What to do When Kids Go off
their Meds:
Brain-based Learning Strategies for
ADD/ADHD
by Dr. MaryJo Wagner
Summary:
Check out strategies to help hyperactive kids as
parents
take their kids off stimulant drugs used
to control ADD/ADHD.
(A likely scenario given
the recent publicity about heart-related
problems linked to Ritalin.)
* * *
Steven Nissen, a prominent
Cleveland Ohio Cardiologist recently prodded the
FDA’s Advisory
committee to put a black box warning on Ritalin. Warning of
potential heart danger. Why? From 1999 to 2003, 81deaths and 54
nonfatal
cardiovascular events such as heart attacks have possible
links to Ritalin and
similar drugs. During the same period 78
million prescriptions were written for
children up to the age of
18. Today two million kids a month take these drugs.
These are startling statistics
to put it mildly!
Now before I go any further
with this story, please do not take a child off
their ADD medication
or suggest to a parent that such should be done. I am
not a medical
doctor. I do not prescribe. If you want to look into lowering
a
dosage or stopping a child’s medications, you must talk to a doctor.
What does this story mean in
terms of ADD behavior at home and in the
classroom? I predict that
anxious parents and doctors are going to take
kids off their meds.
Now what are we going do with 2 million hyperactive kids!
For years, we
haven’t had to take responsibility for helping these kids
or keeping
ourselves from going crazy trying to keep some kind of order
in the
classroom and at home. The drugs did it for us. Now we may be
on our
own.
Here are ten brain-based learning suggestions to help you and
your
kids cope:
1. Stop eating
sugar including drinking fruit juice. Cut down on bread
and pasta,
esp. that made with white, processed flour.
2. Limit TV and
video games, especially TV and games that have lots of
flashing
lights.
3. Help them get
organized. Keep a schedule and be consistent.
4. Stop telling them to sit still. Their ability to do so
is limited. Furthermore,
movement is essential to learning. It’s a major
brain-based learning
strategy!
5. Practice deep breathing. Kids can even be taught a simple
form of
meditation which is nothing more than watching one’s breath.
Even
getting more oxygen to the brain is a brain-based learning
technique.
6. Cross right
ankle over left and then give yourself a hug by crossing
arms across
the body, left over right. Reduces the stress in the
central nervous
system. Try it yourself.
7. Decrease
visual distractions in children’s rooms and at school. Fewer
pictures and mobiles. Less stuff.
8. Exercise,
play, run, skip, insist on recess, esp. “free” recess where kids
choose what to do versus a structured game.
9. Do Brain Gym® (See
www.braingymclasses.com) Not a few kids have gone
off their meds or at least had doses reduced by doing
Brain Gym. Another
very effective brain-based learning strategy.
10. Eat
more foods with Omega-3 fatty acids like wild salmon, sardines,
tuna flaxseed, flaxseed oil. Take fish-oil supplements.
(Find tuna without
mercury. Check your health food store.) Omega-3 fatty
acids increase
the production of dopamine just as Ritalin and other
stimulant drugs do.
Brain-based learning includes what we feed our brains
and how that food
affects the brain's neurotransmitters.
MaryJo Wagner, Ph.D.
The Learning Doctor
"Helping You Help Kids Learn"
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