Edge Foundation Blog

This month we are pleased to feature an interview with Robert Tudisco, Edge Foundation Board member. Tudisco is a practicing attorney, an adult diagnosed with ADHD and has served on the Board of Directors of CHADD and ADDA.  As a freelance writer, he has been published in both Attention! and ADDitude Magazines and is a frequent resource for the media about ADHD and disability advocacy.

Edge:  You’ve been a leader in the disability community for the 10 years since you were diagnosed with ADHD.  What are the ADHD projects you are most excited about these days?

Robert Tudisco:  I am excited about the work that is going on at the Edge Foundation to provide scholarships and subsidized coaching for college students with ADHD.

When young students leave the structure of home and high school they often find themselves floating along in college without structure, accountability and the ability to advocate for themselves. For individuals with ADHD, this is a recipe for disaster.  Edge Foundation coaches establish the structure and accountability that is crucial for these transitional young adults.

Edge Foundation is also making significant strides in establishing a scientific basis for the efficacy of coaching which has been lacking in this field as well as a means of standardization through their own coaching certification program.

Edge:  So I imagine a coach can be helpful to a student in assessing whether or not they want to disclose they have ADHD or keep it private.  Do you have an opinion on whether students should come out about their ADHD or not?

Robert Tudisco:  Actually, I do not see it that way at all.  A coach can be very helpful in helping a student understand their specific needs due to their ADHD and help them self report and seek supports in a post secondary environment.  Under the law, it is always an advantage for students to self report their ADHD.  In fact, under Section 504 and the ADA, post secondary students are required to self report and ask for services if they are to have any protection from discrimination about their disability.  Disclosure for students is therefore a must.

Disclosure of ADHD in the workplace is more complicated than when attending school

When students enter the working world is when the question of disclosure becomes more delicate to resolve.  In the first instance, most employers do not accept federal subsidies and employers with less than 50 employees are exempt.  Additionally, for an employment claim, the disabled person also has to prove that they are otherwise capable of performing the job.  Disclosure becomes even more complicated with respect to certain types of businesses where there is much competition for advancement and traditional stigmas can hold an employee with a disability such as ADHD back from advancement.  Here, a coach can be particularly helpful in guiding a client toward a career that better suits their ADHD where their particular work style and creativity can maximize their effectiveness and also how to seek support without necessarily disclosing something that may be seen as a negative.

First large-scale study looking at the effectiveness of personal coaching for college students with ADHD.

The Edge Foundation reported today that it has concluded the pilot phase of its ADHD coaching study.  A progress report on the study was presented at the AHEAD 2009 Global Access Conference, Louisville, KY and will also be reviewed at the Southwest Disabilities Conference in Albuquerque on September 30th and at CHADD’s National Conference in Cleveland on October 9th.

The pilot study is the second phase of a $1 million, 27-month study funded by the Deerbrook Charitable Trust, the Foundation of Coaching, and the Edge Foundation.  It is being led by a faculty team from the Center for Self-Determination and Transition in the College of Education at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. For more information about the study team,  ADHD and the Edge Foundation click here.

ADHD Coaching Pilot Study Objectives

The pilot study was conducted with a group of 8 students at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.  It prepared the way for comprehensive, national study by testing its methods and systems to make sure they all work well and the study operates smoothly. It had two major components:

1.       Pretesting the assessment tool and research techniques before launching them on a broad scale.

2.       Identifying qualitative themes through open-ended interviews with students who have ADHD.

ADHD Coaching Study Research Design and Study Population

“There is substantial anecdotal evidence indicating that coaching is perceived by students, parents and educators as a valuable service that helps students succeed in a variety of settings. However, the value of personal coaching has never been subjected to a rigorous scientific study of its effects on student outcomes.” said Dr. Sharon Field, the project’s research director.

The full-scale, national study will be conducted at  several two- and four-year colleges and universities across the United States during the 2009/2010 academic year. It will examine the effects of coaching on 200 randomly selected students with ADHD. The outcomes for these students will be compared to those of similar students who do not receive coaching services.  Study results will be available by August 2010.

The study will examine coaching’s impact on:

• student retention rates,
• credits earned ,
• grade-point average,
• organizational and study skills, and
• students’ perceived sense of well-being, social adjustment and adaptation to college life.

Next steps:

“We believe that the information we learn from this study will result in significant improvement of the graduation rate of students with ADHD,” said Sarah Wright, Edge Foundation Executive Director.  “When you consider that an estimated 8 million children have ADHD, the potential economic impact of this study is significant.”

A copy of the pilot study PowerPoint presentation slides will be available in October.  If you would like to receive notification the slides are available and other study updates, please sign up for our newsletter.

This month’s Story from the Edge is written by our social media intern, Angela Schopke.

I hear people talking about ADHD a lot. Some people say it’s a blessing. Some people say it’s a very hard struggle. Some people say it doesn’t exist. I don’t have ADHD, so it’s very difficult for me to say what it is. One thing I can say is that one of my friends has it, so it must exist, but whether it’s a positive or a negative thing I do not know.

Three friends, three different walks in life.

I have a friend who is a writer. She finds refuge in words and the artisanship that goes into structuring each sentence. She has a brilliant mind full of nuance and detail, that can also capture a universal perspective. She is hard to watch – everyday she’s stuck in a rut of negativity. She seems to sink deeper and deeper into a pool of negative thoughts, that in some ways could be very comfortable and relaxing, but at the same time is suffocating. She does not have ADHD.

I have a second friend. She loves science. She is curious. She asks so many fascinating questions. She loves to talk. Sometimes she is so enthusiastic and talkative, people have a hard time being with her. She gets migraines often. I think she sees when people are annoyed with her or want to be somewhere else. But she is happy. She loves her life. She has ADHD.

We have the power to chose how we see things

The difference between the two of them strikes as sort of miraculous. Both struggle with real issues. But each one deals with what those issues in very different ways. It’s become clear to me that we have the power to choose how we see things.

I struggle with low self-esteem, and recently, I started writing down every time I felt badly about myself, and I realized, all those times I felt so low were in my head. It is almost a comfortable respite for me to resort to self-deprecating thoughts and a negative mindset and I go there so often. It’s almost like I see the world through a one-way mirror where everyone on the other side is holding signs that say, “You are less” on them. I realized I have a choice. I don’t have to see myself as less. I can choose to see myself differently.

The statement that I think best summarizes this realization for me is things just are. Things happen. One friend is drowning in her own negativity, my other friend has ADHD, and I have a low self-esteem. But those facts are neither good nor bad. They are facts. They are subject to change. They happened but they don’t define what is to happen. They are.

ADHD isn’t good or bad, it just is.

So is ADHD a bad thing? No. Is ADHD a good thing? No. It just is. It’s one part of a whole person. It gives you a lot of things and some of them might help you in a lot of ways, and others might be more difficult to live with. But I think that labeling ADHD as good or bad is unnecessary.  Figuring out how to work with it is the place to start.

Stories from the Edge are real life accounts of living life with ADHD from the student’s perspective.  If you’d like to share your story with our readers drop us a line at info@edgefoundation.org.

Dear coach,
What is an Edge coach?
Signed,
Wondering in Wisconsin

Dear Wondering,

The simplest answer is that an Edge Coach is a coach who works for the Edge Foundation. But that doesn’t tell you much, does it? More specifically, we ensure all of our coaches meet strict standards of life coach training and experience before they even take our specialized training to work with ADD/ADHD youth. In addition, all our coaches participate in mentoring by senior coaches as they settle into working with Edge Foundation clients.

We are proud  we have some of the best known and most experienced coaches in the business.  All of our coaches bring amazing life experience to their coaching and have a passion for working with young people who might have ADD/ADHD. Many of them have ADHD themselves, or love someone who does, or both,  so they really get it.

We take the guess work out of finding a good coach (because we ensure that all of our coaches are good), and we help you find one you really click with.

Do you have a question for the coach?  Send it to info@edgefoundation.org.  We’ve love to hear from you.

If you missed out on the 2009 ADHD Family Summit, you can still hear what Edge staff, Sarah Wright and Dr. Sharon Field, had to say by visiting the audio playback link and listening on-line.

We’re pleased to announce that Edge Foundation has set up a page on Facebook.  The page is all about providing ADHD college students with news, tips and resources to help them overcome ADHD obstacles and reach their goals in school and life.

Real life solutions to problems college students face everyday

You may have already seen the Edge Foundation Group on Facebook.  It was set up by an Edge Foundation fan who knows, first hand, how effective coaching can be for students with ADHD.  But don’t be confused – so far, it hasn’t been a very active community.  The Edge Foundation Page will have much more to offer.  We will be inviting community members to join us in discussions about real life strategies to stay on top of common issues every college student faces like money management, procrastination, all nighters, and assignment planning.  We’ll also let you know about our latest blog posts, keep you on top of what the experts are saying about ADHD, and link to other reputable sources for ADHD information.

Become our Facebook Fan and help spread the word:  ADHD coaching works!

We hope you’ll visit out page soon and become one of our fans.  And if you know a college student who has ADHD, we’d appreciate it if you’d share the word.  So many people have never heard about ADHD coaching, much less know how helpful it can be.  As readers of this blog, we’re betting you already have a clue about the power of ADHD coaching.  We also are betting you know several other people who have ADHD and are probably on Facebook.  Becoming our Facebook fan is an easy way to help spread the word about Edge Foundation and the benefits of ADHD coaching to your friends and family.  Please check us out!  And when stop by, we hope you’ll write a note on our wall and let us know what you’d like to hear more about from Edge Foundation.