Posted by leor on October 13, 2002, at 13:17:28
In reply to ADD characterisitcs: ??? for both Jo Ann + Veridis, posted by IsoM on October 13, 2002, at 2:49:22
A few words about A.D.D. coaches:Throughout the 2001-2002 academic year I had weekly consults with a wonderful woman who was formerly the head of special services for the University of Guelph, here in Ontario. Truly, these were some of the most empowering experiences I've had. Since early childhood I had been aware that I had A.D.D. and thus a unique, outside-the-box way of thinking. Still, try as I did, I could not grasp how to merge the form of my thnking with the functions of my life Carol
guided me as I discovered how to dillegently anylase my actions and thoughts so as to better master myself in the long term. For example: I had long dealt with my poor reading concentration by focussing in as intensely as possible on the material. A good general strategy, perhaps, but a disastrously wrong one for an ADDer. Carol and I created a profile of my reading
abilites and disabilites and then designed a multi-modal approach for me to apply: quickly scan the reading, demarcate the areas important to me, formulate questions to assess those areas, and then lastly attack it. This was but one of many common and not so common sense strategies that she revealed to me. I doubt that I could have found many of them had I flew solo.From my expereince, North American public educational system discriminate in favor of left-brained visual learners. If your brain is wired for any of the other six learning styles, you are out of luck. Without appropriate outside intervention, an ADDer will go through life using thinking techniques that are somewhat ill-fitting and so be slowed or (G-d forbid) even barred from achieving to their full potential.
I am comfortable communicating through orality alone and so could get by having my consultations with Carol over the phone (I live in Ottawa, Carol in Guelph. The two cities are seven hours away). For those who want someone local for face to face meeting, my suggestion is to plug into the network of A.D.D support organizations and resource institutions and than search out someone in your area.
A web search online and a look at the yellow pages can often turn up some introductory some leads. If a particular contact or organization whom you call does not have anyone to recommend I would suggest asking them if they know of anyone who might know of anyone. Eventually you'll score a hit.Unfortunately, many A.D.D. coaches do their advertising by word of mouth, so that tracking them down becomes a time-consuming quest. There is an upswing to this situation, though, which is that word-of-mouth is often a good gauge of a person's professional caliber (after all people won't recommend someone unless they think highly of them).
Best of luck in your journeys and please do not hesitate to write back should you have any further questions.
Blessings.
Leor
P.S. If you happen to know of any good list serves especially for people with A.D.D, I'd love to know hot to get in on them. Thanks.
poster:leor
thread:122401
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021012/msgs/123475.html