ADD/ADHD Drug Free: Natural Alternatives and Practical Exercises to Help Your Child Focus

Although Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) affect between 3 to 5 percent of school-age kids, they remain the most misunderstood problems facing young children today. While medications like Ritalin and Cylert are traditionally prescribed to treat these disorders, they often come with worrying side effects and can cause weight loss, insomnia, and may even slow growth in younger children.

Finally, ADD/ADHD Drug Free gives frustrated parents a long-awaited natural alternative. The first book to feature activities for children that will help them cope with their disorder by strengthening brain functioning, this life-changing guide shows parents, teachers and counsellors how they can improve learning and behaviour effectively and without medication. Timely and thoroughly researched, this is the one guide that will help thousands of children become more focused, more attentive, and more successful in school and in life, without jeopardising their health. Readers will learn:

• How exercising prefrontal lobes in the brain helps reduce ADD
• How simple techniques like consistent rules and routines and praise for good behaviour can help lessen impulsiveness
• Ways to channel energy to prevent their children from misbehaving
• How nutrition affects ADD

Table of Contents

Foreword by Dr. Jay Cartervii

1. When Medication Isn't the Answer or Isn't Enough, 1
2. The "Challenging" Child, 9
3. Your Child's Amazing Brain: Boiled-Down Neurology for Nonscientists . . . by Nonscientists, 25
4. Gabriel, Patrick, Denny, Tad, and Jeremy: A Few of Our Kids, 35
5. About Learning Styles, 59
6. Survival Skills 101 for Parents, Teachers, and Counselors, 69
7. Reaching the Challenging Child--and Avoiding the Traps, 75
8. Getting Started, 89

Appendix I - Survey of the Seven Strengths, 97

Appendix II - "Brain-Exercising" Activities, 103

Workbook A - Logical-Mathematical Activities, 105

Workbook B - Bodily-Kinesthetic Activities, 119

Workbook C - Intrapersonal Activities, 133

Workbook D - Musical-Rhythmic Activities, 147

Workbook E - Visual-Spatial Activities, 161

Workbook F - Interpersonal Activities, 175

Workbook G - Verbal-Linguistic Activities, 189

Appendix III - Answer Guide, 203

References, 205

Index, 210