Brains In The Family

R-Rated Movies Increase Likelihood of Underage Children Trying Alcohol

ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2010) — R-rated movies portray violence and other behaviors deemed inappropriate for children under 17 year of age. A new study finds one more reason why parents should not let their kids watch those movies: adolescents who watch R-rated movies are more likely to try alcohol at a young age.

Avoid ADD/ADHD Distractions: Finish the Projects You Start

by Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D., ADD Magazine

Juggling too many projects and can't seem to complete them all (or any)? Avoid stress -- and clutter -- try our attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) guide to crossing off every task on your to-do list.

Are you busy morning till night, and don’t have much to show for it? If so, make “tie the bow” your mantra. You are not finished wrapping a package until you tie the bow, and you aren’t done with a task until you’ve completed it, down to the last step. Mail the bill you just paid, don’t leave it on the kitchen counter. Fold and put away the laundry, don’t leave it in the basket.



Take note of each task you work on during the day and note your excuses for not tying the bow. Believe me, I know all of them. Here is how I dealt with five common ones:



Don’t have time to finish my project. If you can’t “tie the bow” because you ran out of time, add 15 minutes to your morning routine before leaving for work. To stay organized and keep track of time on the job, add in the same 15 minutes to finish up last-minute assignments and to gather items you will need to take home.



Too tired to finish my project. You just want to sit down (or lie down). Figure out ways to get to bed on time -- or to get a better night’s sleep. Go over your schedule: You may be overbooked, so you need to cut back to save energy for more important tasks.



Don’t feel like finishing my project. If you are short on motivation, schedule a task to be done when you have more energy. For example, I left my paper filing to do at the end of the day. The result? A roomful of clutter. When I switched the task to the morning, I filed my papers consistently, and my house was less messy.



Distractions keep me from finishing my project. Ignore interruptions until a task is completed. When your partner makes a non-urgent request, say, “I’m in the middle of something right now, maybe later.”



Need a better system to finish my project. If a system doesn’t work, try a new one. If you are late in paying bills, or forget them, designate two nights each month -- the 1st and 15th -- to tie the bow. Keep everything you need in a basket: the unpaid bills, checkbook, pen, return-address stickers, and a roll of stamps. Walk the bills to the mailbox. And look, you've finished a project!

What are your ideas to "tie the bow" on projects you need to complete?  Post a comment and let us know.

Why People Forget To Take Medication and What To Do About It

There are some "to dos" in my life for which I am very diligent such as replying to emails quickly and documenting clients' progress.  However, there are other things I need to do each day that I sometimes forgetful.  Taking my medication is one of them, and I am not alone.  This is a problem experienced by people young and old, and can impact their mental and physical states throughout the day.  The following article explains a recent study that explores why people forget to take their medication and what can be done about it.  

If you are a parent, caregiver, or as personally forgetful as I am, comment to this blog post below and let us know what you do to remember to take medication each day.

The Link Between ADHD, Poor Sleep, Attentiveness, and Impulsivity

 From ADDitude Magazine, Lynn Hsieh

Does attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) affect your child’s sleeping behavior? And in turn, does poor sleep affect attentiveness and impulsivity? New research points to a connection between sleep problems and ADD/ADHD.

Many parents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) kids are familiar with the problems associated with bedtime: children may start whining and crying before turning in for the night, have difficulty falling asleep, and frequently wake up in fits and starts. Well, according to a recent article published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, there is a possible link between ADD/ADHD and sleep disorders. Researchers found that children with the condition demonstrate significantly more difficulty sleeping at night than their undiagnosed peers.

Are Parents Overmedicating ADHD Children?

There is an article in ADDitude Magazine about Judith Warner's new book "We've Got Issues: Children and Parents In The Age of Medication." The book offers a different perspective about why the media -- and society -- perpetuate the myth that mental health conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) aren't real and that overly competitive, or "bad" parents are to blame for the rise in diagnosing and medicating children.  Learn more...

Teens, Sunlight and Sleep

by John M. Grohol, PsyD

Two new studies out this week demonstrate the importance of teens getting enough sunlight and sleep. Staying up all night — and not worrying about sleep until later — can come back to haunt you for numerous reasons. Fatigue leads to poor school performance and general crankiness (above and beyond your normal crankiness). Lack of sleep may also shrink your brain as well as your memory. And sleep problems in children have been linked to ADHD.

Researchers have studied this behavior and now believe insufficient daily morning light exposure contributes to teenagers not getting enough sleep:

“These morning-light-deprived teenagers are going to bed later, getting less sleep and possibly under-performing on standardized tests. We are starting to call this the teenage night owl syndrome.”

What Do Girls with ADHD Look Like As Adults?

 by John M Grohol, PsyD

We’ve long heard about the negative impact of attention deficit disorder (ADHD) on children and teens. We know ADHD can lead to academic problems, problems with friends and socializing, significant sleep problems, and serious concerns in other areas of a child’s or teen’s life, such as increased criminality for those with ADHD.

But what does the future hold for them? Do these children grow up to be well-adjusted adults?

We know from previous research (e.g., Biederman et al., 2006; Faraone et al., 2006) that by young adulthood, most people who were diagnosed with ADHD as a child or teen continue to suffer from attention deficit disorder symptoms. Previous studies have also shown that boys with ADHD have a significantly greater lifetime risk for antisocial, mood and anxiety disorders compared to those who were not diagnosed with ADHD.

But what about girls? Little has been known about their lifetime risks if diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Are they the same, better or worse than boys’?

Simple Test To Judge If Athletes Sustained A Concussion

Over the years, student-athletes have come to my office with similar complaints about "not feeling like themselves."  They felt like they were in a fog at times, dealing with mood swings more pronounced than in the past, and/or their sports and academic performance was less consistent.  As a Therapeutic Learning Specialist and Applied Performance Counselor, I help students and athletes understand why they are experiencing certain mental challenges and determine ways to adjust. 

These athletes, however, had one thing in common. They all experienced multiple head contact during play over the last few years that had concussion-like symptoms.  They all returned to play immediately or soon after each incident in sports that have high probabilities of head contact.  

One problem coaches, athletic trainers, and parents experience in helping athletes is the availability of a simple test to determine whether athletes have sustained a concussion in order to manage care.  Well, there may be such a test now available.

Why girls drop math: Beliefs about Math

Girls Treat Math Like a Talent, Boys Like a Skill

By Art Markman, Ph.D, Psychology Today

In the last week, marching band practice started, and there have been orientations at my kids' schools, so it must be time for them to go back. That got me thinking about a big problem in math and science education. In elementary school, boys and girls are about even in their performance in math and science. By middle school, girls start to lag behind, and few women go on to pursue math in college. What is going on?

One factor that leads girls to drop math is that boys and girls seem to differ in their beliefs about math. Psychologist Carol Dweck argues that people can have two different stances toward academic topics. Entity theorists treat academic topics as if they were talents. You either have them or you don't. So, you could be good at math or bad at math. If you're good at math, then you'll learn it. If you're bad at math, then at some point, you'll reach a type of math that goes beyond your abilities.

Incremental theorists treat math as a skill to be acquired. Stick with math, and eventually you'll get even the really hard stuff.

Dweck and her colleagues find that people who treat math (or any other academic subject) as a skill will stick with it longer and try harder when it gets difficult than when they treat it as a talent.

The way this affects boys and girls is that Dweck has collected evidence that boys and girls get different feedback about math from early on in their schooling. Eventually, everyone hits a topic in math that they struggle with. When talking to girls, teachers are likely to emphasize that math is hard. Talking about math as being difficult makes it sound like something that either you can do or you can't.

Boys tend to get feedback that treats math as a skill to be acquired. When they hit a hard topic, they are told to try harder and they'll eventually get it.

Because girls are more likely than boys to get feedback that treats math as a talent, they are more likely to end up with an entity theory of math. The truly hard stuff in math comes in middle school, when kids are first exposed to algebra and geometry and later trigonometry and calculus. Eventually, one of these topics is going to derail everyone, at least for a while. Because of their beliefs about math, then, girls are more likely than boys to conclude that they have reached the limits of their talent and give up.

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