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Overcoming ADHD: Helping Your Child Become Calm, Engaged, And Focused--Without A Pill (Merloyd Lawrence Book)

This wise and informative guide applies Stanley Greenspan’s much admired developmental approach to a very common disorder. In his distinctive and original view, ADHD is not a single problem, but rather a set of common symptoms that arise from several different sensory, motor, and self-regulation problems. As in his highly successful earlier books and in his practice, Greenspan emphasizes the role of emotion, seeking the root of the condition and rebuilding the foundations of healthy development. Overcoming ADHD steers away from the pitfalls of labeling, or of simply stamping out symptoms with medication, and demonstrates Greenspan’s abiding belief in the growth and individual potential of each child.

Series: Merloyd Lawrence Book

Hardcover: 208 pages

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books (August 11, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0738213551

ASIN: B00381B7BE

Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches

Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #2,418,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #69 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs > Hyperactivity #369 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Children's Health > Learning Disorders #3356 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Pathologies

Author Greenspan's book Overcoming ADHD promises parents, caregivers, and teachers, guidelines for helping children with ADHD--without resorting to pills--the current solution to help such children today. He feels that all too often those who demonstrate ADHD behaviors are put in programs that do not focus on the underlying reasons for a child's difficulty with self-control, paying attention, and remaining focused.Included in his list of influences affecting "attention" are cultural expectations and possible biological factors. Most importantly, however, Greenspan feels that careful consideration of any child's strengths and weaknesses is the most beneficial way to construct a realistic program for a child who appears hyperactive and inattentive.In its earliest pages, Overcoming ADHD discusses seven key factors of an interceptive approach. If after a twelve month period of serious attempts to improve these factors, only then should a parent or caregiver seek further professional help for a suspect child. So often, it might seem easier to "give the kid a pill" rather than consistently try to move along the spectrum of steps listed below.An ADHD Person Can Learn How To:1. Move their body and its parts in a way that is age-appropriate.2. Remember the sequence of thought patterns and activities.3. Reduce over-activity or under-activity.4. Think more reflectively.5. Feel self-confident enough to lower anxiety.6. Interact meaningfully with family members.7. Live safely in a distracting environment.Overcoming ADHD provides a variety of suggestions a parent, caregiver, teacher, or counselor can follow, to move a child along all of the seven steps listed above. There are far too many suggestions to mention here. The important thing is that each proposed game, exercise, or activity is explained in easy-to-follow detail and must be consistently used.Especially important are the activities to help children feel good about themselves. The book tells of Mark, a boy with low self-esteem (#5-above). After talking with both Mark and his parents, it surfaced that Mark's mother was overwhelmed by her son's problems. His father simply felt Mark was acting out in school and tended to be harsh with him.After some counseling, Mark's father started having hang-out time on a regular basis with his son (#6-above). The two began to bond. Father saw Mark in a different light and took an active role in his interest in magic.Since Mark had particular difficulty sequencing thoughts and activities (#2-above), his parents worked with an occupational therapist to set up a meaningful program. Mark was slowly taught to remember, and carry out a sequence of directions. Simple magic tricks from a local store became his reward for carrying a sequence of four directions correctly.Mark's muscular coordination (#1-above) improved with regular use of balance beam activities that increased in difficulty. Eventually, the eight-year-old learned to perform a magic trick while talking and standing on the beam. This improved his overall coordination.Mark's family and interventionists played many "Regulation" games with him, along with a game Overcoming ADHD calls "Thinking About Tomorrow". There is no need to mention either here since both are adequately explained on pages 112-115. How they helped Mark is fascinating.The important issue is that this child's abilities improved in many interrelated areas. As they changed, so did his self-esteem and his overall school performance. Did it happen overnight or in a week? No, it took many months, not just one or two. But family, school, and therapists, all working together to pull Mark through the seven steps mentioned above particularly in a loving, safe, dynamic home environment, accomplished a change in this boy that will last a lifetime--and the magic is, it was done without pills.I would highly recommend that any parent, educator, doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or minister should read Overcoming ADHD and apply its suggestions to their charges, if they seriously want to help a child or adult--typically labeled ADHD. The book is written in layman's terms. It is fascinating. It is extremely well organized. It is hopeful. It is easy to follow. It just might start a more promising life for a problem childOther interesting reads:Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents (Revised Edition)Parenting Children With Adhd: 10 Lessons That Medicine Cannot Teach (APA Lifetools)Organizing Solutions for People With Attention Deficit Disorder: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get OrganizedThe ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child

To me Greenspan is the Rebbe of child development. This book is a nice overview of floortime yet it does not expalin how to do the activities with young teeens. If you know floortime the main value in this book is the application of the Dir model to explain that what the school calls adhd is to a greenspan parent what they havebeen working on all along. If you are not a greenspan parent already this is a great book. Even as a devotee a refresher is always good, i am always a better parent when reminded of his approach.

I purchased this book based on a suggestion and it is okay. It does have information to help you get your child off medications, but I found it geared towards very very young children and only gave you a few suggestions on what to do with these younger children and explained a little on why this works. It wasn't very in depth. I think you would still need to work with an OT.

OVERCOMING ADHD: HELPING YOUR CHILD BECOME CALM, ENGAGED AND FOCUSED - WITHOUT A PILL discusses the range of symptoms that form ADHD as a syndrome, relating them to different sensory, motor and self-regulation issues and discussing the role of emotions in the development of the nervous system. It shows how kids can learn to engage, understand their senses and maintain focus without medication and offers an alternative set of ideas for parents and educators seeking different management approaches.

Right from the book's outset, Greenspan presents what the current reviewers' hope and believe will be for its readers, a new way forward in helping children with ADHD and ADD diagnoses. Prior to the prescription and establishment of any psychoactive medicine regime, Greenspan argues for, and illustrates with successful case studies, the exploration of Piagetian-like activities set in a developmental-intervention program. Similar to those found in multi-month PII Brain Spa Programs, Greenspan introduces several customisable task/activity options to suit any child's target-set of strengths and weaknesses, for any family coping with an ADHD/ADD-diagnosed child. Parents are encouraged here to initially focus upon the identification, skill-development and monitoring of core indicators of developmental-behavioural anomaly, including age-normative motor planning, sequential coordination(s), and visual-spatial processing skills.Once such core behavioural differences have been clearly identified, Greenspan's proposed `cognitive-scaffolding' activities/interventions may be introduced to the child's routine to assist with the generation of more context-appropriate behaviours, rather than immediately opting for managing the largely unwanted behaviours typically associated with ADHD/ADD by the uncritical use of psychoactive drugs following diagnosis. The author's propose in waiting to see the results of at least six months of continuous intervention/activity practice, before agreeing to offer their child pharmaceutical treatments (which may be proposed by some practitioners as a way to treat a child's behavioural symptomology, but not the cause(s), of undesired behaviours identified at initial clinical presentation). In this sense, we hope that Greenspan's work provides both a welcome and fascinating resource (i.e., good news !) for the increasing numbers of parents whose child(ren) is/are diagnosed with ADHD/ADD. Indeed, to those who have been wondering if medication might be the only way of offering help to their hyperactive child, the `hands-on' knowledge being made available here as the basis of the interventional program will enlighten, whilst proactively enabling them to assist their child to deal with everyday situations with increasing flexibility and appropriacy amidst the increasing demands of a variety of environmental challenges.Greenspan's comprehensive approach outlines seven key goals, including reflective thinking, building self-confidence, improving family dynamics and provision of a healthy environment. These goals struck a chord with the reviewers as professional training consultants with the daily responsibility for monitoring children's developing progress from 1st-person (e.g. self esteem, spatial and sensory awareness skills), to social (e.g. communication and interpersonal logical construct) perspectives. More commentary with regards the maintenance of cooperation between trainers/councillors and parents would provide a further critical addition, however, so ensuring that all parties remain regularly updated as each child's intervention task/activity sets' progress over time, whilst parents also be advised to independently keep records of their observed daily behaviour patterns for comparative purposes.Chapters 4 through 7 discuss the core measures and activity recommendations regarding children's motor systems and sensory processing skill developments. As with PII Brain Spa Program, trainers and/or parents may modulate particular activity/game details to suit the individual child's identified strengths and weaknesses in order to maintain the optimal developmental progress pace. The games/activities that Greenspan recommends are designed to allow individual children to build up their concentration levels as their `attentional deficits' begin to come under their own conscious control towards personal mastery. Example game progressions might include a simple crawling to walking routine, followed by running and skipping, only then introducing increasingly complex syncopated rhythmic patterns. Introducing increasingly complex sequencing tasks, adjusting the rhythm by speed, and/or volume parameters further practices extremity, and later, whole body-part control. `Simon Says' and obstacle-course games are also suggested according to age-related and ability-determined dispositional states of readiness. Music and sounds (including use of varied tones of voice) are recommended in providing further opportunities for children to experience and locate the origin of different sound sources. As with other sensory modalities, helping every child to make `sense' of the auditory components (for example) `hidden' amongst the mass of sensory stimuli as may be occurring in their surroundings, will assist in their coming to know where different stimuli are coming from, and to master/assign their significance more appropriately. By so doing, Greenspan's program focuses (correctly we believe) upon strengthening each of the separate abilities that support attention, focus and concentration - the latter three skills being the most frequently identified as criteria diagnostic of ADHD/ADD conditions.In reading this volume, parents can be helped in coming to better understand the most up-to-date behavioural patterns their child may develop as they continue to monitor progress, and analyse the changes in previously identified strengths and weaknesses that may underlie their hyperactivity. With the inclusion of frequently cited supportive references, the `Sensory Processing and Motor Abilities Questionnaire' allows both parents and professionals to keep track of an individual child's behavioural profile (or overt behavioural pattern). However, the reviewers also must point out some shortcomings of the way in which this tool was presented in the version received for review: It was unclear how exactly the resulting profile might best be interpreted and used for activity generation and scheduling. Indeed it is possible that some readers/parents may even take the questionnaire as providing a diagnostic aid for ADHD/ADD (which is NOT its purpose), and some readers would clearly benefit from guided consultancy with a supervising clinical or educational psychologist sympathetic to Greenspan's ideology (as are the current reviewers). Whatever interpretation one may result in accepting the profile generated following use of Greenspan's `Sensory Processing and Motor Abilities Questionnaire', we agree with him that, respecting each child's uniqueness and treating them in a `student-centred' way is the most valuable approach in treating children diagnosed with ADHD/ADD.With the inclusion of several regularly updating website addresses to continue checking in the Resources section at the end of the book, Greenspan has offered here a great opportunity for both parents and educational/psychological professionals work with suspected ADHD/ADD cases without immediate resort to psychotropic drugs and/or medical specialists (at least if occurring in the absence of any clear psychopathology or neuropathy). Intervention programs are always time-consuming however, but if affordable, persistent monitoring and assessment of sensory, motor and sequencing skills can, and often will result in happier, more self-motivated success stories, and, a lasting outcome rewarded by enhanced levels of personal control and responsibility,.... all possibly quite readily achievable without administering any mind-altering drugs !Dr. Tony Dickinson & Lucillal LauAcademic Research Laboratory, People Impact International Inc, HK

This is a well written book, especially for parents or professionals not working as Occupational Therapist. It is very structured, easy to read and gives a lot of practical solutions / games.

good book for parents . assist them in better understanding the diagnosis of a DVD. provides strategies to assist their child to function better with add.

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