[Ivriniel]

Right here we’re seeing evidence of that thing about ADHD having a higher prevalence in the Ukraine…

(For the record, I’m not Ukrainian, Swiss/German by way of Pennsylvania on one side, English, Irish and Scottish on the other.)

Here’s something I found really helpful for me in terms of making friends. Find clubs or group activities that you’re interested in. If you have trouble making small talk, then the interests of group provide something to talk about.

Meetup.com is a great tool for that. For myself, I used Meetup to discover a monthly Doctor Who get together in downtown Toronto, and made a lot of friends that way.

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[Ivriniel]

Speaking as a Toronto teacher, the entire Special Education system is screwed up. When I was at the faculty of Education, we talked about how the ideal model of Special Education was for there to be a variety of options for placement for Special Education students, so you could put the kid where their needs were best met. In Toronto, we have a one-size fits almost all, and it really doesn’t work.

About 8 years ago, the TDSB closed most of its self-contained classrooms and sent the kids back to their home schools. To replace the self-contained classes the board allocated 1 special education teacher to each school, regardless of the size of the school. 200 kids, or 1000 kids, they all got one. What’s more the board left it up to each individual school to decide how that teacher’s program would be set up.

I’ve seen kids with profound learning needs, dumped in the regular classroom for 1/2 days. I remember one girl who was Grade 4 age, but could only recognize a few letters of the alphabet, and not even all the letters in her own name. She spent her mornings in a Special Ed class for language and math, but was expected to take Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, French, etc, in a regular classroom. Needless to say, her program had to be heavily modified.

I’ve spent 2/3 of a school year trying to get a student seen by the In School Support Team. (This was mostly due to an immature VP who didn’t want to have a lot of meetings of the team, and set up a system where teachers had to jump through a whole lot of hoops just to get kids seen.)

It also doesn’t help that there is very little special education in the curriculum in Faculties of Ed. When I went through the Faculty we had a total of 24 hours of Special Ed in the whole program. Looking at the Course components on the OISE website, it doesn’t look like things have changed very much.

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[Ivriniel]

Thanks PurlGirl. It’s actually a teacher’s name, and I can’t edit the post anymore. Oh well.

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[Ivriniel]

I don’t know how it is in the UK, but I don’t think they’re allowed to ask that kind of question here.

I would not divulge my diagnosis on my resume. There is are too many misunderstandings around ADHD, and you have no idea who is reading the resume.

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[Ivriniel]

Oh, I agree, Rick. I just meant don’t look at the comments unless you have the time/mental energy to deal with a whole lotta stoopid right now.

Not that all the posters are trolls, but the ones that are are infuriating.

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[Ivriniel]

If I recall from the videos correctly, Dr. J said that at least 8 different ADHD related genes have been identified. So there could be multiple genes involved in any given case, making it hard to come up with the odds you’ll pass it on.

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[Ivriniel]

Hey Shadow,

No offence, but it’s generally considered bad netiquette to type all in caps. It’s considered equivalent to shouting.

On a practical level it makes it harder for other people to read your posts because people generally recognize words by their shape. When you go all caps they have to look at each word on a letter by letter basis.

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[Ivriniel]

“It’s funny how teachers at school love to encourage kids to ask as much as possible, but when someone actually asks it’s not really wanted after all. Even if none of the other kids ask anything, the teacher soon grows tired of that one kid (with ADHD) who does ask.”

As a teacher, one of the things I promised myself that I would always do my best to answer any and all questions kids put to me. The problem I found with this is, I could spent a whole day just answering kids questions, and never get any of the work I need to get done completed. The kids are learning, they’re just not learning the stuff I need them to learn so I can write their report cards.

My solution was to institute something I call my “Book of Questions” . When kids ask a question that is off-topic of what we are doing, I get them to write it in the book. I review the book on a regular basis. Sometimes I will answer the question outright, other times I’ll suggest resources the kid can check to find their answer.

Then at a particular time each week, I will read the questions and the answers.

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[Ivriniel]

Love the Avatar, Dogfather!

My BF used to stick knives into electrical sockets when he was a kid, and then apparently would laugh and laugh when he was shocked.

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[Ivriniel]

In University I gave up trying to take notes (besides having ADHD, I also have an LD that messes with my graphomotor skills) and would just sit and listen carefully to the lecture. I realize now that I was hyperfocusing on it.

Fortunately, I have an excellent memory for things I hear and read, so between reading the textbook, and remembering what was said in lectures, I could do rather well on tests.

My kryptonite was often lab work. I can’t count the number of times I shot nitric acid down the sleeve of my lab coat, when missing the test tube I was trying to clean. ( Fortunately, it was not a very concentrated nitric acid solution.)

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[Ivriniel]

Steam can help temporarily for head congestion. Take a steamy shower, try a sauna or even fill a bowl with boiling water, and put a towel over your head while putting your head over the bowl.

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[Ivriniel]

Are you familiar with Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences?

Gardner originally talked about seven intelligences:

Visual-spatial

Verbal-linguistic

Logical-mathematical

Bodily-kinesthetic

Musical-rhythmic

Interpersonal

Intrapersonal

But since then he has added two more:

Naturalistic

Existential

The reason I mention this, is that part of the Naturalistic intelligence is recognizing patterns in nature. It could be that you have strengths in the Naturalistic intelligence that relate to your pattern recognition skills.

In any case, there’s a tonne of Multiple Intelligences Surveys out there online. Perhaps doing one of them might help you understand yourself better?

Here’s one: http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

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[Ivriniel]

I just finished reading Organizing Solutions for People With Attention Deficit Disorder by Susan C. Pinksky. She’s a Professional Organizer who also has a daughter with ADD.

I found the book rather insightful.

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[Ivriniel]

Just a little warning about blackberries. My boyfriend has one with the “pearl” and it’s a bit of a pain because it dials 911 on its own at least once a month. (The problem is directly related to the pearl.) It’s a common enough problem that all he has to do is tell the 911 dispatcher that he has a blackberry, and they don’t bother sending the police around to the house anymore to check on things.

He’s also had trouble with the pearl falling out, and Blackberry doesn’t cover that with their warranty.

They’ve since some out with a new model that has a mini trackpad instead of the pearl, and I’d recommend checking that one out.

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[Ivriniel]

I can relate to the zit popping thing. I also get these things on my arms that are like zits, but aren’t, and if I am stuck in a situation that doesn’t provide enough stimulation, I will invariably end up searching my arms for something to pop.

As far as bubble wrap goes, there’s always the think geek electronic bubble wrap keychain:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/japanfan/982f/

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