Both ADHD and child traumatic stress frequently co-occur with other conditions, such as anxiety, depression, or learning disabilities

Symptoms of child traumatic stress could be mistaken for ADHD and that the risk of misdiagnosis is high...  there is an overlap between ADHD symptoms and the effects of experiencing trauma... Unless symptoms are examined closely, the profiles of child traumatic stress and ADHD can appear to be similar... 

Eg...  Young children who experience trauma may have symptoms of hyperactivity and disruptive behavior that resemble ADHD... Trauma can make children feel agitated, troubled, nervous, and on alert... These behaviors can be mistaken for hyperactivity... What might seem like inattention in children who experience trauma might actually be symptoms of dissociation (feelings of unreality or being outside of one’s body) or the result of avoidance of trauma reminders... Among children who experience trauma, intrusive thoughts or memories of trauma (e.g., feeling like it is happening all over again) may lead to confused or agitated behavior which can resemble the impulsivity of ADHD...

Both ADHD and child traumatic stress frequently co-occur with other conditions, such as anxiety, depression, or learning disabilities... particularly Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder— overlap with both child traumatic stress and ADHD...  a traumatic event can make an underlying psychological condition worse, resulting in greater symptoms... 

A comprehensive assessment for child traumatic stress includes the following... Assessing for a wide range of traumatic events and time of occurrence so that they can be linked to developmental stages , Assessing for a wide range of symptoms (including but not limited to symptoms of PTSD), such as high-risk behaviors, family environmental factors, functional impairments, and trauma reminders and triggers, as well as their time of onset, Assessing the child's strengths, talents, abilities, sources of emotional support, and capacity for resilience, Gathering information using a variety of techniques (clinical interviews, standardized measures, and behavioral observations), Gathering information from a variety of perspectives (child, caregivers, teachers, other providers, etc.), Conducting ongoing assessments because symptoms often change as children develop and have new experiences and exposures to new stressors... 

Child traumatic stress can adversely affect a child's memory, attention, behavior, and emotional and social life

Child Traumatic Stress refers to a psychological reaction that some children have to a traumatic experience in which they are involved or have witnessed... Traumatic experiences can affect the brains, minds, and behavior of even very young children, causing similar reactions to some of those seen in older children and adults... 

Causes Child Traumatic Stress... Automobile accidents , Serious injuries , Violent acts , Neglect or abandonment , Unexpected death of a loved one , Life-threatening disasters , Acts of physical or sexual abuse...  

Treat Child Traumatic Stress...  Promoting safety and building routines and rituals , Teaching children stress management and relaxation skills to help them cope with distress and trauma reminders , Talking about traumatic events in ways that enable children to master painful feelings and resolve the impact the events have on their lives , Correcting untrue or distorted ideas about what happened and why , Enhancing children’s ability to regulate emotions, behaviors, and physiological reactions... 

Child traumatic stress can adversely affect a child's memory, attention, behavior, and emotional and social life... It can also change the structure of the child’s brain, alter the nervous system, and deplete a child's capacity to bear ordinary life stresses. Trauma and subsequent experiences can damage a child's trust in a safe world... 

All children have strengths to help them adapt and progress toward recovery. Even those children with a complicated and overlapping symptom profile can thrive with appropriate supports from family, friends, school, and community...

A strong genetic link since ADHD can run in families

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobiological disorder with onset in childhood that is characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity... 

The symptoms shown in ADHD are linked to many specific brain areas, and are influenced by the activity of stress-signaling pathways that control attention and behavior in the brain’s prefrontal cortex...

Symptoms related to hyperactivity may lessen over time and become more subtle, while those of inattention and distraction remain throughout adulthood... Thus, poor school performance may intensify due to increased demands and expectations... 

Causes...  a strong genetic link since ADHD can run in families... Other factors... exposure to lead or pesticides in early childhood ? premature birth or low birth weight ? brain injury ? prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs... 

Treat ADHD... Parent and child education about ADHD diagnosis, its causes, and the course of treatment ? Behavioral therapy for the child to manage his/her behaviors and acquire new skills ? Mental health counseling for the child, as well as the family, to address relationship, self esteem, discipline, and parenting concerns, among other issues ? Parent training classes or programs to help them address the child’s behavior ? Educational program modifications and supports, including IEPs, tutoring, and special education programs ? ADHD medication prescription, in conjunction with regular monitoring... 

Without appropriate identification and treatment, a child who has ADHD can experience serious consequences, including school failure, depression, conduct problems, failed relationships, and substance abuse... 

All things can go wrong when you force a child

Encourage your child to pursue interests and talents... 

Pursuing interests and talents helps children feel a sense of mastery and achievement... It can positively engage children through the teen and young adult years, teaching persistence and helping protect against risk-taking behavior... It’s a wonderful thing to excel at something you love...

Parents directing children’s interests to fulfil unmet dreams and needs of their own... When you force a child to excel for your own reasons, all sorts of things can go wrong, even when they look like they’re going right... This can set children up for feeling like a failure, feeling intense levels of pressure and feeling controlled... 

You create boundaries on behavior to keep your child safe... Awesome parents guide their child’s behavior by setting considered boundaries and limits... Children without limits and boundaries often end up in a lot of trouble or lost... 

Boundaries help children feel loved and valued, even if they don’t like the boundaries some of the time... Some examples of helpful limits include a bedtime routine, respectful language towards family members, and not permitting teens to attend parties where alcohol is supplied... 

Why some parents don't connect with their child?

‘Connect’ with your children: 

Spend time with them when they wake up, when they come in from school, at family meals, when they go to bed... It’s the intention and awareness that makes a difference... Even two minutes can provide “a dose of fulfilling connection”... 

Parents set the rules: 

“You’ll know when some negotiation is advisable and when it isn’t"...

Check your attitude: Instead of shouting or texting when it’s dinner time, walk up stairs and speak to them... If that requires more energy than you have, this is not an energy issue, but “an attitude issue”.... Don’t try to control. 

Try to lead: If you find yourself always getting into a standoff with your child, “you’d better not force the issue, because you are just going to create conflict”... Don’t try to control... Work on rebuilding the relationship... Hold off giving your child a mobile phone for as long as possible...

Challenging behaviors are in fact “not behavioral problems, but a relationship problem”... Some of these mistakes are specific, such as using time out... Others include using a nagging, angry or cold voice, wielding adversarial discipline or neglecting to spend sufficient time with your children... 

Speak nicely to your kids, treat them as you would any loved one, be ready with a hug, avoid overuse of your phone in their company, spend time with them, solicit their good intentions... 

“We need to make a decision as to how much of that working life is essential and how much is discretionary.”... Even slivers of time help: a parent who comes home late can pop into a child’s room for a quick catch-up if they are awake...Don’t take rejections personally. You hang in there. You are wooing the child back into the relationship... 

Teachers can bridge the gap between class and real world

Teachers' main challenge begins with the gap between class and real world, the world changes faster than classes do,’... ‘Everyone knows that we have to change education as soon as possible but the problem is how, and we do not have much time to fail.’... 

In the 21st Century we need to have problem solving skills, to combat whatever kind of problems there will be...  The future of education should focus on the kinds of competencies that helps students to grow; knowledge itself is already everywhere, and now we need students who can use it well...

‘When a teacher selects a class design from the platform and applies it to their classroom, the next step is to post the experience and feedback on the platform... This way, a class design is continually experimented and developed, this helps to make it easier for other teachers to apply a successful model in their classroom.’...Helps teachers to feel less alone and to have the support from their peers to try new things and to help others to improve on original ideas..."Its platform is to show that together it’s easier.’... 

To send children preparation materials so that they’re ready to lead the discussion in the next class... This allows teachers to spend more time facilitating the class and helping individual children with their learning... Instead of the teacher giving a lecture, communication among students arises... After this communication is activated, any future education challenges, such as problem solving or entrepreneurship, can be done as well more easily.’...

Through connection, collaboration and ideas sharing, teachers can bridge the gaps of student motivation and engagement, and align the classroom more readily with children’s lives outside of school... By using the very skills that we say we need children to have to thrive in our uncertain times, we can help our teachers to thrive too, and empower them to lead the future of education... 

Confiscating a teen’s smartphone

Confiscating a teen’s smartphone isn’t the same as turning off the television or banning videogames. It’s not the same as barring them from using the telephone or “grounding” them so they can’t meet their friends at the mall... Taking away a kid’s phone is taking away all those things at once and more... 

Spaces like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, are among the few places where teens are able to kick back and express themselves, connect to their peers, and develop their identity without adult oversight... “When you remove a teen’s lifeline to their friends, there will be a major emotional backlash, a breakdown of the parent-child relationship.”... 

“If your child violates curfew, taking away the phone is completely unrelated to that behavior,”... “You’re not connecting with the kid... You are making him feel bad, which you think is helping him learn, but in fact is helping him learn to be sneaky or learn that you are the punisher.”... That going for the lesson, instead of the punishment, is more effective with teens. “We have to connect with your kids before you correct them,"... If you catch your teen posting something inappropriate, then your first step should be asking your teen about the behavior, letting him explain his thinking...

Given that learning to use your own judgment is a big part of growing up, it’s important for parents to realize that regulating their own phone behavior is something kids need to learn, too, sometimes by trial and error...  “The goal here is to teach kids how to manage their own relationship to technology,” “knowing that technology is the conduit to their entire life.”... 

Social media networks provide a way for kids to interact with each other that’s not organized and supervised by authorities, as school... 

Families can set dinner aside as a time when everyone puts down their phones and checks in with each other... For families who are on the go, car rides are another good time to unplug and have a conversation... 

Children need our love, touch and full-on attention to survive.

Children need us to see them as whole human beings, not just the sum of their behaviors. They need us to listen to them, to validate their feelings and to take them seriously for who they are and the people into whom they will grow... They need our attention —and seeking it isn’t an inherently negative thing...

“And when they do not receive attention,”  “they compensate in all kinds of ways: repressing their needs and wants, shouting and becoming aggressive or violent, going underground and harboring resentment alone, or seeking it from anyone who will give it to them.”..  

When we replaced the idea of children seeking attention with children wanting a relationship, we began to talk differently about how, as adults, to react in relationship, we don’t ignore a person’s cry out for us; we become more present, listening and observing patiently... 

Children need our love, touch and full-on attention to survive. They could die without it — indeed, some do.” 

We actually have more than five senses.

We actually have more than five senses.

One of them is our vestibular sense, which is vital for not only our sense of balance but also our overall cognitive and physical development... This sense develops in our inner ears... To over-simplify it, there is a little chamber filled with liquid in our inner ears... 

As children move their heads up and down, and left and right, and spin around and go upside down this liquid moves around over the little hairs... When stimulated, these hairs send messages to our brain about the position and movement of our bodies in space... 

This area also serves as our brain’s air-traffic control system, receiving, sorting and relaying sensory information from our other sensory organs and passing it on to the corresponding areas in our brain... This means our vestibular sense has crucial implications for children’s ability to concentrate, behave and respond to others... 

Swings are too rare a sight these days, with worries about litigation nearly killing them off entirely... It is on us to advocate and educate the necessary people in our settings to help bring them back... Swings won’t magically fix all of the problems of modern life, but it is high time they took their place again as a fixture of our early years settings and schools... 

Bullying at School

Bullying is far less likely to take root in school cultures where kindness, empathy, and responsibility for others are the norm, where students care about and feel responsibility to the school community as a whole, and where a critical mass of students model positive behavior for other students... These caring school cultures also help students feel empowered and valued, which in turn means they are less likely to seek power or find value in dominating, demeaning, or marginalizing their peers... 

If we want to prevent bullying, we must do more than teach our kids to be upstanders and not to be bullies... We must start by teaching them to be kind, especially to those different from them in background and character, and to help build caring, inclusive communities...

Much of the work of cultivating kindness in our kids begins at home n school... As parents n teachers, we must not only be strong moral role models, we must also be willing to admit our imperfections and show our kids that being a kind and empathetic person is a valuable and lifelong practice... We should also strive to create a culture of accountability at home n school that begins with us as parents n teachers... we should ask ourselves, are our own actions influencing our kids’ attitudes and behaviors... Sometimes we need to have the courage to ask respected friends and family—including our kids—for feedback... 

Adolescence is a tornado of change:

Not only is it the period of fastest physical change in life – aside from infancy. 

But also newfound drives, motivations, and feelings of sexuality are amplified.

There are profound shifts to metabolisms and sleeping cycles, as well as social roles – especially in the context of schools.

During these years, motivation is propelled not by a tangible goal to work toward, but by a feeling of wanting and thirst... The feelings of acceptance, rejection, admiration, among others, are all the story of adolescence... 

Children in this age group also seek physical sensations and thrills... There’s heightened awareness of social status, especially as they realize that acts of courage can earn them higher social status among peers... Their wildly swinging neurological systems also mean that adolescents can readjust quickly – making those years critical for educators to engage students in “the right ways,”... Adolescents constantly seek the emotional satisfaction of being admired... 

Children around the world are entering puberty at younger ages... Today it’s closer to eight years old... The transition for boys is similar... The earlier onset of these pronounced biological changes puts pressure on educators and parents to update their expectations for what it means to be young... 

“This is an interesting potential opportunity, with the longer time to learn activated motivational systems, longer time to increase skills and develop patterns of developing knowledge,”... “If kids grow up in opportune settings, they can take advantage of the scaffolding and freedom to go on to take adult roles. But the risks are probably more amplified than opportunities for kids in disadvantaged settings.”...

Window of motivational learning, a time when the brain more intensely senses motivational feelings, strengthening the patterns of connections to heartfelt goals, and creates potential for deep, sustained learning... adolescents’ abilities to rapidly reshape motivations and goals both supports their emotional volatility as well as presents a key period to find love – not necessarily romantically for others, but for academic activities and goals... With the feelings that pull you to persevere, maybe [adolescence is] a particularly opportune time to fall in love with learning itself, to love that feeling of exploring... 

“There’s a new window to create that ‘Yes!’ feeling.”

Children’s play goes through many stages

Children’s play goes through many stages — and how toys are played with changes accordingly...

 

Babies experience the world through their senses and motor movements...

 

Two-year-olds engage in parallel play, playing independently alongside another child...  Their toys are very concrete representations of what they’re playing...

 

Pre-schoolers and junior infants play with other children... Socio-dramatic and role-play becomes important... They act out scenes — feeding/changing baby...

 

As children get older, play becomes more elaborate and abstract and toys can be symbolic representations — a car can stand in for a jeep...Cooperative play’s important with games like hide-and-seek...

 

Around age eight, rule-based games and complying with these rules become import ant, as does wish for competence in games... As children’s play develops, their capacity to socialize does too... “Developing the skill of taking turns, of waiting, are fundamental to building relationships"...

 

Older children use the word ‘pretend’ less when playing pretend games together... “There are huge negotiation skills and compromises involved... Communication becomes more implicit, more assumed — there’s shared pretending: ‘I’ll be the shopkeeper’ and it’s assumed you’ll be the customer...  There’s a shared meaning and a reliance on the non-verbal"... it’s very normal for them to be playing until they’re in secondary school.”...

Children Need to Play

Children need to play for their cognitive, social and emotional development.

‘Play is the child’s language and the toys are their words’... 

For children, play is a stage for real life.

“They practice what they see, imitating in a very safe way what they see adults doing, what’s done in society — the cultural ways.

They need play to express their feelings in a safe way. They can do in fantasy what’s not allowed in reality.”

A child with strong feelings of jealousy towards a new sibling... “They might play ‘hurting’ and ‘binning’ the baby and it’s safe to do it... They’re only playing it out, so guilt is alleviated and there are no consequences... They get their tension out safely,” ‘we wouldn’t really do that in real life, but it’s okay to play it out’...And it’s important for fostering a positive parent/child relationship. 

“Parents/ Teachers who join their child in play have a unique opportunity to step into and experience the child in their world... So often, it’s the other way around —we’re asking children to adapt to our world.”

Four Reading Skills

To emphasize four reading skills: 

Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the smallest unit of sound, or phoneme, in a word.

Phonological awareness, 

the ability to recognize and work with sounds

letter-sound knowledge

the ability to identify the unique sounds that every letter makes and 

rapid automatized naming, the ability to quickly name aloud a series of familiar items

Decoding Dyslexia:

Children have a hereditary disability, which has a treatment–dyslexic kids have to be taught to read more painstakingly, with special attention to what’s known as “phonemic awareness,” or the sound each letter makes... 

Allow the kids access to assistive resources such as audiobooks and notetakers, mandate specialized teacher training, and offer more accommodations on tests and
assignments...

Dyslexics–about 5% to 15% of the population–have a particular neurological condition, an idiosyncrasy in the brain that makes it hard for them to associate letter and letter groups with sounds...

“there is no certifiably best method for teaching children who experience reading difficulty.”