Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h9GI9UV22094; Thu, 16 Oct 2003 14:09:30 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 14:09:30 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <63a07d6385bc.6385bc63a07d@pima.edu> Errors-To: listowner@nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Heidi Silver Pacuilla <Heidi.Silver-Pacuilla@pima.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:2746] Re: ADHD X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: iPlanet Messenger Express 5.2 HotFix 1.12 (built Feb 13 2003) Status: O Content-Length: 4362 Lines: 87 I think raising awareness first of all about what learning, memory, concentration, and attention ARE is an important preliminary step before beginning a conversation on a diagnosed/able disability. Many of us/our culture/our students have unrealistic expectations of what it means to "pay attention" "concentrate" "comprehend" "learn" "remember" much less all the words that would go into a similar list on "reading." The whole culture is rushing to diagnose women with ADHD/ADD - and to continue the metaphor - in a haphazard fashion with flashy ads that portray women who are scattered, disorganized, and overwhelmed as having a disability. Yeah, well, let's just take a look at any one of our date books! We are all so overloaded it's a wonder we do as much as we do. Jenny Horsman's 1990 book, "Something in my mind besides the everyday" makes a great point, that the poor suffer lives DISorganized by the system. Appointments canceled, waiting rooms unruly, always strapped for money, unable to plan on regular allowances and budgets, jerked from one policy to another. It would be difficult for anyone to look and feel organized in such a world. Her 2000 book, "Too Scared to Learn" makes the point that the trauma that many literacy learners live with continues to impact their attention, concentration, memory, attendance, learning, etc. As a disability specialist, I'm not at all trying to say that impairments and neurological difficulties do not exist. I am saying that how those differences and difficulties are received, accepted, and talked about by others is the basis for what we consider a "disability." Too often in education we rush to identify a learner's difficulty as an individual deficit without looking at the whole context in which they are trying to learn (which includes our classrooms and instruction). If someone truly has an impairment, they are deserving of an official and professional diagnosis and treatment (not only and not necessarily med's) and accommodations in our classrooms, but I think the conversation has to come first. Heidi Silver-Pacuilla LD Resource Instructor Pima College Adult Education 401 N. Bonita Ave. Tucson, AZ 85709-5600 (520) 206-6500 ----- Original Message ----- From: Susan McGilloway <msmcgilloway@msn.com> Date: Thursday, October 16, 2003 9:49 am Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:2745] Re: ADHD > Thank you for the information in your e-mail and the addvance > website. At 19 > my daughter is being diagnosed with ADHD after years of > misdiagnoses. She is > incredibly bright but has reached a stone wall in her college > education. She > is relieved to finally find a name for the challenges she has > faced these > last two years. > > In my work with ABE and GED students, I am meeting many women who > I believe > have ADHD or ADD. The problem is the lack of centers offering low > cost > diagnostic testing. DSS offers little to nothing, so many are > going > "official" diagnoses and without treatment. > > Sue McGilloway > Counselor > Community College of Baltimore County > msmcgilloway@msn.com > > > >From: "Daphne Greenberg" <alcdgg@langate.gsu.edu> > >Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@nifl.gov > >To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> > >Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:2737] ADHD > >Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 13:47:52 -0400 (EDT) > > > >I read the following in the Sept. 2003 of the Journal of > Adolescent and > >Adult Literacy (p.7): > > > >- Research is showing that ADHD is common in girls > > > >- While boys who have ADHD often show signs of defiance and > disruptiveness > >in class, girls often show less of those signs and more of the > >inattentiveness. > > > >- Girls who have ADHD may be misdiagnosed as having anxiety or > depression.> > >- For more information about girls and women with ADHD, go to: > >www.addvance.com > > > >Daphne Greenberg > >Associate Director > >Center for the Study of Adult Literacy > >MSC 6A0360 > >Georgia State University > >33 Gilmer Street SE Unit 6 > >Atlanta, GA 30303-3086 > >phone: 404-651-0127 > >fax:404-651-4901 > >dgreenberg@gsu.edu > > _________________________________________________________________ > Add MSN 8 Internet Software to your current Internet access and > enjoy > patented spam control and more. Get two months FREE! > http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/byoa > >
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