouraging them to take risks in life and to deal with the consequences if they make mistakes. I honestly couldn’t have agreed more with this. Failure is part of life so why do we want to shelter our kids from this experience. I often play snakes and ladders with my students. It needs to be said that I never LET ANY child win. (I’m not that kind😵👻. If they win..then it
I had to smile when he spoke about modelling good game-playing strategies. I often think parents might be horrified wit
Last week I had one of my ADHD students jump up and declare ” you are trying to be like that evil voice in my head….but I’m never going to listen to you” I was so happy I could have kissed her. 🤗😘 (there is always a method to my madness)
Have a great day tomorrow😍😘🐝💐🌹