Developmental Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disorder. It
is the most common learning disability and is believed
to affect approximately one out of five children to
some degree. It varies in severity and people with
dyslexia present with many patterns of strengths and
weaknesses. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty characterized
by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition
or both, and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.
People with dyslexia have problems with processing
the smallest parts of language-phonemes-and appear
to process information in a different area of the
brain than non-dyslexics do. The term "developmental
dyslexia" is used to distinguish this problem
from an acquired language processing problem, for
example arising as a result of closed head injury.
People with dyslexia may have problems with reading,
spelling, written expression, receptive oral language
or expressive oral language, or a combination of these.
A person with dyslexia can have great difficulty decoding
words while reading, may read slowly and have reduced
understanding of what they read. They tend not to
enjoy reading and to be ashamed of their reading,
and their reduced reading experience can get in the
way of vocabulary growth and can slow the growth of
a general base of knowledge. Of the students with
specific learning disabilities receiving special education
services, 70-80% have deficits in reading. Dyslexia
is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling
difficulties.
Dyslexia is a condition which is neurologically
based and appears in families. People inherit the
genetic links for dyslexia, and chances are that at
least one of the dyslexic person's parents, grandparents,
aunts, or uncles has dyslexia. It affects males and
females nearly equally, and people from different
ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds as well. It
is not a result of lack of motivation, sensory impairment,
poor schooling or learning opportunities. It is not
a result of low intelligence. In fact many people
with dyslexia are of above average intelligence.
Dyslexia is not a disease and is not
"cured." People with dyslexia can respond
successfully to timely, appropriate, and skilled intervention.
Instruction should be given by teachers trained in
structured, multi-sensory language programs. Early
identification is important. If children who are dyslexic
receive effective phonological training in Kindergarten
and Grade 1, they are likely to experience many fewer
problems learning to read than children not identified
until Grade 3. A large majority of children who are
poor readers in Grade 3 remain poor readers by Grade
9 and may not read well as adults. This said, it is
never too late for people with dyslexia to learn to
read or to process and express language more effectively.
Dyslexic adults, in addition to engaging in phonics-based
language instruction can benefit from learning coping
strategies. With proper diagnosis, appropriate instruction,
hard work, and support from family, friends, and school,
people with dyslexia can succeed in school and at
work.
Specific Learning Disabilities
Learning Disabilities are lifelong disorders that
exist when there is a marked difference between what
an individual appears intellectually capable of doing
and how they are actually performing academically.
In order to be diagnosed with a learning disability,
a person must demonstrate average or above average
general intelligence, not have a medical problem or
sensory deficit that might account for the learning
difficulty-for example, hearing loss or a visual problem.
Learning disabilities are formally diagnosed through
individualized testing, using standardized measures.
Learning Disabilities occur in a range of academic
areas, including reading, math, written and oral expression.
The most common specific disabilities follow.
Specific
Reading Disability
A diagnosis of a Specific Reading Disability
is made when an individual is persistently underachieving
in the development of reading skills, given his or
her age, education level and measured intelligence.
Reading is a complex process that can break down in
one of several areas, including phonological processing,
sight word reading, and reading comprehension. Children
who have difficulty automatically recognizing words
or sounding out words are likely to struggle in understanding
what they have read. Having to stop frequently and
focus on a particular word or letter combination takes
away from the flow of reading. At the end of reading
a difficult sentence, a child may have forgotten some
of the words at the beginning, as it took a long period
of time to decode all of the words. Reading can be
laborious for those with Reading Disorder, often requiring
a great deal of time and concentration to be able
to extract meaning from printed material.
Reading is a central activity to many
academic areas. In the elementary school years, children
are expected to read in order to practice and further
develop their reading skills. As they progress into
Junior High and High School, children are required
to use reading as a means of gaining information-for
example, reading a book about history-or need to be
able to read in order to complete a non-reading task-for
example, reading a mathematical word problem.
The development of reading skills is
also important in learning how to write. Many children
who struggle with reading also have difficulties learning
to spell and expressing their thoughts and feelings
in written form.
Specific
Disability in Written Expression
As with reading, there are many levels
at which the writing process can break down. A child
may have difficulty with visual memory for words,
phonemes and individual letters, generating and organizing
ideas, or with the fine motor task of writing. Similar
to reading, the demands for written expression evolve
through the school years. In the elementary years,
children are focused on learning to form letters and
words, writing simple sentences, and then paragraphs
and longer compositions. As the writing process becomes
more automatic, older students are expected to apply
writing skills to a variety of subject areas. Disorder
of Written Expression is not typically diagnosed in
children under age seven, given that young children
had had very little direct instruction in writing.
Disorder of Written Expression is diagnosed when there
is a discrepancy between an individual's achievement
in written expression and his or her potential, based
on age, education level and intellectual functioning.
Specific
Mathematics Disability (Dyscalculia)
Mathematics Disorder is diagnosed in those who are
underachieving relative to their potential in mathematics,
based on age, education level and measured intelligence.
Mathematics Disability shows itself in a variety of
forms, including difficulty with counting sequentially,
understanding number concepts and mathematical concepts,
and solving arithmetic problems.
Mathematics is a subject that continues
to build on previous knowledge. An understanding of
addition and subtraction is developed before learning
multiplication and division. Children who struggle
with acquiring mathematical knowledge at the same
rate as their classmates are at risk of falling behind
and becoming lost as concepts taught become increasingly
difficult.
Specific
Handwriting Disability (Dysgraphia)
Handwriting disability is a neurologically-based
disability in which a person has unusual difficulty
forming letters or writing within a defined space.
Given that students are expected to demonstrate their
mastery of information throughout their school career,
a difficulty with handwriting can hold a person back.
Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD,
is a diagnosis given to people who have a longstanding
history of impulsivity, hyperactivity, or difficulty
sustaining attention and concentration. A diagnosis
of ADHD is specified as ADHD, Predominantly Hyperactive/Impulsive
Type or ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type (formerly
called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)), or ADHD,
Combined Type.
People with ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive
Type often overlook details, appear not to be listening,
have difficulty following through on instructions,
and staying organized. At school, for example, a child
with this form of ADHD may appear to be daydreaming
while the teacher is talking, may gaze around the
classroom when it is time to work, or have a very
messy desk with papers, writing instruments, and other
objects all stored together in one pile. These children
often have difficulty with completing assignments
on time, without a lot of prompting from adults, and
may have to struggle to sustain attention through
all the steps they need to follow in an assignment.
Individuals with ADHD, Predominantly
Hyperactive-Impulsive Type likely appear as if they
are always on the go. It may be difficult for a person
with this form of ADHD to sit quietly and await their
turn, and their hands or feet may be constantly in
motion. They may interrupt others and blurt out answer
to questions before the question is completely posed.
Students who exhibit this type of ADHD may begin an
assignment before the teacher finishes giving directions,
rush through a math assignment, applying one strategy
to all questions-for example, use addition to solve
all questions even when some require subtraction.
While engaged in a task, those with ADHD, Predominantly
Hyperactive-Impulsive Type may be continuously in
motion, tapping their feet, wiggling in their seat.
People with ADHD frequently have sleep
difficulties, and sleep deprivation worsens hyperactivity
and impulsivity in children. ADHD is associated with
social problems, generally as a result of social skills
problems, and ADHD can causes or worsens family problems.
Children and teens with ADHD may not come close to
reaching their academic potential, and academic delays
can be global. People with ADHD tend to feel very
limited in their relationships, don't like themselves
as they are and feel dissatisfied with themselves.
People with ADHD are at increased risk of developing
a stress disorder, depression, anxiety, or other emotional
problems such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
and conduct disorder (CD). People with ADHD frequently
don't believe their future is very bright.
ADHD is a serious condition causing
significant and potentially life-long impairment.
ADHD keeps people from reaching their full potential.
The consequences of ADHD are long-term, reducing inhibiting
adults with the disorder from reaching their full
academic potential. Of ADHD adults surveyed recently,
17% did not graduate from high school and only 18%
graduated from college, compared with 7% and 26% respectively,
for those without ADHD. People with ADHD held an average
of 5.4 jobs in a 10-year period, while those without
ADHD held an average of 3.4 jobs. Nearly half of people
with ADHD reported that they had left or been fired
from at least one job in part because of their ADHD
symptoms. Unemployment is higher in people with ADHD.
Treatment of ADHD begins with proper evaluation and
diagnosis. Treatment is multi-modal and generally
includes a combination of family therapy (educating
parents), individual or group-based skills training
and counseling for the person with ADHD, school or
workplace interventions, alongside stimulant or non-stimulant
medication to improve the ability to concentrate or
to reduce hyperactivity.
Asperger's
Syndrome
Autism
and High Functioning Autism
We consider Asperger's Syndrome and Autistic Spectrum
disorders together given their many similarities and
given the controversy about their relationship to
one another. Central to both is a significant deficit
in the ability to interact socially and the development
of repetitive behaviours, interests and activities.
One difference between Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and
High Functioning Autism (HFA) is that people with
Asperger's Syndrome demonstrate normal language development.
People with High Functioning Autism, like people with
Asperger's Syndrome are not significantly impaired
in cognitive terms, and may be very bright.
Individuals with AS may become overwhelmed
by multi-step directions when they are given verbally.
They experience difficulty processing verbal information
as it is spoken, and rather store it in short-term
memory and return to it after the person has finished
speaking. As a result, some information is lost, and
the individual with AS may complete only the first
or last few of the steps. As one adult with AS put
it, "Words without pictures simply go away."
People with both AS and HFA tend to learn most effectively
when supplied with visual supports for verbally presented
information.
For people with AS the development of
social skills necessary to form and maintain friendships
does not come naturally. These impairments may include
difficulty producing and reading nonverbal behaviours,
such as eye contact, body language and gestures. Also,
individuals with AS often are not self-motivated to
develop social relationships, particularly in childhood
years. Those with AS frequently become engrossed in
circumscribed interests which seem odd and in some
cases uninteresting to other children. In adapting
to the social world, individuals with AS often develop
theories as to the ways people function, although
these theories are often based upon how the person
with AS believes he or she would act in a particular
situation rather than understanding that everyone
has different ways of responding to situations. It
is often difficult for individuals with AS to see
that others have different points of view, and that
these need to be taken into account when interacting
with people. A person with AS may have difficulty
with perceiving idiom, irony, or sarcasm, or with
predicting and responding to others' behaviour.
Many individuals with AS develop restricted
interests. A great deal of time may be spent amassing
information about a particular topic or building a
collection. Individuals with AS often feel that their
daily lives are chaotic and unpredictable, and they
look for predictability through patterns in the physical
world. The development of circumscribed interests
may begin as early as age two or three, and children
with AS typically progress through a variety of circumscribed
interests as they grow older. Free time is frequently
spent searching for more information about a pet subject
or for a new piece to a collection. Children with
AS may be quite attached to particular objects.
Circumscribed interests and repetitive
behaviours may serve as a calming mechanism in times
of stress and anxiety for individuals with AS. The
predictability offered by an understanding of a part
of the physical world can be quite comforting to individuals
with AS who are experiencing changes to their daily
routine or other anxiety-provoking situations. The
strict adherence to daily routines is typical in individuals
with AS. Disruption to routines, transition from one
activity to another, failure at a task, social interaction
and other forms of unpredictability create a state
of over-arousal in the individual with AS, leading
to anxiety, anger and other emotions. Catastrophic
emotional or behavioural reactions-screaming, disrupting
others, physically abusing others, or running away-
can result when a person with AS feel overwhelmed.
People with AS are more likely than
other people to have Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD),
depression, anxiety, and epilepsy.
Non-Verbal
Learning Disability
People with a nonverbal learning disability (NLD)
have difficulty processing information that is not
presented in language. They generally have an excellent
ability to express themselves verbally, and may be
precocious verbally.
People with NLD learn most effectively
through discussion. They have excellent rote memory
skills, and can store a great deal of specific information
about a topic. However, their thinking may be overly
concrete, so that when asked about a similar topic,
it may become clear that a person with NLD has not
truly understood and internalized the information,
but simply memorized it. Generalization of information
from one setting to the next is not something that
comes naturally for people with NLD, so that they
treat new topics as distinct and isolated from all
other knowledge. They do not automatically make connections
between bits of information, but rather engage in
a great deal of effort to store new information. Teachers
and parents often find that children with NLD have
a need to ask questions incessantly. This questioning
occurs because children with NLD learn best when information
is presented in a concrete verbal manner. By asking
specific questions, children are able to access the
particular information they require. However, it can
be challenging for the teacher of a large class to
be bombarded with the questions of one student.
Individuals with NLD often have a great
deal of difficulty maintaining, organization, and
finding their way around. They often have difficulty
with visual-spatial orientation and following sequential
directions. As such, these individuals may appear
disorganized, get lost more frequently and be late
for appointments. In addition, characteristic of people
with NLD is a dislike for transitions and changes
in routine. They enjoy the structure and predictability
offered by a stable daily routine, and may experience
stress, anxiety and even feeling of panic when faced
with unexpected changes.
When interacting with other people,
we use verbal and nonverbal cues to understand their
behaviour and plan our responses. Individuals with
NLD have a great deal of difficulty perceiving nonverbal
cues, and will often misread social situations. For
example, a sarcastic remark may be interpreted at
face value, without taking the tone of voice of the
speaker into account.
Making it through a typical day can
be exhausting for individuals with NLD. A child with
NLD, for example, may expend a great deal of effort
to complete assignments, and ensure that he remains
organized, in the right place at the right time. Overcoming
the difficulties associated with NLD requires hard
work on the part of the individual. In addition, those
affected by NLD may experience a hypersensitivity
to sensory stimuli, thus making every experience seem
more intense than for those of us not affected.
Depression
Depression is the most common mood disorder, and one
that affects people of all ages. There are various
kinds of depression with different criteria for diagnosis.
See also Bi-Polar Mood Disorder. In general, depression
is diagnosed when a person feels sad or blue most
of the day, nearly every day, or when he or she feels
a loss of pleasure or interest in daily activities.
Instead of presenting as sad, children are often irritable
and angry. Other symptoms of depression include significant
weight change (or failure to gain appropriate weight
in children), sleep disturbances (insomnia, trouble
staying asleep, sleeping too much), psychomotor changes,
fatigue and loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness
or guilt, and thoughts of death, with or without thoughts
of, and plans for, suicide.
People who are depressed typically see
negative events as resulting from their inadequacy,
even when this cannot be the case. Accordingly, people
with depression can be perfectionistic in school,
at home, or work, and very sensitive to criticism.
Being turned away from a play activity by peers may
be viewed by the child as proof that he or she is
unlikable or unattractive. In contrast, a person with
depression may unreasonably view positive events as
accidents and as untrustworthy. For example, if a
depressed child receives a good grade on a test, he
or she might explain the good grade to the test being
easy or to the teacher marking generously, rather
than to his or her hard work or ability. Children
who are depressed have been found to experience more
victimization at school.
Depression can interfere with the ability
to learn and work because it often results in decreased
concentration ability and reduced attention. When
sleep is affected by depression, a sufferer can be
exhausted during the school day or work day. Processes
that have become automatic start to take more time
for those who are depressed, as a person has to think
consciously through problem-solving steps that used
to be automatic. The demoralization that goes along
with depression can represent a major problem in learning,
and people sometimes throw up their hands and given
up on learning.
Parents frequently do not realize that
their child or teen is depressed. In fact, a recent
study has shown that most adolescents who report suicidal
behaviour on a screening questionnaire are not known
by their teachers or other school staff to be at risk.
It is therefore obviously important to identify depression
as early as possible, even before a person manages
to ask for help, and before problems worsen. Depression
can be treated with counselling or psychotherapy,
family therapy, school interventions, medication,
or a combination of these.
Bipolar
Mood Disorder
Bipolar disorder (formerly called "Manic-Depression")
and bipolar spectrum disorders affect people of all
ages. They are neurologically-based disorders that
cause instability of mood and energy level. Bipolar
disorders are serious. People affected often have
difficulty maintaining relationships, performing consistently
in school or at work, and people with bipolar disorder
have an increased risk of suicide. Bipolar disorder
has a lifetime prevalence rate somewhere between 0.4%
to 1.6% of people, and it is now seen that the disorder
frequently has its onset during the early teenage
years, and can even begin during childhood. These
are familial illnesses. Although the mode of inheritance
is unclear, as is the relationship between the genetic
predisposition and environmental stress, it is clear
that first-degree relatives of people with bipolar
disorder have a significantly higher chance of developing
mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder
than a control group.
Whether in adults and children, bipolar
disorders vary in its severity, subtype, and phase.
There are two general phases of bipolar disorder,
the manic "highs" and the "lows"
of depression, and some form of alternation or swing
between the two phases. Manic (or less pronounced
"hypomanic") states are characterized by
euphoria, increased energy level, and a sense of being
able to accomplish anything. A person needs less sleep,
judgement and insight are reduced, restlessness, hyperactivity
and impulsivity, racing thoughts, rapid and pressured
speech sometimes with inappropriate humour or behaviour,
reckless spending and increased religious activity.
A person may be irritable or given to rages. Serious
manic states can include very disorganized thinking
and flight of ideas, hallucinations, and paranoia.
The depressive symptoms are similar to those seen
in clinical depression.
Although some children present with
a typical pattern of mood highs and lows, where their
parents can look back over months or years and discern
a pattern of shifts, juvenile bipolar disorder is
seldom characterized by euphoric mood. Some children
show shorter hypomanic episodes or ultrarapid cycling
of mood, where alternations last only hours or a couple
of days. They may present with chronic episodes of
mood lability, severe irritability, agitation, explosiveness,
and temper outbursts which have been referred to as
"affective storms." Accurate diagnosis can
be difficult given that juvenile bipolar disorder
can look so much like other disorders. In children,
bipolar disorder frequently occurs with other syndromes,
including ADHD, conduct disorder, and anxiety disorders,
and the symptoms of the bipolar mood disorder may
not be easily distinguishable from these other disorders.
For example, impulsivity, hyperactivity, depression,
irritability, aggression, inattention, and anxiety
symptoms overlap the different disorders. In addition,
children have a hard time communicating their symptoms
and subjective experience. In fact, there is continuing
controversy about whether there is an actual juvenile
bipolar spectrum of disorders, or whether the symptoms
are a kind of recurrent unipolar major depression
with severe behavioural outbursts, or ADHD with serious
mood swings and depression, or an early sign of bipolar
disorder.
The cycles of depression and mania
can be controlled with mood stabilizing medication,
and other medications may be prescribed by a patient's
physician as well. Individual psychotherapy, family
therapy, and education about the illness alone are
usually not effective, but can be of enormous help
is managing the illness.
Anxiety
Disorders and Shyness
Phobias
Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder
Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder
Anxiety is a feeling everyone experiences
from time to time. People feel anxious when faced
with deadlines, meeting new people, or completing
difficult tasks. A small amount of anxiety actually
improves our performance on many tasks. However, many
people suffer from anxiety problems which reduce the
quality of their lives and compromise their academic
and occupational performance.
In Panic Disorder, a person experiences
periods of unexpected intense fear and dread, usually
accompanied by shortness of breath, dizziness or faintness,
increased heart rate, trembling and shaking, hot or
cold flushes, and a sense of detachment. A person
can feel she is dying or "going crazy" and
terrified about losing control.
A specific phobia-formerly called a
"simple phobia"-is an intense, unrealistic
fear, which sometimes interferes with the ability
to socialize, work, or go about everyday life. It
is brought on by exposure to, or sometimes even the
thought of exposure to, a specific object, event,
or situation that can be anything from airplane travel
to dentists to spiders to heights. People with phobias
generally know that their fears are unreasonable,
but cannot control them and may be tormented by them.
Phobias seem to run in families and are roughly twice
as likely to appear in women. If a person rarely encounters
the feared object, the phobia may not cause a lot
of harm, but if the feared object or situation is
common, it can disrupt everyday life. Social phobia
and agoraphobia are kinds of phobias which may interfere
with daily life in a serious way.
Social anxiety disorder or social phobia
is an intense fear of being criticized or evaluated
by other people. People with social anxiety are nervous,
anxious, and afraid about many social and performance
situations. It tends to start early in life, and to
be referred to as "shyness". For a child,
leaving home for school, or for an adult, attending
a business meeting can be nerve-wracking and intimidating.
Although a person with social anxiety may want to
be sociable and to fit in with everyone else, their
anxiety about not performing well around others is
strong enough that it tends to undo their best efforts.
Their self-consciousness and shyness is overwhelming
and they freeze up when they meet new people, especially
people in authority. People with social anxiety tend
to avoid social situations.
Agoraphobia is the fear of having a
panic attack in a public place, and the accompanying
avoidance of these places. This is usually the result
of having experienced a panic attack in a public place
before. As panic attacks occur more often and in different
locations, the person with the disorder begins to
feel that going anywhere outside of a small safe zone
is impossible.
In Generalized Anxiety Disorder, a
person worries excessively about more than one circumstance.
A child or adult with this problem feels worried most
of the time, and the worry is free-floating, coming
or going without apparent reason. . The worries may
be unrealistic and far-fetched, but the person who
suffers with generalized anxiety disorder fixates
on them and can't get them out of their mind. Physical
symptoms can include bodily tenseness, a lump in the
throat, trouble falling asleep, and difficulty concentrating.
It is very hard for a person with generalized anxiety
just to be still and relax. A person with generalized
anxiety disorder may have experienced panic attacks
in the past and been agoraphobic.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent
obsessions or thoughts associated with a sense of
alarm or threat, and compulsive behaviours which relate
to escape from the perceived threat. Thoughts may
involve a perceived threat of harm to oneself or someone
else or may involve a metaphysical or spiritual threat.
Obsessive thinking related to contamination from germs,
disease, or dirt commonly involve escape rituals related
to cleaning, such as excessive hand washing and chronic
cleaning. Obsessions related to having failed to complete
some important task may lead to compulsive checking
behaviours, where a person checks and rechecks door
locks, light switches, faucets, or stoves. A person
can check items ten or even a hundred times, with
an overwhelming impulse to recheck until he or she
experiences a reduction in tension. There are various
forms of OCD, all of which are more or less disruptive
to learning and living. Insight into the fact that
a thought is irrational or unreasonable provides no
relief, and reassurance from someone else has little
lasting positive effect.
In Posttraumatic stress disorder, someone
who has been through a traumatic life experience experiences
intense anxiety and panic as a result of what they
have been through. Accidents, violence, abuse, natural
disasters, wartime experiences imprint themselves
on a person and intrude during sleep as nightmares
or during the day as insistent memories or flashbacks.
A sufferer may experience panic as a result of exposure
to things that remind them of the traumatic event,
or when their mind wander to the event. Emotional
numbing and avoidance behaviours are features of post-traumatic
stress disorder as is hyperarousal, so that someone
feels keys up and on guard a lot of the time, sleeps
poorly, or is easily startled.
Today, the prognosis for most anxiety
problems is good to excellent. Group, individual,
or family-based psychological treatment or medical
treatment or some combination of these is often very
helpful.
Social
Skills problems
Some children learn social skills naturally
through their daily interactions. Others require direct
teaching to be able to learn appropriate skills. Social
skills training involves teaching children to make
more effective use of interpersonal communication
strategies, learn social problem-solving techniques
and rules for appropriate social behaviour. Children
have difficulty developing social skills for a variety
of reasons. Some developmental difficulties-ADHD,
Asperger's Syndrome-are often associated with social
difficulties. Depression or anxiety can reduce social
skills, and the lack of exposure to role-models may
delay development of social skills. When social skill
deficits are severe or the child has particular learning
needs, teaching often begins in a one-on-one setting
with a teacher or mentor. For example, preschool age
children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often begin
by being directly taught to look in their teacher's
eyes when speaking. Later in the day, during free
play, this child may be prompted by the teacher to
ask a classmate to play or to begin a discussion with
a peer about a favourite topic. He or she may require
practice and prompting in several settings over a
period of time in order to develop appropriate social
skills. Some children benefit from a small group learning
in social skills. This may take the form of a therapy
group designed to give children a forum in which to
discuss, learn, and practice skills helpful in dealing
with current social issues, with the guidance of a
trained counsellor. One advantage of the group format
is that it provides a safe environment in which children
can practice newly acquired skills through role-playing
with other group members.
Addictions
Abuse of alcohol, prescription and non-prescription
drugs, or gambling can lead to serious difficulties
in all aspects of life. In seeking help with one's
use of substances or gambling, it is not necessary
that large life problems exist, although this is frequently
what leads people to seek treatment. Addiction is
characterized by frequent use of a substance or gambling,
preoccupation with the activity when not engaged with
it, and interference of the activity with daily living.
Often family members and close friends are the first
to notice that an individual is struggling with substance
abuse or gambling. At other times, family members
are the last to know. Treatment for substance abuse
and gambling can be beneficial for the individual,
as well as his or her family. Substance abuse affects
an individual, not only during the activity, but also
afterward. Alcohol and drugs stay in the human system
for varying amounts of time, and impact performance
on learning, working, relating to others, and other
activities.
info@redladder.ca
Adult ADHD
Divorce, Kids and Stress
