Posts Tagged ‘ADD and ADHD’

The schoolrun has been challenging over the past few weeks, to say the least. I know that children with symptoms of ADD are often actually hyper sensitive kids, and Josh is no exception to that. She is so fed up with the bullying and the teasing, she is 100% sure she does not want to go to school anymore. But, the paperwork for the homeschooling is taking its time… So she still has to go. Every day with more trouble.

Going to school: Long whining stories about what happened in the last days and will happen for sure today. “If they call me names again, I phone you, OK, Mom? And then you come and pick me up, OK?”
“Sure, honey”.

Coming from school: “And then he said this, and then I said that, and then the teacher scolded me for using bad words, it is sooo unfair… Tomorrow I do not go to school, no way, they can stuff it, I am so sick of it, they are all “/%&”)$)”.
“I understand sweetheart”.

Anyway, this did not bring us anywhere, we just went round in the same circles, me telling her to hang in there, and she telling me she couldn’t.

Now I did listen during the last couple of days to The Vortex by Abraham, as channeled by Esther Hicks. Loads of wise words and insights, and what really got me was the knowledge, that we are the ones that form our world. In other words: Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want, and there will be more and more of what you want in your life. So, every time there is something unwanted in your awareness, turn your attention to what it is you DO want.

Right then, I started 3 days ago:
“Mom, they did ….”.
“OK, Honey, what would you have wanted them to do instead? When have they been nice to you? You want them to be like that don’t you?”
“Sure”. Smile. “I remember, the time when..” More smiles.
…
“Mom, he is just a $%#=/=.”
“Sure he is, but has he ever been pleasant to you? When was that? What if he would always be like that?”
“Yeah, in the beginning of the year, remember that I did sing for the class? Then he was nice to me”. Smile.
“See, you’re feeling better now already?”
Smile. “Yeah…”

Now, it’s 3 days later, and this morning we drove to school, singing together. I really look forward to pick her up in an hour’s time – see what her day has been like. Yesterday she had little to complain about, which was a big shift from the past 18 months…

Will keep you posted – and if you find yourself in the same situation, try it, and please comment on this post with your experiences!

Charlotte

Found on Networked blogs, a cool Facebook application which helps me to keep track what my fellow EFT practitioners and ADD/ADHD coaches write about. I would love you to become my friend on Facebook, so we can share thought and insights! See you on the other side! Click here: http://www.facebook.com/charkamman

The article I want to show you, is named “Make Do-Not-Do Lists for Better Productivity”, and is written by Lisa Hoover.

It is written for adults, but with a little imagination, it is easy to see how we can help our children to keep on track when we use the principles she talks about. My own thoughts are printed in italics, Lisa’s original article is in normal print.

“Nearly every time management system advocates to-do lists in some form to help keep us on track. Consider turning that advice on its head and make a do-not-do list instead.

Success Magazine blogger Chelsea Greenwood says to-do lists can be helpful, but only to a point. Eventually, they can get so long and unwieldy they start to take over our lives and sap our energy to get anything done. After all, who wants to confront a mile-long list of tasks staring them in the face?

Overwhelm is a very common emotion in children with symptoms of ADD or ADHD. They do not always show us, but you can be sure that they do feel that way. EFT tapping can help them to get over the overwhelm, and if combined with time management skills, it is obvious that the benefits will be numerous

Instead, take a hard look at how you spend your day and try to identify where your giant black holes of time are. Too many coffee breaks? Too much time spent surfing productivity sites (though we’ll give you a free pass on that)? Once you figure out where your time sinks are, write yourself a do-not-do list so you minimize how much time you spend doing things that aren’t particularly productive.

Fidgeting, reading comics, playing computer games, talking to friends on MSN… They are all very time consuming. We can help our children by allowing a certain amount of time for each of these activities. Children with symptoms of ADD and ADHD especially, also need time to just relax, preferably meditate and allow their busy minds to slow down for a moment. We need to help them to find this “off-time” – and we can only do that by showing them they do not need to do something the whole day long.

Depending on how drastic your findings are, implementing your do-not-do list may require persistence and teamwork. Post the list in one or more visible areas to remind yourself what you should not be doing, and enlist the support of co-workers, friends or loved ones to keep you on track.

Now, no one’s recommending that you never take a break or waste time during the day—everybody needs a little down time. Instead, use your do-not-do list as a way to stay focused on your goals and realize that the more time you spend avoiding things on your new list bring you that much closer to getting where you want to be.”

So, program the down-time for your child, and allow for this down-time by limiting his activity time!

The Productivity Dilemma: To Do or Not to Do? [Success Magazine]

(Source: http://lifehacker.com

Hit up the post for tips on how to develop your do-not-do list. Do you keep a list like this? Does it help keep you on track? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Dr. Mercola talks about multi-vitamins. For parents with children suffering from symptoms of ADD and ADHD, this is double important. Pay attention, and evaluate the vitamins you are using. One thing he mentions, and which you might overhear, is the decreased amount of vitamins and minerals that your vegetables and fruits contain, as compared to 50 years ago. Thanks to chemical fertilizers, greenhouses, herbicides, fungicides etc, our food is just a diluted version of what it was in the time of our grandparents… Isn’t that sad.

Which brings me to the thought that IF we would live like our grandparents did, we would probably not have so many children with symptoms of ADD and ADHD. Life was so much different back then! But, I am also pleased to have discovered, that it is still possibe to live life much more similar to our grandparents than I thought would be possible – only the good aspects of course!

Buy organic fruit and vegetables, read the labels of EVERYTHING you buy, be aware and praise yourself that you have this knowledge! Share it with others: your neighbours, family, friends, parents at school. It is shocking how many people are still stumbling in the dark when they try to give their children the best they can…

And now: Dr. Mercola.

In today’s world we eat much more high-carb foods than ever before. Refined (white) carbohydrates turn quickly into sugar in our body, and sugar gives a boost of energy. For children with symptoms of ADD and ADHD not exactly what they need…

Sugar causes hyperactivity and irritability in many normal healthy adults – if you are on the low carb / no sugar diet now, you will feel the effect when you take a sugary treat of any kind. It makes me restless, I have a kind of unpleasant tingly feeling all over my body, and my concentration definitely goes way down. These are often the symptoms that children with ADHD describe when you ask them! If sugar does that to me, just imagine what it’s effect will be on a child – with a much smaller body and less control over it. Apart from leaving the sugar out (with the exception of 1 day per week) it helps a lot to have a critical look at the pastas, bread and other carbohydrates you serve. Wholegrain bread, crackers, pasta.. they all help to stabilize the blood sugar levels – instead of creating a peak. Have a critical look at breakfast cereals too, most of them are not suitable for any children if you are honest, let alone for children that are as sensitive as ours for symptoms of ADD and ADHD…

I more and more discover the devastating effect of food colorings, preservatives and other additives. We ourselves have opted for a food pattern without any of those, and the whole family feels much more energized and with a more stable mood. So, additives are a big no-no if you ask me! This, by the way, includes artificial sweeteners!

Protein should be an important part of your child’s diet. Fish generally has a good influence on the symptoms of ADD and ADHD – due to it’s content of essential Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and other vital ingredients. Eat fish once per week – not more often, because the oceans are so polluted that we would get a too high mercury intake.. Which in itself is sad enough.

In addition to the diet, you might try some of the following herbal supplements: St. John’s Wort, Passion Flower, Ginkgo Biloba, Green Tea Extract, Chamomile, Lemon Balm, or American Ginseng. Obviously, you try them out one by one, and see how your child reacts. Some of them might work, while other’s won’t in your specific case. Be careful about the other ingredients of the pills or capsules, read the list of ingredients carefully, and if you have any doubt, don’t do it. I discovered that in the Centrum vitamines for children, which I used to give to my daughter, E-124 is part of the formula – which is exactly the food coloring where most ADHD children are extremely sensitive for. Unbelievable but true. They assured me they were about to take it out, but still… And then they did not talk about the sweeteners in the pills, which are almost as suspected… Even in scientific literature.

Do not forget to include the daily routine of EFT tapping into your day. Alongside the diet this is the powerful bit which makes your child not only behave normally without medication, but which will make him or her thrive – and your family as well!

It seems that the coordination of the left brain and the rigth brain is a crucial factor in the occurrence of the symptoms of ADD, ADHD and of dyslexia.

An Israelian mother discovered a way to help her 17 year old dyslexic son, and found out the underlying technique to help other children too. Neurological pathways in the brain seems to play an important role, whereby the coordination between left and right brain is developed by certain exercises.

Let’s first have a look at what Nili, the mother says about what she discovered and how she uses it; Mother and son in the meantime have trained over 1,000 practitioners in Israel and the UK, and their method is now taught at Bar Ilan University. A pilot study was undertaken in Newport, England with excellent results and in November, a new course for practitioners opens in Irvine California.

Some of the exercises we can use to stimulate the coordination between the right and left brain hemisphere are listed here:

1 Cook’s Hook Up
2 The Cross Crawl
3 The Cortices Technique

1 Cook’s Hook Up

To do the Cook’s Hook-Up, sit comfortably in a chair. Place your feet flat on the floor. Put your left foot onto the top of your right knee. Place your right hand on your left ankle, and place your left hand on the ball of your left foot near your toes. Close your eyes, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth one quarter of an inch behind your teeth. Breathe normally, and hold this position for 30 seconds to a minute.

Keeping the eyes closed, the tongue up, place both feet flat on the floor and bring just your fingertips together like a teepee in front of you. Hold this position for 30 seconds to a minute, breathing naturally.

When you are finished, open your eyes.

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of Dr. Jerry V. Teplitz, www.teplitz.com)

2 The Cross Crawl

Imagine an exaggerated march step, done on the spot with exaggerated arm swing and vigorous step. Touch hand or elbow to the opposite knee to emphasise the rhythmic crossover. Left arm to right knee and vice versa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch a video demonstration here:

 

3 The Cortices Technique

This is an explanation of the technique:

And watch this to see a great example of how to apply these and other brain coordination techniques:

Every morning starts like this at Sunrise School in Bali. The Star of the Day’s first ‘job’ is to lead the class in tapping cortices. We all know about the benefits of BodyTalk at Sunrise…pun intended.

Barbara has seen significant changes in the children’s ability to concentrate, work more harmoniously together and stay happy and content. If they have a problem, or an injury, they know how to balance their own cortices, or their friend will do it for them, and they immediately feel better. This is a technique that will serve them their whole of their lives. They know that they have a tool that they can use on themselves, and their friends and family that will automatically bring the body back to a state of increased ease and balance.

Balancing the cortices resets the nervous system back to growth and healing, and out of flight or flight. Most people get stuck in fight or flight…. and we then ‘cope’ with the stress, which internalizes the energy we would have been using to ‘run or fight’, and send it into the body, which is highly detrimental to our health.

When you balance your cortices, you are balancing the right-left sides of the brain (the right brain= big picture, intuition, imagination, creativity with the left brain= logic, linear, reasoning, details). We need both parts to work together similtaneously so that we are able to use our ‘whole brain’, and therefor be many times more balanced, and effective in all we do. Often in life we get stuck in the details and the logic and loose sight of the big picture.

(Source: Laura Hanes, http://www.bodytalkspace.com)