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I was excited to attend the 2018 International Conference on ADHD with a group of ADHDKC board members. I’ll try to recap some of the best information learned.
We were all able to make connections with people from all over the world who research and treat symptoms associated with ADHD and with those who are in various learning stages about their own ADHD. It was not uncommon throughout the conference to hear that people found their tribe…
Too much information
There were many simultaneous talks during the 4 day conference. I went to many great talks but missed others. I tried to tweet #ADHDcon2018 during the conference, but couldn’t pay attention and tweet at the same time, so missed a lot of points to share.
International connections
I was very fortunate to meet Marylin, a woman from France who is passionate about learning and sharing information about ADHD. She shared with me that ADHD is not commonly recognized in France and she is working to change that. Learn more about her organization at TDAH.
Marilyn recorded several of the sessions and uploaded them to her Facebook page. I’ll share these along with other information below.
Marylin and speakers, Dr. Michelle Frank and Sari Solden.
Translation from Facebook:
If you thought ADHD was reserved for children…. If you thought that: in the same way as intellectual early, (fortunately less and less used) ADHD disappears over time…. If you thought ADHD was a bad education…. too permissive…. If you thought ADHD was a simple motor hyperactivity…. So…. it’s time to learn, to inform you to understand this neurobiological disorder that affects millions of people around the world: Children, adolescents, adults, men and women together. The symptoms differ, however, the disorder remains the same. ADHD is an invisible, ill-known, misunderstood handicap, particularly in France, where diagnosis and care have accumulated considerably harmful delays. 10, 15 (rather 20 years to be honest) compared to other countries of the world. ADHD is not happy with associated disorders (called morbid), dyslexia, dyscaculie, ect… anxiety disorder, disorder disorder with provocation. Non-diagnosed ADHD may also lead to adolescent-Risk Pipelines: Sexuality, driving, risk-taking, addictions, (drugs, tobacco, alcohol) unwanted pregnancies, and D after the latest research: a considerably reduced longevity. Are you ready to open your eyes and ears and change your states d spirits…
Dr. Russel Barkley
Dr. Russel Barkley is a world renowned expert on ADHD and was one of the keynote speakers. He spoke at the Midwest ADHD Conference sponsored by ADHDKC.org last spring, so you might recognize him and his message: untreated (and undertreated) ADHD has risks!
The video originally shared here is no longer available. Another recorded session from Dr. Barkley is found in this ADDitude Webinar.
And yes, we were smitten with him being there… he’s that big of a deal!
Unique Challenges Facing Mothers & Daughters with ADHD
Our own Jeremy Didier and her daughter were among a panel of mother/daughter pairs who talked about living with ADHD.
Self care
I was not in this session, but found a snippet on Twitter:
Importance of self care. Thoughts on shame#adhdcon2018 #adhd@EricTivers talk on adulting pic.twitter.com/SeyAFIVXl1— Susie Sahim ➡️ #ADHDCon2018 (@bogusred) November 11, 2018
Jessica McCabe from How to ADHD
I was excited to be able to see How to ADHD‘s Jessica McCabe as the final keynote speaker.
For those who don’t know her, she has made a name for herself making videos about ADHD. I’ve been a fan of her videos for several years, so seeing her live was awesome!
One of her first slides summarized the other three keynote speakers talks.
LeDerick Horne spoke of growing up with dyslexia and ADHD in a time and place that was not supportive, yet developing into a renowned poet and public speaker. Eduardo Briceno talked about having a growth mindset. Dr. Russell Barkley shared his 40+ years of research data showing that untreated ADHD has too many risks to ignore – they all culminate in a significantly shortened lifespan.
Marylin also caught this in full on Facebook live. Start at about 14 min in to skip all the conference acknowledgements if you’re not interested in those.
Coach Diane
I was really excited to see that Coach Diane, from Odyssey Learning, was speaking at this conference. Since I won’t be able to make her local talk next month, it was fantastic to hear how she uses creative ways to help kids and teens learn executive function skills.
All of her slides are available from her website, Odyssey Learning.
What did she talk about?
She talked about how we’re wired to learn when we’re interested. Everyone, but especially those with ADHD, struggle to pay attention when they aren’t interested.
Fear, stress, boredom and anxiety of course make learning even harder, and these are common traits found in people with ADHD. When kids with ADHD are bored, they can suffer from agitation. This gets mislabeled as a behavior problem, but it’s a neurological problem!
Making new concepts and information interesting is one successful way to help people learn. She uses cooking, games, magic, and more to help kids learn.
Backwards planning is one strategy that helps kids complete tasks. Knowing where you want to end up, then coming up with all the steps that are required to get there, is backwards planning. She will use cooking to model backwards planning, then help kids learn to generalize the skill to real life examples.
So much more…
There was so much that I have not been able to share. There are API handouts as well as general session handouts available online.
If you are able to make it to the next conference, it should be great!