ParentDish

Kids With Special Needs Get (Gasp!) Bullied

Tom Henderson — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Bullying

Credit: Getty Images

Brace yourselves for a shocker. Kids with special needs -- who struggle with medical, emotional or emotional issues -- tend to have more problems in school and are bullied more often than other kids.

Researchers at the Poindexter Institute for the Painfully Obvious reached this conclusion after examining their middle school yearbooks and remembering how they spent all of seventh grade trapped inside their lockers while asking if someone would please pass them their inhalers.

Their conclusions were backed up by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

According to U.S. News & World Report, researchers there tracked more than 1,450 kids in fourth through sixth grades from 34 rural schools. A third of the kids had problems such as asthma, chronic pain, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities or emotional and behavioral problems.

These children were a more likely to be (wait for it, wait for it) bullied or feel socially isolated. These conclusions were further confirmed by everyone who has ever attended public school.

"Health affects school performance," lead researcher Christopher Forrest tells U.S. News. "Special health care needs have manifold effects on school outcomes that increase the likelihood that these kids are not going to successfully transition to adulthood."

Researchers obtained data from kids and their parents from a questionnaire. Children were classified as having a special health care need if they had a condition lasting at least 12 months and needed prescription drugs, therapy, counseling or other services.

School records on attendance, grades and standardized tests also were analyzed.

Kids with special health care needs "have significant differences in their engagement in school and their school relationships as well as academic achievement," Forrest adds. "It sets up a trajectory for these kids that's highly distressing."

Communities can help if they look at the whole child, he says.

"I also believe it's the kind of challenge we're starting to understand in the 21st century," Forrest says. "We have to look at the child as a whole person ... and recognize that individuals need health systems and education systems to work together."

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Parents' Attitude Affects Kids' Diabetes

Tom Henderson — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Health

Credit: Getty Images

Kids with diabetes need to regulate their diets, monitor their blood-sugar levels and take the appropriate amount of insulin.

They also need parents with the right attitude.

Researchers at the Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel find that parenting styles and attitudes play a big role in how well teenagers manage their diabetes.

Internal Medicine News reports lead researcher Maayan Shorer and her colleagues defined three parenting styles:

Authoritative. This is characterized by clear limits on the child set by the parents in a caring, noncoercive manner.
Permissive. This is characterized by few efforts by the parents to direct and limit the child's behavior.
Authoritarian. This is characterized by a coercive, harsh and punitive approach and parental attempts to control the child's behavior.

Researchers looked at 100 adolescents, as well as 79 mothers and 63 fathers, and found an authoritative approach, especially by fathers, resulted in kids doing a better job managing their diabetes. On the flip side, kids did a lot worse when parents were either permissive or authoritarian.

The worst results came when kids picked up on a sense of helplessness, especially among mothers.

There are several morals to the story, researchers tell Internal Medicine News. One of the biggies is that dads need to get more involved.

"Unfortunately, our clinical experience along with the empirical evidence suggests that compared with mothers, fathers tend to take a too-small role in their child's diabetes management and exert fewer efforts at monitoring the child," Shorer says. "We believe fathers should be more engaged in their child's routine diabetes care, and to do so, specifically, by adopting an authoritative stance."

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Crossing the Street Can Be Risky for Kids With ADHD

Tom Henderson — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens

Credit: Getty Images

Albert Einstein may have helped unlock the secrets of the universe, but something as simple as crossing the street might have been difficult for him.

It's really not that simple. There are some pretty complicated physics involved. For one thing, your body and your mind have to occupy the same point in the time-space continuum. Your body can't be at Fourth and Main while your brain is somewhere in the Pleiades star cluster.

Kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a similar problem, according to researchers in Alabama.

Because these kids are what we used to refer to less clinically as "absent-minded," researchers say, they sometimes make incorrect decisions about when to cross the street and how long it will take to the get to other side.

WebMD reports some 5 percent of the American population has ADHD, a behavioral condition marked by impulsiveness, hyperactivity and (seeming) inattention. They can actually be quite attentive. It just may be to last Saturday's episode of "Doctor Who" instead of looking both ways at the intersection.

That's the problem, according to research presented in the journal Pediatrics.

"I came in thinking that kids with ADHD probably won't look left and right before they cross, but they did display appropriate curbside behavior," Despina Stavrinos, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Injury Control Research Center, tells WebMD. "The big difference occurred in the outcome of cross."

Researchers looked at 78 children ages 7 to 10. They tested the kids' ability to cross streets using a simulated street scene with cars approaching from the left and right. All the children looked left and right before crossing and waited to cross.

But the 39 children with ADHD had more "close calls" with oncoming traffic and less time to spare when they reached the other side.

Medicating kids -- a popular response to ADHD -- might not help, Stavrinos tells WebMD. A lot of ADHD kids take meds in the morning, but they wear off by the afternoon. They also take "medication holidays" during the summer when they're outside more.

However, Stravinos adds studies of drivers with ADHD have shown that treatment can improve driving performance.

In the meantime, she tells WebMD, "parents may need to delay the age at which they allow children with ADHD to cross the street independently."

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Parents of Children With ADHD Face Serious Stress, Study Shows

Lesley Kennedy — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Research Reveals: Big Kids

Credit: Getty Images

There's no doubt ADHD is tough on the children who suffer from the disorder, but it's really hard on parents, too.

LiveScience reports a recent study published in the Journal of Family Psychology finds parents of kids with ADHD are especially sensitive to the behavior of their children, which can take an emotional toll.

"If you think about what it's like to parent a child with ADHD, it requires a kind of constant vigilance, a high level of energy," Candice Odgers, study researcher and psychologist at the University of California, Irvine tells LiveScience. "This is important, because we know that stress and the burden of caregiving in general are associated with a whole host of problems, mental health and physical problems."

Adding to the issue are state budget cuts that prevent parents from much-needed school resources, according to the website, which adds parents of children with ADHD also face higher divorce rates and stress levels, as well as less confidence in their own competence.

Odgers tells LiveScience the study's results point to a need for the entire family to be considered when a child with ADHD is treated.

"There are these really important links between children's behavior and Mom's mood and levels of stress," she tells the website. "We know from a lot of other research that mom's mental health is a very, very strong predictor of her parenting style."

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Lack of Sleep May Contribute to ADHD

Tom Henderson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Sleep

Researchers found that preschoolers who don't get enough sleep often develop attention problems. Credit: Getty Images

Lack of sleep can cause ... uh ...

It can cause something. What was it? This is silly. There was just a story about it somewhere. Think!

Oh, right! It can cause attention deficit disorder.

According to a press release on ScienceDaily.com, researchers found preschoolers who don't get enough sleep often develop attention problems and hyperactivity once they hit kindergarten. Strangely, the reverse was not true.

Kids who already had attention problems in preschool didn't lose any sleep over it in kindergarten.

Researchers for SRI International, a nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif., looked at the sleep habits of 6,860 children -- compensating for such factors as gender, ethnicity and family income.

"Children who were reported to sleep less in preschool were rated by their parents as more hyperactive and less attentive compared to their peers at kindergarten," lead researcher Erika Gaylor says in the release. "These findings suggest that some children who are not getting adequate sleep may be at risk for developing behavioral problems manifested by hyperactivity, impulsivity, and problems sitting still and paying attention."

Gaylor adds that attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD) is not usually diagnosed until kids start going to school. However, symptoms can crop up much earlier.

Sleep problems such as trouble falling asleep and staying asleep could be warning signs. Gaylor says a direct link has been hard to establish, and more long-term studies are needed.

According to Gaylor, having a regular, early bedtime was the single biggest sleep-related factor in avoiding attention problems.

So Benjamin Franklin was right. "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." It also helps him pay attention in preschool.

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Kids With ADHD Face Greater Risk of Substance Abuse

Tom Henderson — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Alcohol & Drugs, Special Needs

Your kids could have substance abuse problems if they have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Credit: Getty

Your child is one and a half times more likely to have problems with drugs and alcohol if he or she ...

Wow. Angelina Jolie only weighs 99 pounds now? That's insane. How does Brad feel about that?

Wait a minute. What we're we talking about? Something about drugs and alcohol. Oh, right. Your kids could have substance abuse problems if they have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Kids with ADHD are fidgety and easily distracted, but U.S. News & World Report says researchers still don't know how that relates to increased drinking and smoking. However, the link is undeniable.

"Our study, which is one of the largest set of longitudinal studies of this issue to date, supports the association between ADHD and substance abuse found in several earlier studies and shows that the increased risk cannot be accounted for by co-existing factors such as other psychiatric disorders or family history of substance abuse," lead author Timothy Wilens, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says in a news release from Massachusetts General Hospital.

"Overall, study participants diagnosed with ADHD had a one-and-a-half times greater risk of developing substance abuse than did control participants," he adds.

Interesting. On the other hand, Wilens' statement was more than 60 words long. Anyone with ADHD quit reading after "longitudinal."

Wilens and his colleagues looked at data on behavioral and psychiatric problems in 268 kids with ADHD. They found nearly a third of them had substance abuse problems. A family history of drug problems wasn't a factor either, Wilens tells U.S. News & World Report.

"Anyone with ADHD needs to be counseled about the risk for substance abuse, particularly if they have any delinquency," Wilens says in the news release. "We still need to understand why some kids with ADHD develop substance abuse and others don't, whether particular treatment approaches can prevent substance problems and how best to treat young adults that have both ADHD and substance abuse."

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Brain Scans May One Day Diagnose Autism

Tom Henderson — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Health

Technology may soon lead to autism discovery via scans. Credit: Getty Images

Someday soon a brain scan might be able to tell you why your child is obsessed with trains and incessantly quotes "The Simpsons."

He may have autism, and a scan of his brain may confirm it. Just don't be surprised if Thomas the Tank Engine shows up in there.

"We know now it is possible to objectively differentiate the autistic brain from the typical brain using a functional MRI imaging technique," researcher Joy Hirsch, a professor of neuroscience and director of the Functional MRI Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center, tells WebMD.

Knowing it's possible is a big deal, she adds. Now, technology just needs to catch up.

"It's an important advance, but it's not there yet," she says.

Hirsch knows because she and her team of researchers wanted to document language problems in autistic kids with brain scans.

"The idea of the study was to determine if functional imaging, which looks at both structure and function of the brain, could provide a diagnostic indicator of autism," she tells WebMD.

Autism is currently diagnosed subjectively by observing kids' behavior and development.

Hirsch's team scanned the brains of 12 kids diagnosed with autism who have language problems. As a control, they also scanned 15 kids without autism.

"We had them listen to narratives that were recorded by their parents," Hirsch tells WebMD. The scans measured their brain activity as the children listened to the narratives and encoded speech.

"We hypothesized that the autistic children would encode the language narrative less efficiently than the normal population," Hirsch tells WebMD.

Among autistic kids, they found less brain activity in the superior temporal gyrus -- an area of the brain associated with sentence comprehension.

Eventually, Hirsch tells the website, diagnosing autism may be possible earlier.

"This is a starting point," she says.

David Yousem, director of neuroradiology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution in Baltimore, is not so sure.

"It is unlikely that neurologists or neuropsychologists will be using functional MRI to diagnose autism," he tells WebMD. "This really is a disorder that runs much deeper than how a child's brain responds to readings."

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One in Six U.S. Kids Reportedly Developmentally Disabled

Tom Henderson — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs

At least one in every six children is now considered developmentally disabled. Credit: Getty Images

Some say there is an epidemic of children with autism and ADHD. Others say it is really an epidemic of hyperactive parents, teachers, counselors and medical practitioners too eager to diagnose and label.

Whatever the reason for the number of kids tagged as developmentally disabled, USA Today reports those numbers are soaring. At least one in every six children in the United States is now considered developmentally disabled -- a spike of 17 percent in the past dozen years.

That means, on average, every American elementary school classroom has at least three kids with a developmental disability.

The newspaper reports this is largely due to the number of kids diagnosed with autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

While some are cynical in their view the autism and ADHD epidemics, Sheree Boulet of the Centers for the Disease Control tells USA Today the rise could be result of more premature births. And the side effects of premature birth are no concoction of over-reactive parents, she tells the newspaper. They can definitely cause lasting impairments.

Boulet led a study tracking the latest numbers of kids with developmental disabilities. The results are in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics.

It may be better to diagnose kids too much rather than too little, Alison Schonwald of Children's Hospital Boston tells USA Today. It used to be that kids who displayed the symptoms of autism and ADHD were dismissed as odd and left to twist in the wind, she says.

Nowadays, she adds, children are at least getting help for their challenges.

"It's great to diagnose them early, so we can intervene early and help them reach their full potential," she tells USA Today. "It's much more daunting to think of the number of adults out there who have never been identified and served."

Related: ADHD or Paranoid Parents? One or the Other Is Increasing

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No Link Found Between ADHD Drugs and Heart Problems

Tom Henderson — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Health & Safety: Big Kids, Health & Safety: Tweens, Health & Safety: Teens, Health

WebMD reports kids who take drugs for ADHD are not at a greater risk for heart attacks or strokes. Credit: Getty Images

If you're bombing with your child with meds to control his hyperactivity and short attention span, you might have worried all those chemicals were sending him to an early grave.

Well, relax.

WebMD reports kids who take Adderall, Ritalin, Strattera and all the other trendy drugs for ADHD are no more likely to keel over on the playground than other children.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine looked at the number of people on ADHD meds who have heart attacks, stroke and abnormal heart rhythms and compared them to the rates among the rest of the population. WebMD reports they didn't find any big differences.

Officials at the U.S. Federal Drug Administration announced early last month they are doing their own study that should prove "reassuring," but those results haven't been released yet.

"Until the final FDA results are published, our study should provide some additional reassurance," lead University of Pennsylvania researcher Sean Hennessy tells WebMD. "One of the most important findings was that the risk of death was no higher in kids taking these drugs."

Some 2.7 million children and teenagers in the United States take Adderall, Ritalin, Strattera or other drugs for ADHD, according to WebMD.

Some the drugs increase blood pressure and heart rates in children. Reports of sudden cardiac death in children led to labeling changes for some of the drugs, warning parents of possible cardiovascular risk in patients with heart problems.

But WebMD reports University of Pennsylvania researchers found no connection between heart attacks, strokes and ADHD medications. In fact, they couldn't so much as one cardiovascular incident in the insurance claims they pored over from California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

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Opinion: Parents of Austic Children Have More to Celebrate Than Mourn

Tom Henderson — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Special Needs, Single Parenting, Opinions

No matter how you slice it, it's a stressful job, and the hours stink. But the rewards? Phenomenal. Credit: Getty Images

I am the single father of an autistic teenager.

And I mean single. I am all alone here.

My son's mother lives 400 miles away and rarely sees him. I have not sought or received so much as a dime of child support, even though I am pushing 50 and am still hanging by a thread on an income that ...

Well, just don't major in journalism, kids.

Am I whining? Am I complaining? No, but maybe I should. It seems to be all the rage these days.

I just finished reporting a story about how parents of autistic kids make less money. Oh, it's horrible. Mothers apparently suffer the most. Fathers, as we all know, are insensitive louts who don't give two good hoots about their kids -- especially if they're "damaged."

So it falls to Mom to take lower-paying, more flexible jobs so she can act as a case manager for her disabled child.

Boo hoo.

If that's your sob story, you came to the wrong single father for sympathy. I feel increasingly cold toward fellow parents complaining about the trials and tribulations of having autistic children.

I feel toward them the way I did when I was a newspaper editor, and young reporters whined to me about their long hours and low pay. No one lied to them in the brochure. They knew going in that journalism was a hard-knock life.

The same is true of parenting. No matter how you slice it, it's a stressful job, and the hours stink. So does the pay. There's a reason childless couples are off exploring the fjords of Norway while you stay up nights worrying about how you're going to pay for your kid's braces.

That's true whether or your child has autism or not. Autism just adds a whole other level of stress.

However, the rewards of parenting are phenomenal. I love having an autistic son. I love that he geeks out about trains, road maps and World War II history. I love that he can repeat almost every line from every TV show and movie he has ever seen. Yes, it makes him different. But different is good.

In fact, in our bland vanilla world where so many people seem to be sleepwalking through life, different is fantastic.

My son has a high-functioning form of autism, so I may have it easier than a lot of parents. Then again, a lot of parents have the day-to-day support of a spouse and higher incomes. Bottom line: We all have problems.

I just wish we could all learn to enjoy what we have instead of whining so much about what we don't have. Autism is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a thing.

I have a great life, career and son.

Logistics and life circumstances may keep my ex-wife at a distance, but my son knows his mother loves him. So do I. She and I didn't break up because of what writers perpetually call the "grim toll" autism takes on families. It just happened, like it happens in some 50 percent of marriages.

That's the point, I guess. Life just happens. Some of it's good. Some of it's not so good. It mostly depends on how you choose to respond to it.

Autistic children are not conditions to be managed and treated or problems to be endured. They are people to be understood -- and celebrated.

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Autism Takes Grim Financial Toll on Families, Especially Moms

Tom Henderson — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs

Mothers suffer the most financially from having an autistic child, according to U.S. News & World Report. Credit: Getty Images

Imagine being a child with autism.

Even in the mildest cases, you constantly feel out of sync with the rest of the world, plagued by constant reminders that you just don't fit in. Your mind is like a radio with no volume control or off switch, but with all the stations coming in at once at full blast.

It must be so frustra ...

Never mind that. Parents are the ones who really have it rough. Having an autistic child often means making less money, and mothers suffer the most, according to U.S. News & World Report.

"Mothers are taking lower-paying, more flexible jobs, so that they can spend more time taking care of their autistic children," David S. Mandell, an associate professor of mental health services research in psychiatry, tells the magazine.

Mandell and other researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found autism exacts a heavy financial toll on parents. Especially mothers. While Dad goes blithely on his life career, Mandell tells the magazine, it's the mother who often shoulders the financial burden.

"It is not because autism is more impairing to the child than some of those other health limitations, but the system that cares for children with autism is so fragmented it requires mothers to act as case managers for their children in a way that doesn't happen with children with other disorders," Mandell tells U.S. News.

Mandell and his fellow researchers are scheduled to present their findings next week at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego.

Researchers examined data on families from the federal government's Medical Expenditures Panel Survey and found mothers of autistic kids were 5 percent less likely to have a job than the mothers of children with other chronic health problems -- and 12 percent less likely to have jobs than mothers of mainstream kids.

Mothers of autistic kids also earned about $6,300 a year less than mothers of kids with other health conditions and $11,540 less than mothers of mainstream kids.

Fathers were unaffected.

"The labor market costs associated with having a child with autism are very substantial -- more substantial than with a child with other health limitations," Mandell tells the magazine. "When we are thinking about developing workplace policies and insurance policies we have to take those costs into account. Otherwise, that's a huge economic toll for the U.S. in general."

Financial stress is just part of the package for parents with autistic kids, Jeffrey P. Brosco, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Miami, tells the magazine.

"But there is a lot of research in the past that says the stress on families with children with autism is extraordinary and is even greater than that of other chronic conditions," he says, commenting on the Pennsylvania study.

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Having Bipolar Parents Can Be (Who Knew?) Stressful

Tom Henderson — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Medical Conditions, In The News, Special Needs, Behavior, Health

Imagine dealing with the vacillations and contradictions of someone else's bipolar disorder when you're a kid. Credit: Getty Images

Parents can be stressful. They're really annoying and they go about saying stupid and embarrassing things. Now research suggests kids are even more stressed out when their parents are bipolar.

No, they're not. Yes, they are. No, they're not. Yes! No! YES!

You see the problem.

Imagine dealing with the vacillations and contradictions of someone else's bipolar disorder when you're a kid -- especially when the someone else is your parent.

So the study by researchers at the Concordia University in Montreal linking parents' bipolar disorders to their children's stress may seem like something of a no-brainer.

But according to a press release posted on EurekAlert.com,researchers measured and quantified that stress scientifically. What they found is that cortisol, a stress hormone, shoots up in kids when their parents are bipolar.

"Previous research has shown that children of parents with bipolar disorder are four times as likely to develop mood disorders as those from parents without the condition," senior researcher Mark Ellenbogen, Canada research chair in developmental psychopathology at Concordia, says in the press release.

"The goal of our study was to determine how this is happening," he adds.

Researchers previously measured cortisol levels in kids. In this study, they followed up with the same kids now that that they are in their late teens and early adulthoods.

Their cortisol levels were still elevated. This could mean they'll have emotional problems.

"Our study demonstrates that affected children are biologically more sensitive to the experience of stress in their natural and normal environment compared to their peers," says Ellenbogen in the release. "This higher reactivity to stress might be one explanation of why these offspring end up developing disorders and is a clear risk factor to becoming ill later on.

"We think we might be beginning to understand where we can intervene to actually prevent this increased sensitivity from developing," he adds.

"We believe this sensitivity develops during childhood and our suspicion is that if you could teach both parents and their offspring on how to cope with stress, how to deal with problems before they turn into larger significant stressors and difficulties, this would have a profound impact."

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A 5-Minute Test Could Identify Autism in Kids as Young as 1

Lesley Kennedy — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Babies, In The News, Special Needs

A simple questionaire can diagnose your 1-year-old. Credit: Getty Images

A five minute, 24-question test could help determine if your child is at risk for autism at the age of 1.

Time reports a study released today in the Journal of Pediatrics finds a simple questionnaire that asks parents about their child's behavior could help pediatricians identify autism as early as the 1-year well-baby visit.

Researchers looked at questionnaires filled out by parents of 10,479 babies, the magazine says, and 1,318 were flagged as "failing."

After more testing by lead researcher Karen Pierce, professor of neuroscience at the Autism Center for Excellence at the University of California, San Diego, and her team, 184 children were then evaluated using autism-specific tests, and 32 cases of autism spectrum disorders were eventually found, Time reports.

The magazine says the test, introduced in 2002, was actually made to identify children at risk for language and communication delays.

"Our results show we may detect about half of autism cases at the first birthday, and get these babies into treatment," Pierce tells Time. "We don't know the impact of that treatment, but based on what we do know about early brain plasticity, and how the brain is wired in the first year, we really believe it helps kids to be in treatment when they are young."

Questions on the test, according to Time, include:

Do you know when your child is happy and when your child is upset?
When you are not paying attention to your child, does he/she try to get your attention?
Does your child point to objects?
Does your child use sounds or words to get attention or help?
Does your child show interest in playing with a variety of objects?

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Parenting an ADHD Child, Age by Age

Carolyn Rogalsky — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Special Needs, Behavior: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Behavior: Big Kids, Behavior: Tweens, Behavior: Teens

Watch a video on treating ADHD.

The benefits of following some tried-and-true parenting techniques can provide you with even greater rewards. Credit: Getty Images

Establishing good parenting skills, educating yourself and advocating for your child are the most important tools for successfully raising your ADHD child.

While the challenges you face may be more intense than those of most parents, the benefits of following some tried-and-true parenting techniques can provide you with even greater rewards. Your ADHD child will learn appropriate behaviors when you create clear routines and expectations, as well as set and enforce limits. Don't make things too complicated. Just establish some straight-forward rules and time lines, and your child will be better able to navigate at every stage.

Preschoolers
Because the brain is still developing and few medications are approved for children at this age, this is the period in which parents are most "on their own." Most helpful at this stage is behavior modification and environmental adjustments. In our world of super stimulation, it may be best to minimize your child's surroundings -- a smaller classroom, with less activity, and a definite routine can help improve preschoolers' ADHD symptoms.

The National Institute of Mental Health conducted a Preschool ADHD Treatment Study and found that when parents consistently used techniques such as offering consistent praise, ignoring negative behavior and using time-outs, they were successful in helping their ADHD children adjust to the preschool setting.

School-age
Most children are diagnosed with ADHD once they start grade school because their difficulties with focus and lack of control become more apparent (and problematic) when faced with more formal learning and social situations. For parents, this can actually be helpful because while your child may face greater challenges, it's also possible you'll receive more support. Be sure to talk to teachers, administrators and counselors to see what resources are available to you and your child within the school community.

Children at this stage need to know exactly what others expect of them. Since they can't "read between the lines," they don't do well in ambiguous situations. Behavioral parent training programs can be very effective here. They will help you narrow your focus to a few specific behaviors and help you to set limits, and follow through in a consistent manner.

Tweens
In middle school, a more challenging curriculum and the onset of adolescence can certainly intensify the lives of ADHD kids and their parents. Parents may need to try new approaches, from adjusting medications to developing new strategies to help cope with more complex schedules.

Parents should steer their middle schoolers to take more responsibility for their overall well being. Behavioral therapy should also focus on strategies that kids, rather than parents, can use to get their work done.

At this stage it's also important to reassure your tween that having ADHD is not a fault or a punishment. Remind your child that ADHD is a medical condition, like asthma or nearsightedness, and that, with treatment, she can prevent it from limiting her success.

Teens
Although symptoms may seem less severe in the teen years, it's important for parents to continue to advocate for their children. ADHD students may qualify for accommodations such as being issued extra time on standardized tests in school.

Issues that prove challenging for all teens -- identity, independence, drugs and alcohol, sexuality -- can be magnified for teens with ADHD. If you've been dealing with the disorder since childhood, you may have an advantage over non-ADHD parents in that your child is comfortable with all-important limits and boundaries.

Probably the best thing you can do for your ADHD teen is to help him find his strengths and give him opportunities to experience success. Reinforce some of the positive or "surplus" aspects of ADHD symptoms. Remind your child that impulsiveness can lead to creativity; intrusiveness can be interpreted as eagerness, while sincerity is just plan heartwarming, and sincere.

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Explaining ADHD to Others

Carolyn Rogalsky — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Special Needs, Behavior, Development: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Development: Big Kids, Development: Tweens

Credit: Getty Images

Dealing with an ADHD diagnosis can be tough. The complexities of this disorder -- like when your child has a meltdown in the supermarket checkout line -- are not easily understood. You know that it's all part of the disorder, but all around you, eyeballs roll, and you hear judgmental comments like, "Why can't you control him?" or "She just needs to cut back on sugar." If only it were so easy!

Does ADHD define your child? Of course not! So how do you help others see past attention issues and appreciate your whole child? How can you explain your child's disorder to others, without sounding apologetic or preachy?

Not every situation allows you to fend for your child, but among friends and family, it's good to set the record straight and separate the symptoms of ADHD from your child's overall demeanor. As we've all been told: knowledge is the key to understanding.

When possible, inform friends and family of your child's disorder in advance of an encounter. This will sensitize onlookers and help you manage the situation. With its prevalence (the AAP reports that 4.4 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD) many people are already sensitive to its impact.

But for those novices, give them the bare facts:

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition of the brain that makes it hard for children to control their behavior. Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are the key behaviors of ADHD. Children with ADHD have frequent, severe problems that interfere with their ability to live normal lives. ADHD is usually diagnosed in childhood, although the condition can continue into adult years.

Analogies are another popular and useful way of explaining ADHD to outsiders. But since there are many different ways ADHD controls the brain, there are just as many appropriate analogies. Comparisons have been made to a moth drawn to the brightest light or the brain as a brakeless bike.

One particularly compelling one comes from an ADHD message board:

"When normal people look up at the night sky they see a starry night and they see the stars. They may focus on one particular star but they still see the rest of the sky around it.
When an ADHD person looks up at night, they see a star, then they look at another star, and then another. When they see another star they get distracted and lose their focus on the previous one. They see only single stars without seeing the whole picture."

For those who are deeply interested, or who continue to express skepticism about your child's disorder, invite them to accompany you to a doctor's visit. Check with the doctor first, of course, and then allow the doctor to address concerns and questions. Even though you are the expert on your child, some people need to hear from a professional to get the message!

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Kids With Tourette Syndrome May Have Greater Motor Control

Tom Henderson — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Special Needs, Research Reveals

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Brain scans of kids with Tourette Syndrome revealed they were uniquely wired. Credit: Getty

If your kids cusses up a blue streak, it could be a sign of Tourette Syndrome.

Or, it could be a sign of simply being a kid.

Tourette Syndrome, despite its popular reputation, is not just about spewing obscenities. It is more often characterized by making repeated involuntary sounds and physical tics, such as blinking, grimacing, shrugging, twisting and grunting.

Believe it or not, there's an upside to all this.

A study published online March 24 in the journal Current Biology reveals that children with Tourette Syndrome may have greater motor control as a result of struggling to control their other problems.

"The motor outputs of children with Tourette Syndrome are under greater cognitive control," Stephen Jackson, of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, says in a press release posted on Science Daily. "You might view this as their being less likely to respond without thinking, or as being less reflexive."

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of kids with the condition revealed they were uniquely wired when it comes to how different parts of their brains communicate.

In the release, Jackson says the study may help explain why some people with Tourette Syndrome have tics during childhood but manage to conquer them as adults, while others are plagued by tics throughout their lives.

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'Positive Discipline for Children With Special Needs': Author Q&A

Julie Z. Rosenberg — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Special Needs, Books for Parents

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Children with special needs need discipline, just like every other kid on the planet. How else are they going to learn about limits and boundaries, right from wrong and the basics of socially acceptable behavior?

According to the authors of the new book "Positive Discipline for Children with Special Needs," there's "a huge temptation for many parents of children with special needs" to pamper their kids.

But, they say, that only does the child a disservice. All children, including those with special needs, deserve the chance to feel capable, important and self-possessed, all of which can be learned using the tools in "Positive Discipline."

ParentDish recently spoke with two of the book's three authors, Steven Foster, L.C.S.W., and Arlene Raphael, M.S. An edited version of the conversation follows.

ParentDish: What makes this book different and useful for parents of children with special needs?
Steven Foster: In all the "Positive Discipline" books, which essentially deal with helping children who are behaving in ways that parents and teachers wish they wouldn't, we're trying to figure out what a child's mistaken belief about belonging and significance is, in order to help them express their need differently. In this book, we arrived at a concept we call "innocent behavior."

Author Steven Foster

PD: What's that?
SF: There are lots of conditions that drive kids to behave in particular ways. For example, kids with attention deficit disorder are often going to be impulsive or unable to focus. When kids are behaving in ways dictated by their conditions, they really are behaving innocently. In other words, they're not doing it to make us mad. One of the big thrusts of the book is to be able to differentiate between a behavior driven by a particular condition (innocent behavior) and a behavior that is reflective of mistaken goals about belonging and significance.

PD: What's a "mistaken goal"?
SF: Here's an example: If I'm leading a (preschool) circle time and I have a child who is interrupting me because she really wants to tell me something. I at first say, "Nope, not now. I need to first finish what I am saying and then I will listen." She might stop for a minute or two, but then feel compelled to start interrupting again. That is a mistaken goal called "undue attention," which means in that moment, what that child believes about belonging and being important, involves being the center of attention.

PD: How can you tell the difference between innocent behavior and mistaken goals?
SF: There are clues to mistaken goal behavior. For undue attention, often, the first clue is the adult being annoyed. And then a behavioral clue would be, "Am I intervening with a child who might stop briefly, but then might start up again?"

PD: Seems difficult to do, especially in the heat of the moment.
SF: We will misinterpret things and it then becomes our job to mend fences. ... It's really OK for parents to make mistakes. In the long run, kids aren't going to learn to fix mistakes unless they see us making them and making a point of fixing them.

PD: If we can't tell, how do we know what methods to use?
SF: The range of "Positive Discipline" tools will be helpful, whether or not you know if the behavior is innocent or mistaken.

Author Arlene Raphael

PD: A lot of parents of kids with special needs make concessions. Any advice?
Arlene Raphael: In the book, we talk about how to create an environment that teaches children behaviors that are socially useful. (Parents should) try to shift away from, "Oh, my poor child has a special needs condition, we have to help him out" to "What can we teach? What can we focus on?" That shifts the focus of feeling guilty about the child's problem to being proactive and focusing on the child's strengths.

PD: Ah, guilt. The all-powerful parental guilt.
SF: Parents with kids of severe special needs or highly impacted children often feel guilty. Many feel their child is getting a raw deal in the world, and they want to make it better. That's a very universal impulse.

PD: So how do we assuage the guilt but not make concessions?
SF: In special ed terms, accommodations are things we do to help children be capable; things we can put in place so that the playing field for the child is roughly equivalent to the playing field for a child without special needs. Things like special chairs, rearranging furniture, visual symbols to help children remember things. Allowances are things like, "We need to let him take toys because he doesn't know how to ask for a turn yet." Allowances aren't all that helpful.

PD: When you put it that way, it sounds obvious.
SF: Kids with special needs have a right to struggle. That can be counter-intuitive since they're already struggling, but when we make things too easy for them, we are not helping them develop the belief about themselves that they are capable and they can learn to solve problems. And those, we believe, are universal human needs.

PD: As a parent, it's hard to deal with a child who has additional obstacles on top of the normal frustrations of being a kid.
SF: Help your child be frustrated and find ways to deal with frustration. Notice that I said, "find a way to be frustrated." We're not ever going to be able to -- nor would it be desirable -- to create worlds in which the children we raise or teach are not angry, are not disappointed, are not frustrated. We look at those sorts of things as muscles, and if you don't learn to flex them in socially appropriate ways, they don't develop. People really do need to learn how to be angry effectively and how to be frustrated or disappointed effectively.

PD: What's the main message of your book?
SF: The overwhelming need to be connected to other people in a positive way, and the overwhelming need to feel significant and capable, is equally true for children with special needs as it is for children without them. Your kids really aren't that different.

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The Word 'Retard': Stop Using It

Ellen Seidman — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:28:00 EST

Filed under: Medical Conditions, Special Needs, Opinions

Ellen and her son Max. Courtesy of Ellen Seidman.

Let's say you have a child with disabilities who has cognitive delays, and when people jokingly uses the word "retard" to call someone stupid, it bothers you.

Let's say that in honor of Spread The Word To End The Word Day, which was this week, you decide to do a little project: For a few days you will message people on Twitter who use the word "retard" and let them know the r-word is derogatory to people with disabilities.

You don't actually expect the word to disappear anytime soon or that people will instantly chop it out of their vocabularies. But maybe, just maybe, you can raise a little awareness. You will set up alerts for tweets that contain "retard."

And you will find that there are so many mentions of the word -- thousands a day -- this could be your full-time job. People in the U.S., England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Kuwait say the word. Men, women, teens (lots and lots of teens), people of all races and all spelling abilities.

You will not fault people for their use of the r-word, because the term has become slang. They don't mean to malign people with disabilities. Heck, you used to call annoying situations "retarded" before you understood.

You have no problem with the words "stupid" or "dumb" or worse. Sure, call your friends names if you'd like, it's your conversation. But maybe you don't have to toss around the word "retard." Or say even worse things:

When you're sending a message limited to 140 characters, you'd expect that some people won't get what's so wrong. You can't get into explanations of how equating people doing stupid or blockheaded stuff ("I'm a retard for forgetting my wallet!") with people who have intellectual disabilities insults them, and how it perpetuates stereotypes. You'd expect most people to ignore you, which they do.

You'd expect some to be defensive, as the very act of tweeting at them is confrontational, even though you try to keep your tweets even-handed: Hi. Mom of kids with disabilities here. The word "retard" is demeaning. But still, you will be surprised by how people dig in their heels:

Someone whose bio reads "My words make a difference in this world" will curse you out:

Some guy will use a phrase that you have never heard before:

And when you go on Urban Dictionary, look up "photo wrecker" and read the description -- "A retarded or disabled person" -- you will sob. Because you're furious and you're dejected.

And because for the first time in your life, you fear how people may one day treat your son when you are not around to protect him. You will feel sorry you started this project. But you will not be able to stop. Those alerts for "retard" will keep popping up. Forty six alerts, 373 alerts, 1,452 when you wake up one morning.

And you will keep tweeting: Hi. Mom of kid with disabilities here. Would u help end the use of the word "retard"? It hurts. http://www.r-word.org. Some people will use rationale ...

... and some will laugh at you.

But some will inspire you to keep going:

And you will get a few apologies and acknowledgments, and hope your message sticks.

And then, you will read yet another tweet: Don't worry, I won't hold your incredible stupidity against you. Still love you bro. #retard. You will tweet him and point out that the word is demeaning to people with disabilities. And he will tweet:

And you will not give up:

He won't give up either:

And finally, you will say:

And then:

And you will feel a little bit of hope. The day you are done, you will get an email from one Lars who tells you that last week his organization launched The Social Challenge.

Through that site, you can anonymously "challenge" Twitter r-word users. But then, you will feel proud that you did this on your own. For all the times you felt sick to your stomach to see a string of smiling faces jokingly calling people "retard," for all the nasty responses you got and for all the non-responses, you will know that even if you've changed a few people's minds, your efforts will have been worth it.

But you will not be able to stop looking.

Ellen Seidman is a freelance editor and writer who blogs about raising kids with special needs at Love That Max, where this post originally appeared.

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Children With Autism Learn Life Skills at School's Coffee Shop

Honey Berk — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: Medical Conditions, In The News, Special Needs

Kids with autism learn life and business skills by running their own coffee shop. Credit: Getty Images

Across the country, parents of children with autism regularly battle local school districts to secure the best possible education for their child. But in New Jersey, a proposed state initiative and some innovative approaches to special education look to improve both the quality and quantity of special education these children receive.

At Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Edison, N.J., children with autism or multiple learning disabilities step out of the classroom and into the business world on Friday mornings. Setting up in the home economics room, 12 students in a special education class run a coffee shop, selling coffee, tea, doughnuts, cookies and cupcakes to the school's staff -- even delivering to classrooms on request, the New York Times reports.

Since October, the children have rung up more than $1,000 in sales at the shop, which was developed by teacher Thomas Macchiaverna to help encourage social skills, instill business acumen and impart life lessons.

The students -- all boys between 11 and 13 years old -- take turns doing the various jobs, like cashiering or delivering orders, which helps bolster a range of different skills. But Macchiaverna tells The Times that, above all else, the students get to practice people skills at the shop, where the customers can sometimes be demanding.

"The overall goal here is to make these kids functional members of society," Macchiaverna tells The Times. "It's a different avenue than the standard educational curriculum. It's outside the box, which you have to be with this kind of program."

As diagnoses for autism spectrum disorders have risen in New Jersey, the number of special education students in public schools has increased 3.5 percent to 199,207 since 2008, The Times reports. In Edison, where 80 of the 850 students receive special education services, the coffee shop is an example of the way schools across the state are trying to expand their special education programs to better meet the needs of students with autism and severe learning disabilities.

In Northern Burlington Regional High Schools in Columbus, N.J., special education students run an auto-detailing shop at the school, cleaning cars for parents and school staff. And at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., autistic students started their own ice cream business and a gardening center where they grow and sell plants and vegetables, The Times reports.

Yet, there are but a handful of successful programs like these in the state. To address this issue, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently proposed the creation of more public schools devoted to children with autism. For school districts, this would help lessen the financial burden of special education, while providing students with a more consistent level of instruction.

Although the coffee shop met with some early challenges in the fall, the students have settled into a comfortable routine and the teachers love it.

"It's not about the coffee or the cookies," school Principal Patricia Cotoia tells The Times. "It's about the interaction and seeing how capable the kids are."

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Kim Stagliano, Author of 'All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa,' on Raising 3 Kids With Autism

Julie Z. Rosenberg — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Medical Conditions, Special Needs, Behavior, Books for Parents

Jacket design by Adam Bozarth

It's a known fact that boys are affected by autism more than girls are -- the oft-quoted statistic is four to one. So it's shocking to many, including the mom herself, that Kim Stagliano has three daughters with autism, and they're not triplets.

Her eldest, Mia, is nearly 16; Gianna is 14 and Bella is 10. The managing editor of the website Age of Autism and a vocal advocate in the autism community, Stagliano's newest book, a memoir that she jokingly refers to as her "Kimoir," is called All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa. ParentDish spoke with Stagliano about her new book. An edited version of the conversation follows.

ParentDish: There are a lot of people who are going to read your book who don't have children with autism. What do you hope they'll get out of it?
Kim Stagliano: That's really who I want to reach. We're really pretty isolated. We don't really fit into the traditional "special needs" model.

PD: Why is that?
KS: First, this epidemic is new. Autism is 25 years old with these numbers [an average of one in 110 U.S. children have autism.] It existed, but it was nothing like what it is today. For instance, a child with Down syndrome smiles, typically speaks, is typically extremely social -- maybe even more social than the average child -- and that invites an embrace, whereas with autism, you have behaviors. And kids with autism can have the appearance of being prickly because they might not like to be touched. They might not want you to look at them. They might not be able to converse with you. You see Down syndrome and you know you have a set of expectations and you relax. You see my girls, they look perfectly typical; Mia will be 16 next week, and then suddenly you'll see her pop her thumb into her mouth. And your first reaction will be, 'Huh!?!' So the initial engagement sometimes is awkward.

[Second], we don't get insurance coverage. We're not considered medical; we're considered psychiatric. We're trying hard to change that.

PD: So none of the therapies you get are covered?
KS: They are not covered, no. I saw an ad on Monster.com: $50,000 [is what] a family in Concord, Massachusetts will pay for private ABA [Applied Behavior Analysis]. There are insurance mandates being passed in various states around the country, but they're really weak. They cover only some of the straight behavioral therapy. The loophole is so large you can drive a Mack truck through it. Autism is expensive. So you get the financial stress on top of the familial stress, which is why some people crack.

This is serious business, autism. And we're normalizing it. And that's a real concern for me. When we hear about something so often, it starts to become routine. And what goes on behind closed doors is nothing normal. And yet we're starting to feel like, "Oh, autism, that's being really smart, isn't it? I thought autism meant being really good at getting swishes on the basketball court." Uh, no.

Author Kim Stagliano

PD: Mia is about to turn 16 and is becoming a young woman. How do you deal with her period and other womanly things?
KS: Mia got her period at 9, uh, hello? ... Twenty percent of fifth grade girls have their periods. That's the recent stat. When I was a kid it was like 8th grade. Mia wasn't potty trained at 9, so, gallows humor, [my husband] Mark and I would joke that "Oh great, we'll be changing period pads and wiping poop at the same time." And then when it happened, it wasn't so funny.

PD: You mention in the book that you believe things happen in threes; you have three daughters. I'm wondering if this is the first book in a Kimoir trilogy?
KS: Wow. A trilogy! How many crapisodes must I go through to write another book?

PD: But surely you have so much more to say?
KS: I do have more to say. But I'm actually writing a young adult [novel] right now; the main character does not have autism, but her brother does. It's going to be about the aging-out process and the responsibility that she fears and doesn't want to face because she knows what's coming down the pike for her when her parents are old. She knows she's going to have the responsibility for her older brother and she doesn't want it.

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