FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. What inspired you
to write this book?
A.
I believe that I had ADHD as a child and still
have symptoms today as an adult, although I
was never formally diagnosed. I had a hard
time as a child in school because
in the 1960’s
in Bermuda, no one knew about ADHD. I was
very bewildered and frustrated. I was also lucky
because I
had parents who believed in me and
fought for me. I also learned
compensatory type
strategies that enabled me to succeed.
These strategies I taught myself. For example,
while I was
in college, I would write
everything and I mean everything that the teacher
said. I became a speed writer. This helped me to
stay
focused and I had very comprehensive notes.
Today, I watch my son and my students
struggle
to navigate through the challenges of school with
some of the same difficulties that
I faced
as a child. I am also an educator and I’ve seen
how insensitive,
untrained, and stressed out teachers
can ruin children’s self-esteem
and academic success
because they do not fully understand ADHD.
Often they personalize the behaviors and come
to dislike the child.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a
challenge to teach children who have ADHD,
especially those whose parents have opted not to
use medication. However, once a teacher
realizes
that the behaviors are not directed at him or her,
personally, and that the child has
an impulsive
disorder, they can begin to separate the behaviors
from the child and begin to empathize.
Empathy
then leads to action. Action leads to teacher
strategies that can best help the
child to learn.
I wanted to write a book that would help
educators empathize with and understand children
who have ADHD better. Who better to
write such
a book than an educator who understands how
it feels to have ADHD?
Q. What are your goals
for the book?
A. My goals
for this book are to inspire empathy
in educators, to show children who have ADHD
that they are not dumb and they are not alone,
to give a voice to and reasons behind the
behaviors of ADHD, and to remind educators
that there are parents at home who love these
children just like they love their own children.
I also wanted to show children who
have
ADHD that they can have successful lives and
they can learn to compensate for the areas
that they are weak in. I’m a living example
of that.
I also wanted to show that ADHD is not a
disorder of the poor or uneducated.. It can
occur and does occur
in middle and upper
middle class families as well.
Q. Why did you add a
clock companion?
A.
Children who have ADHD have difficulty
managing time and time concepts. At first
I
planned to have a clock on the wall in each
picture so readers could
view how time passed
as Nicholas was distracted. As I continued
writing, I got the idea to make him animated.
It turned out to be so
much fun. I wanted kids
and adults to be able to laugh while
they read
about a serious and sometimes sad disorder.
Q. The
book ends on a sad note. Why?
A. I really struggled with how to end this story
and many colleagues wanted me to make it a
happy ending.
I decided not to because often
this story really is a typical
day for children who
have ADHD. I also wanted adults
to observe
that even when we make decisions that we feel
will facilitate
academic success, and they may,
from the children’s perspective,
it can be another
hardship.
Q. What exactly is ADHD?
A. I will defer
to Dr. Russell A. Barkley, the leading
expert in this field, and his definition of ADHD
from his book, Taking Charge of ADHD, The
Complete, Authoritative
Guide For Parents.
“Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
or
ADHD, is a developmental disorder of self-
control. It consist
of problems with attention
span, impulse control, and activity level.”
There are 3 types of ADHD: inattentive
type,
hyperactivity type, and combined type.
I would love to elaborate further
because
ADHD is so much more, however, please
get this book
for more information.
Q. What are some of the symptoms of ADHD?
A. Children with ADHD are often
distracted and
unfocused, talk excessively, act before
they think, will grab things that don’t belong
to
them, have difficulty completing tasks, often
avoid
complex tasks, need immediate rewards
which is why they can play video games for hours,
have trouble making friends or maintaining
friendships, have poor listening skills
even when
they are looking at you their minds can be
somewhere else, have difficulty with
reading
tasks due to an inability to produce
images in their minds, have difficulty waiting
their turn, it drives them crazy to
have nothing to do and they have significant
working and language memory deficits.
They also have difficulty with time management
and the concept of time, poor organizational skills,
and can develop low self-esteem because
they
don’t understand why they can’t control themselves
even though they try hard to. They
also have poor
control over their emotions and can have severe
tantrums and often over
react to situations that
would not bother their peers of the same age
who do not have ADHD.
Basically, poor impulse control affects every
aspect of their lives. Forgetting homework,
textbooks, projects, where he/she
put the textbook,
waiting until the last minute to complete a major
project, and procrastination are common
problems.
There are also varying degrees
of symptons so each child is different.
Q. At what age does ADHD appear?
A. Parents often report that they saw symptoms
as early
as 3 years old. According to Dr. Russell Barkley,
ADHD appears
in early childhood.
Q. Do girls have ADHD too?
A. Yes, again deferring to Dr. Barkley, his
statistics
report the current research that 2-4%
of all children have ADHD.
This disorder is
three times more common in boys than girls.
Therefore 1-3% of girls have ADHD and 3-8%
of boys have ADHD. According to the
authors
of the book, Understanding Girls With ADHD,
Drs.
Nadeau, Littman, and Quinn, report that
girls tend to have the inattentive type of
ADHD (no hyperactivity), and are prone to
depression more as are boys who have
the
inattentive type, and may tend to over eat
and be obese due to poor
impulse control
when it comes to food.
Q. About
how many children and adolescents have
ADHD in the USA?
A. Calculating
the previous statistics, about 2 million
children have ADHD in the USA.
Q. Do children outgrow ADHD?
A. There is no magic cure for
ADHD. Dr Barkley
reports the statistics in his book as follows:
50-65% of children with ADHD continue to have
symptoms as they reach adulthood.
Although many of them will be employed and self-
supporting, their educational level and
socioeconomic
status tend to be lower than those of others even their
siblings. Antisocial
behavior is likely to be
troublesome for at least 20-45%, with as many as
25% qualifying for a diagnosis of adult antisocial
personality disorder. Only 10-20% of children
with
ADHD reach adulthood free of any psychiatric
diagnosis and are functioning well.
Q. What is the best approach
to treating ADHD?
A.
According to the experts, the best treatment to
date is a combination of medication and counseling.
It is not true that children who take stimulant
medications end up using other drugs.
Actually the
opposite is true. Children who receive no or
little
help often become so frustrated that
they drop out of school and turn to drugs
to ease the pain and frustration.
It is also
true that not all children who have ADHD
need medication and not all children with
ADHD respond well to medication. For
others, medication
is a God send.
Q. How do the
medications work?
A. According
to Dr. Barkley, some medications
help
to release more dopamine from brain cells while
others act to block their reuptake both for dopamine
and
norepinephrine. There is more of the
neurochemical outside of the nerve cells to function
better.
Q. What causes ADHD?
A. According to the experts in this field, some
children
get it because the mother absorbed
drugs or chemicals that harmed the fetus,
lead poisoning or other chemical contamination
after birth, and genetic factors.
Q. Who should I contact
if I suspect my child
may have ADHD?
A. I would start with your pediatrician
and report
your concerns. Your pediatrician can
then refer you to a good pediatric
neurologist or
psychiatrist. If your pediatrician blames the
behaviors you and your child's teacher
have
observed, on you, get a new
pediatrician and have
your child evaluated.
ADHD
is not caused by inconsistent parenting.
Does consistency and realistic consequencies
help? Of course,
but let's get a diagnosis
first and then work on what the parents can do
to help their child.
Q. Why would a child with ADHD need speech and
language services?
A. Unfortunately, many children with ADHD, miss or
are delayed in many developmental areas. Speech
and language
can be one of those areas.
Q. What do speech-language pathologists do?
A. Speech-language
pathologists are specialists who
specialize in the diagnosis and treatment
of
speech and language disorders such a receptive
and expressive language delays and
disorders,
stuttering disorders, voice disorders, stroke patients'
communication,
swallowing disorders, feeding
disorders, articulation and phonological disorders,
memory deficits, selective mutism, autism, learning
disabilities, tracheostomy patients,
and ADHD to
name a few. Speech-language pathologists work
in a variety of settings; private
clinics, hospitals,
public schools and preschools, homecare agencies,
private practices, rehabilitation centers, adult homes,
youth detention facilities, and geriatric
homes.
Q. Do
you plan to write another book?
A. Definitely! I plan to have a “They Say…” series.
I’m
working on , “They Say I Have ADHD, I
Say Life
Sucks!” Nicholas Goes to High School.
This
book will focus on the challenges of having
ADHD in the teen to young adult years. I've also
completed
"They SSSay I'm A StStStutterer, I
SSSay Nothing!" Meet
Kelly. Look out for
The Tale of a Black Panther! coming soon.