ADHD in Children and Adolescents: Evidence-Based Interventions to Improve Behavior, Build Self-Esteem and Foster Academic & Social Success

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Speaker

Sharon Saline, PsyD, ADHD-CCSP Related seminars and products

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Sharon Saline, PsyD, clinical psychologist and author of the award-winning book, What Your ADHD Child Wishes You Knew: Working Together to Empower Kids for Success in School and Life and The ADHD Solution Card Deck, specializes in working with children, teens, adults and families living with ADHD, learning disabilities, twice exceptionality and mental health issues.

With decades of experience as a clinical psychologist, educator and consultant, she guides people towards a greater understanding about neurodivergence and to live with more productivity and connection. She lectures and facilitates workshops internationally on topics such as ADHD and neurodivergence, executive functioning, the anxiety spectrum, motivation, perfectionism and working with different kinds of learners.

Dr. Saline is on the advisory panel, serves as a contributing editor at ADDitudemag.com and hosts their weekly YouTube Live sessions. She also blogs for PsychologyToday.com, appears as featured expert on MASS Appeal on WWLP-TV and is a part-time lecturer at the Smith School for Social Work. She has been featured in numerous online and print publications including The New York Times, MSN, The Washington Post, The Psychotherapy Networker, Smith College Studies in Social Work, Attention Magazine, ADDitude Magazine and more.
Learn more at www.drsharonsaline.com.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Sharon Saline maintains a private practice and has employment relationships with Smith College School for Social Work and Additudemag.com. She is the founder and co-facilitator of Workshops at Northampton Area Pediatrics. Dr. Saline receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Sharon Saline is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Massachusetts Psychological Association, the Children and Adults with ADHD, and the Attention Deficit Disorder Association.

Objectives

1. Identify the biological, behavioural and emotional factors related to ADHD symptoms and executive functioning skills.
2. Summarize current research on ADHD and executive functioning including medical and non-medical treatment options and socioeconomic and cultural factors affecting young people with ADHD.
3. Explain how the ADHD brain develops through childhood and adolescence and the effect of drugs, alcohol and trauma.
4. Ascertain how ADHD, learning disabilities and mental health issues impact social and familial relationships.
5. Assess for a range of executive skills in children and adolescents as it relates to treatment planning.
6. Develop effective strategies and collaborative interventions for improving executive functioning skills that increase kids’ participation in treatment and promote lasting change.
7. Recognize how co-existing disorders and learning disabilities impact and interact with ADHD and executive functioning skills.
8. Implement practical treatment interventions that increase motivation and cooperation at home and school for children diagnosed with ADHD.
9. Design an effective treatment plan that integrates CBT, family systems and psychodynamic approaches to engage clients and improve symptomology.
10. Advocate successfully on your client’s behalf with teachers, administrators, other school personnel or health professionals.
11. Recognize warning signs of risky behaviour among adolescents diagnosed with ADHD and gain effective tools for addressing them.
12. Investigate the relationship between ADHD and technology and formulate appropriate interventions to help families struggling with screens.

Outline

• Includes the client in the process of change to improve success rates
• Builds self-esteem through strength-based thinking and acquisition of skills
• Normalizes challenges related to living with ADHD – for kids and parent
• Fosters self-acceptance through biology-based information

• How to obtain an accurate diagnosis
• The neurobiology of ADHD, including the impact of trauma
• Co-Occurring disorders: Is it ADHD and/or something else?
  • ODD, anxiety, OCD, learning disability, autism
• Factors to consider:
  • Environmental influences, quality of sleep, video games/social media
• Current population trends in co-existing disorders
• Techniques for differential diagnosis
• Individual vs. group therapy
• How to engage the family in treatment
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

• What are executive functioning skills?
• How to identify EF strengths and weaknesses
• Effective methods for improving EF skills
• Tools for uncovering family patterns related to EF skills

• Pros and cons of using medication to treat ADHD
• How medications work: Stimulants and non-stimulants
• Provide effective psychoeducation to clients about medication
• Non-compliance: How to respond
• Efficacy of common medication alternatives

• Teaching Self-Control for parents and kids
• When Compassion is more than empathy
• How Collaboration fosters essential buy-in
• Consistency means steadiness, not perfection
• Celebration encourages effort

• Effective strategies to:
  • Avoid homework hassles
  • Manage emotional outbursts
  • Reduce meltdowns
  • Improve sibling relationships
  • Create routines and lists that help things run smoother
• Getting things done: Improve motivation
• Techniques for working with tired, dispirited adults

• Why school is the hardest domain of functioning
• Classroom interventions that facilitate learning and self-confidence
• Parent advocacy vs. interference (and what to do about it)
• Create effective parent-school alliances
• Strategies for teaching executive functioning skills related to academics
• Tools to improve peer relationships
• Techniques to help kids handle frustration and failure

• Tools for developing self-acceptance
• Strategies to address underlying shame, anxiety and low-self-esteem
• Help kids accept their ADHD brains—strengths and challenges
• Tips to navigate setbacks and refusal to participate

• Identify risk factors unique to teens with ADHD
• Why nicotine, vaping and marijuana are so appealing and how to curb their use
• Early and active sexuality: Help teens make healthy, safe choices
• Vulnerability to bullying: Generate appropriate clinical, parental and school responses

• How today’s technology impacts the developing ADHD brain
• The effect of social media on distractibility, self-esteem and peer relationships
• Tips for fostering safe online practices
• Gaming: Fun or an addiction?

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Teachers
• School Administrators
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Nurses
• Other Helping Professionals Who Work with Children