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AD/HD in Girls – Recognising The Symptoms And Choosing Treatment Options

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

Research indicates that Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) may be more prevalent in girls than what is currently recognised.

Compared to boys, girls are more likely to present with AD/HD inattentive type, rather than with the hyperactive or combined type, which includes the more classic symptoms of AD/HD – hyperactivity and impulsivity.

Girls with AD/HD tend to have difficulties with:

Maintaining focus and concentration
Organisation
Planning
Decision-making
Goal-setting

But compared to boys with AD/HD, girls are less likely to show disruptive behaviours and to have impulsive outbursts that draw attention in the classroom.

The Impact of Inflated Praise on Motivation

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

“Wow, Tommy that is the best drawing I’ve ever seen!”

“Jessie, you are the best in the class at maths, you did that sum so quickly!”

As parents and educators, you are told that giving a child praise is a great way to improve their motivation, their self-confidence and their perseverance when things get difficult.

“Be specific with your praise!”

“Praise can be even more motivating than rewarding with material things”, many experts espouse.

But recent studies have shown that praise in certain formats may actually have the opposite effect to that which we are trying to achieve.

Researchers looked at the impact of “inflated” praise on children with both low and high self-esteem and found some interesting things:

Government to Offer $200 Vouchers for Relationship Counselling

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

The government is trialing a plan to provide newlywed couples with gift vouches for marriage counselling. They are going to spend 20 million dollars to give couples a $200 subsidy to attend counselling.

From July this year, 100 000 newlyweds will be able to use the vouchers for relationship counselling, conflict resolution, parental education and financial planning.

Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews says that the move will help to promote family stability, creating a better home environment for children.

Realistically, a $200 voucher is only going to cover the cost of a single counselling session or maybe two if one or both people in the couple are eligible for a Mental Health Care Plan through Medicare.

For couples who are generally not distressed and are coping pretty well, a session or two to “check in” seems like a good idea, but what about ongoing support for families who are in distress?

Progress in Treatment – Are You Ready For Change?

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

A common pitfall I used to make in my first year out of grad school was to agonise over clients who didn’t seem to be making any progress.

In one extreme case, I worked with a teenage girl and her family for 12 months and at the end of time together, I was left seriously questioning whether I’d made any difference.

The girl suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and, in hindsight, it was quite a severe case. Her OCD got in the way of a lot of things in her life, including her ability to make progress in treatment.

She could chat about what treatment for OCD would look like and listen to the research and success stories, but when it came to actively engaging in strategies, it just never happened.

After our fourth session I asked her if she wanted to try another psychologist and reassured her that I wouldn’t be offended if she felt we weren’t clicking.

Doing Too Much At Once – How To Study More Efficiently And Effectively

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

“Women are so much better at multi-tasking than men” is a commonly heard boast.

With our busy schedules, fast-paced lives and many commitments, the ability to multi-task has long been something to aspire to, something that is supposed to give us more time, make us more efficient, and perhaps even make us more desirable as employees.

However, the research in this area suggests that we may, in fact, be less efficient if we try to do more than one thing at a time. We might get everything finished quicker so we can get more time on the couch but may be also be more likely to make a mistake, forget a step, or end up with a less-than-perfect result.

Well, before you stop trying to brush your hair while you are waiting for the toast to pop up and decide to stand there staring blankly at the wall like a nincompoop, there are a number of factors involved.

So let me help you make the decision about whether or not to multi-task…

Do Coloured Irlen Lenses Really Improve Dyslexia and Reading?

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

Parents who have watched their child struggle through reading, battling tears and tantrums at homework time are good targets for the promise of an all too easy cure with coloured lenses.

Marketers also know that this is the generation of parents who grew up listening to U2! (Bono is known for his use of coloured or dark lenses which reportedly ease visual sensitivities).

For the encore of a U2 concert I attended in 2006, Bono said that his father used to tell him to “take off those [stupid] glasses!”.

He then looked to the sky, removed his glasses, and the crowd roared.

However, in reviewing the evidence for the efficacy of coloured lenses for dyslexia, I think that Bono’s dad might have had a point…

Household Chores For All Ages

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

Chores are a great way to teach children about responsibility and work ethic.

Sharing chores in the family teaches kids the importance of helping out and supporting each other. Chores also help kids develop independence-skills and a sense of feeling proud about making a contribution to the family.

Although young children may not be able to do chores to your standard, kids eventually learn how to do the job properly. The key is to start as early as possible with simple tasks and then build upon what they can do. While it may take double the amount of time to complete the chore at the beginning, it will save you heaps of time in the future.

Texting and Spelling

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

Does Texting make Children’s Spelling and Reading Worse?

Despite popular theory that the use of ‘textese’ (e.g., ‘gr8’ for ‘great’ or ‘2nite’ for ‘tonight’) is creating a generation of poor spellers, recent research evidence actually suggests that texting can actually improve children’s spelling and reading skills.

The Impact of Working Memory Difficulties on Learning

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

Working memory problems are one of the most common learning issues that we come across in our clinic.

Working memory difficulties often co-exist with other issues, such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and AD/HD but they can also be a stand-alone problem.

It can be hard to get your head around what working memory actually is, let alone how to go about reducing the impact of a working memory problem on your child’s learning.

Here’s a brief overview to help to clear up some of the mystery.

Parents: How to Look After Your Own Mental Health When Your Child is Struggling

by Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services

I think it’s safe to say that most parents want to do whatever they can to support their child.

Now, imagine that your child has been diagnosed with a learning difficulty, with Aspergers Syndrome or Autism, maybe they are experiencing bullying at school, have anxiety or depression or another mental health issue.

Whatever the case, it is instinct to want to give your child a big cuddle and then get straight onto calling up the school, confronting the bully, researching interventions and generally doing whatever you can to rectify the situation or at least ease their struggles a bit.

You can be racked with guilt about “where” and “how” the problem came about in the first place and why you didn’t notice it sooner.

You may lie awake at night trying to figure out how your darling angel must be feeling and spend hours analysing everything they did and said that day…

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