Customer Reviews

Unraveling The Add/Adhd Fiasco

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

I am a practicing pediatrian with a heavy emphasis on behavioral problems. After reading Dr. Stein's former book RITALIN IS NOT THE ANSWER, although skeptical because so much of conventional "wisdom" about managing ADD was challenged, I cautiously began to offer this approach to select parents. The results were impressive in several cases, and this fueled my desire to learn more about Dr. Stein's approach. Having now begun to offer the CSP (Skilled Caregivers Program) for any parent who prefers a non-medication method of dealing with ADD/ADHD behaviors, I continue to experience success in a number of cases where previously medication offered the only hope for improvement. The current volume amplifies on what Dr. Stein has previously written, and adds a number of areas to supplement the fundamental behavioral premises and techniques. Having had an opportunity to read the manuscript twice prior to its current availability, I am most impressed and unhestitatingly recommend it for any parent dealing with this issue and for professionals who would like to be able to help parents to manage their child's behavior problems effectively without having to resort to medications.
A chapter on Dr. Stein's ideas about why we may be experiencing such an explosion of the behaviors defining what we have labelled as ADD/ADHD is outstanding and thought-provoking. I agree with his overall assessment that this behavioral syndrome likely represents basically a culturally derived phenomenon rather than a biological or neurological one.
The discussion of both the importance of, and how to carry out, positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior is outstanding and provides the book a commendable balance while dealing with oppositional behavior. I encourage fellow professionals who might initially hesitate to consider seriously Dr. Stein's conceptualization and recommended approach, to do themselves a favor and read this book.
S. DuBose Ravenel, M.D, F.A.A.P.

After reading all the reviews for this book...I thought that it desperately needed a review from a parent who read and practiced the book. I am a graduate student in Social Work and a mom to a child that I DID NOT want to medicate. I wanted to try behavioral approach first. I can tell you that after two weeks my child's behaviors improved at home by 90%. It has now been 3 months and his behaviors at school have improved but are not completely gone. So in the next few weeks we plan to put in place the report card system. I know alot of professionals will say that it hasn't been long enough to evaluate. So I will post again at the 6 month mark and then the 1 year mark and let you all know how it is going.

I don't think that this book is meant as a Professional Journal it is meant for parents...like me...that hear over and over again what a disjustice we are doing to our children by NOT medicating. Well BRAVO to Dr. Stein for standing up and saying that it is possible to have an IA/HM child that can function appropriately...without the use of stimulants.

I bought this book seeking help for my unruly 5 year old child, who certainly fit the ADHD description on the "diagnosis" checklists, but was too young to actually be diagnosed. I wanted to do something about her behavior before she got into school. I was not faced with the medication question at the time, and was hoping to avoid it altogether.

This book was great. The behavior modification program he describes worked wonderfully. It has transformed our child and our family dynamic greatly. What the program does is put the consequences of the child's behavior squarely on the child's shoulders. "Punishment" is a lengthy (10+ minutes) timeout in a boring room. (Spanking is only advocated if necessary in order to get a child to stay in the chair, and then on a very limited basis. It is not a regular part of the timeout.)

The theory, as I understand it, is that this type of child loves stimulation, and the absence of it -- sitting in a chair in a boring room with nothing to look at or do -- is an effective punishment. Instead of pleading with my child or yelling at her or cajoling her, etc., I simply say "timeout" and off she goes. (And yes, amazingly, she does go to and stay in the chair, without being spanked. Don't ask me why, but she does.) At the end of the time she has to be able to tell me why she was sent. I can think of only one occasion on which she really did not know why.

I lent my book to a neighbor whose son fit the general ADHD profile, and she had similar results. She has since recommened it to 5 others.

I don't know how the author's research stacks up scientifically. Again, I was not looking for drug information. But I feel that he at least makes a strong argument against the drugs, and that his behavior program is a good one to try before resorting to the drugs.

It is not easy for a parent to accept that maybe a more effective parenting style works with this child. I have two older children who are well behaved and have never needed this much work to parent. But it was amazing to see how once my child had to suffer the consequences of her own behavior, she was able to turn it around. One example: she had a regular appointment at a place that was filled with toys and so was very difficult to leave when it was time to go home. The people there liked to talk about how she "had trouble with transitions," which meant that I would either spend 5-10 minutes cajoling her to leave, while I and her siblings waited and I fumed, or carry her out crying, again with me fuming. The only person who was stressed out by this scene was me, Once I implemented the CSP program, I would tell her to leave. If she didn't comply, we left under the usual conditions, except I wasn't fuming, because I knew I could address it once we got home. When she got home, I would calmly tell her timeout, and then leave her there for 30 minutes, without telling her why she was going. Every time, at the end of the timeout, she could tell me why she had been sent. It took about three of these timeouts for her to be "cured" of her "transition difficulties"! Then when I said it was time to leave, she got up and came without incident.

Our timeout chair is in the living room, which is an out of the way room. It is a comfortable chair, normally positioned -- not facing the corner or anything. The timeout is not designed to humiliate the child, just bore him or her. You do not yell or scold or constantly monitor the child in the chair. The point is to give the child as little attention, positive or negative, as possible.

The other ESSENTIAL part of the program is praise for good behavior. For example, when she got up and left at the right time instead of lingering over toys, I made sure to note it and praise her for it. She loves all the positive attention she gets. It is probably even more motivating than the boring timeouts. It is real work to constantly catch your children doing things right, but it has a wonderful effect on their behavior.

If you think about it, Dr. Stein's program is really a very positive and hopeful approach, although it may not seem like it on first reading. He says that we should expect reasonable behavior from these kids; that we should not relax the standards for them; that they do not require constant accomodation. In short, expect them to be normal, not impaired. It expects them to able to acquire a skill that all of us need in life: self control. Further, the timeout is based on lack of attention, positive or negative, so parents stop yelling and freaking out. The child might be throwing a fit in the car, but you can stay calm because you know that when you pull in the driveway all you have to say is "timeout."

This book is not the answer for every "ADHD" problem. It does not really address school issues, and I wonder how effective it would be for an older child, say 12+. My daughter behaves much better, but she is still a very "active" kid, so it will not transform a wiggly kid into someone who magically sits still all the time. But overall it has made a huge difference for our family and my daughter. It has de-stressed me and my interactions with her, and has led her to choose better behavior more of the time.

I strongly recommend it for any parent at her wit's end trying to figure out what to do with her child. And if you are considering the drugs, be warned that it does provides a strong anti-drug view. But perhaps weighing all the arguments -- pro and con -- makes for a more informed and sound decision, even if the decision is to use the medication. If you really can't take or don't want the anti-drug stance, just skip the first half of the book and use the behavior program. It is terrific.

As a graduate student who shares Dr. Stein's concern over the the increasing number of young children placed on methylphenidate, I purchased his book hoping to get a legitimate, empirically supported, behavior program I can offer to parents who are leary about medicating their children. While I will admit that I do plan to incorporate Dr. Stein's CSP (Caregivers' Skills Program) model with parents because I do think it could work, I was very disappointed that the book offered no significant data supporting his treatment. He goes to great lengths to "debunk" what he calls the "junk science" that underlies the pro-Ritalin argument, but when it comes to him offering quantifiable, "good science" data in support of CSP, his methodology is as bad or worse than the pro-Ritalin camp's! Statements such as "I've worked with thousands of kids" or "80% of children using the CSP at home no longer have problems at school" may sound impressive, but anyone who reads professional literature will know better than to trust such vague, unsupported statements. Dr. Stein takes great pains to promote an "us vs. them" debate, where he goes so far as to call Ritalin proponents unethical and borderline criminal. This antagonist stance will not help his cause (or the cause of anyone else who wants to see Ritalin use decrease) at all. If Dr. Stein really wanted to prove his system worked, if he really wanted to demonstrate that Ritalin is not the answer, then he would do good, valid, and reliable research on the CSP. He has published an article, stating that something like 11 of 12 cases improved, but that is a very small sample to base an entire book on. Personally, I would love to see him take that research to a larger scale. I would love to be able to speak to my colleagues and say "See, this works, and the data supports it!" But as it stands now there is no data, so there is no point. I respect Dr. Stein for what he is trying to do. I just wish he would take the necessary research steps to further validate his model.

"If you're going to err then err on the side of toughness"(p166)
"Do not give warning"

Have you ever known a really hyper and misbehaving child who you thought just needed a little bit of discipline in his/her life? This is the book for them. I would not, however, recommend this book to 95% of parents whose children have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.

When I read this book, it scared me. The kind of "parenting" described done to a child with ADHD is abusive, and leads only to frustration, anger, rage and despair, and possibly eventually to life long trauma. How do I know? I have ADD, and so did my brother. No, I am not taking medication. Any medication. And my father believed in the kind of methods described in this book. My ADD has only led me to have trouble in school, and daydream constantly, but my brother who had childhood ADD was not so lucky.

Every day, for twelve long years, my father faithfully followed the methods described in this book, with my brother. Extremely smart and argumentative, my brother could be a terror, and was. He "recovered" at puberty like a third of children with ADHD, and luckily has no long term mental damage from the methods supported in this book. But I do. Almost every day I fled outside, to my room, to the neighbors, anywhere, because of the screams of my brother. Even at age 10, when he was given a "time-out", he really did not understand what he had done. The spankings, the immediate, no excuses, no bargaining, no reasoning attitude could of destroyed him. The house would be filled with screams, pleas, wails, that I was helpless to stop, not from physical but from mental abuse. To my brother, he would at any point be snatched away to be padlocked in a room for no apparent reason, even spanked. He had ADD, and it did not work. Period.

ADD is not a disease; it's just a different way that a human brain can work.
There are lots of methods of dealing with ADD without medication then the ones in this book. If you want to treat a child with ADHD without using medication, get another book about it. It might work, and at least it won't be abusive. If your child does not have ADHD, this book is for you. It really does work, just not for kids with ADD. This book is also not for those who do not believe in spanking kids nine times a day.

I bought this book because I was told that my son showed some ADD tendencies. I was pleasantly surprised that this book provides excellent parenting tips for all children, ADD or not. Whether or not my son actually has these traits, I now feel equipped with skills to effectively discipline and to help him learn self control.

Every parent should read this book. The author points out how societal changes have impacted our kids, i.e. TV, working moms and dads. We all need to reflect on these issues and how they affect our kids. I took my daughter off her medication, turned off the TV on school nights, and used his discipline method. She's doing fine in school and is listening much better.

What an amazing book!!!!!!!!!!!!! My life and my child's behavior has changed so dramatically!! The book states that you will see results in 2 weeks, we saw results in one!!! It is hard work to stick with this program but if you do the results are amazing!!! There is so much less yelling and nagging and reminding in our home. There is actually peace. Once I did the research about the commonly used ADHD drugs and there potential side effects I was mortified and resolved to find a drug free way to help my four year old before she starts kindergarten this fall. Things are not perfect but there is such a dramatic change that even her preschool teachers are asking me what I did to bring about this change. DO THE RESEARCH ABOUT DRUGS!!!!!!!!! IN MY OPINION THEY SHOULD BE USED ONLY IN THE MOST EXTREME OF CIRCUMSTANCES! Try this first. If you can stick with it it works. Sometimes its hard. I even had to put up a "How to to discipline my daughter" reminder on the refridgertor to remind me not to go back to the old ways. But if I stick to it, it really works. To be honest I did not really enjoy my child very much before, She was so hyper and unfocused and didnt seem to listen to anything anyone said. We had tried everything. I read several other books, gave her time outs, took toys and privaledges away, sent her to bed early and about everything else I could think of and it never phased her. I almost gave up and figured and ADHD child really couldnt control herself and this was just the way things were going to be. I had nightmares of her entering kindergarten and the teachers calling every day to complain about what a disruptive and uncontrollable child she was. Now we speak. Her self confidence has increased and she is actually cute again. She is proud of herself and her behavior. Thank you to the author for literally changing my and her life. I STRONGLY URGE ALL PARENTS TO GIVE IT A TRY!!!! WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE? IF YOU WERE LIKE ME YOU TRIED EVERYTING ELSE ALREADY.

My wife and I read Dr. Stein's books outlining his CSP program because our 8 year old son had a number of behavioral issues, at home and at school, that made some of his teachers ask us if we knew about ADHD. Well, I did, as I took a PhD in psychology from Wisconsin in 1988, and what I knew was that it didn't exist except as a label for a complex of recalcitrant, noncompliant behaviors and a low tolerance for frustration. I also knew that use of psychoactive stimulants, such as Ritalin, amphetamine, and methamphetamine, is especially inappropriate for children as they are very likely to permanently change the structure of the brain, lead to depression and other real diseases, and eliminate any valid basis for the child to experience true self efficacy and pride, not to mention genuine higher order creative thought. So, we read Dr. Stein's books and began applying the techniques with our son. We were astonished at how quickly our child progressed! The dawdling in the morning, frequent emotional outbursts, refusals to comply with directives to do whatever - all these - declined dramatically. Were they completely eliminated? Well, did I say he was 8 years old? If you want to get a true scientific picture about the whole ADHD fiasco, and you also have a child who you desperately want to help and not inadvertently hurt, then I strongly recommend that you start with this and Dr. Stein's other related books, then read Peter Breggin's "Talking Back to Ritalin." Dr. Breggin, an MD and psychiatrist, provides compelling proof not only that ADHD doesn't exist, but that stimulant drugs like Ritalin cause serious physical and psychological harm, and that an extremely powerful industry works hard to perpetuate the mythology of ADHD. Some of the other reviewers here need to read these books, and actually try the CSP program, which is an effective method for addressing the difficult motivational (aka "attentional") problems that many pefectly normal children face.

I found this book VERY disturbing. I understand that there are two views about wether or not to medicate children diagnosed with ADHD... for the record, I believe that many do not need to be but some MAY require help for biochemical imbalances.
The information in this text was presented in an incredibly judgemental way with underlying assumptions that are harmful to families. He presents the case that children with families that have stable routines, loving but consistant discipline, lots of time for positive family interaction, not interupted with invasions of the chaotic world around us DO NOT HAVE ADD/ADHD children. This is just INCORRECT. This makes the responsibility of these children's problems fall completely on the parent as a CAUSE of these problems. This kind of judgementalism at a time when families are in crisis and reaching for answers is detrimental to the parents... who's stability the children depend on. It is true that manipulating these environmental factors ( stability, routine, discipline, consistancy, ect) all have a positive effect on these families, the lack of them is NOT the cause of ADD/ADHD...
This book is toxic for parents just reaching out...
Please consider other books such as "From Chaos to Calm" and others that may start you out with a no drug approach without critisizing what you have done or not have done....Beware of any "Doctor" who determines that medication is or is not called for when addressing your childs need and they have not even met your child.
Other books are presented in a much more healthy fashion.