[Open Eyes]

Avoiding failure leads to missed opportunities for children with ADHD

I thought this was a good article discussing what works better for teaching/working with ADHD children.

Understanding this challenge has personal importance to me because I have been challenged with understanding "why" my older brother struggled, but unfortunately was badly abused for it. My husband of 36 years also struggles with ADHD, and also struggles with Dyslexia, it is not unusual for someone to have both challenges.

I think it's important to understand that individuals with ADHD, even Dyslexia CAN actually become very successful productive individuals. While my older brother was challenged, misunderstood and abused for it, he eventually did find a Tutor that helped him and praised him (something I had secretly prayed for my entire childhood to happen for him). That was the beginning of him learning "how" he "can" learn, that he can learn and he even put himself through college and was very successful. Unfortunately, he is also scarred by the years of abuse he suffered, very sad to me and I think he may even have Complex PTSD, but, he has worked on managing it, has not been officially diagnosed.

I have noticed some of things my husband also does to work around his challenges with it, while he was diagnosed with Dyslexia, he went undiagnosed with the ADHD.

When I read this article, what struck me is "yes" he prefers the "win" and so much so that he even tends to present some grandiosity, exaggeration, and harboring ideas of "winning" and this was good because of "me". This was "his" way of "gaining" inspite of his challenges.

I am glad that studies are being done to learn how to help these children. That was not available for my older brother or my husband, my husband is turning 60 and my older brother is turning 62, so when they were children there was no knowledge of ADHD, no effort to direct these children and "yes" they were often punished for it.

I have been affected by it my entire life, wish I had known the "whys" of these individuals that presented such a challenge to me instead of learning "now" and having to look back on a lot of struggling.