on Act of 1972, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. If your ADHD isn't being accommodated under these laws, ask the school nurse how to find out if it can be.
Be careful taking medicine.
- Ask about your school's policy on taking medicines at school.
- When parents deliver your medicine, be sure the prescription label lists your name, diagnosis, medicine name, dose, and, especially, when to take it.
- Until taking doses on time gets routine, make notes to yourself or set your watch alarm.
- To prevent mix-ups, always tell the person giving you the medicine your full name, see that the bottle is yours, and make sure you get the correct number of tablets.
- Report side effects to your parents or the nurse.
- Never "help out" someone else by sharing your medicine.
Improving School Work
- Write on every other line to leave room for ideas you might add later.
- Leave out unimportant words, like "the" and "an."
- List some abbreviations of your own at the front of your notebook for reference.
- Ask a friend to take notes over carbon paper to provide a copy for you.
- Ask teachers to let you have a copy of their notes.
- Make an audio-cassette recording of lectures, especially before tests.
Understand what you read.
- Read while you are fresh.
- Decide what you're looking for. Then skim the material, noting pictures and graphs and reading the headings and bold print.
- List unfamiliar words, then look them up. Get help if you don't understand a meaning.
- Read assigned questions before the material. Then write answers as you read along.
- Highlight or underline important information on your study sheets.
- Read the material again.
Improve written assignments.
- Use a computer with a spell-check. Writing on a computer can also help you organize your thoughts.
- To check spelling without a computer, start at the bottom of the page and move up.
Improve math assignments.
- If you start to feel lost in a unit, tell your teacher, advisor or tutor immediately, as each new math concept builds on what you've already learned.
- Leave space between examples. Line up the numbers in columns carefully.
- Check each math solution before handing it in, especially on tests.
- Practice math in the summer with worksheets or summer school.
- Study with a partner.
- Use your textbook's headings and subheadings for a study outline.
- Put important information on cards or audiotape for reviewing.
- Organize your notes and worksheets by topic. Study some each night.
- Allow two nights for review before a test.
- Get plenty of sleep the night before a test.
- If you get anxious when you can't answer a test question, stop and take deep breaths. Then jot down some facts you do know, which may trigger the answer.
- Discuss your school routine and grades with your advisor weekly or even daily.
(Adolescents and ADD, Gaining the Advantage is published by Magination Press, New York, N.Y.; telephone 1-800-825-3089.)
- The patient must often have:
either six of these inattention symptoms:
- does not pay close attention to details or makes careless mistakes
- has difficulty sustaining attention in activities
- does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
- does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish duties Abusing ADHD Drugs Can Prove Deadly
- has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
- avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks requiring sustained mental effort
- loses things necessary for tasks or activities
- is easily distracted
- is forgetful in daily activities
or six of these hyperactivity or impulsiveness symptoms:
- fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
- leaves seat in classroom or other times when remaining seated is expected
- inappropriately runs about or climbs excessively or, in older patients, feels restless
- has difficulty playing or taking part in leisure activities quietly
- is "on the go" or acts as if "driven by a motor"
- talks excessively
- blurts out answers before questions have been completed
- has difficulty awaiting turn
- interrupts or intrudes on others, such as butting into conversat