2-Day Certificate Course: ADHD in Children and Adolescents: Evidence-Based Interventions to Improve Behavior, Build Self-Esteem and Foster Academic & Social Success – Sharon Saline

Behavior charts, social skills training, positive reinforcement, behavior contracts, rewards and consequences … you’ve tried everything to make progress with a child or adolescent diagnosed with ADHD with little persistent success. Gains made in therapy or the classroom seem to be short-lived, leaving you feeling frustrated and ineffective.

You need a new approach – one that gets to the root of the problem to create meaningful change!

Watch ADHD expert Dr. Sharon Saline in this intensive course recording packed with practical tools and techniques you can use immediately with children, adolescents and their families to improve behavior, gain cooperation and repair relationships. Using a strength-based, collaborative approach that synthesizes neurobiology, behavior and emotion, you can create effective, powerful interventions for kids and families that go far beyond medication and crisis management.

Your toolbox will be overflowing with concrete, practical strategies that:

• Reduce meltdowns and conflicts at home and school
• Improve kids’ personal insight, judgment, impulse control and organization
• Create a family-centered plan that the client will buy into
• Address the shame, stress and anxiety that often accompany ADHD
• Empower parents and other caregivers to be a part of the solution

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to transform your perspective and everyday approach with children and adolescents with ADHD!

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1. Identify the biological, behavioral 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 behavior 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.

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Why an Integrative, Collaborative Approach to ADHD?

• 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

Assessment and Treatment Planning

• 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

The Critical Role of Executive Functioning (EF) in ADHD Treatment

• 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

The Medication Debate: What Every Professional Needs to Know

• 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

The 5C’s Approach: Empower Kids for Success in School and Life

• 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

ADHD at Home: Help Families Reduce Conflict and Stay Connected

• 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

ADHD at School: Boost Academic and Social Success

• 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

ADHD in Therapy: Build Trust, Increase Awareness and Bolster Self-Esteem

• 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

The ADHD Teen: Risky Behaviors and Special Considerations

• 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

Technology and ADHD

• 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?

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