Edge Foundation Blog

One of the things that many ADHD publications advise at this time of year is to start the year off by letting your professors or teachers know about your 504 accommodations. Accommodations are alterations made in the classroom that students with a disability have the right to receive via a 504 plan.  Preferential seating and taking tests in smaller groups are often on the recommended accommodation list for ADHD students.

Getting accommodations can be helpful, but they don’t address the real issues of ADHD.  Let’s step back a minute and look at what makes a student successful.  Successful students usually have four main qualities that help them achieve their goals:

• Sticking with things even when the going gets tough (a.k.a. perseverance),
• Ability to delay gratification and focus on the big picture,
• Time management and organizational skills, and
• Striking the right balance between fun and work.

These qualities, which are also known as your brain’s executive functions, are actually the hallmarks of ADHD. Students with ADHD can’t depend on these skills because these are exactly the skills they are weakest in.  Getting more time on your tests isn’t going to help you with getting organized. And preferential seating won’t solve impulsivity or time management.

For most with ADHD the problem is not so much in knowing what to do, but in getting it done.  If you have ADHD and are reading this, it’s likely that you’ve already tried countless organizational systems, have been nagged-to-death by caring, but overprotective parents, and feel frustrated with yourself because you know what to do, you just can’t seem to follow through.

ADHD coaching works with your strengths to accommodate your weaknesses

There is growing evidence, both research and anecdotal, that coaching helps students learn to plan, prioritize, and persist (i.e. follow the plan). It helps students develop self determination and self confidence and reduces anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. Through being coached, students learn how to coach themselves, and actually strengthen their executive functioning skills – something that no other intervention does.

It’s not too late to get started with an Edge coach. Because many coaches work on the phone, you can “take your coach with you” wherever you go. Starting early in the school year is smart because it is surprisingly easy for students with ADHD to fall behind without even realizing it. Failing classes is a big waste of money and not a good way to start your college career.

Want to learn more?  Sign up to speak to an Edge coach today and see if you don’t find you are more on top of things than you ever dreamed possible.

It’s August and school is just around the corner.  For lots of students this time of year is filled with anxiety.  You know the feeling – that nagging feeling that something’s just not right.  Or you are having dreams about showing up in class in your underwear and there’s a big test already underway that you’ve totally forgotten about. Going back to  is a big adjustment for anyone, but when you have ADHD there are a few extra steps you can take to make sure the year ahead is everything you hope it will be.

ADHD and college:  a challenge you can handle

There are lots of great articles out there about the skills you need to survive at college.  (We’ve listed a few of our favorites at the end of this post.)  Successful students usually have four main qualities that help them achieve their goals:

• Sticking with things even when the going gets tough (a.k.a. perseverance),
• Ability to delay gratification and focus on the big picture,
• Time management and organizational skills, and
• Striking the right balance between fun and work.

However, these particular skills don’t come easily to student with ADHD. Organizational problems, impulsivity and time management issues are actually the hallmarks of living with ADHD. You think, “If I just get this special planner, I’ll become efficient and never forget anything again.” Or you promise yourself, “Next time I’m going to start working on my class reading at the beginning of the term instead of cramming it in right before finals.”  It’s so easy to think, “If I just make myself do this…” it’ll be fine.” But what if we tell you’ve been going about this totally backwards?  What if making yourself be motivated or organized isn’t the solution, but figuring out how to master yourself is?

Self Mastery is the key to achieving your dreams

Self mastery:  identifying and using the tools and skills that work with your personal strengths to achieve your goals and be successful.

College is often the time where you need a new set of skills – or maybe just a tune up – to cope with ADHD.  Why now?  In your life before college, high school and your parents together gave you built-in structure and accountability.  But in college you have a lot of unstructured time and you are totally in charge of making all of your decisions.  Want to stay up late partying?  No problem. It’s a beautiful day and you want to skip classes to go play. No problem. You are head of your sorority’s social committee and in the marching band and have a job so you can keep your financial aid. No problem, that is, until you are just too tired or simply run out of time to finish the big paper that’s due. There’s no one, except yourself, to tell you where your responsibilities lie.  Without self-mastery, it’s easy to let poor time management and organizational skills drag you down; it’s easy to miss that right balance between fun and work; and it’s easy find yourself living out your nightmare of showing up to an important test totally unprepared.

For most college students with ADHD the problem is not so much in knowing what to do, but in getting it done.  As one student said, “I know how to plan. My problem is very simple; I just don’t follow my plans. I need help making sure that I do what I say I am going to do instead of getting sidetracked.”

An ADHD Coach helps you get into your groove and keeps you on track

One thing you can always rely on with ADHD is that it is consistently inconsistent.  That means there are days when everything goes great, and other days you can’t seem to get out of your own way.

Your friends or family probably get frustrated and say things like, “If you’re so smart, why can’t you just handle it?”  And when for whatever reason you don’t, they say you are lazy, or unmotivated, or not living up to your potential.  And maybe you begin to believe them.

But what if it’s not because you aren’t trying the right things?  After all you are probably already trying pretty hard – or at least thought you were.  What if the problem is having a brain that just works differently, and so you need a different approach, a different groove, to managing these every day responsibilities?

This is where an ADHD coach can help.  ADHD coaches know that the same approach doesn’t work for everyone.  As the old saying goes, if the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t blame the foot!  ADHD coaches work with people just like you, every day, and help them find solutions that work for them – not for their parents or friends.  They’ll help you:

• Work with your urge to procrastinate
• Be accountable
• Study smarter not harder
• Assess your time
• Prioritize
• Stick to your plan!

Find a ADHD coach now, so you are ready to go in the fall

ADHD coaches bring amazing life experience to their coaching.  They have a passion for working with young people who might have ADHD. Many coaches have ADHD themselves, or love someone who does, or both,  so they really get it.  They know what works, and what doesn’t.  And they won’t try to make you fit into an organizational system that isn’t right for you!

One of the nice things about an ADHD coach is they all work on the phone.  This takes transportation right out of the equation.  You can start working with your coach right now, and because you don’t meet in an office, you can “take your coach with you” when you go off to college.  You get to your appointments just by picking up the phone.  Because there’s no commute, you can easily fit your appointments into your schedule.  And, by virtue of a phone/email relationship, you stay in much closer touch with your coach than you would if you had to go to an office.  This extra contact can make all the difference in being able to stay on top of things.

Think about getting started even before you leave for college.  Those first few weeks are guaranteed to be overwhelming, and your coach can help you stay on track.  The numbers show that in college it’s surprisingly easy for students with ADHD to fall behind.  Getting your first term grades and finding you’ve tanked is a Christmas present no one wants to get.  So, start thinking now about getting ready for the fall.  If we’ve convinced you to look into getting an ADHD coach to help you keep it all together, we hope you’ll consider one trained by the Edge Foundation.  All of our coaches have met the rigorous standards set by the Edge Foundation and completed training for working with students and young adults with ADHD

So, are you ready to learn more?  Sign-up today and take the first step to getting your life under your control, and finding your edge!

Making the transition to college easier

• Learning Disabilities: Stepping Up to the Challenge
• 18 Critical Factors For Successful Post-Secondary Transition

ADHD self-mastery tips and skills

• Managing hyperfocus
• ADHD and sleep
• Fidgeting can help you focus
• ADHD and anxiety
• Treating ADHD and exercise

Editor:  We are honored to have had Dr. Patricia Quinn involved with the Edge Foundation since our founding.  Dr. Quinn is a leading ADHD expert who has worked with, written about and provided training in the field of ADHD for more than 30 years.  This month we are pleased to be talking with her about one of her primary concerns:  girls with ADHD.

Key ideas:

• Many girls with ADHD are left undiagnosed because their symptoms look different than boys.
• Hyperactivity in girls can appear as being hyper-talkative or hyper-reactive (more emotional).
• ADHD girls have greater problems with disorganization than boys.
• Depression and anxiety are symptoms to watch for in older girls with ADHD.
• ADHD coaching can help girls with ADHD learn what works to be successful in school and in life.

Edge: Thank you for all you’ve done on behalf of people with ADHD over the last 30 years.  What are the ADHD projects you are most excited about these days?

Dr. Patricia Quinn:   I can honestly say that working with young girls with ADHD, helping them understand the disorder and learn to live happy, productive lives is very close to my heart.  My most recent book, Attention, Girls!  A Guide to Learn All about Your ADHD, is special because it focuses on the lives of girls ages 7 to 13 years.

I also feel passionately about my work with college students with ADHD most of whom are newly diagnosed and struggling to stay in school.  When I get a call from someone who has just earned his law degree, and he says that he couldn’t have done it without my help when he was in college, it makes my day!

Edge: Girls have had a history of being under-diagnosed with ADHD in part because their symptoms can look very different from boys who have ADHD.  Can you speak to that a little bit?

Dr. Patricia Quinn: Boys with ADHD are easy to spot in the classroom, and are much more likely to be referred for an evaluation.

• Most questionnaires used to screen children for ADHD emphasize items that describe these boys, items about hyperactivity, impulsivity and defiant behavior.
• Only those few girls who are like these boys with ADHD are sent for assessment.
• The ratio of children referred to clinics for ADHD evaluations continues to be about four or five boys for each girl.

What we are beginning to realize is that there are many girls left undiagnosed because their symptoms look different.  One big difference is that girls are less rebellious, less defiant, and generally less “difficult” than boys.  Sadly, they lose out due to their good behavior.  It’s the squeaky wheel that gets oiled.  When a boy is causing frequent discipline problems, either at home or in the classroom, he will quickly be referred for treatment.  Parents and teachers alike want quick relief from their constant challenges.  Girls with ADHD are more compliant, and are not as easy to spot.  Often they are left to drift along from one school year to the next, never working up to their potential and suffering silently.

Edge: So you are saying girls have the same symptoms as boys, they are just less rebellious?

Dr. Patricia Quinn: Basically there are core symptoms of ADHD that are critical to the diagnosis.  These include problems with attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.  In general, girls usually have more problems with attention.  However, girls can also have hyperactivity, but it manifests in different ways.  For example, girls with ADHD can be hyper-reactive rather than hyperactive.  They are more emotionally labile with tantrums, slamming doors, etc.  Instead, of running around and being motorically hyperactive and disruptive like boys with ADHD, they can be hyper-talkative.  In addition to problems with attention, girls have problems with disorganization and, after puberty, have greater incidence of coexisting depression and anxiety.

Edge: Is there any advice you can offer to high school or college age young women to help them work with their ADHD to be successful?

Dr. Patricia Quinn: To successfully deal with and manage both ADHD symptoms and their lives, girls with ADHD must accurately assess their strengths, as well as weaknesses, and develop a plan for going forward.  For many girls, this means facing and shouting down the shame, low self-regard and those self-defeating scripts they have in their heads that tell them how terrible they are.  In addition, they need to develop a plan, building on their strengths, to deal with time management, disorganization and the other issues that get in the way of their success.

High school is the perfect time to begin developing strategies to deal with their ADHD symptoms.  However, teens do not need to face these challenges alone.  Family members, teachers, therapists and ADHD coaches are there to help.  By enrolling the aid of a coach early on, the girl with ADHD can learn what works for her and what she needs to do to be successful in college and life beyond.

6/2010 Editor’s Note:  For more about ADHD and Girls, check out the latest interview with Dr. Quinn.

We are pleased to offer this guest post on ADHD healthy habits from Edge Coach, Beth Prosser.

How is it possible that someone with ADHD can focus for hours on something that’s interesting?  It’s a common misconception that people with Attention Deficit have a deficit of attention.   It would be more accurate to say we have trouble paying attention appropriately.  This intense concentration we sometimes experience is called hyper-focus.  It’s the other extreme.  Sometimes it’s as inappropriate as not being able to focus at all.

The ideal solution is to arrange your life so that the things you tend to hyper-focus on are things that bring you closer to your goals.  For example, if you are an artist, it would be advantageous to get lost in a painting and oblivious to the world for six hours.  But if you’re an accounting student and you have a final exam tomorrow morning, getting lost in that painting is probably not going to result in a good grade.

Here are seven strategies to help you manage ADHD hyper-focus:

1. Identify the types of activities you tend to hyper-focus on.
2. Don’t start any hyper-focus prone activities close to bedtime, or before doing something you’re likely to procrastinate on.
3. Make it a point to be aware of your mental state at all times.  We often don’t even realize it when we’re hyper-focused.  Being aware of when you’re in it is the first step towards getting out of it.
4. Practice being fully present.  Use mindfulness exercises to stay in the here and now.
5. Use timers and alarms to be cognizant of how much time has elapsed since you started the activity.
6. Change your physical position to help break a hyper-focus as soon as you recognize it.
7. Plan milestones in your projects.  Stop every time you reach one.

Hyper-focus can be a wonderful gift if it’s used constructively, for things we truly want to focus on.  It can be a curse if we hyper-focus on things that don’t matter at the expense of everything else.  Controlling it is the tricky part.

Editor’s note: Do you hyperfocus?  We’d love to hear what you are passionate about and what do you do to keep the rest of your life in balance.

Last month I attended my first Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) annual conference. AHEAD is a vital professional association for those who provide services to disabled college and graduate students.

Personal Coaching for post-secondary students highlighted at AHEAD

This was the first AHEAD conference in which personal coaching for post-secondary students was highlighted. They had an all day preconference institute from some of the best-known coaches in post-secondary education, including Theresa Maitland from UNC-Chapel Hill and Karen Boutelle from Landmark College (both are CTI-trained).  Organizers and presenters alike were thrilled at how well attended the institute was.

The afternoon session was Basic Coaching Skills For Non-Coaches: Supporting Students in Managing Executive Function Challenges given by Karen Boutelle. I got to attend some of this session, and I was excited by her take on coaching to executive functioning rather than to ADHD specifically. Karen was brilliant and I heard participants talking about her presentation for the rest of the conference.

Research reports show coaching effective with ADHD students

The morning presentation comprised three sessions on the effects of coaching for ADHD/LD students. These sessions were:

• A National Study on ADD Coaching: Promoting Autonomy, Widening Campus Access by David Parker at Washington University in St. Louis and Sharon Parker at Wayne State University,
• Coaching: A Tool to Promote Successful College Transition for Students with LD/ADHD by Theresa Maitland and Kristen Rademacher, both at UNC-Chapel Hill, and
• Research Findings: The Positive Impact of Coaching on College Students with ADHD/LD by Karen Boutelle at Landmark College and David Parker at Washington University in St. Louis.

The exciting thing to me is that these were all research presentations and all spoke to how coaching helped those who experience chronic difficulties with time management, organization, and dealing with stress. It was particularly striking how all three studies showed that coaching supported the student’s emerging autonomy, helped them self-regulate, and promoted confidence about their future success.

This is nothing new to us in the ADHD coaching profession, but to have three research studies on coaching presented at one conference is a big deal. The results from the third study have already been accepted for publication. You can look for them in the November issue of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice. The results from the first study will be available informally from the Edge Foundation in mid October.