|
Understanding My Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
By Kara T. Tamanini
As most of my readers already know, I don’t believe in keeping ADHD a secret from children that have it. I think it’s actually quite important for their growth and mental health to understand what makes them different and why they behave the way they do. It was frustrating for me as a child to feel and act different and yet, think I should be the same as everyone else.
Kara Tamanini has put together a very good poignant, encouraging story, with pleasing visual illustrations, about a young boy down on himself and confused as to why he acts differently. This story will be familiar to most of us with basic knowledge of ADHD, and will perhaps draw up childhood memories; however, this is for the younger children, still in the dark, and not yet capable of understanding clinical explanations. For the intended awareness of children with ADHD, this book is remarkable story telling, allowing parents an easy, unintimidating method of explaining ADHD to their child, or, children. For those of us sensitive to touching paper and viewing images, this book is extremely well done.
The exception: As someone who feels the hyperactive ADDers garner the most attention and the innattentives are usually left to suffer till later, sometimes too late, it is my hope Kara will put together a similar, well thought-out book for innattentive children as well.
~
What are your thoughts on teaching young children about their condition with regard to ADHD, or, perhaps even educating their friends and neighbors? Do you think it is best to explain as soon as the child can understand there are differences in their behavior, or, is it your opinion to wait until it is absolutely necessary? Any other thoughts about teaching the young?
Understanding My Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
By Kara T. Tamanini
Highly Recommended!
**Post your comments concerning educating children about ADHD below. Thanks!
~Bryan
~~
> If you enjoyed this post, please share it via icons below. Enjoy a free ebook and scroll down to comment too! You may get an error when commenting, but your comment will post.
Have you read 'One Boy's Struggle: A Memoir', yet?
NOW AVAILABLE - get it: Click Here! Free!
|
Absolutely, you should teach a child as much as you can about their ADHD. The child deserves to know and you can trust that they already know that there is something different about them. Not being forthcoming and open to children about their OWN conditions is opening them and yourself up for a world of hurt in the future
Reply to MariaI think it’s incredibly important to teach childran @ an early age about their ADD/ ADHD . How ever we must be careful when teaching our childran about their ADD/ ADHD , some times when we are trying to teach them about them selves & about their ADD/ADHD we actually might make it worse , I know when I was a kid and my mom would try to educate me on my ADD , I would push her away, I guess to me it was like all of my flaws were being pointed out to me & I felt so I was being put down . How ever I do feel that it’s important to educate out ADD/ ADHD childran on how their brains work & to teach them that they are just as smart as the rest of the non ADD/ ADHD people in this world.
Reply to Melissa RainesNice idea to review a childrens book! Yes, we must teach our children about ADHD! How to go about this is the question we should be asking.
Reply to StanI think this book by Kara is an excellent primer for anyone not sure about when or how to start teaching children. It is a fine line not to go too far or explain too much to the point that it becomes confusing or negative. I should have mentioned that this little book will also help raise the topic in the form of questions and thanks to the information available throughout the story, the parent will have a better idea on how to go about answering those questions without going over the child’s head…
Reply to BryanI believe children should have help in understanding how they are different. However, I also have a strong feeling that a person, no matter how educated, needs to have had ADD/ADHD to have a real understanding of what it is like for a child. There are so many aspects of the disorder, that to write one book to cover it all is not actually helpful. Like you mentioned about the children with only the inattentiveness (ADD). Although I have not read this book, I have to date found one book that I thought was positive and helpful in this area. It is called “Eagle Eyes” by Jeanne Gehret. I wish they hadn’t added the sub-title, but I guess people needed to know what it was about. I will let you write the review, but I felt this was the first book written by someone who understood what it was like.
Reply to JerryThanks Jerry, I will be on the look-out for “Eagle Eyes”, sounds intriguing. Kara’s book isn’t trying to relate the entire diagnosis. The information is general and just enough for a child to absorb. It’s a good primer to get the conversation started and rather unintimidating. If a parent is not sure where to start, this book is a good start; however, now that I think about it, parents should read any such book prior to relating it to a child – that way, if there is any information which doesn’t seem to qualify, the parent can choose to skip over or ignore that bit of the story.
Bryan
Reply to BryanI agree that a child that should definitely know what is going on with them. If there is an awareness, then a child can be an active participant in how to work through struggles they are experiencing. Over the years, I have seen so many children that just want information about what is going on. Hiding things never makes it better. However, I agree that it needs to be done in such a way as to not be demeaning or to simply point out faults as Melissa said. I agree that Eagle Eyes is a very good story and is informative in nature. No book can cover every aspect of ADHD as it manifests itself differently in each individual. Let me know if anyone has questions. Thanks!!
Reply to Kara T.Children have the right to know themselves; how else will they develop an accurate self concept?
At my house, it all happened this way: first I got the idea I had this condition; received corroboration from a psychiatrist, started medication. Then, as my vision cleared, I understood much better what was happening with my daughter, then seven.
Over a period of months, she began to tell me things she noticed about herself, including not being able to NOT talk when it wasn’t her turn, her profound embarrassment about this; how her teachers tried to help her by admonishing her (“that doesn’t help, Mama, because it’s already happened, and I KNOW what to do!”), then praising her when she didn’t do this (“It doesn’t make any difference, Mama, because it already didn’t happen.”).
I inquired about the “happened” part and she said she knew it was HER, but it was so NOT what she wanted to do and the words were out before she could stop them. She was not hyperactive, but impulsive, not inattentive. Hypersensitive, yikes.
I asked what might help, and she said, “Well, if the teachers want to really be helpful, they could say something, or touch my shoulder maybe so I don’t get distracted (I mean it — she said this), in the little bit of time between when I am quiet and when I talk.”
I asked if she ever noticed that bit of time and she said No. And I explained to her how in that case it was impossible for anyone else to do so.
She had many problems at home, too numerous to write, here, and it frustrated her terribly. I told her this was her brain letting her down, which caused her to make mistakes, but I did not see her as misbehaving, at all. She accepted my explanations for her experience and corrected me if I was too imprecise.
It was nothing, then, to tell her it was time to see what a doctor said about her brain. And on Day One of a gnat’s dose of Adderall, she said, “Mama!! So that’s what you meant!!” That summer went from awful to happy.
Reply to betsy davenportWhat I always admire about you Betsy, is the closeness and openness between you and your daughter. The care and love is always clear. I agree with you on being open early and, what wonderful perception your daughter has to understand what is necessary, on the part of the teacher, to be helpful. I wish every child could have the success you describe with the medication. My nephew has tried many and now is using a combination which seems to be helping, thankfully. He too is a good, bright young person. He’s had a lot of struggles concerning ADHD and medical issues with his ears, but, for such a young’n he’s got so much grit and tenacity! On the other side, I know too many children that have not been helped by medication, some have even been set back, perhaps by medication that didn’t agree with them and trying too many different kinds in too short of a time, whatever the reason, medication didn’t do the trick. Education then becomes the ultimate and only solution, it’s not as quick as medication that works, like with your daughter… then again, like taking the wrong, or, medication that doesn’t work, if the educators are not understanding, perceptive and caring… Ah, the perfect world… where is it?
Reply to BryanAh, Bryan, you are right about our relationship. And about the medication, mostly. What I have not mentioned anywhere (it’s her life, not mine, to write publicly about, though she’s a bit less private than before so I take liberties now and then) is that it turned out AD/HD is only one of her problems.
It is very complicated, but it seemed to be anxiety, but it became paralyzing at age 13 and 14, she has not attended school in 3 years and through my research (endless) we discovered (hurray!!) Dr. Chuck Parker who helped us to narrow down the field and home in on the physiological side of things.
The professionals we worked with here – all of them good hearted, kind and competent to the extent of their limitations — seem to have forgotten that the brain is a body part and while it does influence everything else, so is it influenced by everything else.
The girl is ILL. And while it is very taxing to be her mother, I would not trade it in for anything in the world. She is a wonder and amazement to me, still.
Reply to betsy davenportHi Betsy,
I am sorry to hear that she is so ill. Dr. Parker is indeed a great person that goes beyond what some would consider the ‘norms’. If anyone can help, I am willing to bet, he is the doctor! However, it takes a mother like you to research, never give up and find! That’s a special kind of love!
Reply to Bryan[...] Teaching Children about ADHD – A Book Review (adderworld.com) [...]
[...] Teaching Children about ADHD – A Book Review (adderworld.com) [...]