For ADDers -- who've been known, at
times, to struggle --
four regimens have been adapted.
Behavior training tries
to modify habits. Attitude
training aims to "reframe" events
and situations. Social-skills
training teaches people-
reading, and people-responding. And
life-skills training
relates practical know-how.
Now there's a fifth: attention
training, or "cognitive
remediation." (In practice, the
contents of these will
likely merge; but emphases will
vary.) This last seeks
to upgrade basic attributes --
concentration, short-term
memory, processing speed -- to
bolster more complex
problem-solving capabilities.*
Getting us started on this will be
psychologist Tiffany
Herlands. After earning a
doctorate, Dr. Herlands went
to Montefiore Medical Center in the
Bronx, where she
helped devise the computer-based
Neuropsychological
Educational Approach to Remediation
(NEAR).**
Slides from this will be shown at
the meeting.
NEAR has now been adopted by some
at Columbia
Herlands teaches, and works with
clients at the new Adult
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Assessment and Treatment
Dr. Herlands, who serves
as treasurer of the New York
Neuropsychology Group, also
does public education
first appearance before the Support
Group.
* Recipients of
this approach include stroke survivors,
psychiatric inpatients, substance
abusers -- and the
general public. For example,
a myriad of teaching aids --
software programs, flashcards,
audio tapes -- have been
marketed to parents, looking to
give toddlers a mental
head start; and to boomers hoping
to maintain an edge.
** According to one of its
creators, NEAR uses
"commercially available
educational software" picked
"for its merits in stimulating
various neuropsychological
functions" and which
is also "engaging, enjoyable, and
intrinsically motivating." Which
will feature "a range of
sensory stimuli," provide
"immediate feedback," and --
hopefully -- help create "a
learning environment that
fosters independence,
self-efficacy, and persistence
on learning tasks."
