h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This article submition is funny but what about the people who struggle with this every day. This is a real problem for people afflicted with attention dificiencys. Any one out there know of exercises or methods that might help my 10 yr. old child ?

Concerned .

Stop giving him so many e-numbers, and use educational matter other than The Tellytubbies.
And take his mobile phone away.

wide

Kids have far too many distractions. In order for your son to focus on a specific task you have to remove these distractions.

I was thinking much lately as to why the ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) issue never occurred in the 50's when I was in school. And I not only concluded that it did, but that I was one of the 'sufferers'. I mastered reading easily and other subjects fairly easily and I had a really good memory so I could do a lot of things almost by rote, and I used to feel - especially in junior high and high school that some classes would literally never end. I dreaded some hours of the school day beyond measure. So I did act up, being voted the class clown in the yearbook, and disrupting classes as much as I dared. Which meant not at all when teachers were tough and all the time when they were not. And I think that is what is missing today: having to suffer consequences for behavior at all ages. Does someone think that ADD suddenly goes away when one hits 21? It does not. I still view meetings at work or boring projects as akin to living in Hell. I have adjusted (that is, I have adapted my lifecircs to suit my nature) by entering the consulting field, so I can change jobs a lot without being financially punished, travelling in third-world countries where it is less cut and dried, finding firends who are similarly interested in lots of things and can jump from topic to topic, etc. I think that both the medication of the ADD child and the catering to his affliction are counterprocuctive, because he must live in the real world at some point, and if some kind of discipline is not learned at age 10, it will surely not be learned at age 30. It may not be the best strategy, but I find that in times when I am stuck in an excruciatingly boring situation - a class or meeting, or terrible day at work, I kind of go into a kind of suspended animation. It works - there are probably better strategies. But at least I keep a job and have a decent life and I am glad no one medicated me or behaved as though I was incapable to conforming to the norm. Every kid, given acceptable parameters of behavior which are enforced without vacillation, finds a way to get on. And the way he learns to do so will carry him through life. Study the issue all you want, try to find strategies that make the kid feel liked and rewarded and able to cope, but DON'T just make allowances for inappropriate behavior in school or chores because your kid has this problem. Or he will learn to seek out creampuff situations all his life, depend on others 'understanding' and become one of the jerks we all dread being around. If YOU don't like how he acts at times, how do you think everybody else feels? He must learn to behave appropriately. On the other hand, understanding and kindness and listening, etc. make his difficulties much more bearable without reinforcing behaviors (disrupting or getting out of things) which he will come to regret but may not later be able to unlearn. Enrol him in activities or classes which have as much participation by students as possible and which have the most variety of subject. But on the basics - such as math, it is not possible to get around the rote, the memorization, the drudgery that goes with a good foundation. Reward success. Chat up the issues. But don't provide easy outs or let him malinger when the work is needed. ADD is tough, but it is not autism, physical handicap or any other of a bunch of much more painful issues. Everybody has some burden, that is his, and only secondarily yours.

I think that ADD is not just a school issue. If a child is constantly distracted an cannot focus on one thing they could have ADD. If a child is lazy in school but then comes home to play a video game for 2-3 hours straight they are capible of focusing and are just lazy. If your child is able to play video games of watch TV for 2-3 hours then they have no attention problem, they either have a learning disablity or are lazy.

I would have to disagree with you. My younger brother (11 yrs) most definatly has ADD, and although we do have him on medication during the school year, we keep him off it in the summer and I've gotten a much better perspective on why he does many, many things. For instance, just because he can play an ineractive video game for 2-3 hours at a time, doesn't mean he's too lazy to pay attention during an eight hour school day, its just the opposite. He can pay attntion to the videogame because its interactive, he can't stand to sit still for 7-8 hours a day an listen to someone talk..and talk...and talk. Most teachers do try to incorporate all forms of learning (Audio, Visual, and Kinetic) but we do not all have the good fortune to be taught by one of these teachers. In order to help my brother grow out of his ADD the whole family helps him in different areas. My mother works out his homework with him, at the very least making sure he gets in done neatly, I make reading interesting for him by starting off a book with different voices (childish, but effective, it took him from a 3rd grade reading level to a 6th grade one), and my father teaches him about science with fairly inexpensive science & technology kits. Its not as much as it sounds because my brother's case is fairly mild, but he is in no way lazy, he is humiliated by his inability to sit through a simple grammer lesson and does his best, but still comes to ask me questions at the end of the day.

Good luck with your son, trust me, its not as daunting s you might think, just give him a few laps around the house before bedtime and he'll sleep like a log...:::grin::: :P just joking...but if you think it would help.....

would've read all that but couldn't conce....

whts that over there.... *walks off*

170889,

Interesting post. At the ripe old age of 46, I find that I frequently have problems keeping my mind on my job and that I get distracted by the slightest thing. Working in front of a computer connected to the Internet for the past few years has made things much worse; it's like an open invitation to procrastinate.

It it ADD though? Or is it a lack of discipline - simply not having the 'habit' of keeping your eye on the ball?

I suspect it's the former. I don't have any problems getting engaged for long periods if I find the work interesting... exactly as my school report said of me at 10 years old...