What are Biobehavioral/Neuropsychiatric Disorders?
There are Five types of ADHD and Their Co-Morbid Features:
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Executive Function Problems
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Learning and Processing Problems
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Learning and Working Memory Problems
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Social Imperceptions and Social Perceptual Problems
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Temper Dysregulation Disorder and in some cases distractibility, impulsivity and hyperactivity.
People with ADHD also struggle with self-management and self-motivation, often requiring external rewards to acquire new and better response patterns. Medication for a person with an accurately diagnosed ADHD is often helpful, along with various coaching and therapy interventions.
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Mood Regulation Problems are marked by rapid mood swings, periods of excessively manic or depressive responses, low frustration tolerance, difficulty in experiencing happiness and tendencies to misread the moods and emotional status of others. Mood problems can reflect brain chemical/hormonal problems [endogenous] or normal responses to ongoing and stubborn problems in important living environments [exogenous]. Medications, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, and altered responses of others can be helpful.
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Anxiety and Obsessive/Compulsive Disorders reflect abnormal responses to perceived threats in the environment which puts the brain and body into primitive defensive response modes. Obsessive-compulsive responses are often triggered by anxiety and reflect ineffective ways to deal with/escape from frequently repeating bouts of strong uncomfortable anxiety that are not based on the usual perceptions of reality. The professional literature reports that medication and specific Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies can be helpful.
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Thought/Cognitive Disorders reflect significant structural/ chemical problems in the brain and can be partially genetic in terms of their causations. Research has indicated poor neurotransmitter functions and problems with the brain’s connective white matter and glial [a complex support system for the white matter and the neurons] system, The best, but often only partially effective interventions are medication, the use of specific Cognitive-Behavioral types of therapy and on-going coaching and environmental modification supports.
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Functional Disorders where adult/familial expectations do not match actual skill and/or maturation levels of a struggling person. These common problems include inaccurate expectations about school and/or job performances, undetected areas of skill or emotional control deficits and/or maturity levels, and brain/hormone driven variability in behaviors that do not seem to reflect external environmental events. The acting-out episodes that arise from these errors of adult expectations are frequently “Escape Behaviors” where the child/teen tries to escape from ill-fitting requirements/ expectations.
The best interventions require careful and complete assessments to identify true functional skill levels and adjustments of the expectations of significant persons in the struggling child’s/teen’s/adults’ environments. There should also be a shift towards providing many more positive feedback messages than negative feedback messages.
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Other Functional Disorders occur when adults use flawed and ineffective methods of behavioral and emotional management with struggling persons. Ineffective adult behavior managers tend to over-use “Stop” and “Don’t” messages with their loved ones. The golden rules for "Effective Behavior Management and Self-Esteem Growth" include:
Ask for, pay attention to and reward those truly doable responses from others that you want.
Ignore, prevent and mildly punish those negative behaviors that you don’t want from others.
Persist in training and rewarding the use of desired behaviors over time to make sure that they are over-learned and easily retrievable during difficult situations[This is a vital part of behavior management if the goal is for children or teens to be able to easily access and use their newly learned positive replacement behaviors].
Remember that "Telling Ain't Training". Frequently and continually punishing a person for not doing what they are told to do is almost always a big mistake on the part of adults that takes relationships in very negative directions.
The ongoing and frequent failure to get so-called compliance responses from children/teens often represents errors in adult management-strategies. Sometimes there are problems in school, work and other community settings that reflect a lack of training and understanding of exceptionality on the part of adults who have been given the responsibilities of teaching and managing both typical and atypical children/teens/adults.
Linda Classen will frequently meet with educators on how to effectively work with students who have unusual experiences and learning/ management needs.
Edward Gooze will do home and job-site visits when other coaching, information-providing and therapeutic contacts don’t seem to be working as well as are needed.
The management of biobehavioral or neuropsychiatric problems require the effective functioning of a family/professional team. Linda Classen and Ed Gooze will be part of helping adult coaching participants put together a complete team and to make effective choices about the kinds of services that are most likely to be helpful and cost-effective.
What are some Coaching Management Strategies often provided to PFCP Participants and how are they tracked as adult participants work to create and habituate better parenting responses in their homes?
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Adults must change what they have been doing before struggling children/teens will change.
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Adults must work hard to ensure that their expectations about a struggling child are developmentally and biobehaviorally accurate.
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Adults need to master and follow the Three Golden Rules [see above] for effective management of children/teens at home and in other settings.
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Adults should almost always shut down their halves of chronic arguments and power-struggles. The person who gets in the last word during these kinds or altercations always loses in the long run.
Don’t talk and/or explain too much to an upset child/teen. Leave and have everyone cool off before coming back for attempts at problem-solving. -
Don’t talk too much to visual learners [often boys].
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Try to bore upset people into submission. The louder and more shrill they are, the softer and more boring you should become. DO NOT broadcast negative emotion and anger in your efforts to cope with episodes of dyscontrol.
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Parenting out of anger or guilt is a BIG mistake.
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If you are confronting a youngster who is upset and being obnoxious, and you calmly leave, does their craziness continue to exist for you? Learn when to take a parent time-out.
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