Dr. Forgan’s advice on ADD/ ADHD

Could My Daughter Be ADD? Assessing Attention

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My ten-year-old daughter often has trouble following multistep directions-will lose her place in reading and need to re-read, will say “huh?” or “what?” after being given directions, blurts things off topic, has a difficulty staying engaged during lessons, and shows inconsistencies in academic performance. This mom asked, “Could she be ADD?”

These ADHD, Inattentive Presentation warning signs (This is what we used to call ADD) showed a valid concern and lead her to trust her instincts and seek out professional help in understanding her child.  She felt like her daughter might being manipulative but yet she did not want to scold her for something that she might not always be able to control. Mom also wanted to understand treatment options if it was ADHD, Inattentive Presentation.

Assessing Attention

Our school neuropsychological evaluation tested many key areas of attention including her sustained attention, attention capacity, impulse control, flexible thinking, and processing speed. The child also completed a self-esteem assessment to gain understanding about how she felt about herself. Emotional health is important for reaching one’s potential.

First Factor

The assessing attention results revealed two factors which contributed to her challenges. First, she had slow processing speed. This helped explained her “huh” types of behaviors. She must put in lots of mental effort when learning new content. This drained her mental energy and contributed to her difficulty maintain attention. Once her mental fuel was used, she tuned out, disengaged from learning and showed avoidance behaviors.

Second Factor

The second factor was indeed a deficit in sustained attention. This was validated through interactive tests of attention, a computerized test of attention, and by having others complete behavioral rating scales.  We discussed the different treatment options, and this mom decided to first work on increasing her underlying processing speed prior to considering other treatments. This mom also planned to share the results with her school to give understanding and obtain accommodations.

Need to Talk?

Call 561.625.4125 if you would like to discuss your child and your concerns for possible dyslexia, ADHD, autism, or anxiety.

What is the Difference Between ADD and ADHD?

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What is the Difference Between ADD and ADHD?

By Megan Weiss, Ed.S.

You may have wondered questions like ‘What is ADD? Is it different from ADHD?” or “How do I know if my child has ADD or ADHD?” ADD was an older term for Attention Deficit Disorder, which is the classification for symptoms like inattention, distractibility, forgetfulness, and making careless mistakes. While people still use the term ADD to classify these symptoms, it is no longer the technical term used in the medical and psychology community to diagnose these types of symptoms. In the late 1980’s the medical community shifted to the term ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In the early 1990’s ADHD was classified into three different types, or presentations, that we use today. The three types are: Inattentive Presentation, Hyperactive Presentation, and Combined Presentation.

So, if you’re seeing inattentive symptoms in your child and they were to be diagnosed, the official diagnosis would be ADHD, Predominately Inattentive Presentation. Likewise, if your child struggled with hyperactivity and impulsivity the diagnosis would be ADHD, Predominately Hyperactive Presentation and if your child had both symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, they would be diagnosed with ADHD, Combined Presentation. What this shift in terminology did was combine both inattentive and hyperactive impulsive symptoms into one disorder with specific presentation types so everything could be categorized the same way.

How Do I Know if my Child has ADHD?

Children can be evaluated for ADHD with several instruments that assess their functioning in different areas and look at the severity of their symptoms. The testing we provide in our office targets the specific areas of concern related to ADHD and allows us to diagnose and provide specific recommendations to support your child at home and at school. Our evaluations are comprehensive and offer a “whole child” approach so we will be able to assess their cognitive processing, like attention, memory, and processing speed, as well as their social-emotional and behavioral functioning. Our testing will provide you with the answers to know if your child really has ADHD or if they are struggling in some other area that is contributing to their ADHD-like symptoms. You will leave this process with targeted and specific recommendations tailored to your child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Dr. Forgan wrote the book on recognizing strengths and empowering students with ADHD.  We test people ages five through young adult for ADHD.  Call (561) 625 4125 to discuss your child or yourself.

Not All Kids With Attention Problems Have ADD/ADHD

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Not all kids with attention problems have ADHD. We test kids of all ages because parents are concerned about their child’s lack of attention or high activity level. ADHD occurs from mild to severe and it can be diagnosed in children as young as five.  The most common age range for testing is 6 to 16.

Problems that Look Like ADHD

ADHD has imposters. Testing provides answers so you have understanding to know if your child’s attention difficulty is due to behavior or a weak processing system. Attention is highly related to memory, processing speed, and language processing.  Your child’s attention struggle could be a weak memory system. Think about yourself.  If you place your car keys in a different spot each time you return home, you frequently might be searching for them.  That’s a memory weakness and not an ADD moment.  Thus, if your child has difficulty remembering verbal directions you might think he is not paying attention when the root cause is not remembering what you said.

Other kids have slower cognitive processing speed so they hear but it takes extra time to register and process.  In our fast-paced society people have limited patience for dawdling so kids that process slower are frequently being told to hurry up.  Some kids have underlying language processing weakness so they hear your verbal directions but, despite their best effort, the words don’t always make sense.  These weaknesses can mimic attention problems.

Solutions

We can match the correct support when we test and identify your child’s root problem. If your child’s memory is weak you can strengthen it through activities or strategies. If attention is the cause then you can consider nutrition, supplements, or discussing medications with your medical doctor. If it’s language processing then it could be helpful to work with a speech therapist.

We help parents help children and offer ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, learning disability, anxiety, and IQ testing.  Call to discuss your child (561) 625 4125.

Improve Your Child’s Impulse Control

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You can improve your child’s impulse control. Six-year-old, Evan entered my office, saw me, and said in a loud voice “You’re bald!” He then pushed the handle on the water cooler dispenser which squirted cold water onto the floor.  He walked away and said, “What’s in here?” as he opened a cupboard.  It was immediately clear that Evan had low impulse control.

His mom explained he has difficulty sitting for extended period of time, that he frustrates easily, and cries quickly when things don’t go his way.  Evan also had difficulty waiting his turn and she has to repeat the same direction three or four times for him to act on it. She brought Evan to me for testing because she wanted to know if this was typical boy behavior or something else.

Testing revealed it was something else and, despite his best effort, he did not have control of his impulses. Mom wanted to know how she could teach Evan impulse control.  These strategies helped her, and they might help you too.

First

First, provide loving boundaries.  Have you ever visited an all you can eat food buffet and just gone wild eating way more yummy food that you should have?  It was a free for all with no limits so if you did not have self-control, you ate too much.  Life can’t be a free for all for our children. They need caring adults to set realistic boundaries for them and they’ll act within those limits.  Teach your child impulse control by providing and practicing written house rules and expectations.

Second

Second, play games that require impulse control.  Remember Simon Says?  Kids shouldn’t move until Simon says so. Freeze tag requires impulse control.  Play the game red light, green light with your child.  Print or buy a book of simple mazes.  Ask your child to trace through the maze without allowing the pencil to touch the side.

Third

If your child’s teacher is on board, donate a copy of Impulse Control Activities & Worksheets for Elementary School Students by Tonia Caselman. Your child isn’t the only one that could improve self control.  Finally, Google “marshmallow test kids” and try this one with your child.  Practice will improve your child’s impulse control.

We Can Help You

We evaluate children ages 4 and up for anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, learning difficulty, and so much more.  There are many non medication ways to help your child.  Call  (561) 625 4125 or visit JimForgan.com.

Coaching Young Adults with ADD

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Some young adults benefit from working with a life coach who specializes in helping those with ADD/ ADHD. If you or a person you care about is not quite working up to their potential, a life coach can help the person find direction and confidence.  Sessions are once a week and are completely confidential.  I have two female associates who provide the coaching for people ages 18 through forty. Coaching young adults with ADD is an enlightening process that helps you grow.

Coaching Young Adults with ADD

A coach helps people with areas including: time management, goal setting, follow through, working to one’s potential, completing tasks, remembering better, organizing, and squashing negative inner talk. In the first coaching session you decide with your coach the most important areas you want to work on.  Then the coach helps guide you with strategies to improve these areas.  To obtain good results, you must agree to complete at least four coaching sessions.

Benefits of Coaching

People we have worked with in the past have commented that coaching has helped them increase their ability to get things done, increased their self-confidence, accomplish goals, and helped bring out their strengths.  This type of coaching is not counseling so one analogy to coaching would be if you work with a personal fitness trainer to get healthier. If you’re a young adult, coaching can help you improve your life by obtaining accomplishments and feeling good about yourself.  You will replace ineffective habits with new ways of thinking and acting.

The choice is yours. You can keep doing the same old, same old with the same results or step out into a supportive partnership to better yourself.  Coaching could be one of the best investments you make for yourself.  Coaching young adults with ADD is our speciality and you pay for each session as you go.  Contact us so we can help you. (561) 625-4125