What Does it Feel Like to Be a Child With ADD?
Imagine yourself for a moment as a child with ADD.
You have a problem concentrating for any length of time.
You often find yourself overwhelmed when you have more than one thing to do at a time.
You often start projects but then get bored and move on to something else.
You may have 20 different projects going at one time and be switching back and forth between them.
You may find it very difficult to concentrate in school during a lecture and find your thoughts wandering.
Other kids around you all seem to be on the same wavelength but you are not.
Instead, you feel left out.
This is what it feels like to be a child with ADD.
If you are a child with ADD, you find it difficult to concentrate on anything for more than a few moments.
But in school, you will have to be able to listen to the teacher and complete an assignment.
What is more, the teacher will often give you specific directions that you have to follow to get the assignment done.
It may be very hard for you to organize your thoughts so that you can complete the project.
You may often find the teacher making comments like "he does not pay attention in class," or "she cannot follow directions.
" This is what it feels like to be a child with ADD.
Are you right or left handed? For a moment, try to imagine someone telling you that you have to do everything with your left hand if you are right handed or with your right if you are left handed.
Sounds difficult, right? That is what it feels like to be a child with ADD.
The good news is that the child with ADD is in very good company.
Some of the brightest minds, the greatest leaders and the most innovative inventors had ADD.
Albert Einstein had ADD.
Winston Churchill had ADD.
So did President Lincoln and President Kennedy.
And beloved Benjamin Franklin.
So many other talented entertainers and entrepreneurs have or had ADD.
They did not allow this disorder to affect them.
They carried on and continued to, shall we say, write with the hand they favored, despite what people thought.
If you are going to help a child with ADD, you must first understand how he or she thinks.
You should not use drugs to make someone write with the "right" hand.
Instead, you should teach them through therapy the way to use their favored hand in a way that will let them thrive.
Drugging children with ADD does nothing to help them.
But if you use proper therapy to help a child with ADD, you can teach the child how to make the most of this condition.
You have a problem concentrating for any length of time.
You often find yourself overwhelmed when you have more than one thing to do at a time.
You often start projects but then get bored and move on to something else.
You may have 20 different projects going at one time and be switching back and forth between them.
You may find it very difficult to concentrate in school during a lecture and find your thoughts wandering.
Other kids around you all seem to be on the same wavelength but you are not.
Instead, you feel left out.
This is what it feels like to be a child with ADD.
If you are a child with ADD, you find it difficult to concentrate on anything for more than a few moments.
But in school, you will have to be able to listen to the teacher and complete an assignment.
What is more, the teacher will often give you specific directions that you have to follow to get the assignment done.
It may be very hard for you to organize your thoughts so that you can complete the project.
You may often find the teacher making comments like "he does not pay attention in class," or "she cannot follow directions.
" This is what it feels like to be a child with ADD.
Are you right or left handed? For a moment, try to imagine someone telling you that you have to do everything with your left hand if you are right handed or with your right if you are left handed.
Sounds difficult, right? That is what it feels like to be a child with ADD.
The good news is that the child with ADD is in very good company.
Some of the brightest minds, the greatest leaders and the most innovative inventors had ADD.
Albert Einstein had ADD.
Winston Churchill had ADD.
So did President Lincoln and President Kennedy.
And beloved Benjamin Franklin.
So many other talented entertainers and entrepreneurs have or had ADD.
They did not allow this disorder to affect them.
They carried on and continued to, shall we say, write with the hand they favored, despite what people thought.
If you are going to help a child with ADD, you must first understand how he or she thinks.
You should not use drugs to make someone write with the "right" hand.
Instead, you should teach them through therapy the way to use their favored hand in a way that will let them thrive.
Drugging children with ADD does nothing to help them.
But if you use proper therapy to help a child with ADD, you can teach the child how to make the most of this condition.
