ADHD / Anxiety Archives

Diet Tips to Combat ADHD

August 29, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

I have had ADHD my whole life and I never took medication. Some years ago, when I started to be in charge of the ADHD program as primary care doctor, I realized that medications weren’t the only way to treat ADHD. I have been changing in my diet and feel so much more focused and calmed. I proposed these changes to the families I was working with and all of them had better results than only with medication.

As you may know, ADHD is the most commonly studied and diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children and its manifestations are enhanced or diminished by many factors, and one of them is food.

The goal of the ADHD diets is to help the brain to function better and diminish the symptoms of the disorder such as restlessness or lack of attention. To combat high levels of anxiety we have to be sure the brain is well fed including food rich in carbohydrates, tryptophan, group B vitamins, iron and phospholipids. There are also some foods that enhance hyperactivity because they have exciting substances in them that we should avoid.

Include these foods in the diet:

Proteins: as Legumes, cheese, eggs, meat, chicken, fish and nuts (especially walnuts, Cajun and macadamia for vitamin B). It is important to include them in every meal, especially breakfast, because they control anxiety and improve concentration.
Complex Carbohydrates: as whole grain cereals, whole grains, vegetables (especially green ones because of the iron) and fruit (especially apple, melon, raspberries and avocado because of the vitamin B) . Their content of fiber is high, and that makes us take longer to digest them. They also avoid abrupt changes in blood sugar levels. Eating complex carbohydrates 3 hours before going to bed at night can help to sleep better.
Fatty Acids Omega 3: as tuna fish, salmon, walnuts, linseed, soy and canola oil.
Herbs: Some of them help to make the nervous function slower down, as orange blossoms, hawthorn, juniper, lemon balm, passionflower, valerian, and linden. You can add it to some food or desserts and also drink it as infusions.

It is recommended to take multivitamin supplements that will contribute with the 100% of minerals and vitamins that we need, only if the diet that we have is unbalanced.

Eliminate these foods in the diet:

Additives: Since 1975 Benjamin Feingold proposed that artificial colorants and flavors could cause hyperactivity in children. Many studies performed the last years have proven that is a real fact, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees with the elimination of preservatives and colorants in the diet of ADHD patients. We should eliminate specially the red and yellow colorants and the food additives as Aspartame, MSG and nitrites.
Sugar: It enhances hyperactivity. We should diminish table sugar, candy, chocolate, cookies, high sugar cereals, juices, soda. Sugar shouldn’t be more than 10% of your child’s daily calories.
Caffeine: Studies show that a small amount of caffeine could help with some symptoms of ADHD in children. Although, the secondary effects of caffeine, after the blood levels drop, can be worst. ADHD people should avoid coffee, black tea, green tea, chocolate, ginseng,

How to start the plan:
Start to change food habits slowly
Write down the food and the times you take the medications.
Sleep enough time to rest.
Exercise regularly at least 20 to 30 minutes every day.
Learn how to breathe to help manage anxiety and anger.
Fallow a healthy diet.

Some examples of healthy snacks are:
String cheese with crackers and an apple in pieces.
Whole wheat toast with Mozzarella cheese and 1 slice of turkey ham
Chopped fruit with vanilla yogurt
Whole grain cereal with nonfat milk
Celery sticks with cream cheese
Sliced apple with peanut butter
Banana with ricotta cheese and honey
Whole wheat toasts with cottage cheese and raspberries
Guacamole with carrot sticks
Trail mix with raisins, blueberries and walnuts.

By Dr. Javiera Monárdez, Private Tutor

4 Qualities of a Great Tutor

August 26, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

1. Fairness. You are the leader in the tutoring session and your behavior determines the student’s behavior. The student will look to the tutor constantly for consistent leadership. It is therefore important that the tutor understands what he or she asks from the student and is prepared to readily admit mistakes if any occur. Nothing destroys a student’s respect faster than insecurity and inconsistency.

Example:
Tutor: Caroline, that is incorrect, that is not the way you should be interpreting the text.
Caroline: But it says here that my teacher wants us to learn it this way though!
Tutor (after several moments): I apologize, Caroline, I was mistaken. I understand why your teacher wants you to learn it this way and here’s why…

2. Malleability. Tutoring is not a boot-camp, nor a funhouse. You run an environment that gets the best results out the student. So when the student deserves a break or some leeway, give it to them. When their behavior forfeits your goodwill, these relaxed gestures should be curtailed. Maintaining strong boundaries helps keep them focused on the task at hand.

Example:
Ethan: I don’t want to do this, it’s so boring! I just did so much work too!
Tutor: Ethan, you’ve worked cleanly and with a lot of dedication for 30 minutes straight. During the next simple exercise, you can put on your headphones and listen to some music.

(The tutor monitors his progress as Ethan does so.)

3. Promptness. When a student knows that his tutor will be sitting there every 5 o’clock on a Tuesday, it translates into engagement with the material and teaching character. A late tutor is seen as weak and ineffective, one that doesn’t take his job or the material very seriously.

4. Sense of Humor. A student’s mood often proves to be the only obstacle between success and glorified baby-sitting time. A mind consumed with a bad day at school has little room for Math or English. To get their attention in the right place, a joke is in order. Find something entertaining about their One Direction, American Girl, or Yankees obsession and crack wise (gently, of course). Putting a smile on their face will relax the session and open their minds to learning.

By David Hollander, Private Tutor

How Does PAF Make Learning How to Read Easier?

August 22, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

PAF is an Orton-Gillingham based reading intervention for students with dyslexia, language-based learning disabilities, and reading disorders. PAF stands for “Preventing Academic Failure.” PAF is an interesting name for a program because preventing something usually has a negative connotation. To prevent forest fires, one must be very cautious while hiking in the woods. To prevent lung cancer, one must avoid cigarettes and being around those who smoke.

The above examples are slightly extreme, but you can not help but notice how the word “prevent,” strikes a chord in your mind and makes you pay attention. The “Prevention” part of PAF, is part of what leads to the program’s success. The specific goals of PAF are (1) to give students the tools to read cohesively, (2) to write fluidly, and (3) to spell with ease. PAF provides a road map that is carefully planned so that the student’s abilities grow in specific (and measurable) ways. The confidence gained by students during this program leads to success as well.

The goals mentioned above: reading, writing, and spelling, are tackled by using a multi-sensory approach to learning. A thoughtful educator often differentiates lessons to gear them to different types of thinkers in the classroom. This difficult skill is something that teachers strive to cultivate in their practice, but it can be an arduous task. The PAF program assists teachers by providing lessons that incorporate the multi-sensory ideals instantly so the student is able to immerse themselves into literacy lessons. The multi-sensory approach of PAF accesses the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic abilities of the student with each lesson. Providing students with three avenues to reach their goals allows them to feel successful about approaching the work itself, whatever it is.

The multi-sensory approach is proven to reach students even while they are struggling with the reading process. PAF is a great system because it provides:

explicit phonics lessons
a clear and logical order in which concepts should be relayed to students
oral reading exercises
repeated readings that ask students to exercise different skills
decoding practice
a clear integration of reading, writing, and spelling, and comprehension strategies

By taking each of these into consideration and consulting the teacher’s guide to PAF, all kinds of students will feel successful and become more excited about literacy.

PAF is incredibly beneficial to students who are just learning to read, as well as those students with dyslexia, other reading disorders, or other language-based learning differences. PAF teaches alphabetic principle, higher-level word analysis skills and comprehension strategies directly. The goal of PAF is to instruct with minimal frustration and produce maximum success for teachers and students alike.

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Things to Consider When Going to an Art Exhibition

August 20, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

1.Notice the way you move around the art exhibition. What are you looking at first, third, fifth, and last?

Often, the order that things are placed in an exhibition is intentional. There is a progression within the exhibition. Sometimes, the exhibition is designed a specific way in order to distinguish historical differences. Other times, the reasons are more subtle. For example, in historical exhibition, the tour may start with actual historical items, and end with a response that is theoretical.

2. Approach an art exhibition like an essay.

For example, what is the thesis statement of the exhibition? It is easy to get distracted by why YOU are going to a museum and what YOU want to learn. These are important questions. While asking them, remember that teams of people have put together a lesson plan for you that is diagrammed, and expressed in the exhibition.

3.Where are things displayed?

Often curators talk to their different audiences through design. For example, curators might talk to an adult audience using higher placed text panels, and may talk to a more youthful audience with lower text panels. Hints as to which audience is being addressed are found in font, and size of text. For children, text is usually written in fonts that are more cursive, less linear, larger print, and fewer words. Adult text tends to be smaller in scale.

Curators are also very aware of adults’ attention span. The most important and basic information is often at the top of the panel, bolded, and larger. As the explanatory text continues it assumes the reader wants to be reading it. The explanation will be more thorough.

4.What do you see?

Take mental note of visual facts: color of the object, shape, material etc. The transition to understanding what meaning may be in the object or artwork is tricky. However, it is possible, and most accurate, when you first look at facts, and then try to interpret.

5.What is the object?

Have you seen this object before? Where? In a car, kitchen, school, etc? Now that you are looking at this object in a museum, has its purpose, or function changed?

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Why Grammar is Amazing. Seriously.

August 19, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

I hated being taught grammar. Seventh grade seemed to me to be an endless parade of rules and regulations and proper ways of doing things. I read a lot growing up, R.L. Stein and Stephen King and Michael Crichton, and I felt like I knew what I was doing, so why did I need to learn about how language worked if I was already using it?

To my 12 year old self, my seventh grade English classroom was where language went to die; the magic of words – their ability to transport you, to capture a feeling you thought no one else experienced, or to embody a sense of rhythm and rhyme that is very nearly musical – was stripped away and in its place was left that ugly seven letter word: grammar.

So what is grammar? Linguists, who study language for a living have said that it can mean many things- including the way a person actually speaks. “I ain’t gonna go” – or the conventions of language we are taught in school – “don’t end a sentence with a preposition.”

These linguists stress that no use of language is inherently better than others. Some uses, however, carry greater social currency: Standard Edited English, a dialect that is usually learned rather than spoken naturally, is what we’re expected to master in order to get good grades and eventually a job.

The rules of grammar (proper semicolon usage, subject / verb agreement, consistent verb tense) are empowering and effective tools because they help you express yourself clearly and guide your reader. They allow you to be understood. By mastering them and showing the reader you care about their ability to comprehend what you’re saying, you already have a leg up in terms of winning their trust and establishing your own credibility.

Grammar is technique, not magic. It is craft. But only through the mastery of craft can you use language to clearly express a thought and maybe even soar to the great heights that forge a meaningful connection between you and your audience.

By Andrew Laudel, Private Tutor

Diet Tips to Combat ADHD

4 Qualities of a Great Tutor

How Does PAF Make Learning How to Read Easier?

Things to Consider When Going to an Art Exhibition

Why Grammar is Amazing. Seriously.

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