Catch up on our blog

A week after school started, Casey's mom went to Parent Orientation, sometimes called Open House or Back to School Night. She was given a tour of Casey's classroom and got to hear from the teacher about what Casey would be learning and what the expectations for the school year are.

Casey is adjusting to the school year, but after a few weeks her teacher calls on a Friday morning and asks her mom if she has smelled anything strange at home lately. Casey's mom thinks for a moment and says, "Actually, my car has had a weird smell lately."

Casey is beginning to follow along with her classroom and school day routines, but has found that she can't always find the things that she needs. "Where is that pencil? I know I put it in here somewhere!"

Let's begin with the first strategy to help Casey (and any other student that does better without multi step directions). When there are multi-step directions, break them down into single steps.

Teacher: "Good morning class. Please make sure last night's homework is in the green bin. We will begin class in thirty seconds, so make sure you are in your seats and ready to go."

School is starting soon. What emotions are tied into those four words? Excitement? Anticipation? Nervousness? Dread? Do you love school? Are you one of those people who enjoy learning, are able to prove themselves capable in the classroom?

How would you describe a superhero? I would think that you would suggest abilities that humans don't have. Possibly flying, changes roles in a split second, accomplishing more than is humanly possible.

Would you spend ten hours writing a report for your boss if you were not getting paid? How does cleaning the house while the whole family sits on the couch watching a movie sound? What do you think of spending hours preparing a meal and then someone takes one bite and says it's not good?

I have not put out content in about a month. I have been super busy with lots of good things. I wanted to post something even though time was not on my side and I still didn't get to it. Let's talk today about WHY. Why do we do the things that we do?

Last week, we discussed healthy habits, particularly focusing on cues. Today, I would like to discuss adjusting a trigger. We all have behaviors we'd like to stop.

How do we get our children to develop healthy habits? Healthy habits in kids lead to healthy habits in adults and we want to help them develop those habits or routines, so that it becomes a part of them from childhood to carry into adulthood.

The last area of executive function according to Dr. Brown is Motivating and Self Regulating Actions. This refers to getting yourself to get started on something and self-regulating that momentum to complete the task.

Last week, we began to discuss working memory. We discussed writing things down and creating checklists. There are many great resources for assisting with working memory. We will discuss a few of them today — these options are called mnemonics.

The fifth area of executive function according to Dr. Thomas Brown is Memory — utilizing working memory and accessing recall. What that means is remembering things in the short term while using them to complete a task.

Over the last few weeks, we have begun to explore Dr. Thomas Brown's model of Executive Function. We spoke about activation, focus, and effort. Today we tackle emotion — specifically, managing frustration and regulating emotional responses.

Now that you have a better understanding of focus, let's discuss effort. What is effort? I took an informal poll. Some people said putting in work and energy. Someone else said trying hard and doing your best even if the results are not commensurate with the energy invested.

"If you would just focus, you would be done already!" How many times have you heard that line before? But what does focus mean? We are going to explore the second cluster of Dr. Brown's model of Executive Function.

Dr. Thomas Brown, a clinical psychologist who specializes in assessment & treatment of ADHD & related problems, has a different way of looking at executive function. He groups executive functions into six clusters.

Last week, we spoke about how we feel our emotions. Where in our body we feel emotion and how we react to those feelings and emotions. How did that go for you? Have you become more aware of your body and your emotions?

As you continue to practice the self-talk that we spoke about last week, you will become an expert at self-directed speech — talking to yourself, so that you can assess what you are doing right and how you can improve.

Today, we are going to discuss talking to ourselves! When I think about talking to myself, I imagine the lady walking through the grocery store, going up and down the aisles saying, "You look yummy, maybe I should buy you for dinner." That is not what I mean.

Now that you have an image of how you would like things to play out, it is time to discuss time. Time is a huge challenge for many people, but specifically for those with ADHD. ADHD can cause something we refer to as time blindness.

At this point, hopefully, you have picked a behavior or two that you plan to stop. Please share with me what you are stopping by replying to this email. I'd love to hear from you!

You spent a lot of time figuring out what you are doing that is preventing you from reaching your goals. You have a list of roadblocks in front of you. Give yourself a pat on the back! You have achieved self-awareness!

Did you make your list of goals? If not, stop and come up with at least one goal that you have for yourself. Here are some of Sharon's goals: she wants to get her paperwork done on time, she wants to have a cleaner home, and she wants to lose weight.

Lucy, a third grader, needs to get to the bus on time to get to school. She is never able to get out the door on time. It doesn't matter when her mother wakes her up, extra time doesn't seem to matter.