You may have received a diagnosis of ADHD from a professional, sat in a meeting regarding your child’s diagnosis and realized that you have the same qualities, or you read about ADHD and knew that this is your story.

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

I’ve never liked the term ADHD. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder focuses only on the negative aspects of this group of traits. But, since the term provides a meaningful shortcut in discussions about educational settings, employment, and other conversations, I use it.

When working with clients, or presenting to parents and professionals, I focus on the qualities of ADHD. These can include difficulty with:

• Time management
• Organization
• Attention to details
• Following directions

• Driving – directions, impulsivity or inattentiveness
• Self-esteem and motivation
• Writing – organization of thoughts, fine motor challenges
• Reading – light sensitivity, avoidance
• Anxiety

Consider also the gifts that come with ADHD. You are often intelligent inventors, entrepreneurs, and creative original thinkers excelling in non-traditional learning or work environments. You have compassion, live in the present and easily inter-connect with others. You see the big picture and motivate others with your enthusiasm and energy.

Some adults notice that their ADHD, which was a significant challenge in school, is no longer much of a problem. These individuals have usually found a job where movement is allowed, spontaneity and novelty are frequent, and detail work is at a minimum.

Others experience ADHD significantly impacting their life and find the need to take medication during their adult years. Some adults take it daily while others have determined with their physicians that the only time they need ADHD medication is when they have a very detail-oriented activity to complete.

With or without medication, it is important to use strategies that correspond to your gifts. Here are a number of strategies that adults have found helpful. Remember that you might wish to personalize them for your style.

USE A CALENDAR (paper or digital) to keep track of your appointments and deadlines. Carry it with you at all times.

TO-DO LISTS I used to carry a small pad of paper to list and check off items. In today’s digital world there are many free apps for smartphones to assist you. Since I forget to look at them, I now use the “all-day” portion of my iPhone calendar to list these specific tasks on the day that I’m most likely, or most need, to complete them. I use the calendar’s specific time slots for appointments.

ACKNOWLEDGE COMPLETION of your to-do items for personal reinforcement. I place an X in front of each to-do item to confirm its completion.

LONG TERM PROJECTS Chunk these into manageable tasks. I find it helpful to not only put in the due dates, but also to note the day I will tackle each project/task.

SET ALERTS If you are going to need an hour to arrive at your destination, be sure that your alert notifies you sufficiently in advance of departure time. It’s also wise to set an additional alert the day (or hours) prior as reminder.

ALARMS Set multiple alarms, possibly across the room. There are also vibrating-pillow alarm clocks. You might awaken a half hour prior to your get-up time to take your ADHD medication; then when the real alarm goes off it is easier to engage the day.

ORGANIZATION and CLEAN UP

• The entire project does not need to be completed in one attempt.
• Begin at a specific section like your desk surface or kitchen countertop, or start in a corner and move around the perimeter of the room.
• Instead of saving stacks of magazines to read later or keep for reference, access articles and information from the web.
• Use a dark bag for garbage. A clear or different color can be used to collect items for donation. Everything else gets put away.
• Use totes, buckets, crates, etc. to store groups of items together.
• Provide visibility for what you use often.
• If you are a collector limit items to a specific area/bucket. No room for new items? Sell or donate.
• Give yourself an incentive for each completed task.

Life with ADHD means you have likely experienced a number of incidents that led you to feel less than others. School, social events, family, and bullying can make you believe that you don’t fit the expectation and must not be okay. This is not true!!

Honor who you are, display your gifts to the world, and present yourself confidently to the younger generation and your peers. It’s time to be proud of Who You Really Are.

Judy Lipson is a Licensed Professional Counselor and educational strategist in West Bloomfield, MI. She helps clients of all ages who have learning difficulties; work or school related anxiety; ADHD; Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorders; and those who wish to Remember and Become Who You Really Are. Contact Judy at 248.568.8665 and judylipson@spiralwisdom.net, and visit www. SpiralWisdom.net for more information.

This article is for informational purposes and is not meant to replace medical care.

What if your child appears to have missed the seemingly magic ability to read?

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

Reading seems like a naturally occurring event, but your child may struggle to sound out words, or read slowly and choppy. The ability to read requires the ability to create sounds from letters (phonics), to do so fluently, and to access meaning from those sounds (comprehension). In a two-part series, I will discuss many possible causes for reading difficulties.

In order to learn to read, a child must be able to distinguish one letter from another. Many young children experience reversals (especially the letters b, d, p). If this continues after the age of 7 or so, there may be a problem.

Have your child hold up his fingers to create the letters. Thumbs and index fingers form a circle, while the pinky, ring and middle fingers point upward. When your child’s palms face each other, the left hand forms a b, right hand forms the d. Another trick is to have the child trace the letters in sand, shaving cream, etc. Using the body, and not relying on the eyes, can help children learn letters.

Some children have light sensitivity issues, which can result in difficulty reading. The letters are seen with distortions and this is made worse by glare off of white paper.

Reducing bright lights and fluorescent lighting, wearing a cap, and using pastel paper can all help. Additionally, go to Irlen.com to learn more and to find a professional screener in your area.

If your child’s eye muscles don’t work together properly, it can cause difficulty with reading and copying. A child who leans on his hand to read (covering an eye), or lays on her forearm (looking from an angle, which removes one eye’s view) may be compensating for this problem. Ask a developmental / functional optometrist to check visual convergence as well as acuity (20/20 vision).

Your child’s ability to remember what has already been seen, also called visual memory, or re-visualization, is imperative for spelling, copying, and reading.

Play games like “Memory” where picture cards are revealed and then hidden again, in order to see if your child can remember where specific pictures are in order to create a match.

Your child needs to grasp all these skills in order to master phonics, the recognition that each letter, or group of letters (consonant and vowel blends), make a certain sound.

Phonological skills are the other major element of successful reading. Phonological skills are the ability to recognize the sounds that go with letters, without needing visual cues. For example:

Say bat. Now say it again without the /b/. (The proper response is at.)

That exercise demonstrates your child’s ability to manipulate sounds in his mind without looking at any letter or words. Phonological skills are not always directly assessed, or taught, by classroom teachers, particularly after second grade. They are frequently tested as part of an assessment for a learning disability.

To address phonological skills, there are several games that you can play with your child. Keep in mind that the responses do not need to be real words. The first level is to play rhyming games:

Do these rhyme? mat/bat (yes); cat/nat (yes); sad/mad (yes); pon/tag (no).

The next step is to ask your child to rhyme with a word you provide:

Man/Pan rhyme. What rhymes with fat?

After your child can reproduce these consistently, then clap words. Say a sentence to your child, and clap for each word in the sentence. Begin with 2 or 3 word sentences, each word having a single syllable:

Let’s clap together: “How-are-you?” “This-is-fun.” “I-like-to-swim-with-my-friends.”

Next teach your childto clap for compound words: cup-cake; rain-storm. Then apply the clapping method for more complicated syllables: hel-o; Ju-dy; di-no-saur; li-on.

Only after your child can recognize rhymes and clap for words and syllables should you begin manipulating words. First ask your child to remove the beginning consonant sound of a 3 letter word: Say bat. Now say it again without the /b/. (The proper response is at..) Next have your child master the final letter: say bat, say it again without the /t/, (ba).

There are additional, more difficult, requirements for adequate phonological proficiency as well.

You now have an idea of the variety of skills that are required for your child to master the mechanics of reading. Learn more about the challenges of reading in the article titled Reading Comprehension. If you have significant concerns, especially with an older child who has these difficulties, contact your child’s teacher or counselor, or consult with a professional.

Judy Lipson is a Licensed Professional Counselor and educational strategist in West Bloomfield. She helps clients of all ages who have learning difficulties; work or school related anxiety; ADHD; Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorders; and those who wish to Remember and Become Who You Really Are. Contact Judy at 248.568.8665 and judylipson@spiralwisdom.net, and visit www. SpiralWisdom.net for more information.

Published in Metro You Magazine, February 2012

Come with me on an informative journey to learn about learning disabilities. You will learn how to recognize a possible learning disability in your child, as well as strategies to make the challenges easier (whether or not there is a certified learning disability).

For a child to have a learning disability there must be a discrepancy (difference) between their IQ Score (intelligence) and their achievement scores (academic levels). School districts use different discrepancy scores.

There are 7 areas of learning disabilities and a person can have a learning disability in one or more of these areas.

Oral Expression is how well the child speaks their thoughts or how clearly they make the letter sounds. If this is the only problem, then the child is Speech and Language Impaired (SLI) rather than LD. A speech and language therapist can offer ideas that you can do with your child at home.

Listening Comprehension is the child’s ability to understand words and ideas and remember oral directions. (Listening and follow-through are frequent complaints for children with ADHD, but this may not be a learning disability.)

• Give only 1 or 2 oral directions at a time
• Pair a verbal direction with words or a picture
• Make a list for morning, after school, and evening routines
• Include pictures on the list (let the child help to select)

Written Expression is expressing oneself in writing. Often these children express themselves well verbally, but when asked to write, don’t know how to begin. They also may have difficulty with run-on sentences. Some children’s writing is to the point and they don’t know how to expand their writing. Written expression often includes fine motor coordination and difficulty copying from the board or a book.

• Eliminate or minimize the amount that needs to be copied (provide a set of notes)
• Allow them to write on a computer
• Have them dictate to you
• Provide oral tests
• Have the child brainstorm ideas, then write the essay (start in the middle if needed), then correct grammar and lastly punctuation

Reading Skills (decoding) and Reading Comprehension can occur together or a child might have just one. A learning disability in reading skills can include choppy reading, monotone reading, reversing letters, skipping lines, rereading words.

• Eliminate bright lights
• Use a plain ruler to place under the line they’re reading
• Read to them (books on tape, etc)
• Avoid scantron tests (which use fill-in-the-bubble answer sheets)
• Use colored paper to reduce the glare
• Allow extra time
• See an Irlen screener (www.irlen.com); use colored overlays
• Consider having your child’s vision tested by a Developmental Optometrist to determine if the eyes are working together properly
• Test for phonological difficulties – this is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds without seeing the lettersPlay rhyming games with your child; a specialist can share more ideas

Some children who are poor readers can have excellent comprehension. A learning disability in reading comprehension is when the child has difficulty with “higher level thinking” – analysis, synthesis, categorizing etc.

• Use pictures, your child’s interest areas and what they already understand to teach new concepts
• Offer lots of review
• Specialized tutoring is usually best for this difficulty

Math Skills is completing math problems. It is important that children understand the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Yet, children with learning disabilities rarely find success memorizing math facts.

• Use blocks and other three-dimensional objects to teach math facts and concepts
• Memorize facts in small chunks and review often
• Use a calculator
• Older children often need a math tutor (don’t wait until too many math concepts are missed)

Math Comprehension includes time, money, measurement and word problems.

• Use the child’s interest areas to help them understand the concepts
• A math tutor or specialist in learning disabilities may be needed

I hope that this information helps you to understand learning disabilities and to navigate your children’s challenges. If after reading this information you suspect that your child has a learning disability, contact your child’s teacher or counselor. You can contact me, or another specialist, if you are looking for strategies for your child’s specific needs, want information about Irlen, or are looking for guidance while navigating the world of IEPs, evaluations and meetings.

Judy Lipson is a Licensed Professional Counselor and educational strategist in West Bloomfield. She helps clients of all ages who have learning difficulties; work or school related anxiety; ADHD; Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorders; and those who wish to Remember and Become Who You Really Are. Contact Judy at 248.568.8665 and judylipson@spiralwisdom.net, and visit www. SpiralWisdom.net for more information.

Published in Metro You Magazine, March 2011