Turning College Failure into Success

College Savings Going Down the Drain?

Tired of nagging your college student throughout the semester and then having your worst fears realized when grades come out?  Have that pit-in-your-stomach feel when you read the academic probation letter?  Staying awake at night worried about what happens to all those years of careful college savings if your student drops out, or worse, flunks out?

You’re not alone.

25% of college students won’t return to school after their freshman year.  Even scarier, 46% of college students today will not graduate in six years, according to The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.  Not exactly the picture most of us are planning as we set aside funds each month for the college savings account.

As parents, we worry about the money invested in a student’s education, sure.  But even more worrisome is the picture we’re forced to consider if our student is struggling (and failing) to meet the academic and social challenges at college.  While colleges and universities are making strides in increasing retention rates and offering support for special needs students, the honest truth is that, for most at-risk students, the efforts just aren’t enough to make a difference in their success toward graduation.

If your student fails after four or six years of struggling at college, what will his/her future look like?

At The Being Well Center, we’ve helped guide students from an uncertain future to a self-assured, confident success.  We’ve seen a pronounced increase in college students seeking personalized success plans for navigating the challenges of higher education.  These are students who want to picture a cap and gown in their future.  These are parents who want to protect their financial and familial investments.  These are families who are admitting they can’t face one more battle over getting to class on time or turning in term papers or failing tests or making poor decisions to party away the week.

81% of students enrolled in the Being Well Center’s Confidence@College program are on track to graduate; many in four years rather than six, which has now become the norm.  The confidence boost in these student’s lives has been marked.  The relaxed smiles on parents during consultation sessions say it all: college success can be achievable for ADD and ADHD students, as well as, those with learning, language or emotional differences.

But many times, success needs a partner.  A partner that can teach self-advocacy skills and be there to catch your student when a stumble happens.  A partner to be by your side as you cheer from the stands on graduation day.  The Being Well Center has designed Confidence@College to be that good roommate in your student’s college life.

Confidence@College takes an intense look at your student’s challenges and desired goals.  Students enrolled in the BWC’s Confidence@College program undergo an extensive evaluation of their temperament, readiness skills, attentional abilities, executive functions, neuromaturational status, and attitudes, along with a survey of stresses present in their environment.  Participants then work closely with the BWC’s team to determine a multi-modal success plan that will promote the individual’s strengths and support their weaknesses.   Once students leave for college, a close connection to our staff is maintained through the BWC’s GuideUÔ technology services.

Be part of the 81% of students who are succeeding at college.  Be confident that college success is an investment that will have great returns in your student’s life.  Sleep well at night knowing that your student will be making Dean’s List tomorrow.

Contact the Being Well Center for more information on the Confidence@College program.  Now enrolling students for the 2012 Summer Semester College Prep Course.

School’s Out

School’s out for summer!

No more pencils…

No more books…

No more teacher’s dirty looks…

But for your child with ADHD, maybe the dirty looks from other kids continue and the social isolation he felt all school year only intensifies as he spends hour after hour in front of a screen during the long hot days of summer.  For many ADHD children and teenagers, negotiating the subtleties of establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships is as challenging as any subject at school.  At school, teaching occurs!  And most of what is taught it pretty concrete…even the most abstract academic concepts are more black-and-white than the process of establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships.

Early in their development, children play together, at first side-by-side and then, cooperatively.  This works for toddlers and preschoolers.  As children get older, their use of language as a social tool becomes more and more critical in relating to others.  By the time our children are in their early teens, initiating and sustaining conversations is at the core of all of their meaningful relationships. Making this transition is often tremendously challenging for the child with ADHD, and as result he/she is often left feeling lonely and on the periphery.

What makes the art of conversation so challenging for many ADHD children and teens (and yes, even adults), is that mastery requires that we all follow the many unwritten rules of conversation.  It is important to appreciate that other than when we say to our kids, “Hey look at me when you are talking” and “Don’t interrupt me when I am talking,” we do not  teach our children these rules.  They learn them indirectly through observation and accurate interpretation of the subtle feedback that comes their way when they break a rule in conversation…and we know that observing, reflecting, and checking themselves are inherent weaknesses for people with ADHD.  As a result, often, ADHD children and teens are unaware of the rules and struggle with the primary vehicle for relating to the people in their world.

 

Rules for Conversation

• Maintain eye contact with your conversational partner
• Take turns
• Pick topics that are interesting to your conversational partner
• Stay on topic
• Give verbal and nonverbal signs that you are listening and interested
• Carry your share of the conversation
• Do not monologue
• Stay connected to the content of what your partner just said
• Request clarification when you don’t understand what your partner said
• Change topics in a bridging sort of way or alert your conversational partner of a change
• Use a more formal style of talking with conversational partners who are less familiar or in positions of authority

 

Summer is a great time for our ADHD kids to improve their conversational skills.  At The Being Well Center,  I work with kids of all ages, individually and then in groups to help them clearly know and master the application of all of the rules to become more confident and competent as conversationalists.  The progress they make is tangible and exciting for them.  If your ADHD child or teen struggles to initiate and sustain meaningful conversations and you are interested in promoting these skills, reach out to us…I would welcome the opportunity to help!  Or find a good Speech-Language Therapist to help.  Be a good consumer and be certain she has a passion for pragmatic language and a commitment to making it real…transferable to your child’s real world.  In my experience, talking about it and playing pragmatic language games yield little change in the real world.  Rather, focused, engaging, and practical pragmatic language activities will give your ADHD child or teen the tools for a lifetime of conversation.

What do you plan to do this summer to keep your ADHD child building social and conversational skills?

Jane Reck is a speech-language therapist who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University summa cum laude.  Jane has more than 25 years of clinical experience as a case coordinator and speech-language therapist on The Being Well Center’s multidisciplinary health care team providing treatment to clients of all ages.  She has participated in the care of hundreds of patients with ADD/ADHD and has trained and supervised professionals from a variety of disciplines in how to use The Being Well System.  She has helped lead the establishment and management of transdisciplinary health care programs in the United States and Central America.

ADHD: A Family Affair

ADHD clearly runs in families, but the actual pattern of how it’s passed on from generation to generation is unclear.  Researchers have begun to identify a variety of specific genes that show up more frequently in people with ADHD.  This suggests that ADHD is a polygenic problem.  That is, there are probably a variety of underlying combinations of genes that are responsible for the outward manifestations of ADHD that we observe.  This awareness could help explain why there is so much variability in symptoms, severity and response to medications from ADHD individual to ADHD individual.

I anticipate that clarification of the genetic basis for ADHD will lead to dramatic improvements in our ability to diagnose ADHD, define specific genetic subtypes and more precisely treat ADHD.  Until this type of information is readily available and turned into some type of a routine genetic test, we are left with relying on observations, interviews, questionnaires, and attention testing to identify individuals in a family with ADHD.

In my clinical experience, more than 90% of the parents of children with ADHD can identify another family member with similar problems.  It might be a brother or a sister, an aunt or an uncle, or most commonly, one of the parents themselves.  Sometimes it’s not called ADHD…maybe it’s depression, anxiety disorder, delinquency, or perhaps just “ditzy Aunt Sally” or “crazy old Uncle Harry.”  If you look below the surface of these labels, you’re likely to find a history of ADHD behaviors or symptoms.

For many parents, sitting down and hearing that their child has ADHD helps them, for the first time, to understand the reason for difficulties they have experienced in their own lives.  For some parents, accepting the ADHD diagnosis in their child forces them to accept that they have a problem too.  Unfortunately, this painful realization causes a few parents to deny the ADHD diagnosis in their child.

In our clinical practice at The Being Well Center in Pittsburgh, we have many families where we see a child, Mom or Dad (or both), a grandparent and other extended family members.  Based on our experience working with ADHD over many years, we make it a top priority to identify other family members who might have ADHD when we make the diagnosis of ADHD in a child, adolescent, or young adult.  There are two important reasons to take some steps toward screening others in the family:

• First, when we can get all members of a family unit identified, properly diagnosed, and then appropriately treated, everyone benefits!  Synergy occurs when the home environment is less chaotic, more structured routines are implemented, and systems are put into place to ensure better follow through with rules and responsibilities, use of compensating strategies and adherence to medication regimens…the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts when it comes to ADHD in families!
• Secondly, it’s simply good health care to accurately identify and treat a problem like ADHD which can be an unrecognized contributor to so many serious life  dysfunctions across the life span.  Identifying and properly treating ADHD can change someone’s life today and well into the future.

So, when it comes to ADHD, it’s important to remember:  where there’s one there’s likely to be another.  When I teach pediatricians, family physicians and psychiatrists about ADHD, I strongly encourage them to screen other family members of their ADHD patients and facilitate getting those individuals properly diagnosed and treated.

If you are a parent or close relative of someone with ADHD and your struggling in some aspect of your life, have a high degree of suspicion about ADHD in yourself.  Complete an ADHD screener.  Read Pay Attention! and become more informed about ADHD.  Talk with your doctor or healthcare provider about possible ADHD.  Or, come see us at The Being Well Center in Pittsburgh!

How do you see ADHD connecting in your family tree?

Dr. Craig B. Liden is an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of ADD/ADHD. He is a board certified physician who completed his pediatric training and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Medical School/Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Liden has served on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he started the Child Development Unit.  Since the 1980’s, Dr. Liden has been in private practice evaluating and treating behavioral and developmental issues in more than 9,000 patients with ADD/ADHD and related co-morbidities.  He currently treats patients across the life span at The Being Well Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

Brain Power Only Goes So Far

When I was first learning about ADHD, the common wisdom was that most kids outgrew “hyperactivity” once they passed through puberty.  Once our focus shifted away from activity level toward “Attention Deficit Disorder” we started to recognize that our patients could carry their attentional weaknesses beyond adolescence.  Recognition of a possible underlying genetic basis for ADHD reinforced our clinical experience that this problem can have an impact on an individual across the life span.

Now, the most common new patient intakes at our clinical program in Pittsburgh are for college students who failed or wound up on academic probation often after doing fairly well in high school.  We also have a substantial number of professionals (doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen, etc.) who show up on our doorstep at 30, 40, 50, 60, and even at 70 questioning if ADHD might be contributing to struggles in their lives.  You might wonder, “If it’s ADHD, how did they ever make it that far?”

Well, if you look back it’s not too hard to understand.  Many of these individuals were smart kids and everything came easy early on.  They could be staring out the window daydreaming while the teacher was talking but have the “brain power” to answer the question correctly when called upon.  Homework was rarely an issue because they got all the work done before the end of class and never really had to study for tests.  Because their parents and teachers used grades as the marker of success, everyone felt that things were OK.

When rough edges emerged, their parents stepped in with reminders or constant nagging and never let the natural consequences unfold.  Procrastination became an “art form” that resulted in an adrenalin rushes that allowed them to hyper-focus their “brain power” to produce high quality products at the 11^th hour.  High SAT scores obscured signs of underachievement.

For many, the new demands that college presented uncovered inadequate life skills that had been lurking below the surface all along: poor time management and scheduling, ineffective planning and task management, struggles with money management, bad social decision making, poor problem solving, and an inability to self advocate.

When you think about it, it’s not surprising that only 25% of ADHD students graduate from college.  Some have the ”brain power” to make it, but that’s not the end of the story.

The demands of graduate school are even greater, but the carrot at the end is even bigger: M.D., MBA, Esq., etc!  This has been a powerful motivator for some to squeeze out every ounce of “brain power” to successfully reach the coveted goal and many do.  But this is still not the end of the line.

The demands of the real world keep on coming…see 40 patients a day, keep up with charts, manage a staff, pay the bills, be a marital partner, parent a child, take care of your health…where’s “brain power” when you really need it?!!

As the demands of life enfold, there can be ever increasing needs for efficient attention and self-regulation skills…sooner or later “brain power” is simply not enough.

So remember, whenever you, your child, your student, your spouse, your partner, or some other significant person in your life struggles to meet a new demand or expectation, think about ADHD!  It’s one of the most common reasons people fail to make the transition to the next stage of life.

Dr. Craig B. Liden is an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of ADD/ADHD. He is a board certified physician who completed his pediatric training and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Medical School/Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Liden has served on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he started the Child Development Unit.  Since the 1980’s, Dr. Liden has been in private practice evaluating and treating behavioral and developmental issues in more than 9,000 patients with ADD/ADHD and related co-morbidities.  He currently treats patients across the life span at The Being Well Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

ADHD – An All Day, All Life Problem

In the overwhelming majority of cases, ADHD appears to have a genetic basis.  The attentional weaknesses and executive dysfunctions that characterize ADHD appear to be the result of genetically based differences in the parts of the brain that control paying attention and regulating behavior.

This means that the core characteristics of ADHD including low arousal, impulsivity, distractibility, short attention span, and inefficient executive functions (i.e. poor working memory, time/task management, problem solving, response generation, emotional regulation, and self-monitoring), are there from the moment an ADHD individual wakes up in the morning until the time he/she goes to bed at night.

As a result, any life task that requires some degree of focused attention or executive self monitoring can be adversely affected by untreated ADHD.  As it turns out, this is a pretty profound statement!  Reflect back on your day today…try to think of one thing you did that did not require efficient attention or executive functioning skills.

Getting up?  Sorry.  Doing your morning routines?  No way.  Arriving at work on time?  Really?  Doing your job?  C’mon.  Taking to co-workers?  Hardly.  Making the right choices at lunch?  Think about it!  Driving home safely?  Huh?  Preparing dinner?  You’re kidding me, right?  Supervising homework?  Get real.  Getting to bed on time?  I doubt it!

When you think about it, its pretty unbelievable, isn’t it?  This is what makes ADHD such a serious and complicated problem.  And as life goes on, there are more and more demands placed on our attention and executive functions.  ADHD is clearly an all day, all life problem!

I have included with this post a set of Daily Activities Checklist that I use at The Being Well Center to establish the fact that a person’s ADHD is pervasive, impacting daily tasks in all areas of life.  This in one of the key criteria that needs to be met to establish the diagnosis of ADHD.  There’s one for kids and one for adults.  Try it and examine the impact ADHD has on your or your child’s life!

ADD Daily Activities Checklist – Child

ADHD Daily Activities Checklist – Adult

Watching ADHD Across the Lifespan: The Gray Hair Advantage

As Founder and Medical Director of The Being Well Center, Craig B. Liden, MD has charted new pathways to successful treatment of ADHD across the life span.  Today, he shares his professional journey from Harvard to The Being Well Center with the encouraging message that everyone, not just kids 18 and under, can live renewed lives with custom-tailored ADHD success programs.

Dr. Craig Liden of The Being Well Center

After I finished my fellowship program at Harvard and the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston, I joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and founded the Child Development Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.   I recruited a multidisciplinary team of professionals and implemented a series of clinical programs, established training activities for Pediatric Residents and Fellows, and conducted research, all focused on ADHD in children and adolescents.

I lasted almost eight years in academia before I decided to leave for the “real world” and set up a private practice in Developmental and Behavioral Medicine, a forerunner to my Being Well Center that operates today in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh.

Not long after opening the doors of my practice, I had two important realizations.  First, the kids with ADHD that quit coming to the Child Development Unit when they hit age 18 hadn’t really grown out of their problems.  Once there was no longer “Pediatrics” or “Children’s” on a sign of the building, they came rushing in the front door, now struggling at college or just to make it in “big life.”  No one was out there to pick up where my team and I left off.  So, I started to see many young adults with ADHD and refining my protocols to meet their needs.

Secondly, many of the parents of the kids I worked with started to come forward: “Hey, Doc, I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but I have all the same problems my kid has.  Can you help me?”   In reality, I had noticed!  But, I didn’t know where to send them because at that time no one was taking care of adults with ADHD.

Having established my own practice, I now had the freedom to open the door a crack and to start seeing a few select adults with ADHD.  I quickly got reinforced to do a lot more; not only did these adults start living healthier lives, but, not surprisingly, their kids started doing much better as well…the home was more structured, there was better follow through with discipline, medication was consistently taken on time and so on.

These two realizations and the steps taken to address them have given my team and I a unique opportunity to watch the natural history of ADHD across the life span in more than 9,000 patients over the past 30 years.  Currently, our youngest patient is three years old and our oldest is in her 90′s! So, we’ve been able to watch ADHD go from early childhood into young adult life, from adolescence to mid-adult life, and from mid-adult life to late-adult life.

This extensive experience watching ADHD across the life span has given The Being Well Center a unique perspective on what’s really important in treating ADHD successfully.

Have you ever thought, “I wish I knew then what I know now about _______?”  with regards to your daily habits, efforts at school, your parenting, your relationships, your health, or some other important aspect of your life?  Well, I have–about ADHD!  My gray hair and the wisdom that has come with it have given me special insights about ADHD, its impact on health and daily routines, its interaction with other characteristics like temperament, its proper treatment, and much more!  This blog will be dedicated to sharing this wisdom with you so that your life, your child’s, or your student’s will become more successful!

Dr. Liden is an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of ADD/ADHD. He is a board certified physician who graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University College of Medicine.  He completed his pediatric training and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Medical School/Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Liden has served on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he started the Child Development Unit and spent years researching ADD/ADHD, training pediatric and psychiatry residents and other post doctoral students, and establishing a fellowship program in developmental and behavioral pediatrics.  Since the 1980’s, Dr. Liden has been in private practice evaluating and treating behavior and developmental issues across the life span. He has treated more than 9,000 patients with ADD/ADHD and related co-morbidities.

The Being Well Program

ADD is not an illness.  Rather, we like to think of it as the result of an inborn individual difference.  Some of us come into the world with blue eyes and some with brown.  Some have a tendency to be tall and some to be short.  Likewise, some people come into the world with good attention and some don’t.

ADD/ADHD affects our life in almost every imaginable way–it touches our confidence, our relationships, our performance, our health, and our future.  So how can we effectively treat ADD with a quick trip to the doctor’s office?

We treat the common cold with medication.  Treating ADD, and its impacts on our life, is far more complex.

That’s why The Being Well Center has established a 5-step program to equip  individuals and families with the tools, resources, and knowledge to thrive with ADD in a practical, confident way.

If you have the sniffles, go see your doctor.  If you want a lifestyle strategy for living with ADD, come to The Being Well Center.

Here’s how we’ll determine a unique, individualized plan for your situation:

The Being Well Program

1.  Discovery Session – Listening and Understanding

A thorough question-and-answer session, patients are given the chance to ask questions, express their concern, and tell their story.

2.  Assessment Session – Examining and Clarifying

A one-hour examination that assesses both physical and neurobehavioral health.

3.  The Being Well Plan – A Whole-Person Lifestyle Roadmap

A plan that defines the objectives and strategies for treatment and medication options, as well as a roadmap to overcome setbacks and get the most out of treatment.

4.  Continuous Support – Measuring Progress and Setting Goals

Regular follow-up visits to implement the plan, make adjustments, answer questions, review next steps, and celebrate victories.

5.  Independence – Preparing for the Long-Term

Cultivating and achieving a sense of confidence, self-dependence, success, and productivity for the future.

 

Contact The Being Well Center to get started at step one on your road to confidence, self-dependence, success, and productivity.