Your Hyperactive Child: A Parent's Guide to Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder

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The first third of the book is devoted to explaining what ADHD is, the diagnostic process, and potential causes of the disorder. Any parent who feels that bad parenting is the cause of ADHD (which we often hear from the uninformed) can take heart in her findings in Chapter 3. Here she describes the differences in the behavior of children with ADHD and the typical interactions that occur with parents. But she presents strong arguments against parental behavior being a cause of ADHD. She does point out the negative effects that poor child-rearing practices--beatings, whippings, name-calling-- can have on a child's behavior, as well as the changes that can occur with consistent discipline coupled with respect for the child. This chapter also includes an interesting synopsis of current brain research done to try to determine if ADHD is caused by brain malfunction. She concludes with the results of recent PET-scan studies that involved the frontal lobes, which are involved in regulating attention, activity, and emotional reaction.The remainder of the book is devoted to what you can do about ADHD. She discusses medical treatment (medication) and therapy (including behavior modification). She also candidly discusses special problems that often occur in children with ADHD like bed-wetting, habitual lying, and stealing. She devotes an entire chapter to discussing the role of the school system, the homework battle and she has suggestions for gaining school cooperation.The section on Behavior Management Programs for Classroom Use is great if you can convince your school to implement it. But you can also modify it for home use. It describes three models: Currency-based Token Economy, Happy Face Reinforcer, and Contracts. You may also find the "attention tape" a great help for the homework battle. Using the home-school report may be a way to gain greater cooperation for the help you request from your child's teacher. It could even be written into the IEP. This report is one where you target specific behaviors (let the teacher pick 2 or 3 that really present problems at school) to work on together. This list goes back and forth daily and forms the basis for certain privileges. It is a great tool if all parties use it faithfully.Overall, this book contains so many great tips that it is a must for the reference library of any parent with an ADHD child.

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