Past Meetings:
March 2020
Thank you to Beckham Linton from Heartland Social Learning Center and Bobbie Lainey Mahaney from Sparkling Resilience, LLC. Whole Health Coaching by Lainey for great talks! I heard positive feedback from the parent talk about communication tips and was able to see the discussion in the student room about bullying. Slides for each are on our main website.
February 2020
Deborah Herzog, an occupational therapist from St. Nicholas Children’s Therapies, spoke to our parent group about sensory integration. Sensory integration is at the root of development. Incoming sensory information is perceived by lower brain centers before it can be fully interpreted by higher brain centers for a motor response. When the lower brain center isn’t developed optimally, then incoming sensory information can be misinterpreted, and then higher brain centers might not have adequate information to give an appropriate response. For example, after auditory information enters the ears and if the lower brain center perceives it as a threat, then the higher brain centers get bits and pieces of the information versus a whole picture. This can affect how your child responds and learns. Her slides are available on our Past Meetings page.
Dr. Kristen Stuppy talked with our student group about the common side effects of medications used to treat ADHD and what to do when they occur.
Links to the slides from each presentation are available on ADHDKC.
January 2020
Dr. Simone Moody, a psychologist at Children’s Mercy’s ADHD Clinic, talked to our parent group on the importance of routines and how to use them effectively. She discussed common barriers families find when setting routines and ways to overcome them.
Graduate students Haley Killian and Jarrod Sotos presented an engaging talk about all the terminology used when discussing ADHD to our ADHDKCTeen group. Students learned various words and abbreviations so that they can advocate for themselves at home, school, and beyond.
December 3, 2019
Both the parent group and the student group had fantastic learning experiences at the December 3rd ADHDKC and ADHDKCTeen meetings.
In the ADHDKCTeen room Dr. Toni Cook spoke about social skills. The group talked about communication skills, impulsivity, and hidden disabilities. They also watched videos of Elf, Parenthood, and King of Queens to pick out expected and unexpected behaviors. The top left image shows the worksheet they used for one activity.
The parents in the ADHDKC room heard Dr. Tiffany Arrington and Dr. Karen Jordan from the Jordan Psychological Center talk about Executive Functioning. Parents learned how kids typically develop executive functioning skills and how those skills are often delayed in kids with ADHD.
Links to the slides from each presentation are available on ADHDKC.
November 5, 2019
A huge thank you to Madeline DeShazer, a research assistant in the ADHD Specialty Clinic at Children’s Mercy, for showing our group how to make bullet journaling work for you. A copy of her slides is available at this link.
Parents learned about ADHD and anxiety from Dr. Tonya Miles next door.
October 1, 2019
October 2019 brought Dr. Michael Slogic and Dr. Carla Counts Allan, both from Children’s Mercy, to the ADHDKC meetings. Dr. Slogic lead the student group in a fun game of Jeopardy to test our ADHD knowledge while Dr. Allan talked to the parent group about behavioral parent training. Of course there were great treats too…
September 6, 2019
Ann Olsen-Meehan from Mindful Therapy KC lead several mindfulness activities with the ADHDKCTeen group.
Local psychologist and author, Dr. Tish Taylor, spoke to our parent group about her new book. From Dr. Taylor: “Parenting ADHD with Wisdom and Grace was written to help provide parenting tips for ADHD.
August 6, 2019
Sarah led a series of games and tasks that were designed to help students develop communication skills and teamwork. They played Zip Zap Zop, Animal Farm, Human Knot, Alphabet Actors, and more. During some of the games the kids were not able to use certain forms of communication to see what problems developed from this omission, then worked on ways to improve the communication. Other games used teamwork techniques. All of the games were fun.
In the parent room, Dr. Katrina Ostmeyer talked to parents about ways they could help their kids learn to be independent.
July 2, 2019
Dr. Stella Fernandez spoke to our student group about how to get motivated so things get done. Dr. Tracy Ochester taught some basic mindfulness techniques to our parent/adult group.
May 7, 2019
Melissa Mereghetti and Nicole Jennison, both Registered Dieticians at Children’s Mercy, talked about nutrition and ADHD. They started with parents and students together. After a brief introduction, Melissa took the students to a separate room, where they each had time to put together balanced meals and snacks and discuss how to construct a healthy plate. The parents stayed in the main room with Nicole to learn more in-depth meal planning and nutrition tips.
The recording of this talk was not adequate for publishing.
April 2, 2019
Paula Smith-Culp from ADDvantagekc and Jonathan Kindler, a local therapist at Serenity Life Resource Center, shared their journeys from childhood to adulthood living with ADHD and how they both came to help others with ADHD.
March 19, 2019
Our Senior Teen Leaders, Connor and Sarah, talked about their experiences living with ADHD. They shared some of the troubles they’ve overcome and what they’re still working on.
A follow up to a question: If you’re interested in learning more about 504 Plans and IEPs, check out Understood.org.
MARCH 5, 2019 MEETING
Lindsay Ryan and two of her interns from Great Oaks Counseling had us play some games and participate in discussions about what keeps us from getting tasks done and how to finish what we start with the ADHDKCTeen group (and their parents). One tool they discussed was the Promodoro Technique. Members can view the recording of the meeting on the Member’s Only Page.
Cindy Brennan from Healthy Roots Counseling talked to parents of young children about Parent Child Interaction Therapy. Stay tuned for some handouts and suggested links. MPACT, a Missouri resource for educational services was mentioned.
During the PCIT talk, a lot of Dr. Russell Barkley’s work and in particular his YouTube video was mentioned.
Also mentioned:
The Whole Brain Child by Dan Siegel as a GREAT resource for all kids, but especially for understanding the brain and how to help regulate kids with ADHD
FEBRUARY 2019 MEETING
Natalie Bergman from Horizon Academy helped us identify what skills we need to live independently then shared tools to help us be successful in that transition. Parents joined the student group due to bad weather.
JANUARY 2019 MEETING
Our January meeting kicked the year off right with Lindsay and Michelle from Great Oaks Therapy. They lead our group through several activities to teach us about improving communication in families. This was recorded so that our members who were unable to attend can view it on our Member’s Only page. Membership is free, see our Membership page for details!
DECEMBER 2018 MEETING
ADHD Coach Diane McLean and her lovable lab, Digby, helped us prepare for some holiday baking by using a backwards planning technique.
NOVEMBER 2018 MEETING
Rachel Nagy from Visionary Life Counseling and Gateway of Hope talked about mindfulness at “How Do I Get Stuff Done?” She shared her planner, which is color coded with the month. She realized she spent too much time organizing. Don’t let that be a means to procrastinate!
OCTOBER 2018 MEETING
Psychologist Stella Fernandez and Kristin, an intern, discussed navigating friendships and peer relationships. Dr. Fernandez helped promote a lot of group interaction at the “Is it you, me, or my teen ADHD” talk on social skills.
SEPTEMBER 2018 MEETING
Grabbing clothespins was harder than it looked!
Katherine Melton presented “Building a Resilient You” after our Teen Leaders lead everyone through several rounds of a fun game. We experienced technical difficulties with the online viewing so it is not available.
Before the speaker’s presentation we played a fun ice breaker – collecting clothespins without getting hit by the pool noodle.
FOX 4 PROMOTION
Sarah and Connor were able to promote ADHDKCTeen on Fox 4!
SUMMERFEST 2018
We had a table at the KC Public School’s annual Summerfest! Sarah, Connor, and Anna helped answer questions and spread the word about our group.
Midwest ADHD Conference
A panel of 4 teens shared their experiences living with ADHD in this Q&A panel. April 27, 2018
