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NEWSLETTER
New Website
We are pleased and excited to announce the new version of the website. We hope that you will take the time to view our new layout. In addition, keep an eye out for all the latest information regarding the center. We hope to provide information that will be of value to you and your family.
Groups
Ask the Experts
As the proverb goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Here at Melmed Center, we are aware that parents of children with special needs may not have either the funding or the time available to learn to “fish” for the details of understanding their child’s situation through traditional academic means. This is why we offer two programs, Ask the Experts TM, and Parent to ParentTM, two groups designed to support and expand knowledge for parents, practitioners, teachers and general role models for children with special needs.
Ask the Experts is a relaxed meeting with one of Melmed Center’s many, diverse professionals over something new in their field. Related to Melmed Center’s theory and practice in the benefits of team approach, these topics, chosen by the professionals and based on demand, apply to many of the clients and their families here at Melmed Center. The meetings generally have pertained to strategies that work with children who have attention and learning challenges, but have been over many subject areas within the vast collective intelligence availabe here at Melmed Center. Ask the Experts is open to parents, grandparents, educators and child care providers, free of charge, every fourth Thursday of every month between 6:00 and 7:00 pm. While there is no charge, it is necessary to reserve a seat, as some discussions fill up quickly. visit the website in the next couple months to see our Fall 2007 schedule. For more information and inquires over upcoming talks, please contact the office at (480) 443-0050.
Parent to Parent
Parent to Parent is a parent group designed to help with the potential difficulties associated with being a parent of a child with special needs. The group is discussion-based and support-based, in order to help unify and encourage the community of parents who can, at times, feel stressed and alone. The group is facilitated by Ricki Light, she is the Director of Educational Services at Melmed Center. She is certified in Arizona, California and Ontario, Canada, as a general and special educator and also has her master’s degree in counseling and school administration. One of her foci is assisting parents in advocating for their children at school; she is a Level III advocate for special education in the state of Arizona. This group is primarily for parents of children with ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome and learning disabilities. For upcoming times and fees, please call the office at (480) 443-0050.
Clinical Research at Melmed Center
As of October, 2004, Melmed Center was pleased to announce that we had expanded our services to include participation in clinical research studies relating to ADHD, anxiety, depression and related disorders. Dedicated to researching current treatment options, this has allowed Melmed Center to keep track of cutting edge technology while provideing services to children at no cost whatsoever. A hybrid of new information to the field, educational programs and clinical research activities, Melmed Center continually strives to not only facilitate optimal performance in all children, but also to be aware and able to provide the most up-to-date information to the many families they serve across the country. If you think this opportunity suitable for your situation, and that your child could benefit from these free services, please contact our office at (480) 443-0050. New clinical trials start frequently.
The Buzz About Coaching
Professional Personal coaching is “all the buzz”. There seem to be articles almost every week, in periodicals, on talk shows and in newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal.
AD/HD coaching was first mentioned in 1994 by John Ratey and Edward M. Hallowell in the book “Driven to Distraction.” Pg.226. Their perception was that a coach could be a parent, a mentor, a teacher or a peer who could help the individual with self regulation and structures for difficulties around time management, organization and planning, just to name a few.
The idea of personal professional coaching came into being in the 80’s. A fairly succinct definition by Steve Legingham states, “The purpose of coaching is to help you learn how to do the things you want to do. This is not about something you are doing right or wrong, it is about helping you to become more aware of how you function, learn, use your time and make choices. In a word, it is about helping you develop an “awareness” of what you do every day and the types of choices you make.”
A professional AD/HD coach must have a clear working knowledge of how AD/HD can impact learning and emotional well-being. Together coaches and clients are looking at where the successes lie and how the individual might learn to utilize his or her strengths to minimize the weaknesses. An ingredient that can pose complications for coaching AD/HD clients comes from the American Pediatric Society which indicates that nearly 80% of individuals that have been diagnosed with AD/HD have some other co-existing condition. That could be a learning disability, a developmental disability or another psychological diagnosis, to name a few. AD/HD Coaches must have a working knowledge of these challenges in order to best serve their clients.
Coaching is an action oriented fit because the coach is exploring with the client as to how the clients own profile of cognitive differences (learning style, strengths and weaknesses) benefit and inhibit them. Coaches help clients to do what Dr. Mel Levine of “ A Mind at a Time” fame refers to as “linkage” linking something that worked in the past with something different or similar in order to be successful.
Coaches must utilize their education, training, life and work experience to develop tools and strategies that work specifically for the individual client. Because coaching is a relatively new profession it may be difficult to find coaches that have the experience and training to work with AD/HD clients and families. Often coaches work with adults and not teens or students. To learn more about professional AD/HD coaching qualifications see: http://www.adhdcoachinstitute.org. (IAAC) There are several web sites that list AD/HD coaches in the US. The American Coaching Association http://www.americoach.org as well as the International Coaching Federation http://www.coachfederation.org(ICF)
The coach should design a relationship with the client that looks more like they are team members or partners. Coaches and clients define and monitor achievable goals/tasks that produce actions and changes in their daily lives. These “baby steps” soon produce measurable improvements. Coaches offer new perspectives and provide opportunities for individuals to strategize for themselves, improve self-reliance, and self-esteem, and therefore grow confidence in their ability to achieve success in the world.
Books
There is a wealth of recommended information helpful to you and your child here at Melmed Center and via our website (www.melmedcenter.com). Most recently available is the second edition to the extremely successful How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD by Sandra F. Rief. Highly recommened not only by Melmed Center doctors, but by doctors around the country, the first edition sold more than 180,000 copies. The book is designed to aid teachers, school professionals, parents and clinicians as an in-depth look at “practical techniques, strategies, and interventions” that work with children who have ADD/ADHD. While it may sound overly academic, the formatting is simple, the writing articulate and easy-to-follow. A few things the book advertises are proven suggestions for: “engaging students’ attention and active participation; keeping students on-task and productive; preventing and managing behavioral problems in the classroom; differentiating instruction and addressing students’ diverse learning styles; [and] building a partnership with parents”.
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