ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER KIDS

Boarding Schools for Students with Attention Deficit Disorder
Attention Deficit Disorder involves impulsivity, the inability to focus, and sometimes hyperactivity. Children with ADD often get in trouble at school because they talk out of turn, fidget constantly, cannot focus on their work or complete their assignments, have problems following directions, are easily distracted, and make careless mistakes. Four times as many boys have ADD than girls, and it currently affects 3% to 5% (over two million) of American children.
If a child with ADHD does not get special help, he or she often fails at school. Constant correction by adults leads to lowered self-esteem. If this continues into the teenage years, these children become more likely to get lost in drugs, alcoholism, and other problems as they seek acceptance with the wrong crowd.
Many therapeutic boarding schools offer programs for children with ADD; a few specialize in the disorder.
PROSChildren with ADD are hard to manage at home. Professionals advise parents to provide strict structures seven days a week with set times for outdoor play, study hours, classes, meals and recreation. This is easier said than done, especially if there are siblings. Boarding schools specializing in ADD do that and more.
At some schools, counselors live with the children on a twenty-four-hour basis. This way they constantly work with the students to maintain and increase their gains.
A good school will have specialized educational equipment for ADD, such as software programs to organize work. Classes will be short and often hands-on, with frequent breaks. There will be plenty of time for outdoor exercise. Students will not have devices such as computer games, video game systems, cell phones or even television sets. Time spent on these sedentary activities tends to worsen their symptoms.
Even a year of intense behavioral therapy, special educational options, wholesome food and plenty of outdoor exercise can really help a child with ADD. Some are able to turn their behaviors around and begin to succeed at home and in their regular schools.
Boarding schools provide a needed break for overwrought parents.
CONSChildren with ADD should not be placed with children with severe psychiatric problems. ADD children are often impulsive and risk-taking; therefore, the staff must supervise them closely at all times. Boarding school is expensive, although financial aid is often available. Sometimes public school districts help pay the cost.
Can a brief stay in a boarding school provide long-term benefits to a child with Attention Deficit Disorder?
Samuel Moore, Admissions Director of Stone Mountain School in North Carolina, believes that placement not only helps such children, it can literally save their lives.
"These students are risk-takers," he said. "When they hit their teens, they also hit extreme sports, cars, girls, drinking and drugs. Many of them would land up on stretchers at the rate they were going if they had not come to Stone Mountain School."
Stone Mountain School is a residential program for boys ages 11 to 16 years who have Attention Deficit Disorder. Most students also have behavioral or emotional problems that make them hard to manage in home settings. The average stay is 12 to 18 months, depending on how long it takes the individual to work his way through five levels of achievement. The goal of the program is to provide a top-notch academic curriculum while helping students adapt better ways of handling and understanding ADD. Stone Mountain boys live in a rustic setting and enjoy outdoor activities like swimming, fishing, canoeing, backpacking, and rock climbing.
Director Moore said that Attention Deficit Disorder affects the executive functions of the brain. These boys literally cannot weigh and measure the long-range effects of their behaviors. They are the first to take a dare, the first to be willing to drink a whole keg of beer, the first to drive the family car at the limit of its speedometer.
"We can keep them safe, and that's often not possible at home once they reach this age," he said.
Although the average stay is relatively short, it is long enough to turn around a boy's life. At this age, students are very malleable and open to change. The program is very intense and concentrated so that much can be accomplished in a short period. Each boy receives constant individual attention from counselors on a twenty-four hour basis. These professionals work one-on-one with the child to help him redirect his behavior in a more positive way.
Because the academic environment is designed specifically for ADD boys, many come to life for the first time as students and intellectuals. The average class size is only seven, and allows for frequent breaks. There is special computer equipment and other aids designed specifically for ADD.
Director Moore said that the academic philosophy at Stone Mountain is based on the ideas of Lev Vygotsky, who posited that humans learn best in "the Zone of Proximal Development." If work is too hard, the student becomes frustrated and quits. If it is too easy, the student loses interest out of boredom. Therefore, the trick is to teach and learn "in the zone."
ADD boys notoriously cannot organize complex assignments or keep track of their homework. Most also have hidden learning disabilities that Stone Mountain's educational psychologists finally diagnose. A boy's distractibility, hyperactivity and impulsivity may have been obvious to his teachers for years. Nevertheless, none of them may have realized that he also has dyslexia, written expression disorder or other problems processing information.
Because of their undiagnosed learning disabilities and lack of academic organization, ADD boys typically experience academic failures. This failure is often part of the reason many suffer from low self-esteem, depression and other emotional problems.
"These kids are underserved in the public and even private schools," Mr. Moore said.
Director Moore said that many of his students have had experiences in military schools where they often suffered bullying and abuse at night, when they were left unsupervised. "Military schools have the look of structure," he said, "with everyone lining up and saluting and doing push-ups." Yet military programs are actually based upon regimen, not structure. The difference is everything to a boy with ADD.
Regimen is about mindlessly following rules and orders that have no basis in logic. On the other hand, structure is based on logical consequences, not coercion. For example, a Stone Mountain boy must decide to earn the right to go fishing or swimming with his group. He can choose not to comply with standards of personal hygiene or other Stone Mountain benchmarks, but if he does, he cannot go fishing. This kind of structure eliminates power struggles and gives the students logical choices.
Director Moore said that the outdoor environment has an immediate positive effect on students. He pointed to studies that prove that the more time an ADD child spends outdoors, especially in wilderness settings, the more his symptoms lessen.
"We remove the distractions of modern life," Mr. Moore said. However, by the end of the program, the boys have worked their way into a homelike setting that includes video games, computers, MySpace, cell phones and other technology. By that time, they have learned to handle these distractions rather than let them take over their lives.
The Stone Mountain staff remains in close contact with the students' families. Staff, parents and student work together for a successful reentry to home and family life. They remain in touch for a year after the boy leaves Stone Mountain, working through both normal teenage mistakes and any real crisis that may arise.
Director Moore said that many parents tell him that "this is what we've been looking for." Their son may have come to Stone Mountain School feeling lonely, hostile and isolated but he goes home with new self-confidence and the skills he needs to succeed at school and socially.
"They never outgrow ADD," Mr. Moore said. "Our boys grow into men with ADD, but they have learned to channel it. A lot start up their own businesses, because they are risk takers. They go on to lead very successful lives," Mr. Moore said, "It's tremendously satisfying for me and our staff to be a part of their success."