9
P age A6
Working with attention deficit disorder children
Approximately 3 percent to 5 per­
cent of all American children —up
to 3.5 million children — have an
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD),
according to Children and Adults
with Attention Deficit Disorders
(C.H.A.D.D.). It is a leading cause
o f school failure and under-achieve­
ment.
ADD is often accompanied by
poor self-esteem and behavioral dif­
ficulties. It is a neurobiologically
based disability. Diagnosing ADD
requires a multi-faceted evaluation
examining medical, psychological
and educational functioning.
ADD is a neurobiological dis­
ability. It is characterized by atten­
tion skills that are developmentally
inappropriate, impulsivity, and, in
some cases, hyperactivity.
Children with ADD comprise ap­
proximately 3 percen to 5 percent of
the school age population. Boys
sig n ifican tly outnum ber girls,
though girls are more likely to be
undiagnosed. As many as 50 per­
cent o f children with ADD are never
diagnosed.
What Are The
Characteristics Of ADD?
ADD characteristics often arise
in early childhood. ADD is marked
by behaviors that are chronic, last­
ing at least six months with onset
before age seven. Characteristics of
children with ADD can include:
1. Fidgeting with hands or feet. 2.
Difficult remaining seated. 3. Diffi­
culty awaiting turns in games. 4.
Difficulty following through on in­
structions. 5. Shifting from one un­
completed task to another. 6. Diffi­
culty playing quietly. 7. Interrupt­
ing conversations and intruding into
other children’s games. 8. Appear-
mg to be not listening to what is
being said. 9. Doing things that are
dangerous without thinking about
the consequences.
Approximately 80 percent of chil­
dren with ADD will meet the crite­
ria for this diagnosis in adolescence.
Previously, it was believed that ADD
resolved itself before or during ado­
lescence.
Children with ADD are often
attracted to novel stimuli and can
be easily distracted by the envi­
ronment. What is stimulating may
change with the moment, and may
not be what a parent or teacher
considers important. Put simply,
these children know what is atten­
tion grabbing, but they often can ’t
determine what is relevant to the
task at hand.
Researchers believe that ADD is
due to altered brain biochemistry.
Differences in biochemistry are con­
sidered to be the cause of poor regu­
lation of attention, impulsivity and
motor activity.
In 1990, the New England Jour­
nal of Medicine published a land­
mark study by researchers at the
National Institute for Mental Health
which documented the neurobiologi­
cal underpinnings o f ADD through
brain imaging. The rate at which
the brain uses glucose, its main en­
ergy source, was shown to be lower
in persons with ADD, especially in
the portion of the brain that is re­
sponsible for attention, handwrit­
ing, motor control and inhibition
responses.
ADD students have a greater like­
lihood of grade retention, school
drop out, academic under-achieve­
ment and social and emotional ad­
justment difficulties. This is prob­
ably due to the fact that ADD makes
children vulnerable to failure in the
two most important arenas for de­
velopmental mastery — school and
peer relations.
Making and keeping friends is a
difficult task for children withADD.
A variety of behavioral excesses and
deficits common to these children
get in the way of friendships.
They may talk too much, dom i­
nate activities, intrude in others’
games, or quit a game before its
done. They may be unable to pay
attention to what another child is
saying, not respond when some­
one else tries to initiate an activ­
ity, or exhibit inappropriate be­
havior.
Determining if a child has ADD
is a multi-faceted process. Many bio­
logical and psychological problems
can contribute to symptoms similar
to those exhibited by children with
ADD.
A comprehensive assessment of a
child or adolescent suspected of hav­
ing ADD should include an evalua­
tion of medical, psychological, edu­
cational and behavioral function­
ing.
ADD has often been inaccurately
portrayed as a type of specific learn­
ing disability (SLD). It is not. Chil­
dren with ADD do not have trouble
learning, but have difficulty per­
forming in school due to poor orga­
nization, impulsivity, and inatten­
tion. Indeed, they are not unable to
learn, they are simply unavailable to
learn.
Children with ADD do not rou­
tinely show signs of serious emo­
tional disturbance (SED), but they
may exhibit problems with self-es­
teem if not properly treated.
Asian educational system urged to think creatively
Asian countries, long touted for
their economic success, are begin­
ning to recognise the value o f de­
velo p in g creativ e and critical
thinking in their efforts to stay
competitive.
Delegates at the Seventh Interna­
tional Conference on Thinking,
which ended on Friday, said they
detected this trend and proposed
ways o f innovating education in
schools by encouraging creative
thinking.
“The single most important thing
that any government in the world
can do is teach constructive think­
ing to its people...as competition
intensifies, so does the need for cre­
ative thinking,” said Edward de
Bono, author of several books on
creative thinking. “In order to de­
velop these thinking schools and
learning nations we have to simulta­
neously develop thinking homes and
communities and learning parents
and caretakers,” said Todd Siler,
director o f Psi-Phi communications,
a U.S. firm promoting the integra­
tion o f art and science.
Siler rejected the Asian tendency
to separate the different academic
disciplines and said there was a need
to integrate them to broaden percep­
tion.
"Tue G lobiìlizììtioìi or UeoTeRf» d o re "
But he was optimistic about the
region’s future growth in this direc­
tion o f integrative thinking.
“There is a receptiveness in Asia,
there is an openness and curiosity
which is very precious,” Siler told
Reuters.
“Asians may not have the tech­
nology, they may not have the ad­
vanced school systems but their
thinking is better prepared in con­
trast to groups that you would imag­
ine would be,” he said.
A 1995 survey o f employees by
the Singapore Ministry of Educa­
tion found that while local graduates
were competent and hardworking,
they were weak in creative and inno­
vative thinking.
“Singapore is doing a reasonably
good job in getting facts, curricu­
lum, data into the brains of our
students... We are not doing nearly
as good a job in teaching them to
think integratively and putting all
the concepts together, in a job-re­
lated environment,” Singapore Edu­
cation Minister Teo Chee Hean said
in a recent speech.
Singapore’s government has com-
m itted S ingapore $2.5 billion
(US$1.74 billion) to a plan to
revolutionise teaching methods by
introducing innovative thinking into
classrooms and improving the use of
information technology.
The island republic is not the only
Asian nation beginning to recognise
the need for teaching critical think­
ing in schools. South Korea, con­
fronted with another phase in its
democratic transition, is also re­
sponding to demands for more inno­
vative forms of education, said Jin-
Whan Park of GyeongSang Univer­
sity, South Korea. “Critical think­
ing is a necessary condition to a
successful democratic education,”
Park told the conference. But he
added that critical thinking and
norms of rationality were most likely
to conflict with Korean traditional
values.
Other delegates at the conference
shared Park’s views about the po­
tential tensions between critical
thought and tradition.
Cultural constraints on em o­
tional expression stifle success in
Asian management, said James
Lin, a consultant with Global
Health and Wealth Consultancy,
Asia Pacific in Singapore. “Emo­
tions are to be controlled in Asian
culture and unexpressed for fear
of overriding intellectual or ratio­
nal thinking,” Lin said. “In this
way, thinking takes supremacy
over feeling.”
He added that emotional expres­
sion needed to be given the same
importance as intellectual develop­
ment for greater success in future
Asian management.
Asians might be hindered from
thinking altogether by other factors
like political instability, war and
nepotism, said Kishore Mahbubani,
permanent secretary in Singapore’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
peace in Western Europe reflects a
considerable step forward in the his­
tory o f hum an civ ilisatio n ,
Mahbubani said.
“When will India and Pakistan or
North and South Korea achieve this
same zero prospects of war?” he
asked. “And if the answer is not in
the near future, is it reasonable to
suggest that perhaps Asian minds
have not reached the same level as
the West?”
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Dr. Alfred Crosby (pictured
above), an expert in area and inter­
national studies at the University of
Texas in Austin, will inaugurate a
weeklong Institute on “The Glo­
balization of Western Europe” with
a public Keynot address on “Con-
vergency Supersedes Divergency.”
One of the great scholars o f h istori-
cal geography. Professor Crosby’s
earlier book, Ecological Imperial­
ism: the Expansion o f Europe, 900-
1900, has help a generation of stu­
dents and scholars to envision Eu­
ropean history in a global context.
His new book. The Measure o f Re­
ality: Quantification and Western
Society, 1250-1600, should prove
equally influential.
The lecture will take place on
Sunday, June 15, at 7:30 PM, in the
Vanport Room ofPSU’s Smith Cen­
ter.
The Institute for Teachers, which
offers Oregon high school teachers
the opportunity to explore the vari­
ety of forces that changed Europe
and the world between 1500 and
1800, is sponsored by the Oregon
Council for the Humanities. Dr.
Crosby’s lecture is free and open to
the public.
PrQiwf Alliance would like to extend a warm thank
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you to the following for their support:
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* Portland Public Schools:
Beaumont, Ockley Green and Whitaker staff,
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students & families
* Act 111 Movies * Domino's Pizza * Fred Meyer $£
$ # * Great Harvest Bread Company * Hollywood Video W ‘
Lloyd Center * Macheezmo Mouse * Pietro's Pizza
‘ S *Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken * Red Robin
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Restaurant
* Taco Bell * Videoland
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V O IT
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fo r to d a y 's y o u th .
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con nectio n to fa m ily roots.
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