Bravo! Tutoring Helps Your Child Overcome ADD and ADHD!
ADD and ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder; Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) is one of the most controversial learning disabilities around.
Those who have luck with medications swear by them. Those who’ve had negative experiences with medications or don’t believe in medicating their children for focusing issues have a different story to tell.
Either way, children with ADD/ADHD suffer more than most in the traditional classroom where the lecture model is the main form of teaching information.
ADD/ADHD is a biologically based condition causing a persistent pattern of difficulties resulting in inattention or impulsivity that interferes with academics and social performance. At Bravo! Tutoring, we know there’s more going on than just that!
How the Brain and ADD and ADHD Work Together
When a child struggles to focus, a lot can go on! For starters, your child can be “stuck” in the right hemisphere of the brain and is therefore unable to or has a limited ability to access the left side of the brain.
ADD and ADHD Tendiencies and Brain Wiring
The brain has a lot to with ADD/ADHD, and that’s why it’s important to use brain integration exercises if you want lasting results for focusing and impulsivity issues.
We know a lot about the brain but educators often fail to take it into consideration when trying to help kids suffering from this neurological issue!
This is a huge disservice to these kids!
Did you know that the left hemisphere of the brain is the logical, step-by-step, organizational side?
Schools usually judge a student’s intelligence and performance through the left brain’s abilities.
This is logic, bit-by-bit thinking, math, numbers, phonics, reasoning, and logic side.
The right side of the brain is involved with pictures, color, movement, daydreaming, creativity, rhythm, thinking in “wholes”. A learner who is right-brain dominant can remain in the daydreaming, creative, impulsive state, which can make it difficult to focus.
Sometimes, the student is stuck in the “movement” portion off the brain. These kids need to move to learn. They might be tapping their pencils, bouncing their legs, poking their neighbors, or wriggling in their seats as a way to cope.
These are the kids who need to use the restroom every five minutes or who are involved in all their neighbor’s business.
Nothing is Wrong with Kids who Suffer from ADD and ADHD!
Being a right-brain dominant thinker isn’t something bad. Most of the creations, inventions, and masterpieces throughout history were created by using the right side of the brain.
But schools today primarily focus on left brain skills like phonics and math. Certainly NOT creative thinking.
Even worse, since the 1990’s the United States has had a push for math and sciences, which has only served to confuse and upset the bulk of our top, creative thinkers.
The problem comes when a student has a difficult time functioning in a typical classroom. These kids are bored to death and their minds often wander.
They fidget and squirm. They stare out the window when homework isn’t finished on time or at all…and they often get in trouble for these coping mechanisms.
ADD and ADHD Contribute to Lost Assignments and Messy Work
When assignments are lost because children with ADD or ADHD are unorganized, they often get bad grades. One missing assignment can impact grades on report cards.
And messy work is often hard to read. Even if information is known, it isn’t portrayed properly and is often marked wrong.
Once again, grades are negatively impacted!
When kids with ADD and ADHD can’t hold still long enough to focus on what the teacher is saying, they often get sent to the office.
Behavior problems arrive because of frustration or being misunderstood, then they’re labeled as “bad” kids.
These kids aren’t bad! They’re just bored and often misunderstood.
We have to stop squelching our creative kids and go back to nurturing creativity like we did in the 1980’s. Back then, learning disabilities were rare. Most kids were happy and learning.
The Downside of Medication
Some kids really do benefit from ADD and ADHD medications.
But at Bravo! Tutoring, it is our stance that a young child has a growing and maturing brain and we prefer treating children with a natural approach.
Ritalin use in children can cause users to become suicidal. It can cause weight loss and disrupt sleep cycle. Less severe side effects are irritability, stomachaches, headaches, and loss of appetite.
Adderall has similar side effects. Loss of appetite, weight loss, dry mouth, stomach upset/pain, nausea/vomiting, dizziness, headache, diarrhea, fever, nervousness, and trouble sleeping may occur. This medication may raise blood pressure as well.
Although there are other newer medications without these harsh side effects, at Bravo! Tutoring, we know there is a better way! It takes a bit longer but the results are lasting with zero side effects!
At Bravo! Tutoring, it’s our goal to always treat the whole child. This means we take a non-medication approach to treating ADD/ADHD.
However, we never cast judgment on anyone who chooses medication as a route to helping your child.
Bravo! Tutoring Holistically Helps Kids with ADD and ADHD
There is a way to help kids with ADD overcome their lack of focus.
Kids with ADD and ADHD can be taught to access both the left and right hemispheres of the brain so that they can function in the modern left brain dominant classroom. This is called whole brain learning.
It takes time and effort. It isn’t a quick fix, like giving a pill every day. But it is a lasting fix without side effects.
Many parents who have enrolled their children in Bravo! Tutoring programs relate how they “lost” their children when they were medicated for ADD/ADHD.
They go on to explain how their children’s personalies seemed to go away, that the “spark” that made their kids special seemed to flicker out.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
There are alternative and better treatment plans available that aren’t so hard on the child’s growing body and brain.
The Crossover Problem With Other Learning Disabilities
One serious problem with ADD and ADHD is that the symptoms can crossover with those of an auditory processing problem, visual processing issues, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities.
If images or text in a book is moving around, distorted, has halos, is tilted, presents diagonally, or appears in some other odd way, it makes it difficult to focus and concentrate.
These are also symptoms of a visual processing disorder, dysgraphia, or dyslexia.
Because of the unstable print perception, the student might wiggle, fidget or stare out into space. Avoiding assignments is another symptom.
Perhaps the student is experiencing auditory processing issues and might hear noises as loud as a jet taking off. Maybe the neighbor’s pencil scraping across the page sounds like scraping fingernails down a chalkboard.
Or perhaps the student can’t tune out background noises like computers whirring in the back of the room or kids outside playing on the playground.
Can you see how difficult it would be to concentrate if you were experiencing these sensations?
Alternative ADD and ADHD Treatments
There is a better and safer way to help these kids focus. It’s not as easy as taking a pill, but it’s a lot better for the child in the long run. Even betterm though is that the treatment is long lasting.
A combination of physical activities that engage the brain, sensory processing activities, and brain integration can help kids with ADD and ADHD focus without harsh medications.
Of course, there aren’t instant results with this route, but the results your child gets are long lasting. Even better, your child enjoys the activities and there aren’t terrible side effects.
Since there is no definitive measurement used to diagnose a child is tested with ADD or ADHD, it makes it difficult to determine what is really going on.
It could be another learning disability masking the same symptoms. Also, keep in mind that the tests used for diagnosing ADD and ADHD are subjective.
When your child is tested for ADD or ADHD, a team of people (such as teacher, school administrator, parent, caretaker, etc.) fill out checklists on your child’s behaviors and habits.
From there, the pediatrician determines if medication can help. There is no blood test or definitive measurement to determine if a young child will be placed on medications.
Symptoms of ADD and ADHD
- Inability to give close attention to details
- Makes careless mistakes in schoolwork or other activities
- Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
- Has a difficult time following instructions, especially multi-step instructions
- Has temper problems
- Avoids or refuses to do activities that take mental effort, such as school work
- Loses materials necessary to complete tasks, such as pencils or books
- Is extremely unorganized
- Is easily distracted
- Is often forgetful in daily activities
Myths About ADD and ADHD
- Kids with ADD/ADHD will outgrow the condition
- ADD/ADHD is caused by poor parenting
- A pill can fix everything
- If these kids just try harder then they’ll power through it
- All kids with ADD are hyperactive
- Children with ADHD are brats and just need discipline
- You can turn focusing on and off according to interest
- Only boys have ADD/ADHD
- Kids with ADD/ADHD aren’t very smart
- Medication is the only way to treat ADD/ADHD
- Kids are just daydreamers and they’ll learn to focus later on
- ADD/ADHD is a learning disability
- ADD/ADHD is just a children’s disorder
Truths About ADD and ADHD
- You don’t outgrow ADD/ADHD, but you can learn to control it by accessing the left hemisphere of the brain and using those skills to accomplish what’s needed.
- ADD/ADHD is not caused by poor parenting. It is a real condition and children with this condition have a difficult time focusing and sometimes behaving. They need a set of tools to help them succeed not only academically but in life. These kids can be exhausting and wear out parents, so judgment needs to be reserved for this situation.
- There are other solutions to helping kids with ADD/ADHD than medications. If medication works, you’ll see an improvement in your child’s focusing abilities. If you don’t see a change in your child’s behavior with medication, you need to explore why.
- No matter how hard a child with ADD/ADHD tries, it doesn’t affect his ability to focus or hold still. He needs skills and tools to help him deal with this condition
- Not all children are hyperactive with ADD/ADHD. Some students are calm and can stay still for a long time but still struggle to focus on assignments or other activities.
- Kids with ADD/ADHD are not brats who need discipline. These children are impulsive and act before they think. They often have a difficult time holding still or respond to loud noises. Visual stimuli can also set them off, such as fluorescent lighting. Most kids, especially those with ADD/ADHD are sensitive and want to please others. For some of these children, it is extremely difficult.
- You can’t turn ADD/ADHD on or off. The brain doesn’t work that way. Kids with ADD/ADHD, like anyone else, pay better attention to something that interests them.
- Children with ADD/ADHD are just as smart as anyone else. Often, they are smarter than their peers and have a difficult time channeling this intelligence. Focusing affects academic performance, but it has nothing to do with intelligence.
- There are numerous approaches to help children with ADD/ADHD that don’t include medication. At Bravo! Tutoring, we have had excellent results in helping children and teens overcome ADD/ADHD through our research-based brain integration program.
- Not all children with ADD/ADHD are daydreamers who will rein it in as they grow. Some kids do learn to power through their inability to attend to focus, but many have a difficult time their entire lives. Many children can’t focus, and they aren’t daydreaming.
- ADD/ADHD isn’t a true learning disability because it affects more than learning. It affects the person’s ability to deal with learning and life.
- Kids with ADD/ADHD aren’t necissarily lazy. Many have true learning disabilities and are simply retreating because it is painful to learn. Most kids want to do well in school but if they find it too difficult, they might give up or think they’ll only fail, so why bother. With the proper set of learning tools, they gain confidence and the ability to not only learn but succeed.
- ADD/ADHD is not just a children’s disorder. It affects adults as well as children and follows its victims through life.
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