Category Archives: ADHD

What is Executive Function Disorder?

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What is Executive Functioning?

According to CHADD org, Executive function skills refers to brain functions that activate, organize, integrate and manage other functions which enables individuals to account for short- and long term consequences of their actions and to plan for those results.

According to Rebecca Branstetter, author of The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children with Executive Functioning Disorder, These skills are controlled by the area of the brain called the frontal lobe and include the following:

  • Task Initiation- stopping what you are doing and starting a new task
  • Response Inhibition- keeping yourself from acting impulsively in order to achieve a goal
  • Focus- directing your attention, keeping you focus, and managing distractions while you are working on a task
  • Time Management- understanding and feeling the passage of time, planning  good use of your time, and avoiding procrastination behavior.
  • Working Memory- holding information in your mind long enough to do something with it (remember it, process it, act on it)
  • Flexibility- being able to shift your ideas in changing conditions
  • Self-Regulations- be able to reflect on your actions and behaviors and make needed changes to reach a goal
  • Emotional Self-Control- managing your emotions and reflecting on your feelings in order to keep yourself from engaging in impulsive behaviors.
  • Task Completion- sustaining your levels of attention and energy to see a task to the end.
  • Organization- keeping track and taking care of your belongings (personal, school work) and maintaining order in your personal space.
What Causes Executive Functioning Disorder?
  • a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
  • a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • Tourette syndrome
  • Traumatic
Signs and Symptoms
  • Short-term memory such ask being asked to complete a task and forgetting almost immediately.
  • Impulsive
  • Difficulty processing new information
  • Difficulty solving problems
  • Difficulty in listening or paying attention
  • issues in starting, organizing, planning or completing task
  • Difficulty in multi-tasking

Issues with executive functioning often leads to a low self-esteem, moodiness, insecurities, avoiding difficult task. and low motivation

Managing Executive Functions Issues
  • Create visual aids
  • use apps for time management and productivity
  • Request written instructions
  • Create schedule and review at least twice a day
  • Create checklist

Updated 6/30/24

What is Inattentive ADHD?

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When most people think of ADHD, hyperactivity is often what people think of. There are actually 3 subtypes of ADHD including hyperactivity, inattentiveness and a combination of both hyperactivity and inattentiveness.

What is Inattentive ADHD?

ADHD is considered one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders which affects both children and adults. 70% of people with ADHD in childhood will continue to have it in adolescence and approximately 50% will continue into adulthood.

ADHD is described as a lack of focus and attention including not paying attention to detail and making careless mistakes, disorganizations, poor listening skills, distractibility, and constantly losing items.

There has been little research done on the inattentive type, however this is slowly changing. there are many reasons why the inattentive type is overlooked and why it is important to discuss it.  Studies show that females are more likely to have the inattentive type of ADHD. This type of ADHD is often ignored or overlooked due to its comorbidities. Females are more likely to have learning disorders such as dyscalculia (math learning difficulties) and dysgraphia (writing disorders), as well as anxiety, depression and speech and language issues.

Other challenges faced by children and adults with inattentive ADHD includes issues in executive functioning including difficulty in sequencing, staying on a task, prioritizing, and productivity.

Signs and Symptoms

According to DSM-V, a person must meet six of the nine symptoms listed below:

  1. fails to pay close attention to details or makes careless mistakes
  2. has difficulty sustaining attention in work or play
  3. does not listen when spoken to directly.
  4. fails to finish schoolwork, chores or work duties
  5. has difficulties organizing activities
  6. avoids task requiring sustained mental effort
  7. loses things
  8. is easily distracted
  9. is forgetful.

Causes

Research suggests the following play a role in the diagnosis of inattentive ADHD:

  1. Genetics
  2. environmental
  3. low birthrate
  4. stress during pregnancy

Treatment

There is no known treatment for inattentive ADHD. The following medications are used for treatment:

  • methylphenidate- used to create activity in the brain
  • lisdexamfetamin- improves concentration, helps focus attention
  • guanfacine- works to improve attention

Strategies in working with students with Inattentive ADHD:

  1. Allow enough time to complete work. students with Inattentive type take a longer in completing assignments and processing information
  2. Be specific and provide structure. Explain your expectations and ensure instructions are clear.
  3. Decrease distractions as much as you can
  4. Monitor for both depression and anxiety
  5. Help to build self-esteem
  6. Provide accommodations in areas of learning.

For adults in the workplace

  1. Vary instruction when training new staff
  2. allow frequent breaks
  3. decrease distractions
  4. use visual strategies for feedback and expectation.
Updated on 6/28/24

Accommodating Students with Executive Functioning Disorders

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Classroom accommodations for executive function difficulties– Center on Technology and Disabilities.

Classroom accommodations for executive functioning issues– Understood

Executive Function Disorder and Education– The Beckman School

Executive Function Skills: Accommodations for your child at school- Psychological and Educational Consulting

Executive functioning measurable IEP goals, accommodations and strategies- A Day in Our Shoes

Dyslexia and ADHD Comorbidly

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In some cases, dyslexia and ADHD coexist. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between 50 to 60 percent of people with ADHD also have a learning disability including dyslexia which is a language-based learning disability.

According to Learning Disability Online, Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people have difficulties in specific language skills. It affects 10% of children and there are challenges with writing and interpreting spoken language;

Signs and Symptoms:
  • delays in learning the alphabet, colors and objects
  • delayed vocabulary
  • delayed speech
  • difficulty comprehending instruction
  • disorganization
  • inability to recognize printed words and letters on printed page
  • difficulty remembering the sequence of things
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)is a neurological disorder characterized by a pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that disrupts functioning in both children and adults

Signs and Symptoms

The DSM-V defines ADHD as a persistent pattern of attention and or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning of development. Inattention symptoms include the following:

  1. often fails to give close attention to details
  2. often has difficulty sustaining attention in task or play activities
  3. often does not listen when spoken to directly
  4. Often does not follow through on instructions
  5. Often has difficulty organizing task and activities often avoids, dislikes or is reluctant to engage in task that requires sustained mental effort.

Hyperactive symptoms include:

  1. trouble paying attention
  2. restlessness
  3. excessive talking
  4. loud interaction with others
  5. frequent interventions
  6. may have a quick temper

Having both can be tricky to diagnose since they overlap in similarities. For example, a child may have a messy handwriting with spelling issues due to both disorders or when reading, may simply get tired of reading due to ADHD or may not understanding the reading material.

Intervention
  1. If the child shows signs of ADHD and dyslexia disorders, an assessment should be conducted for both disorders.
  2. The IEP should also include support and accommodations for both disorders,

ADHD and Dyslexia– International Dyslexia Association

Dyslexia and ADHD: Identifying, understanding and treating reading disorders in children– Impact ADHD

My child’s Dyslexia and ADHD: How they blended together-Understood

The Dyslexia and ADHD connection– Additude

The link between dyslexia and ADHD– Very Well Mind

Two conditions, one struggle: Teaching students with ADHD and dyslexia- CHADD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Page

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Definition:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)  is a neurological disorder characterized by a pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that disrupts functioning in both children and adults

The DSM-V defines ADHD as a persistent pattern of attention and or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning of development. Inattention symptoms include the following:

  1. often fails to give close attention to details
  2. often has difficulty sustaining attention in task or play activities
  3. often does not listen when spoken to directly
  4. Often does not follow through on instructions
  5. Often has difficulty organizing task and activities often avoids, dislikes or is reluctant to engage in task that requires sustained mental effort.

Hyperactive symptoms include:

  1. trouble paying attention
  2. restlessness
  3. excessive talking
  4. loud interaction with others
  5. frequent interventions
  6. may have a quick temper

Awareness Day: None

Awareness Month: October

Ribbon: Orange

Prevalence:

  • ADHD is a condition characterized by inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsivity
  • It is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood
  • It is usually diagnosed in childhood and last into adulthood
  • People diagnosed with ADHD may have difficulty paying attention and or controlling impulsive behavior
  • 70% of people with ADHD in childhood will continue to have it in adolescence
  • 50% will continue into adulthood
  • ADHD is not caused by watching too much, parenting or having too much sugar
  • ADHD may be caused by genetics, brain injury or low birth weights
  • Is a highly genetic, brain-based syndrome that has to do with the brain regulation in executive functioning skills
Prevalence

UNITED STATES

Children & Adolescents

The 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) interviewed parents and reports the following ADHD prevalence data among children ages 2–17 (Danielson et al. 2018):

  • 6.1 million children (9.4 percent) have ever been diagnosed with ADHD. This includes:
    • About 388,000 young children ages 2-5 (or 2.4 percent in this age group)
    • 2.4 million school-age children ages 6-11 (or 9.6 percent in this age group)
    • 3.3 million adolescents ages 12-17 (or 13.6 percent in this age group)
  • 5.4 million children (8.4 percent) have a current diagnosis of ADHD. This includes:
    • About 335,000 young children ages 2-5 (or 2.1 percent in this age group)
    • 2.2 million school-age children ages 6-11 (or 8.9 percent in this age group)
    • 2.9 million adolescents ages 12-17 (or 11.9 percent in this age group)
  • Treatment used by children ages 2-7 with a current diagnosis of ADHD:
    • Two out three were taking medication (62 percent).
    • Less than half received behavioral treatment in the past year (46.7 percent).
    • Nearly one out of three received a combination of medication and behavioral treatment in the past year (31.7 percent).
    • Nearly one out of four had not received any treatment (23 percent).
  • Severity of ADHD among children ages 2-17:
    • 14.5 percent had severe ADHD
    • 43.7 percent had moderate ADHD
    • 41.8 percent had mild ADHD
  • Co-occuring conditions (children ages 2-17):
    • Two out of three children (63.8 percent) had at least one co-occuring condition.
    • Half of all children (51.5 percent) had behavioral or conduct problems.
    • One out of three children (32.7 percent) had anxiety problems.
    • One out of six children (16.8 percent) had depression.
    • About one out of seven children (13.7 percent) had autism spectrum disorder.
    • About one out of 80 children (1.2 percent) had Tourette syndrome.
    • One in a hundred adolescents (1 percent) had a substance abuse disorder.
  • By race or ethnicity (children ages 2-17):
    • 8.4 percent White
    • 10.7 percent Black
    • 6.6 percent Other
    • 6.0 percent Hispanic/Latino
    • 9.1 percent Non-Hispanic/Latino

Adults with ADHD

  • 4.4 percent of the adult US population has ADHD, but less than 20 percent of these individuals seek help for it.
  • 41.3% of adult ADHD cases are considered severe.
  • During their lifetimes, 12.9 percent of men will be diagnosed with ADHD, compared to 4.9 percent of women.
  • About 30 to 60 percent of patients diagnosed with ADHD in childhood continue to be affected into adulthood.
  • Adults with ADHD are 5 times more likely to speed
  • Adults with ADHD are nearly 50 percent more likely to be in a serious car crash.
  • Having ADHD makes you 3 times more likely to be dead by the age of 45
  • Anxiety disorders occur in 50 percent of adults with ADHD.

Teaching Resources

The following links provide tools, resources and information for parents and special education educators on providing support to children diagnosed with ADHD.

Accommodations

Information on classroom accommodations including teaching techniques, learning style, schedule, environment, material, assistance and behavior management.

8 easy classroom accommodations for students with ADHD( Blue Mango)

10 ways to support students with hyperactivity and attention needs  (The Starr Spangled Planner)

Accommodations for ADHD students (ADDCoach4U)

Classroom accommodations for ADHD(Understood)

Every 504 plan should include these ADHD accommodations (ADDitude)

Top 20 ADHD accommodations and modifications that work (Promoting Success Blog)

Classroom Tips and Strategies

The following links are tips and strategies that are specific to teaching techniques and helpful information on behavior approaches, rewards, eliminating distractions and seating arrangements

15 strategies to help students with ADHD (Student Savvy)

30 ideas for teaching children with ADHD (Kelly Bear)

50 practical strategies for teaching ADHD without drugs (ASCD Edge)

ADHD and piano lesson teaching strategies (Teach Piano Today)

ADD/ADHD in the classroom: Tips for teachers and parents (hsana.org)

ADHD Teaching Strategies for the Classroom( Promoting Success Blog)

Classroom interventions for ADHD (pdf)

Classroom rules that keep student’s attention on learning (Additude)

Helping the student with ADHD in the classroom (LDonline)

How can teachers help students with ADHD (Education World)

Ideas and strategies for kids with ADD and learning disabilities (Child Development Institute)

Setting up the classroom (ADD in Schools)

Supporting students with ADHD (Free Spirit Publishing)

Teaching students with ADHD: Instructional strategies and practice (U.S. Department of Education)

Tips for teaching students with ADHD(ADHD Kids Rock)

Concentration

Tips and information from websites on helping students concentrate in the classroom.

5 simple concentration building techniques for kids with ADHD (Empowering Parents)

5 ways to improve your child’s focus (Understood)

17 ways to help students with ADHD concentrate (Edutopia)

Ways to improve concentration in kids with ADHD (Brain Balance)

Executive Functioning

Executive functioning helps students analyze a task, planning, organization, time management and finishing a task. The following links provide articles on understand executive functioning and its relationship to ADHD.

Classroom strategies for executive functioning (Understood)

Executive functioning explained and 20 strategies for success (Minds in Bloom)

Executive function skills (CHADD)

Executive Functioning Issues (Understood)

Handwriting for kids with ADHD (Look! We’re Learning)

Articles:

47 hacks people with ADHD use to stay on track

10 things ADHD is- and 3 it isn’t.

Setting students with ADHD and Autism up for success

Children with ADHD and Autism are more likely to develop anxiety

Decoding the overlap between Autism and ADHD

ADHD coping strategies you haven’t tried

ADHD and math teaching resources

Great websites for women and girls with ADHD

Strategies in training employees with ADHD

Dysgraphia and Workplace Accommodations

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Some might be surprised to learn that there are several types of learning disabilities. Dysgraphia is describes as a learning disability that affects writing, spelling and fine motor skills. Dysgraphia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can occur as a stand alone disorder or part of a co-occurring disorder with other disabilities such as ADHD, Autism, and Dyslexia. Typically it is diagnosed or discovered in the early years when children are beginning to learn how to write. Most adults often remain undiagnosed.

Early Signs of Dysgraphia

Signs and symptoms of dysgraphia generally begin to show up when children began to lean how to write. Early signs of Dysgraphia include:

  • Inconsistent spacing between letters
  • Poor spatial planning
  • Poor spelling
  • Unable to read own handwriting
  • Poor fine motor skills
  • Omitted words
  • Writes slow
  • Pain in hand from writing
  • Messy unorganized papers
  • Difficulty organizing thoughts on paper
  • Illegible printing and cursive letter formation
  • Slopping handwriting
  • Tight, cramped pencil grip
  • Tires quickly when writing
  • mixes upper and lower case or irregular sizes and shapes of letters.

Download a free dysgraphia checklist

Signs and Symptoms in the Workplace

A early signs that rarely disappears is having a “sloppy” handwriting. The person when writing leaves out letters at the end of a sentence, difficulty reading own handwriting after meetings, trouble with filling out routine forms, displays unorganized papers on the desk, difficulty thinking and writing at the same time and tends to mixes upper and lower case letters when writing. The person will also avoid writing when possible and show a preference to using a computer or texting neatness, line spacing, staying inside margins and capitalization rules.

Strategies to Use in the Workplace
  1. If you have a smart phone, you can use the device to record meetings, interviews or instructions that are given to you.
  2. Assitive technology such as tablets, computers and Apps are also useful in transcribing information
  3. Take the time to organize your desk before you leave work in the evening. Prioritize your workflow and create a plan for the next day.
  4. Pre-write. Before you take on the task of writing, create an outline on paper.

Developmental Disability Facts and Statistics

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Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions that are due to mental or physical impairments before the age of 22. A developmental disability can occur before, during or after birth. Common well-known developmental disabilities include autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and Fragile X syndrome. Here are some facts and statistics on developmental disabilities.

Click here to download PDF Format

  • Developmental Disability is a severe, long-term disability that affect cognitive ability, physical functioning or both.
  • 1 in 6 or about 15% of children aged 3 through 17 have one or more developmental disabilities.
  • Between 2014 and 2016 the prevalence of developmental disability among kids ages 3 to 17 increased from 5.76 percent to 6.99 percent.
  • Prevalence of autism increased 289.5%
  • Prevalence of ADHD increased 33.0 %
  • Males have a higher prevalence of ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, stuttering and other developmental disabilities.
  • Children from families with incomes below the federal poverty level had a higher prevalence of developmental disabilities.
  • 10% of Americans have a family member with an intellectual disability.
  • Intellectual disabilities are 25 times more common than blindness.
  • Every year 125,000 children are born with an intellectual disability
  • Approximately 85% of the intellectual disability is in the mild category.
  • About 10% of the intellectual disability is considered moderate
  • About 3-4% of the intellectual disability population is severe.
  • Only 1-2% is classified as profound.

 

Resources

National Institute of Health

New Study Links Hyperfocus and ADHD

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Published By: ADDitude Magazine
Written By: Neil Petersen

A newly published study has pried the lid off the mysterious phenomenon of “hyperfocus,” tying it inextricably to symptoms of attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD) in adults.

Though not included in the official DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for ADHD, hyperfocus is a condition familiar to many individuals with ADHD who report becoming intensely focused on activities they find rewarding or interesting.

Anecdotally, we have known that, when a person with ADHD experiences hyperfocus, his or her attention becomes laser-like. They lose track of time, and distractions fade away. Switching to other tasks becomes difficult. But from a scientific standpoint, we’ve known very little about hyperfocus, most notably whether it is truly more prevalent among people with ADHD. To read the rest of the story, click here

Overlap in traits of autism, attention deficit persists into adulthood

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Published by: Spectrum
Written by: Nicholette Zeliadt

Traits linked to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to co-occur even in adulthood, according to one of the first studies of the traits in that age group1.

The results extend support for the idea that autism and ADHD are intrinsically linked — a notion that is largely based on studies of children.

“Not much is known about the transition from later adolescence into adulthood with regard to autism and ADHD,” says lead investigator Ralf Kuja-Halkola, a statistician at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Click here to read the rest of the story.

ADHD Looks Different In Women. Here’s How — and Why.

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Source: ADDitude

From job opportunities to personal income to marital relationships, there’s hardly an area in which American women haven’t made great strides in recent decades. But when it comes to getting diagnosed with and treated for ADHD, women still have a long way to go.

ADHD in Women

Women are as likely as men to have ADHD, and the latest research suggests that ADHD in women causes even greater emotional turmoil. Yet ADHD is still thought of as something that affects only men and boys. Consequently, women with ADHD are more likely than men to go undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed), and less likely to receive appropriate treatment. Click here to read the rest of the story.