Power Moms Unite
http://www.powermomsunite.com

Candace McLane combines her practical experience as a mom with ADHD children with her professional experience as an occupational therapist to present clear, well thought out ideas for managing life. She has many great suggestions that not only are good for kids with ADHD but for family life in general. Power Moms Unite is definitely a great resource!
 
 
Candace McLane, MA

I am the Mom CEO of a large family (1 spouse, 5 kids), whose many members struggle to manage their ADHD. A retired occupational therapist, I am a tenacious advocate for families living with ADHD, ODD, and other co-morbid diagnoses. I am a frequent speaker for schools, churches, and various civic organizations on topics about ADHD and large families with special needs. If you are in the Philadelphia/NJ/DC area I would love to share my experiences with you.

I hope the site provides laughter, encouragement, insights, and conversation… as well as a link to accurate, reputable information. I look forward to swapping stories with you.

Thanks for participating, Candace McLane, MA
 

 
Sample of a Blog Entry

http://www.powermomsunite.com/2009/04/13/striking-a-balance-summer-survival-tips-for-families-managing-adhd/

Striking a Balance: Summer Survival Tips for Families Managing ADHD

One major issue with ADHD and summer vacations is the bored factor. Once the novelty of having all that free-time-to-do-anything wears away, what to do with all that free time becomes a problem. On the other hand, over-scheduling and over-planning the summer can lead to burn-out and irritability for both parents and children. The art of managing ADHD during the summer is really about the art of finding balance. Several strategies can help strike this balance.

Keep a calendar: Use a monthly or weekly calendar and write down vacation, camp and community trip dates. Kids need routine to feel secure, but be sure to leave some dates empty to allow for free time to simple create and imagine in the back yard.

Prescript your day: Early in the day, sit with your child and review what they want to accomplish and what you need to accomplish. Negotiate how each of you will spend your time so as not to conflict. Explicitly state how you expect your child to behave for any important activities (like that very important conference call at 1PM) and be sure to reward them for following the “script.”

Make a summer contract: Use the summer as an opportunity to help your child explore their interests, reinforce their academic skills, and find their passions. Write out a contract with your child, in which they list their goals for the summer. Goals could include places they would like to visit, books they would like to read, cub scout activities they would like to complete, models they would like to build- the list of possibilities is endless. Include goals you and the teacher identify as well. If you have a therapist, consult them regarding activities to persue over the summer break. Activities can be focused on building a friendship with a particular friend, trying new foods with dinner, volunteering at a local soup kitchen, or learning the steps to complimenting a sibling. Set a due date and reward for completing each goal. Consider rewarding the child with a bonus for completing all their goals for the summer.
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http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide

We’re physicians with a national referral practice seeing children with learning difficulties. We all have different ways in which we’re “wired to learn”, and understanding these differences will help us have intellectually and personally satisfying lives.

For students with specific learning challenges, understanding the differences in how their brains work can be breakthrough in overcoming their hurdles and help them find what they really enjoy doing in life.

The blog has weekly articles related to brain-based learning and learning styles, problem-solving and creativity, kids, families, and parenting, gifted and visual learners, dyslexia, attention deficit disorders, autism, and more.

Books by the Eides:

The Mislabeled Child: Looking Beyond Behavior to Find the True Sources and Solutions for Children’s Learning Challenges

Understanding Gifted Children – “Brains on Fire”

Dyslexia and Writing Challenges in Gifted Children

Attention, Sensory Processing, & the Social Challenges of Gifted Children

Visual Spelling

http://ldparents.blogspot.com

Anne

I’m a single mom with two great kids, each with their own unique learning style.

Anne writes in a clean straightforward fashion sharing a ton of great information that she has learned from ten years of working with, exploring and understanding her sons’ learning differences.

Here is Anne’s first blog post. It can be found at http://ldparents.blogspot.com/2009/04/in-beginning.html

In the beginning

I don’t really know where to begin. The earliest years of my son’s life were normal, blissful, happy. He didn’t talk much but communicated in his way and we seemed to share some innate ability to understand each other.

Around his second birthday, his pediatrician finally convinced me to have him start speech therapy so she “could hear his beautiful voice.”

Speech therapy was successful but came with what seemed at the time like an ominous prediction from his speech therapist. “Watch out for language-based learning disabilities as your son gets older.”

Ten years later I’m thankful for the recommendation. That speech therapist was right on the money, the language deficits my son experienced as a baby and toddler were indicative of problems he would experience with reading and writing and language in general.

My hope for this blog is to share some experiences and to encourage other parents to share theirs. My son has had many successes in his educational career and I’ve done my best to stay on top of all the latest research, therapies and educational issues.

Most importantly, I love to tell stories. My kids’ stories are the best. When I lost my job last week and my son and I were discussing what was next, he suggested I write a book. (Actually, his first suggestion was that I get a costume and stand out on the street corner waving a sign for a local business, but I digress.)

I asked him what the book would be about and he said, “It’d be about us. We’ve lived lots of places and done lots of things. First you could talk, then I could tell my side, then J (little sister) could tell her side.”

Great idea. But, since his mother shares his short attention span, a blog will have to suffice for now.

Anxiety issues as well as depression and learning problems tend to coexist with ADHD. Some children, however, are incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD when in fact they have an anxiety disorder. Other children have both symptoms of anxiety disorder and ADHD but the medications for one can actually cause more harm than good.

Any treatment option for a child with ADHD needs to look at the child holistically and make sure that all factors are taken into account and monitored.

 
Anxiety issues as well as depression and learning problems tend to coexist with ADHD. Recent studies have shown that one-fourth of children with ADHD exhibit some symptoms of an anxiety disorder whereas between 5 and 15% of children in the general population are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms of anxiety include:
1. Anxious or fearful feelings without an apparent cause
2. Chronic exaggerated worry
3. Problems with concentration or distractibility
4. Insomnia

And there are physical symptoms as well such as headaches and stomach aches.

The challenge with all of this is that some children have an anxiety disorder and it mimics the signs of ADHD but they only have the anxiety disorder. Other children have anxiety issues and ADHD but the medication prescribed for ADHD can exacerbate the anxiety issues. In this case, the anxiety must somehow be treated before the ADHD.

I fully believe that there is a biological link to many of the disorders among the spectrum of ADHD, anxiety, depression, Asperger’s, etc. but the diagnosis and treatment is COMPLICATED.

I do believe our son has some anxiety issues. He is afraid of the dark and he is afraid to sleep alone. In addition, any time we are changing the routine by either taking a weekend trip or starting a new sports season or trying out a new activity, he gets highly highly anxious about it.

However, he does not exhibit the symptoms of an anxiety disorder that I just talked about. He is not anxious or fearful without an apparent cause; he does not exhibit chronic exaggerated worry; he does not have insomnia and he does not show the physical symptoms of anxiety. He does have problems with concentration and distractibility

Let me share some examples. We were planning for our annual vacation. We had been talking about it for a while. Our son had been expressing that he was going to miss home, that he was going to miss the dog and constantly asking questions about where we were going, how long we were going to be gone for, what we were going to do, where we were going to sleep, where and what we were going to eat and so forth. We realize that changes and transitions are difficult for him so we do discuss these questions and many more pretty intensely for about a week before heading off. Well the night before leaving .. late in the night because we were still packing, he got hysterical about going away. Big tears and sobs and crying that he did not want to go – he was absolutely hysterical.

This happens too with a new activity. For instance, he played basketball for the first time with a township team this winter. For the first several weeks, we could not get him out on the basketball floor to play and learn. So we kept going week after week, hanging out with him on the sidelines, hoping that over time he would be ready to jump in. This did not happen. So we ended up inviting his best friend to come along so that they could do it together. Problem solved. They jumped in together and had a ball.

So why am I rambling about his anxieties? He definitely exhibits many more anxieties than a typical child his age. However, when I look at the “checklist” for anxiety disorders, he does not seem to fit there well either.

As you know, we have received a recent diagnosis of ADHD inattentive for our son but as advocates we need to make sure that the doctors and therapists that we work with are fully aware of his anxiety issues and are addressing the child holistically. In addition, should we go down the path of medication, we need to be especially vigilant about observing the effect of the medication on not only the ADHD but also his anxieties. There is no definitive tests for either ADHD or anxiety so the analysis and treatment moving forward for our son will continue to be a case of observation, experimentation and advocating.

Join me next time when I share with you some of my strategies for addressing his anxiety issues. As always, thank you for watching and until next time.

Karen

http://canmombecalm.blogspot.com

Jennifer Choi has two special needs kids. Her blog posts are written in a compelling manner that shares a tremendous amount of information and wisdom. Her writing is thoughtful, information, emotional yet not dominated by emotion, if you know what I mean. She is a really terrific resource! Check her out!

Jennifer Choi

About Me

Last year, while on maternity leave with my second baby, my oldest son, Logan, then 3, went from being very withdrawn in preschool to very aggressive and was about to be expelled! After getting him evaluated, I soon found myself quitting my job as a publicist and a few months later, I realized I had not one but two children with special needs with issues like hyperactivity, impulsivity, difficulty feeding, speech delays, some oppositional behavior and sensory processing disorder. I promised myself I would tackle this problem like the way I did my job. I would map out my plan and beat it down. I immersed myself in learning things like SPD, ADHD, and gluten/casein free diets. Last year, I checked myself in the emergency room with chest pains and difficulty breathing. It took awhile to figure it out but finally I was diagnosed: panic episodes. I wasn’t beating anything. It was beating me. Well, no more. I want to be happy. I want my kids to get better. I want my marriage to be strong. I know I can do this. I just have to be calm and take it one step at a time.

SAMPLE BLOG POST:

The original post can be found at http://canmombecalm.blogspot.com/2009/06/pr-backlash-of-supreme-court-victory.html

PR Backlash of the Supreme Court “Victory”

When I was in my twenties, I was very involved with my identity as a Korean American woman. It was a really big deal to me. I worked for a women’s organization that was run by Korean American women and for a couple of years, we set up conferences that discussed issues that affected us as Asians and as women.

In many ways, being an Asian American woman was a double blow. As Asians, we dealt with a plethora of stereotypes: complacent nerds, Harvard bound math geniuses, sleazy Chinatown gangsters, and perpetual foreigners despite being raised or even born in the U.S. (Do you know how many times I’ve been asked where I’m from and after I say “New York,” the person says, “No, where are you really from?”)

As Asian American women, our stereotype paints us as super-submissive rugs to step on and/or exotic sex kittens. We are marginalized by mainstream American society and we are also marginalized by our male Asian counterparts. There is a reason that you see so many Asian women married to non-Asian men. I know some men have fetishes for Asian women but there is another side to it. Some Asian women sometimes have a hard time dealing with the double standards of Asian men and so they naturally fall in love with men who are not unfair and selfish. (BTW, not all Asian American men are like this- many are really great to their wives.)

I bring this up today because I read something disturbing after doing the happy dance upon hearing the recent Supreme court ruling that says that parents can ask for tuition reimbursement for a private special education school even if they never had their child in a public special education setting. Jen Laviano, a special education lawyer wrote an insightful blog post lamenting how the evening news covered the story in a way that focused more on the costs implicated in the ruling. If you want to hear some dissenting lay opinions, read the comments on Sue Shellenbarger’s blog in the Wall Street Journal. Words like “retard,” “reform school,” “hood,” and “flipping burgers at McDonald’s” were used by commenters. It wasn’t pretty.

Any special needs parent knows that the cost spent now will mean a lot less spent later. It could also result in a great contribution to society. They also know that a child placed in an inappropriate educational setting will negatively impact the child’s classmates’ opportunity to learn as well. But here’s the problem: only the parents of special needs families know this. Possibly included in this circle are the teachers who teach these classes and parents of the special needs child’s classmates who are aware that the child is negatively impacting their own child’s education. If we are lucky, the teacher and the other parents will recognize the child has special needs. If we aren’t, the child and his parents will be painted with numerous assumptions which would be hurtful, not to mention counter-productive.
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In this continuing series, I share the struggles and insights that I have gained from working with my amazing son with ADHD. In this segment, I discuss ADHD and temper tantrums and offer practical advice on how to handle your child while in the midst of a tantrum. Thanks for watching!!

 
Sorry it has been a while since I made my last video log. It has been a crazy time with graduations and end of school year activities!!

Continuing on with Segment 2 of Our ADHD Journey, we have been actively evaluating schools, reviewing our IEP and looking for an ADHD therapist.

The topic I would like to discuss today is ADHD and tantrums. Although my son has the inattentive form of ADHD, his ADHD does affect his anxiety levels and his impulse control relative to emotional reactions. We have figured out through trial and error what works for our son when he spirals into an emotional temper tantrum. Recently, I was reading several blogs online and our approach was confirmed by an adult who has ADHD and was able to explain why our approach works effectively.

It works like this. When our son gets himself all worked up about something and is “throwing a tantrum” (he does not kick and scream wildly but it is definitely a tantrum), we get him very physically active. Usually we do this by PLAYFULLY picking him up and spinning him around or tossing him in the air (yes, he is still small) or chasing him around – again playfully. The calm soothing voice or rubbing his back approach does not work at all. The reason why this works was explained by the adult with ADHD in this way. A person with ADHD in a temper tantrum has a brain that is totally racing at that point. Physical activity or loud music helps to calm the brain down.

One emotional aspect of ADHD is that little issues can be perceived as big issues because of the way the ADHD brain works. That coupled with a weakened impulse control results in these tantrums. This is not simply the case of the child behaving badly.

We have also started to name the behavior when it happens as a first step toward self realization that his behavior is not appropriate. We hope this is a first step towards self-control in the future. By giving the behavior a name, like the temper monster, we are helping to externalize the behavior so he can recognize it when it happens.

Believe me, I know that it can be physically and emotionally exhausting working with a child with ADHD. But when tantrums occur, we have found it the be most helpful to

1. Step Back
2. Get Silly
3. Jiggle the Tantrum Out Playfully.

Good luck! Thanks for watching and until next time!!

Karen

We have recently learned that my son has been diagnosed with ADHD, the inattentive form. In this video I discuss ADHD and share with the viewer our journey on discovering ADHD, ADHD therapy, mainstream medication as well as more holistic approaches to learning issues.

I invite the viewer to join me on this journey as me and my family learns about this neurological disorder.

 
I have something new to share – my son has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD while arguably an overused term in today’s society is an actual neurological condition where certain parts of the brain are impaired. There are two forms of ADHD – hyperactive and inattentive. The classic symptoms of ADHD include impulsivity, distractibility and hyperactivity although the condition itself is very complex. My son has the inattentive form of ADHD.

I am actually reading a great book on the subject, “Drive to Distraction” by Dr. Edward Hallowell and Dr. John Ratey. I am a little less than halfway through the book but the case studies and explanations in the book have been very helpful and illuminating to me. An interesting facet of the book is that Dr. Hallowell himself has ADHD.
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In this video, I discuss kinetic or physical learning approaches that I use in my son’s homework routine in order to help him learn more effectively. We use a physical alphabet cheer for spelling words among other activities.

I mentioned before that kinetic learning is the best learning methodology for my son – so I wanted to share with you some of the ways we incorporate kinetic learning into my son’s homework routines.

Quickly I will mention that my son’s learning issues are language processing based. He has receptive languages issues (concepts going in) as well as expressive language issues (formulation of thoughts, retrieval of words).

He is in the first grade so this is the first year where we have had to incorporate encoding or spelling into our homework routine. The typical approach of repetition, writing the spelling words, etc. was not really working for my son. So we developed a physical chant alphabet where each letter of the alphabet is assigned a body position. We practice his spelling words every night with the physical chants. His teacher is very accommodating (he is at a school focused on language processing issues) in that she tests him both in a written format and in a format where he can do our “cheers”. When we are practicing his spelling words – we do the physical cheers or chants over and over again – and get pretty silly with it. Its physical – its fun and it really does help him to remember his spelling words. The difference in his spelling tests before we starting doing the physical cheers and after is amazing!!
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How I have worked with my son and his teachers’ in order to help him learn the abstract concept of coins and values.

A MULTISENSORY APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING COINS AND THEIR VALUES

INSIGHTS INTO LANGUAGE BASED LEARNING ISSUES

As you may know from visiting the Lipstick Wisdom site previously or from watching some of my other video blogs – my son has learning issues; specifically language based learning issues. This basically means he has problems with learning new concepts (information going in – receptive language issues) as well as problems with language concepts coming out (expressive language issues). You would not notice a thing on everyday interactions but when you ask him a question, the problems become apparent.

So I wanted to share with you some of the strategies that I have used at home to help my son understand abstract concepts. The abstract concept I am going to discuss today is coins and the values of coins. This one was a doozy – let me tell you!! He has made tremendous progress – he is not 100% consistent but definitely progress has been made. It probably took us about 8 weeks before significant traction was made on his learning his coins and the values.

First of all, I must share with you that my son’s best learning occurs when the learning is coordinated with physical movement (kinetic learning). I guess before the concepts of time and coins were introduced, I used kinetic learning approachs but not 100% of the time. Now I try to use kinetic approaches as much as possible.

We (his teachers and I) started out with the standard multisensory approach of worksheets, enlarged paper coins in the classroom, play coins in the classroom and even some real coins. We practiced and practiced through this approach for several weeks to no avail. He could not identify the coins and he did not understand the difference between the physical count of coins and their values.

Then we started mixing things up trying to come up with an approach that would help make the concepts stick in his mind. The strategies we used included: (I show physical examples of these in the video)
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http//:ifonlyihadsuperpowers.blogspot.com

Just your average full-time Speech-Language Pathologist–mom to two beauties born in South Korea, wife to one perpetual grad student and SAHD, and owner of one semi-organized but usually cluttered home. Join me as I bake too many sweets, take too many photos, help speech and language skills (but never too much), live on one teacher’s income (too little money), and try to be too generous.