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Newsletter #4 |
Resources for Parents and Teachers of ADD/ADHD Children Produced by the ADD ADHD Information Library at NewIdeas.Net IMPORTANT: Use this information at your own risk. This information is not to be used in place of appropriate medical advice. If there are problems, always consult your physician. Welcome to our Newsletter! Feel free to tell your friends about this service, or to forward this to them! Links to this Newsletter are sent to you via our auto-responder, so they will come to you automatically. If you have any problems with the service, please let us know right away by email. To subscribe, send an email to addnewsletter@webmailstation.com, and the link code to your first issue will arrive immediately via autoresponder, with following issues arriving about every five days. Please only subscribe once to our robot autoresponder. May we also ask that if you are going on vacation and are planning to set up an autoresponder at your end to announce your vacation to everyone, please unsubscribe from us first. We have come to work with 1,500 email messages, all from the same person on vacation. Their autoresponder and ours simply played "Pong" all night, sending emails back and forth to each other (and receiving a new subscription each time, I might add). Please help us out with this. Thanks. For more information on ADD or ADHD, visit the web's most comprehensive ADD ADHD Information Library for parents, teachers, and professionals, at NewIdeas.Net. |
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What is the RAS, and why is it important to ADD ADHD? The Reticular Activating System is the attention center in the brain. It is the key to "turning on your brain," and seems to be the center of motivation. The Reticular Activating System is connected at its base to the spinal cord where it receives information projected directly from the ascending sensory tracts. The brain stem reticular formation runs all the way up to the mid brain. As a result, the Reticular Activating System is a very complex collection of neurons which serve as a point of convergence for signals from the external world and from interior environment. In other words, it is the part of your brain where the world outside of you, and your thoughts and feelings from "inside" of you, meet. This Reticular Activating System is very capable of generating dynamic effects on the activity of the cortex, including the frontal lobes, and the motor activity centers of the brain. It plays a significant role in determining whether a person can learn and remember things well or not, on whether or not a person is impulsive or self-controlled, on whether or not a person has high or low motor activity levels, and on whether or not a person is highly motivated or bored easily. The Reticular Activating System is the center of balance for the other systems involved in learning, self-control or inhibition, and motivation. When functioning normally, it provides the neural connections that are needed for the processing and learning of information, and the ability to pay attention to the correct task. If the Reticular Activating System doesn't excite the neurons of the cortex as much as it ought to, then we see the results of an under aroused cortex, such as difficulty learning, poor memory, little self-control, and so on. In fact, if the Reticular Activating System failed to activate the cortex at all one would see a lack of consciousness or even coma. What would happen if the Reticular Activating System was too excited, and aroused the cortex or other systems of the brain too much? Then we would probably see the individuals with the excessive startle response, hyper-vigilant, touching everything, talking too much, restless and hyperactive. So the Reticular Activating System must be activated to normal levels for the rest of the brain to function as it should. According to Harvard Medical School, current research strongly suggests that ADHD is caused by a deficiency of Norepinephrine in the ascending reticular activating system, and it is thought that the stimulant medications, such as Ritalin, increase the levels of Norepinephrine in that part of the brain, as well as probably increasing dopamine levels in the frontal lobes. This treatment strategy works well for the inattentive ADD kids, and somewhat well for the over aroused ADHD kids. However, for the kids who have an over aroused Reticular Activating System to begin with, the use of stimulants will often exacerbate the problems with temper, sleep, and hyper-vigilance or anxiety. For these individuals their physicians will often prescribe a norepinepherine antagonist such as Clonadine. However, it is not just activation levels of the Reticular Activating System that are a problem with Attention Deficit Disordered individuals. It seems that the same problems that cause the Reticular Activating System to be under or over aroused also restricts the development of neural connections and the required neural density needed to process incoming information. Picture the incoming information to be processed and learned as a large volume of water, and picture the brain's ability to process this information as a large pipe, like a storm drain pipe. If the brain does not have enough neural connections, or lacks the neural density, to process the incoming information, then it will be like a pipe that is too small to handle a large volume of water. It will take in some, but the rest will be stopped and won't go down the pipe rapidly. Learning may take place, but the time that it takes to process information will be slowed significantly. The impact of this with an ADD child is best seen when the child is given a timed test, even with material that the child understands pretty well. The "timed" aspect of the test requires that the child have a larger storm drain pipe, as it were, to quickly process the problems on the test and recall the answer. Since the pipe is too small, the results of the timed test will probably be very poor. However, take away the timed element on the same test, and allow the water to drain a the slower rate, and the child will probably do well on the test. So the ADHD child, and adult, needs a greater degree of neural density, and a larger number of neural connections to process information. * This discussion on the RAS continues |
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CLASSROOM TIPS Use rows for seating arrangement. Avoid tables with groups of students, for this maximizes interpersonal distractions for the ADHD child. Where possible, it may be ideal to provide several tables for group projects and traditional rows for independent work. Some teachers report that arranging desks in a horseshoe shape promotes appropriate discussion while permitting independent work. Whatever arrangement is selected, it is important for the teacher to be able to move about the entire room and have access to all students. Have distractible students seated near the teacher, as close as possible without being punitive. Locate the student's desk away from both the hallway and windows to minimize auditory and visual distractions. Keep a portion of the room free of obvious visual and auditory distractions. For example, have one area of desks that doesn't have interesting objects hanging over it that invite the child to study them rather than her/his work. Use desk dividers and/or study carrels. Be sure to introduce their use as a "privilege" or pair appropriate carrel usage with reinforcement, so these study aids are not perceived as punishment. Seat appropriate peer models next to ADHD child. Stand near the student when giving directions or presenting the lesson. Use the student's worksheet as an example. For hundreds of classroom interventions and tips, visit our new website at ADDinSchool.com |
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QUESTIONS FOR THE SCHOOL Looking through old files I found a lot of great resources that I'll pass on to issue by issue. Here is something that you might want to keep if you are thinking about changing your child's school next fall or if you are planning to have your child tested. I'm not sure where I got it, so I can't give proper credit to it's author. Let me say this, if you are planning to have your child tested by your district, DON'T WAIT. Sign them up today! Typically districts have 10 weeks in which to do assessments, but the clock doesn't start until you fill out the paperwork!. -- DC The following questions might be asked of the school to ensure optimal management of the child with AD-HD. 1. What, if any, strategies does this school have for addressing the needs of the child with ADD/ADHD? 2. If your child is having an educational assessment, has someone explained the evaluation procedure, due process rights, and time line procedures? 3. If more than one person is evaluating the child, who are they? 4. Is someone on the team obtaining a careful family, developmental and medical history as well as current assessments and observations? 5. Is a school psychologist doing achievement and ability testing? (Note that a public school assessment will be less extensive than feasible privately.) (Ed note:Yes but it's free!) 6. Are the results of the achievement tests consistent with your child's actual classroom function or is there significant difference in the one-to-one testing setting? 7. Does the psychological assessment report any distinctive features of style and speed of your child's performance? 8. Who is the case manager/ child advocate at your school? 9. What interventions are being used now in your school to meet the needs of the ADD/ADHD child? 10. If my child is using medication, who is the designated adult on the school site responsible for its administration? (Ed note: also ask, "Is your system set up to make it the child's responsibility to remember to take his medication, or does the school make certain that the child takes his medication?) |
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Products, Books, Web Sites . . . Links to OVER 800 ADD ADHD and related web sites are available through the new ADHD Links Project. This site covers Attention Deficit Disorder, other Related Medical Conditions, and resources for Educators. Great site for research, treatment, or resource links. This site is new as of January 1, 2001. Complete Planet is a Search Engine of Databases and other Search Engines. It is a great resource for research on any subject. This link will take you to their list of sites with information on Attention Deficit Disorder. http://www.completeplanet.com/Health_Medicine/Mental_Health/index.asp MentalHealth.com is a great resource for information on medications. Non-Ritalin approach to ADD/ADHD treatments discussed at these sites . . . For data from our study on the effectiveness of the ATTEND nutraceutical medicine, and for a comparison between ATTEND, and Ritalin, and EEG Biofeedback training, visit our new site at ADD-Products.com and then visit the RESEARCH section. Attend and Extress. Amino acid based nutraceutical medicines. Good products. For an in-depth discussion and product information... EEG Biofeedback therapy is discussed at several sites, including the ADD Information Library at NewIdeas.Net. The EEG Spectrum site has a number of studies and an overwhelming amount of information on this treatment technology. The TOP 100 List of Advanced Nutritional Products, all in one place! Go to the VAXA International web site to see the greatest collection of breakthrough health products, from effective Weight Loss products, to Cardiovascular Care, pH balancing, stress reduction, and so very much more! You deserve these products!
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