The Buzz on Stimulants

Getting Ripped on “Vitamin R” and “Addy”

If you’re the parent of a child on stimulant medication for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) you may be surprised to learn that abuse of these prescriptions drugs is rampant.

After all, it’s probable your child suffers at least some side effects from their prescription medication: lethargy, lack of appetite, sleep difficulties, stomach ache: these unwanted symptoms very common. Your child may even try to avoid taking his medication as these unpleasant side effects begs the question: who would want to take those drugs for fun?

Alarm Bells

A container of Adderall XR

The answer is that so many people are now abusing ADHD drugs that an alarm bell has been sounded. One 2009 investigation into this new form of abuse tracked calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers over a period of eight years, from 1998-2005. During this time, calls regarding teen victims of ADHD drug abuse increased by 76%. Researchers are not sure whether this number represents out-of-control abuse, or cases of abuse keeping pace with the spiraling number of prescriptions issued for ADHD amphetamines during this same time frame.

Drugs like Ritalin—vitamin R in the user’s lingo—and Adderall (Addy), are stimulants, yet for those with ADHD, and taken in the right doses, the drugs offer a paradoxical effect of calm and better focus. In those who abuse these drugs, however, the opposite is true. Some abusers are looking to improve their grade averages or hope the drugs will help them lose weight. Still, others crush the drugs and inject or snort them for a euphoric high and an expanded sense of self-confidence. The feelings are addictive.

College Crack

This type of drug abuse is not limited to teenagers. In fact, ADHD drug abuse increases well through the college years as students struggle for that perfect 4.0 average. As a result, Adderall has earned such sobriquets as “the Adderall advantage” or “college crack.” The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that from 2006 through 2007, 6.4% of full-time college students admitted that during the previous year they had used Adderall for a non-medical purpose. In the part-time students, the figure was 3.0%.

Adderal

Those who take these medications for stimulation risk perilous elevations in blood pressure, breathing difficulties, irregular heartbeat, tremors, seizures, and mood disorders. Regular high doses of these medications lead to cognitive changes such as delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia.

ADHD drug abuse poses a clear and serious danger to teens and young adults who may not realize that the consequences of their abuse can be severe. So many young children take these drugs (for medical, sanctioned reasons) on a daily basis (in the correct doses) and they seem right as rain. For this reason, a potential abuser may come to the erroneous, maybe fatal conclusion that it is no big deal to abuse these drugs in higher doses.

Related articles

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• Do ADHD Drugs Cause Tics? (everydayhealth.com)
• Insight into the Long-term Effects of Ritalin (brighthub.com)

Holiday Traveling with your ADD ADHD Child

The holiday season is hectic for everyone, but holds particular challenges for the parent of a child with ADD/ADHD.

If you plan to travel with any child, things can go south in more ways than one.

Travel stuff

It seems you’ve no sooner gotten your child into the swing of things and settled into the routine of the school year than the holidays come along and send you all back to where you started. It’s quite bad enough for the vacationing family who chooses to stay at home—familiar surroundings can make a difference for the ADD/ADHD child when the schedule is shot to Hell—but the family who intends to travel to a holiday destination is facing some serious difficulties. You can head off the nightmare by thinking ahead as you plan your trip and by taking the time to prepare your child, too.

Preperation Is Key

If you are planning to travel by train, plane, or automobile, offer your child a map of the route you’ll be taking and mark out the special sites you’ll be visiting along the way. Explain the distances you’ll be traveling and give them an estimate of how long the trip is likely to take.

Easy travel tips

If the mode of travel is one that they have never before experienced, give your child some background information. Describe the airport or train station, and what they can expect to happen on-board the train or while the plane is in flight. If you will need to catch a connecting flight, explain how that works.

Prepare activities for your child to bring along. You may want to allow them to choose the books, games, and toys they will bring along. These items will keep your child entertained as you travel and by being included in choosing these familiar items, your child feels a part of things and enjoys a sense of security, too. Appropriate items to bring along include books, hand-held games, iPod or MP3 player with earphones and a Frisbee or a small ball for breaks during road trips.

Nonstop Chattering

If your child is like most other children with ADD/ADHD, expect them to chatter about the sights he sees throughout the trip. You might suggest they record their thoughts with a small recorder to keep them occupied while you drive or navigate.

If you take a road trip, allow time for frequent stops. This gives your child some time to stretch and exercise. It will help your child make the switch from play to travel time if you offer a gentle warning, “Ten more minute of play and then we’re back on the road to drive some more.”

If you travel by plane or train, allow your child to walk around the airport or train station as much as possible, so they can explore. Stay by his side for safety’s sake.

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The Problem With Reading

Read To Learn

No one doubts that reading is an important skill to acquire. It seems obvious: we've got to learn how to read, otherwise, how will we read to learn? More to the point, what happens to the children who finds it hard to read? Are they doomed to be poor learners?

Adult Illiteracy

The rate of adult illiteracy has burgeoned to the point where it can no longer be ignored. That's why, in 1992, the United States government underwrote the National Adult Literacy Survey to the tune of $14 million to try to get a handle on the scale of the pervasiveness of literacy issues among adult Americans. The results were shocking: though most of those surveyed had graduated high school, 96% of them could not read, write, or do arithmetic on a level high enough to continue on to college. Worse yet, a full 25% just couldn't read at all.

No Change

A subsequent 2003 study, this time named the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, showed no significant change from the 1992 study in reading comprehension levels. Adults were still having the same difficulties in reading and understanding text, a decade later.

Equal Opportunity

The most remarkable thing about the study is that reading difficulties are an equal opportunity disaster. Difficulties in reading don't just happen to people from disadvantaged homes. Most of these people go to decent schools, have stable homes, and have average or even above average IQ scores. However, they are struggling to figure out reading , and some of them never do.

Common Issues

Kids who have trouble learning to read have a lot of issues in common. They have a tendency to transpose letters and words, or leave them out altogether. They lose their place on the page, cannot retain much of what they have just read, and do not understand the sense of the words they do manage to read. When these symptoms occur in clusters, kids are said to have a learning disability (LD) known as dyslexia.

Some Statistics

According to the International Dyslexia Association, a minimum of one in ten otherwise normal people has severe dyslexia. The National Center for Learning Disabilities states that 15 million American adults and children have learning disabilities. Some estimates state that 70%-80% of children with learning disabilities suffer from dyslexia.

The Upshot

The upshot? People with poor literacy skills are our co-workers, friends, family, and children and their numbers are too big to ignore. It's time to accommodate those among us with reading difficulties.

Related articles

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8 Tips on Getting Ready for College

If you have a learning disability and are thinking of going to college, here are some important tips that might help you realize your dream.

Many teens struggle with learning disabilities to a point that they give up any idea of going to college and may settle for a career that is less than fulfilling, and below their potential. So says the National Center for Learning Disabilities, after compiling statistics on the subject, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Today, growing numbers of higher learning institutions are helping those with dyslexia, attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) and other learning disabilities to gain admission to and matriculate from college.

Learning disability counselors and college admissions officers are advising learning-disabled students considering college to follow these 8 steps:

1) Start your preparations early

A great many high school officials, parents, and students believe that students who struggle should be transferred to less challenging classes. But if you’re aiming to go to college, stick with college preparatory courses. Choosing the lower-track classes means missing out on skills like high school algebra that are prerequisites for getting into 4-year colleges. Skipping those courses in high school now means wasting time in remedial studies in a community college later on.

2) Let technology give you a hand

Make use of spell-check, software calendar programs, screen readers, dictation software, and the new recording pens to help you retain information and get your homework completed within the allotted time.

3) Be creative

Can’t learn French? Take a course in American Sign Language. Be on the lookout for acceptable alternatives that prove what you can do instead of what you can’t.

Know Yourself

4) Know yourself and take responsibility

While high schools accommodate students with learning disabilities, colleges don’t provide special help unless students (and not their parents) know just what they need and can request that help in an adult manner. Jane Daigneault coordinator of disability services at Clark University in Worcester, Ma; says that, "Students have to be ready to have an adult conversation about what they need," for instance note-takers or unusual software. If parents have done their job, and allowed their children to experience natural consequences for not taking medication, for instance, during the high school years, their children will be ready to take care of their own needs by the time they reach college.

5) Do careful research on your college options

Be sure the college you’ve chosen fits with your unique learning style. Three books may be helpful with this task: Peterson's Colleges With Programs for Students With Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit Disorders, Preparing Students With Disabilities for College Success, and The K & W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities.

6) Keep up to date with documentation on your learning disability

If you expect accommodations from colleges, you have to have documentation confirming your diagnosis that is no older than one or two years.

7) Don’t use your disability as an excuse for poor grades

Instead, use your application essay to emphasize how you’ve managed to overcome, compensated or utilized your disability.

8) Think about getting some extra assistance

Some colleges offer tutoring to learning-disabled students at no extra cost but most colleges charge hefty fees for this type of extra support. It’s not easy to get a grant or a scholarship to cover those costs, either. In some cases, however, students manage to persuade a state-run vocational rehabilitation office to pay for this type of extra help. Colleges can figure these additional fees into your tuition so that you or your parents can qualify for larger student loans.

Related articles

• Learning With Disabilities (nytimes.com)
• Labeling Students Learning Disabled (brighthub.com)
• Tips for Parents with a Child with a Learning Disability (healthmad.com)

Gov. Christie's Vision

New Jersey Governor Calls for Change

Gov. Chris Christie has announced that he wants to change the system so that New Jersey teachers will have their performance reviewed every five years.

Last Thursday, on January 13, 2011, Chris Christie took the podium at a town hall meeting in Paramus N.J. to make the suggestion that teachers should be hired on the basis of five-year contracts. This would give schools the chance to review a teacher’s performance before choosing to renew contracts. Earlier in the week, the Republican governor had called for ending automatic tenure for teachers.

Enough Time

Governor Chris Christie, Photo Courtesy: CHRIS FAYTOK/The Star-Ledger

Christie feels that while teachers need to have enough time to get hands-on experience and learn how to teach the current system just makes it too hard to get rid of

poor teachers. Right now, the idea of having five-year teaching contracts is still just an idea. Christie’s office has yet to make an official proposal. The controversial governor, who is known to speak his mind, has not yet provided details on just how he will accomplish the abolition of teacher tenure. Furthermore, the teacher’s union has promised him a rousing fight.

The governor of New Jersey didn’t stop with teacher tenure when throwing out his creative ideas for improving the educational system, but also said he’s looking into a plan for the development of schools that would specialize in educating children with autism. These schools would be set up in each of 21 counties in New Jersey, if Christie has his way. During his speech at the town hall meeting, the governor said that his plan would provide a cost-effective alternative for those districts that were attempting to develop their own curriculums for educating special children.

Governor Christie of New Jersey Photo Courtesy: NYdailynews.com

“Visionary Concept”

Linda Meyer, the director of Autism New Jersey made a statement to the media to the effect that Christie is sincere about trying to provide both equality and access to education for every sector of society. She called his concepts, “visionary,” but other people are less convinced that the governor’s idea is such a good one. The director of one private school for children with autism said that the idea would put schools like his, which rely on referrals from the public school districts, out of business.

During the past ten years, the neurological disorder known as autism, which impairs social interaction, has proven a serious challenge that has driven New Jersey special education costs to an annual $3 billion. The number of students with autism has doubled over the past decade, to almost 12,000 students in the Garden State.

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Doctors with Attention Deficit

Students Claim ADHD to Get Drugs

Students who want to try ADHD medication for recreational purposes or to boost their grades find it all too easy to convince physicians they have ADHD

Though the U.S. government defines Adderall as a Schedule 2 drug, getting doctors to prescribe Adderall is a snap for college students looking for an easy way to ace their exams. One University of Massachusetts student reporter decided to interview her fellow students to investigate the matter. During one such interview, a fellow student claimed she held her primary health care doctor in the palm of her hand when she begged him to refer her to a psychiatrist who offers evaluations for attention deficit disorder (ADD).

Image via Wikipedia

Transparent Questions

During the psychiatrist’s assessment, the student responded to a series of transparent questions like, “Do you have a hard time concentrating or focusing?” The student said it took no mental gymnastics to figure out what responses would generate a diagnosis of ADD so that she would be entitled to the drugs she sought. However, the student was canny enough to only posit a certain number of symptoms so that she wouldn’t be too obvious in her quest to be diagnosed with a disorder she didn’t have.

The upshot was that the unwitting psychiatrist found she had nine out of nine signs of ADD without the addition of the nine signs that would have added the “H” of hyperactivity to the diagnosis (ADHD). Less than 30 minutes after the examination began, the student had a prescription for Adderall in her hot little hand.

Little Uniformity

The reporter discovered that there is little uniformity in the diagnostic criteria used by physicians to diagnose ADD. Therefore, speaking of a “test for ADD” is misleading. Of the three students the reporter interviewed, two answered a series of questions or were asked to describe their symptoms while the third student was given a more complex diagnostic test.

In the case of the student described above, there was some “prepping” of the patient: the psychiatrist told her that ADD has nine symptoms and that if someone had a certain number of these symptoms, they can be prescribed medications to help them concentrate.

Image via Wikipedia

The student who received the most rigorous testing was also diagnosed with ADD and given Concerta, a medication similar to Adderall.

The upshot is that a student need not undergo a standard test in order to get a prescription for Adderall, which is an amphetamine. It’s more about finding the doctor who doesn’t mind writing out a script for the student who complains of ADD/ADHD symptoms. In every case, the goal is a legal method for procuring drugs that can be used to help students stay awake for all-night cramming during the final exams period.

Diane Fedorchak, director of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS), says that only some 5% of the study body suffers from ADHD while another 8% of U of M students report using stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, or Concerta during the past 30 days without benefit of a prescription.

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Literacy Skills in the Making

Your children know a great deal about reading before they ever hold a book in their hands. What is the nature of these very early literacy skills and how can parents turn their children into bookworms?

A young child’s understanding of reading and other related skills in the days before he is ready to read is called emergent literacy. There are several reading-related concepts that a child must have under his belt before he can begin the actual process of learning to read. But to begin with, a child needs to acquire three main skills before beginning his reading education, or for that matter, his education in general.

* Communication—a child should become familiar with spoken language and be able to communicate through speech.

* Alphabet—a child should understand the concept of letters and have the ability to name the individual letters of the alphabet.

* Exposure to Written Words—a child should be exposed to many stories and books before he is of an age to attend school. This is the way toward motivating a child to learn to read.

Get Busy

If you’ve ever looked on in envy as you saw a neighbor’s child always with a book in hand, you can now curtail the jealousy and begin to get busy. It is in your hands to turn your child into a reader. But the process begins as soon as your child is born.

Spend time reading to your child each day. Take care to choose books with simple story lines and colorful illustrations that will excite your child’s mind. As you read aloud, inject lots of expression in your voice. Let him feel the emotions expressed in the text through the feeling you put into the reading.

Another way to help your child gain reading comprehension is to tell her the story in your own words. The story comes alive for your child as she hears it through the device of natural conversation and a parent’s voice.

After Napping

Most people choose to read to children only at night, just before kids go to sleep. But in terms of encouraging reading skills, you want your child well-rested. After a nap is the optimum time to read to your child. Both of you should be relaxed and calm.

Offering a baby a book to play with is another great way to give her a chance to interact with words, illustrations, and pages. There are cloth or plastic books and sturdier children’s books that are terrific for this purpose.

The main idea here is to expose your child to lots of language. This is the key to helping her develop her vocabulary and communication skills. When your baby reaches toddlerhood, start reciting nursery rhymes with her and hesitate here and there to allow her a chance to fill in the words. Participatory recitation of rhymes is a very big step toward reading readiness. Your child will also memorize the rhymes. Developing word memories is yet another crucial part of learning to read.

Take your child to the library and make it a regular special jaunt for the two of you. Read her favorite stories to her again and again. Ask open-ended questions like, “What do you think will happen next?”

Network with other parents and share techniques for honing your child’s pre-reading skills. If you give it your best effort, you may just end up with a bookworm for a child. What could be more wonderful?

This post has been copied in its entirety with the kind permission of www.cognibeat.com