Your ADD / ADHD News

Parent as an ADHD Advocate

Free ADHD TeleSeminar

Date: Wednesday May 21st, 2008

Time: 8:30 pm Eastern

Who: Dr. Rory Stern Interviews Evelyn Polk-Green

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Restore Employment and Education Rights for Adults and Children with ADHD

Are you a working adult who has ADHD? Are you a student concerned about receiving appropriate accommodations at your college or university? Does your child attend a private school that does not receive federal financial assistance? 

If the answer is yes, then the Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act is crucial legislation for you to know about. The original Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990 and is the major civil rights law for people with disabilities. Since then the courts have significantly narrowed the reach of the law and made it very difficult for a person with any cognitive or mental disability to be protected. 

The ADA Restoration Act, now before Congress, will restore the original intent of the law and protect all people with disabilities. This is particularly important in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities in employment and students in private schools, colleges and universities.

Learn more and find out how you can make a difference>>>

ADD Forums 2.0

In December ADD Forums made the long awaited upgrade to the latest incarnation of its forum software. This new generation of software offers expanded functionality and features such as expanded profiles with "friend’s lists", personal photo galleries, etc.

Today ADD Forums added a new Blogging system where each ADD Forums member can have his or her own blog, respond to other member’s blogs and more.

In the coming weeks ADD Forums will be adding a completely new chat system and many other new features that have been requested and are becoming available.

Fidget to Focus Teleclass

On Tuesday November 27, 2007 at 9:00 pm EST ADHD Coach Sarah Wright along with Roland Rotz will be leading the free teleclass Fidget to Focus through ADDClasses.com. Sarah Wright and Roland Rotz are co-authors of the book Fidget to Focus. This teleclass is free and registered participants can either call in using a telephone or listen live over the Internet. Sign up now at www.addclasses.com

Girls & ADHD: Are You Missing the Signs

When you think ADHD, do you think boy? You’re not alone. Boys are three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, even though they’re no more likely to have it. Too many young girls are not getting the help they need.

That’s why teachers are so important. When it comes to learning disabilities, teachers are right there on the front line. We’re often the first to spot a child’s difficulties and to bring it to the attention of parents and specialists. It’s important that we know the different ways ADHD may manifest in our girl students and the reasons we may miss it.

Alarmingly, some studies estimate that as many as 50% to 75% of girls with ADHD are missed. Worse, girls with ADHD are diagnosed on average five years later than boys—boys at age 7, girls at age 12. Five crucial years girls could be getting help are lost.

“ADHD is not gender-linked,” says Dr. Patricia Quinn, director of the Center for Gender Issues and ADHD and an expert on ADHD in girls. Recent data shows medication for ADHD is dispensed equally to men and women. It follows that if adults are experiencing the disorder in equal numbers, children might too.

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A.D.D. Awareness Day highlights needs for those with disability

PORTLAND (Sep 22, 2006): Leonardo Da Vinci, Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dali, Winston Churchill, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin…these famous names may all have one thing in common: Attention Deficit Disorder, a condition causing difficulties resulting in distraction, inattention, impulsivity and sometimes, hyperactivity.

To promote National Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Awareness Day (A.D./H.D.) – celebrated on Wednesday – the Portland-based counseling service A.D.D. with Ease is sponsoring an essay contest, “How A.D./H.D. Has Impacted My Life,” for which middle and high school students and parents in the southern Maine region are invited to write about their experiences with the disability.

“We’re always trying to work with people’s strengths,” said J.J. Stuart, a coach with A.D.D. with Ease whose child has the disability. “Some people find out that they need practical strategies, which help them through the end of the day. We hope that more people will become more aware that there is a support system out there for them. They’re not alone.”

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Expert Explains the Link between Eating Disorders and Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD/ADHD) in New Book

New Book Reveals a Piece of the Puzzle for Women with Eating Disorders or Attention Deficit Disorder.

In her new book, Pieces of a Puzzle: The Link between Eating Disorders and ADD, Dr. Carolyn Dukarm focuses on the overlap between eating disorders and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and points out how diagnosing and treating both disorders can provide the missing pieces of the puzzle that hold the key to recovery.

People suffer daily from the symptoms of eating disorders. For some, however, eating is not the only area of their life that is out-of-control. “Every day I would see women that did not meet the criteria for either anorexia or bulimia, but clearly had disturbed eating habits, with typically no regularly planned meals or snacks, and an inability to follow dietary plans for any useful length of time,” states Dr. Carolyn Dukarm, an eating disorders specialist in Buffalo, New York. As these patients were more carefully evaluated in her Center for Eating Disorders, it became clear that the incidence of undiagnosed attention deficit disorder was very high.

Celebrity Designer Ty Pennington to Host ADHD Experts on Call Program

To help patients, families and caregivers better understand Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Shire Pharmaceuticals Inc., will host the eighth annual ADHD Experts on Call on September 20, 2006, from 8 A.M. to midnight EDT. Celebrity designer Ty Pennington, who was diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager, is back for the third year in a row to talk about his experience managing the disorder. Some of the nation’s top ADHD experts will answer questions at the toll-free telephone hotline, 1-888-ASK-ADHD.

The hotline will provide live access to English- and Spanish-speaking experts including health care professionals, educators and advocates who can answer questions regarding the disorder. In addition, a confidential, one-on-one on-line forum will be available at http://www.ADHDExpertsOnCall.com throughout the day.

Judge Won't Order School To Give Girl Cheerleader Spot

A federal judge says a Little Rock Central High School student will not suffer irreparable harm if she is not a cheerleader this year and denied a request to order her reinstated to the squad, for which she failed an audition.

While U.S. District Judge James Moody did not grant an injunction, a trial will still follow on the lawsuit.

A lawyer for the family of Little Rock mayoral candidate Bill Walker said that Walker's 15-year-old daughter, who is going by a fictitious name in the case, suffers from an attention deficit disorder and that Central High failed to provide her with educational and behavioral support, in violation of federal law.

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Girls' Symptoms Different, ADHD Risks Real, Researchers Say

A major long-term study of girls diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary school has found they are at greater risk for substance abuse, emotional problems and academic difficulties in adolescence than their peers who don't have the common neurobehavioral condition.

The results, health professionals say, should help dispel ideas that the disorder, which affects an estimated 4.4 million American children, poses less of a risk to girls than to boys, on whom most research has focused.

The federally funded study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, involves more than 200 girls who have been followed since 1997, when they were 6 to 12 years old. The broadly focused study is designed to measure the ways ADHD, a disorder characterized by pervasive inattention and impulsivity, affects peer relationships, impairs school performance and is linked to substance abuse and psychological problems.

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