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ADHD

5 Charts You Need If Identifying Your Emotions Is Hard

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5 Charts You Need if Identifying Your Emotions is Difficult

Written by Gabrielle Ferrara, MSW, LSW/ Featured in The Mighty 9/17/2020

“How do you feel?”

No, really. How do you actually feel?

Identifying our emotions can be one of the most difficult things we do on a regular basis. It’s easy to say we are feeling “good” or “happy”; even saying we’re feeling “stressed” has become normalized. However, how we are truly feeling (and why) is often much more nuanced and complicated. Luckily, various artists, authors and researchers in the field of psychology have created charts and tools to help us out. Here are five charts you may need if you have a hard time identifying your emotions.

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Too Noisy – App Review

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“Too Noisy” App Review

written by Nicole Filiberti, MSW, LCSW/ Psychological & Educational Consulting, LLC
A social skill that can be very useful for students with special needs and neurotypical kids alike is using an appropriate voice level for their current setting. The voice level used in a library is different than the one used on a playground. This skill utilizes both self-regulation (assuring I use the appropriate voice level even if I’m frustrated or very excited) and perspective taking (how does my voice level impact those around me?) An app that can be useful for this skill is “Too Noisy”. I downloaded the app and tested it out and I’m here to share my thoughts.
  • It’s very-user friendly
    There is no need to create an account to enjoy the free version of this app. You simply download the app and get to using it right away. It is very user friendly and easy to figure out the different settings. There are options to upgrade to the “pro” version which includes more background theme options, but I find the sunny blue-sky version that comes along with the free one works just fine to assist kids with this skill.
  • It’s visually engaging
    “Too Noisy” uses a cute little emoji face who reacts to the noise level received by the app. The facial expressions change in reaction to the voice level being just right and getting too loud. This is great because it strengthens the skill of interpreting how other people feel through facial expressions.
  • It’s easy to incorporate into the daily routine
    Downloading the app on a phone or iPad means you can easily set it up to be on while your child is completing homework, playing in the living room, or getting work done during a virtual learning day. Explain to your child that the goal is to keep the emoji happy which means they are using the appropriate voice level. There are different settings you can use with the free version that allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the microphone to best fit your needs at the time.

Strategies To Get Through Virtual Learning During COVID

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Strategies To Get Through Virtual Learning During COVID

Written by Dr. Liz Matheis

Featured in Psychology Today 1/18/2021

Virtual learning. It’s become the bane of our existence. As parents, we are watching our children struggle while we struggle with them. Our children are having a hard time paying attention, finding assignments, completing them, and turning them in. Virtual learning requires additional skills such as typing, navigating email, portals such as the Google Classroom, and grading portals. Prior to the pandemic, many of our children entered the classroom, were supervised during each task, had the ability to ask questions, and were provided with handouts that they were able to complete and return without forgetting to click “Turn In.”

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Why is My Child Having Meltdowns During the Pandemic?

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Why is My Child Having Meltdowns During the Pandemic?

Written by Dr. Liz 

Featured in The Mighty, 1/3/21

Our children are feeling as overwhelmed as we are during the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has created a sedentary lifestyle with little downtime, time outside of our homes, and little social interaction. Our usual routines of spontaneous social interactions, spur of the moment runs to the store, or last-minute planning of where to have dinner tonight all now require a ton of thought and planning about how we can stay safe and keep others safe from the COVID-19 virus. As parents, our tempers are shorter, we are overstimulated and overwhelmed. Home is now our office, our school building, our restaurant, and our place for rest and relaxation. We are spending a great number of hours together each day with little interaction with others. Our children are frustrated and so are we.

image posted by The Mighty

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Provider Spotlight: Lauren Palianto

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Provider Spotlight: Lauren Palianto

Our provider spotlight today focuses on the amazing work of our friend and colleague, Lauren Palianto of Decoded Learning Center in East Hanover, NJ. Lauren is a certified Orton-Gillingham Dyslexia Therapist with an M.A. in Reading Instruction & Assessment and extensive experience working as a Special Education Teacher. Decoded provides individualized instruction focusing on students of all ages and abilities with learning differences such as: Dyslexia, ADHD/ADD, language processing disorders, working memory deficits and executive functioning challenges. Be sure to check out her website below for more information.

https://decodedlearningcenter.com

Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties in Adults

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Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties in Adults

Featured on writix.co.uk

Dyslexia is a hidden disability thought to affect around 10% of the population, 4% severely. It is the most common of the Specific Learning Difficulties, a family of related conditions with considerable overlap or co-occurrence. Together these are believed to affect around 15% of people to a lesser or greater extent.

Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) affect the way information is learned and processed. They are neurological (rather than psychological), usually hereditary and occur independently of intelligence. They include:

  • Dyslexia
  • Dyspraxia or Development Co-ordination Disorder
  • Dyscalculia
  • Attention Deficit Disorder
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What Is ADHD? It’s Not Misbehavior, Manipulation, or Permissive Parenting

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What Is ADHD? It’s Not Misbehavior, Manipulation, or Permissive Parenting

The manifestations of ADHD — hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention, poor memory — do not reflect willful intent, lax parenting, or low intelligence. This ADHD Awareness Month, let’s dispel with these ADHD myths once and for all.

Written by Dr. Liz Matheis
Featured on ADDitude

What ADHD Is and Is NOT

AdHD is firmly lodged in the popular lexicon. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is familiar to educators, parents, and most clinicians. It is also commonly misunderstood and mislabeled.

ADHD Is Not Intentional Misbehavior or Manipulation

Far too many people assume that children and adolescents with ADHD are able to control their behavior —

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Asynchronous Learning is Tough on ADHD Brains. These Hacks Will Help.

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Asynchronous learning challenges the executive functions of students with ADHD — and their parents, too. Use these tips to set up an effective home school for your child that minimizes distractions and requests for your attention during the work day.

written by Dr. Liz Matheis

Featured on ADDitude 

 

Like many frazzled, frantic parents this back-to-school season, I have three kids in three different schools and three different developmental phases. On top of that, we are embarking on a hodge-podge of virtual and hybrid learning — the details of which remain at least partially unclear less than two weeks out — and I’m still working full time through all of this. Needless to say, the stress is high.

Staring us in the face is an unprecedented executive function challenge: how to create a collection of distance learning workspaces and schedules that works for the whole family.

I’m exhausted just thinking about it, but I’m also entering into this academic semester with lessons learned from the spring that can help to make this transition a little less rocky. Here is where I’m focusing my energy this back-to-school season:

1. Create a Designated Workspace

 

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The Parent’s Guide to Executive Functioning Skills

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How to model prioritization, self-monitoring, and organization skills for your children with ADHD.

Written by Dr. Liz Matheis
Featured on ADDitude 
As the parent of a child with ADHD, I am acutely aware of the executive functioning skills your child needs to achieve attention, organization, and timely completion of schoolwork. Yet, over the last week, while trying to balance the multiple details of my three kids’ lives and prepare for the holidays, I’ve realized that my own executive functioning skills are in high demand, too. Without them, I’d be no good at getting my kids to where they need to be, making sure homework is done, or keeping on top of school life. So, what are these skills that we need to better manage our children? And, how can we model them for our kids?
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"The various psycho-educational testing Dr. Liz conducted on our son gave us critical clues about where his learning strengths and weaknesses lie so that his needs could be better addressed at home and school. Moreover, because of their warm, kindhearted personalities, both Dr. Liz and her associate, Stephanie, formed an immediate bond with my son. He eagerly looks forward to his weekly therapy sessions. We are so lucky Dr. Liz came into our family's lives when she did! For stressed-out families trying to help their children as best they can, she is a calming voice of reason!"
- Julie C.
"Dr. Matheis has a remarkable ability to understand the unique needs of her patients and address them constructively. She builds strong, meaningful relationships with patients and their families, encouraging trust and collaboration. When working with my son who struggles with autism-related anxiety, she created an environment in which he was able to calm down and open up to her in ways I had not seen before. She was able to reach him and helped him work through his crisis/problem. Most importantly, she empowered him to move forward."
- N.L.
"Dr. Matheis is amazing. She has tremendous resources and loads of energy. She is not willing to accept anything less than the most effective results for her clients. She made me feel as if my son was her top priority throughout the entire process. I would, without reservation, give her my highest recommendations.  Thank you, Dr. Matheis!"
- Anonymous
"Dr. Matheis has an amazing ability to read kids and connect with them. She has been an invaluable resource for our family over the past several years and has helped us with everything from educational consulting, to uncovering diagnoses as well as family therapy. Working with Dr. Matheis never feels clinical and most importantly, our children love and trust her. We can not thank you enough Dr. Liz!"
- Anonymous
"My teenage son had been seeing Dr. Matheis through his senior year of high school, as he was only diagnosed with ADHD at 16 years old.  Dr. Matheis came highly recommended from our pediatrician and she has done wonders for our son as well as our family, navigating new ways for him to deal with his diagnosis without the use of medication.  She taught him ways to organize himself and even when something did not work for him, she patiently continued teaching him new ways to keep himself on track.  She has also helped us as parents to understand how his mind works so that we did not continue to blame his lack of focus on him, rather on his unique way of thinking.  Thank you Dr. Matheis!!!!"
- LG
"Dr. Liz is the best! Our family was directed to her by our Pediatrician to assist with figuring out severe mood changes, severe anxiety, strange new fears and food aversion that had come onto one of our children literally overnight. After just a couple of visits, she suggested that the issues may actually be rooted in a physical issue and suggested we immediately take our child to be swabbed for strep, because Dr. Liz suspected PANDAS (a pediatric autoimmune disorder brought on by strep). The same Pediatrician that suggested Dr. Liz would not do the swab (they do not believe in PANDAS and we no longer go there) but I took my child to my doctor who did the swab and it was positive for strep. When our child went on antibiotics, within 24 hours all symptoms went away and our child was back :-) Dr. Liz then recommended a PANDAS specialist who helped us and our child is in complete remission and is happy and healthy. We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Liz for her knowledge of all things, even the most remote and unusual and for helping us so much! Thank you!"
- Anonymous
"The various psycho-educational testing Dr. Liz conducted on our son gave us critical clues about where his learning strengths and weaknesses lie so that his needs could be better addressed at home and school. Moreover, because of their warm, kindhearted personalities, both Dr. Liz and her associate, Stephanie, formed an immediate bond with my son. He eagerly looks forward to his weekly therapy sessions. We are so lucky Dr. Liz came into our family's lives when she did! For stressed-out families trying to help their children as best they can, she is a calming voice of reason!"
- Anonymous
"Thank you, Dr. Liz. Although we have told you countless times, it will never feel enough. You have listened when J could barely speak and continued to listen when he was sad, angry and confused. You've challenged him and directed us in our roles as parents. You've helped J face his fears while the list evolved and changed, and yet you've stayed committed to 'the course.' We pray that your children realize that time away from them is spent helping children learn and that vulnerability is a sign of strength and bravery."
- June I
"My son was admitted to an Ivy League school when only 2 years ago, you assessed him and saw his struggles, his Dyslexia. We are grateful that he no longer has to carry that deep feeling of inadequacy or shame that must have kept him so self conscious and from reaching his potential. He has the PERFECT program for him. He has A's in high math and economics. He became a Merit Scholar, a Boys State legislature, the HEAD captain of the football team and help a job ALL while studying and managing his classes and disability. I am PROUD of you, a young doctor, who knows and sees the vulnerability of children and helps them recognize "it's NO big deal" God bless."
- Anonymous

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