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Monthly NewsNote
November/December 2008
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ADD and Problems With Writing
I’ve seen many students with ADD who are doing well in school but tell me they can’t write. They don’t like to write, avoid doing so any more than they have to, and rush through the task because they feel unsuccessful.
I will briefly discuss two boys. Note how similar the symptoms are in both cases.
Phil is a high school junior. He has Attention Deficit Disorder and has been on medication for many years. I saw him in consultation to review his medication. As we discussed school work he told me that writing essays and reports was very difficult for him and something he does poorly. When we discussed the details of his problem it became clear that what made it hard to write a logical piece that others could follow was the fact that he had too many ideas and when he wrote one thing several other ideas came to mind. Trying to choose the important focus and make a readable piece often did not work, and his writing was not at the level expected based on his other academic work.
Don has a similar problem. After he finished procrastinating and finally got to work he just couldn’t pick out and stay with a single idea. He described his racing mind and the fact that thoughts came out so fast that he really couldn’t harness them into a well organized paper.
Both of these students had poor self esteem in regard to their ability to write and did as little as possible. This was certainly a bad situation for a college bound student.
Here are three points:
1. Anyone who has ADD and trouble writing should become aware of their thought process as they write. Learn whether the problem is due to too many thoughts. It is important to isolate the problem.
2. Next is to be sure medication is functioning while the paper is being written. In several cases I’ve found that the medication ended at 7pm and the paper started well after that. The medication is essential to control the overflow of ideas.
3. I also think writing tutors can be helpful. They can help the student learn how to develop the report, help with thought organization and even teach things like how to get started writing, which is often hard for the ADD student. They might even get the student to do an outline, which though shunned can be a great help.
It is very important that an ADD student who says he can’t write have a careful evaluation of the process and perhaps active intervention. It can make a difference.
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