by Dr. Gina Madrigrano | Jan 4, 2013 | Parenting
ADDitude: Living well with Attention Deficit is a wonderful website for adults or children suffering with attentional problems (whether you have a diagnosis or not). With ADD often come problems with executive functions (e.g., difficulty starting and finishing projects, completing projects at the last minute, poor planning or organizational skills, etc.).
On this site you will find a wealth of information. The main bookmarks are: adult ADHD; parenting ADHD children; ADHD treatment; school and learning disabilities; about ADHD; resources; community; magazine. Within each of these sections you will find 25 to 30 subsections (e.g., Within the Parenting section you can find: schedules and time, healthy meal ideas, sleep problems, self-esteem, etc.). Within each of these sections you will find
printables which can range from simple handouts to eBooks. You will also find natural alternatives for treatment.
They also have a magazine with handy tips and articles. Well worth it! Go check the site out for yourself.
by Dr. Gina Madrigrano | Jan 4, 2013 | Parenting
A colleague of mine recommended these little interactive self-help workbooks to help children cope with anxiety, negativity, anger, problems with sleep, and OCD. The author uses lively metaphors and illustrations to make the concepts and strategies easy to understand. The author is Dawn Huebner, Ph.D.. She is a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of children and their parents.
I highly recommend these titles and they are available at Chapters/Indigo and at Amazon.
What to do when you Worry too much (for anxiety)
What to do when you Grumble too much (for negativity)
What to do when your Temper flares (for anger)
What to do when your Brain gets stuck (for OCD)
What to do when you Dread your bed (for sleep problems)
I have used them in my own practice and find them quite useful and helpful to both the parents and their children.
by Dr. Gina Madrigrano | Jan 4, 2013 | Parenting
Join guest Dr. Karyn Purvis, author of The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family and Director of the Institure od Child Development at Texas Christian University to discuss how to establish the bonds of connection with your adopted child.
The content of this podcast is also quite relevant for non-adoptive families, foster families of children taken from their homes by children services. This podcast educates us about attachment problems due to early childhood neglect, abandonment or mistreatment. It also gives hope and a new view on the soon to be old diagnosis Reactive Attachment Disorder, which appears more like a permanent problem that can’t be fixed! Complex Developmental Trauma might become the new diagnosis.
The author speaks of investment parenting, homeschooling, and other strategies adapted to the difficulties of this type of child…. Basically how to reorganize priorities with regard to raising children who have suffered at such a young age.
Listen to this pocast :
by Dr. Gina Madrigrano | Jan 4, 2013 | Parenting
This was sent to me by a friend…. I am passing it along.
from The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
by Jack Kornfield (Bantam, 2002):
Grasping too tightly
the things of this world,
attachments arise.
Holding only to how we want it to be,
Anger is born.
Not understanding the inevitability of change,
confusion clouds the mind.
“Meet this transient world
with neither grasping nor fear,
trust the unfolding of life,
and you will attain true serenity.”
Bhagavad Gita
by Dr. Gina Madrigrano | Jan 4, 2013 | Parenting
Many kids with ADHD- Inattentive or combined type or nonverbal learning disabilities, for example, have deficits with executive functioning skills. This concept is “used by psychologists and neuroscientists to describe a loosely defined collection of brain processes that are responsible for planning, cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acquisition, initiating appropriate actions and inhibiting inappropriate actions, and selecting relevant sensory information (see Wikipedia for more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_functions).”
A great book for developing executive functioning skills is: Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary “Executive Skills” Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare. This book looks at the following: building response inhibition; enhancing working memory; improving emotional control; strengthening sustained attention; task initiation; promoting, planning, and prioritizing; fostering organization; time management; flexibility; increase goal-directed persistence, and cultivating metacognition.
You can find this book at Amazon or Chapters Indigo. Well worth it, for adults and kids alike!
