As children reach these higher developmental levels, they are also getting into more symbolic expression. In addition to expressing ideas verbally, by giving labels to the different spatial dimensions, they can also do it with pictures, as their motor control improves. They can actually draw pictures of people, relationships among people, or designs and diagrams showing how things work. They can also act out ideas through dance or drama. Many forms of expression can keep a child involved and focused more strongly than words.
As children first start to use letters and words, Pat Lindamood, in the Lindamood-Bell Learning Process, likes to have children make the shape of a c, for example, with their whole bodies, and walk a c shape out on the floor. Children can then begin symbolizing words, such as the word dog, by walking or dancing the letters out, by writing the letters, by drawing a picture of a dog, by saying the word, by pretending to be a dog and running around and barking, and by creating a dog from blocks or Legos. So as children begin to symbolize their worlds, we want them to do it using all their skills and senses, not just using the words they see or hear. This makes the symbols (the ideas) more meaningful and helps children integrate more of their sensory and motor worlds.
Reflective Thinking
In understanding what we see and hear, we also reflect on it and make judgments according to our own or others' standards. A child playing the drums can decide whether he's keeping a rhythm. A child trying to design a house can evaluate his design with pictures of Buckminster Fuller's or Frank Lloyd Wright's designs. A child drawing buildings and designing rocket ships can think about how well they might work. In encouraging kids in various activities, we also want to make sure that their rationales make sense, that their ideas are logical, and help them evaluate and improve their own work. Such reflective thinking keeps a child on track and focused, and is particularly important for a child with ADHD. I Have ADD What Do I Do
Once a child is hooked on an activity of her own choice, there is no end to the focus and skill she can bring to it. A child's natural bursts of creativity are channeled and enhanced when a child can step back and evaluate her own work. Whether it is coming up with new soccer moves or dance steps, fixing engines, or painting, both imagination and reflective thinking are needed.
Visual and auditory processing abilities are a key part of helping children with ADD or ADHD attend to the challenges they will face in getting along with others and at school. To summarize, the key steps in developing these processing skills are, first, to invest all parts of their world with emotion, that is, to care about what they are seeing and hearing. Next, they need to integrate these and other senses. They need to learn about different spatial dimensions and create logical connections between objects in space and a logical sequence in what they hear.
Much experience with physical objects and play with others lays the groundwork for symbolic thinking, such as the concept of conservation. This, in turn, develops the foundations for math, science, and reading comprehension. Children who learn to reflect on what they see and hear are able to remain focused, recognize distractions, and follow through on their goals and dreams.
Building Self-Esteem in Children with ADHD and ADD
One of the biggest challenges in caring for children with attention problems or hyperactivity is to help them fed positive and good about themselves. Many such children, regardless of whether they have broader special needs or just limited attention, suffer from low self-esteem. They feel bad about themselves.
A good illustration is Mark, an eight-year-old boy who, when he was talking with me, said, "My brain doesn't work." I asked him what he meant by that, and he said, "Well, when the teacher is talking, I'm stating out the window, or my body just wants to move and I get up and I walk around the room or I talk to my friends." l said, "Well, what do you mean your body just sort of does it?" and he said, "It just sort of happens. It's like my brain doesn't work."
I asked him how he felt about that, and he said, "Bad." "What do you mean by 'bad'?" "Well," he said, "I have a bad brain, and it's just bad," Then he gave a silly little grin, like part of him enjoyed being mischievous, but when I told him he was smiling about something, he wouldn't comment. He just ignored it and said, "I get into trouble a lot. Some of the kids make fun of me because I get into trouble. Even my friends sometimes make fun of me." I asked him how that made him feel, and he said, "That makes me feel bad."
I empathized, pointing out that a lot of things made him feel bad. He gave another silly little grin and nodded in agreement. I asked him if there was anything that made him feel less bad, and he thought and thought and then said, "Well, one of the things I like is magic, and my room and dad got me a magic box with some tricks in it for my last birthday, and I like doing that. If the trick works, I feel good. I can kind of trick people." I said, "How do they feel when you trick them?" He said, "They feel dumb!" I said, "So it's fun to make people feel dumb with your tricks?" and he grinned from ear to ear.
As I chatted with Mark and watched him interact with his parents, I could see that he could focus and attend in a supportive situation. He could engage with me and with his parents with warmth; he could show us things and solve problems in a social way. He also came up with a lot of ideas and at times could be creative and make up stories. In fact, at another point during the interview, Mark told me that when he got into trouble, he sometimes made up a story about why he did what he did. I Have ADD What Do I Do
For instance, one time when he was poking the kid next to him, the teacher asked him why he was doing that, and he said, "'Because he was making tun of me, and he made up a story that I peed in my pants and that wasn't true.' I told the teacher all that," Then he looked down, and I asked him why he looked down, He said, "Well, I made all that up so the teacher wouldn't be mad at me." I said, "Boy, you have a good imagination! You can make things up pretty easily!" and he smiled. Mark clearly could be creative and use it for self-serving purposes.
Mark could be logical and answer "why" questions, and he could even do a little bit of what we call "comparative thinking." During the interview I asked if there were any other children who did the same things he did in class. "Well, there is one other boy who also always get into trouble and has a bad brain." I said, "Well, who has the worse brain?" and he said, "Well, I think mine worse." I asked him why, and he said, "Because I do more bad things. I get into more trouble." When I asked him how bad he felt, he could show me with his hands that he felt very, very bad, which showed that he could do some gray-area thinking as well.
When I asked Mark about other feelings, like what else did he feel along with the bad feelings, and gave him some examples, like happy, sad, and angry, he could talk a little about feeling sad, but he had a hard time talking about angry feelings or about feeling embarrassed or humiliated. Whenever those feelings came close to being described or I even brought them up, asking whether he ever felt that way, he changed the subject and talked about something he wanted for his next birthday or anything else: "Oh, did I tell you about this new video game?" He had a hard time talking about those kinds of feelings, which was obviously contributing to his low self-esteem. To learn more, you can check out I Have ADD What Do I Do.
