Help Your Child with Attentional Deficits Succeed!
By Antonia Llull, MOT, OTR/L and Kristen Peterson, MS

Occupational Therapists and Education Specialists dedicated to and experienced with fostering the development and achievement of children with deficits in attentional skills, impulse control, and/or hyperactivity focus on:

• Helping children develop the Coping Skills that help them manage their problem area, in order to maximize functional performance, on a daily basis.
• Remediation of sensory integrative dysfunction – The ability to process, organize, and modulate information from all sensory systems provides the foundation required to selectively attend, divide attention, and successfully inhibit extraneous-nonessential information. A therapist skilled with helping children modulate sensory information will provide therapeutic intervention – when their home program recommendations are followed by their family and educators, adaptive self-regulation will develop.
• Fostering Self-Esteem through achievement of self initiated goals, highlighting strengths and interests, and establishing the foundation for self-regulation.
• Helping children develop Social Skills through supporting a child’s ability to recognize non-verbal cues (body language, facial expression, gestures) and increase frustration tolerance with more effective coping strategies. Therapeutic social groups and structured social activities in a classroom or community setting facilitate the above, in addition, they also provide opportunities to teach peers and siblings how to understand their friend/sibling and provide them with constructive ways to react when confronted with impulsive behaviors, as opposed to avoiding play-date/interactions with an impulsive, hyperactive, or inattentive child.
• Family dynamics – helping parents foster their child’s development of age appropriate independence, adaptive behaviors, and the ability to generalize his/her skills across situations. Helping parents use positive behavioral supports, academic adaptations, and sensory supports is a critical aspect of helping a child with attentional difficulties.

A child’s successful journey through life long learning is cultivated at the Maitland Academy with A.LL Therapy Connection. The essential Coping and Self-Regulatory Skills necessary to succeed, despite attentional deficits, are consistently nurtured in our sensory enriched, academic program that combines individualized small group education with therapeutic approaches to maximize the potential of every student. Children are provided the opportunities to work towards solutions that assist them to increase their ability to sit or stand functionally, remain on task, follow verbal and written instructions, complete routine tasks without repetitive reminders, reduce their frustration with academics and social interactions, shape a healthy self esteem, and build long term friendships.

Some fundamental strategies (please contact us for more in depth and individualized recommendations):
• Pay close attention to your child’s diet. Many reputable clinical settings recommend nutritional supplements within the course of treatment for attention deficit. The impact of high yeast (Candida Albicans) in your child’s system may also negatively impact his/her ability to attend.
• Highlight key words in a book or written directions.
• Highlight details like the + (plus) or – (minus) sign when doing math problems. Have your child learn to highlight for themselves.
• Break-down a big project into several phases – teach your child to eventually do this themselves.
• Use brightly colored signs to compensate for forgetfulness – continuously change the color or shape of the sign to keep it that “sign” from becoming acclimated.
• Use structure versus control to support follow-through.
• Experiment with the use of music in the background – in many cases music can increase selective attention.
• Provide something specific to do while your child is waiting for his/her turn -- this can be as simple as having a fidget toy or having a “waiting” station.
• Provide short duration “sensory-motor” breaks during challenging academic activities – when chosen correctly, these breaks enhance your child’s ability to increase attentional skills and adaptive behaviors.
• During academics or other “work” – have structured break times that have a specified time frame. Helping your child learn to volitionally set a limited time frame will play a great role for independent self-regulation.
• Use graphic organizers and templates to assist your child with organizing his/her thoughts for reading, writing, and solving word problems.

Multiple strategies can be used to manage inattentive, impulsive, and/or hyper-active behaviors in a manner that helps your child grow into an independent successful adult. Shaping coping skills and the ability to use coping “tools” successfully is essential.

Visit www.alltherapyconnection.com and www.maitlandacademy.com

Antonia Llull (“Tonina”) holds a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy and has specialized in Pediatrics for the past ten years. She is the founder of A.LL Therapy Connection and the Co-Founder of Maitland Academy. Tonina is SOI and SIPT certified and is a sensory integration specialist. She has extensive training in multiple strategies, including auditory, visual-ocular, neuro-developmental, neuro-muscular, and psychosocial approaches, specifically coordinated to maximize every child’s independence. Tonina is dedicated to fostering the development of happy children that meet their full potential. For more information regarding therapeutic services and programs available, call 407-388-0246 or email atci@cfl.rr.com.

Kristen Peterson holds a Master’s Degree in Exceptional Student Education and is currently working toward her Education Specialist Degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Management. She has worked in the field of special education for over ten years. Classroom management, curriculum, assessment, and staff development are her area of expertise. Kristen is the proud mother of a 10 year old boy with ASD. She is the Co-Founder of Maitland Academy and through this innovative program she continues to educate students based on their individual learning style. For more information regarding Maitland Academy, call 407-599-5777 or email administration@maitlandacademy.com.