Adhd Charlotte

Looking for pediatric therapy services near Lancaster, South Carolina?

Child and Family Development has an office in South Charlotte that is less than 5 miles from the border and easily accessible from I-77 and the 485 loop.

Our multi-disciplinary clinic has been helping children and families since 1980. The team of experienced therapists can assess and treat a wide range of childhood concerns, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities or special needs.

We participate in many insurance plans.  Also, some of our Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy providers accept South Carolina Medicaid. 

The Contact Us tab on our website will link you to our address and Mapquest. 

Looking for pediatric therapy services near Rock Hill, South Carolina?

Child and Family Development has an office in South Charlotte that is less than 5 miles from the border and easily accessible from I-77 and the 485 loop.

Our multi-disciplinary clinic has been helping children and families since 1980. The team of experienced therapists can assess and treat a wide range of childhood concerns, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities or special needs.

We participate in many insurance plans.  Also, some of our Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy providers accept South Carolina Medicaid. 

The Contact Us tab on our website will link you to our address and Mapquest. 

When looking at behavior, there are close similarities displayed with both children who have attention difficulties (ADD/ ADHD) and sensory processing disorder (SPD).  Co-morbid diagnoses may include Autism, Developmental Delays, and Learning Disabilities.  Common characteristics for children with both sensory seeking SPD and ADHD (hyperactive/impulsive type) are as follows: impulsivity, excessive activity, disorganization, impatience and poor self-control. 

However, more specifically, children who have SPD tend to be more in control of stopping impulsive behaviors.  They may crave activity relating to a specific sensory system, may become more organized after receiving proper sensory input and may be more patient while waiting if give proper sensory input.  They commonly poke/pull/touch others without proper sensory input.

Those who have ADHD (hyperactive/impulsive type), tend to continue impulsive behaviors, be disorganized and have difficulty waiting-even with sensory input.  They tend to crave activity not related to a specific sensory system.  They often talk a lot, impulsively interrupt, and have difficulty waiting a turn during a conversation.

Looking for pediatric therapy services near Fort Mill, South Carolina?

Child and Family Development has an office in South Charlotte that is just 13 miles from there and easily accessible from I-77 and the 485 loop.

Our multi-disciplinary clinic has been helping children and families since 1980. The team of experienced therapists can assess and treat a wide range of childhood concerns, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities or special needs.

We participate in many insurance plans.  Also, some of our Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy providers accept South Carolina Medicaid. 

The Contact Us tab on our website will link you to our address and Mapquest. 

For Children:

Ο        Learning to Slow Down and Pay Attention by K. Nadeau, Ph.D. & E. Dixon, Ph.D. (2004).

Ο        Putting on the Breaks by P. Quinn, M.D. & J. Stern, M.A. (2008).

Ο        Cory Stories by J. Kraus & W. Martin (2004).

For Teens:

Ο        The ADHD Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Gain Motivation and Confidence by L. Honos-Webb, Ph.D. (2011).

Ο        The Girls' Guide To AD/HD: Don't Lose This Book! by B. Walker (2009).

For Young Adults:

Ο        Survival Guide for College Students with ADHD or LD, by K. Nadeau, Ph.D. (2006).

Ο        ADD and the College Student: A Guide for High School and College Students with Attention Deficit Disorder by P. Quinn, MD. (2001).

Along with many rating scales and other standardized tests, the team of child psychologists at Child and Family Development in Charlotte, NC often uses a continuous performance test as one part of our psycho-educational assessments.

The Brain Train website, www.braintrain.com, provides a detailed description of the IVA+Plus and other tests and protocols. 

The IVA+Plus is a unique combined auditory and visual continuous performance test which provides data in order to to help psychologists and other clinicians better assess the ADHD symptoms of individuals ages 6 through adult. Following the diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSM-IV, IVA+Plus provides data that allows for differentiation between the four sub-types of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder – ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type (formerly called ADD), ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, ADHD Combined Type, and ADHD Not Otherwise Specified.

The IVA+Plus is a useful tool. It provides a wealth of objective data, follows the DSM-IV guidelines for a unique integrated format, identifies both auditory and visual inattention and impulsivity, mixes visual and auditory stimuli, creating a "real-life" task, increasing test sensitivity and power and improves diagnostic accuracy. In a validity study, IVA+Plus correctly identified clinician diagnosed ADHD children 92.3% of the time and accurately assessed treatment and medication effects. Research studies demonstrate excellent test-retest reliability and stability.

With diverse clinical expertise, interests and experiences, the Child and Family Development team of psychologists is ready to provide a wide range of evaluation and treatment services.

MIDTOWN OFFICE

Carol Capehart, MA, LPA, is a licensed psychological associate with

about 20 years of clinical experience. Carol has extensive training and

experience in the assessment and treatment of individuals with autism

spectrum disorders (ASD) and founded our ASD evaluative services in

2006. Prior to that, she spent many years working in public schools with

children of all ages and learning abilities.

Gretchen Hunter, Ph.D., CRC, is a licensed psychologist and Certified

Rehabilitation Counselor with a specialty in neuropsychology. She has

experience providing neuropsychological evaluations to children and

adolescents with neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders, learning

disabilities and attention related disorders. She provides individual,

family and group psychotherapy and behavior intervention to children

and adolescents.

Kristina Murphy, Psy.D, HSP-P, is a licensed psychologist who

provides psychotherapy and evaluations to children, adolescents and

young adults. Her specialized focus is adolescents and transitions to

High School and College. Areas of clinical expertise include anxiety,

depression, attention disorders, learning disabilities, life transitions and

adjustment issues.

SOUTH CHARLOTTE OFFICE

Annada Hypes, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist specializing in

the treatment of adolescents and young adults. Dr. Hypes specializes in

treating mood and impulse-control disorders, including depression, self harm,

substance abuse, disordered eating and attention disorders. She regularly offers social skills groups for girls. 

Joy Granetz, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with over thirteen years

of experience. She provides neuropsychological and psychoeducational

evaluations with special focus in working with children and adolescents

with learning disabilities, attention disorders, head injury, tic disorders

and epilepsy. Dr. Granetz is one of a few practitioners in North Carolina

offering Cogmed Working Memory Training, an innovative computer based

training program to help children with attention difficulties.

Chris Vrabel, Psy.D., is a licensed psychologist specializing in child

evaluation and child and family therapy. He has expertise in the assessment of

autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention disorders, learning disabilities and

other developmental, behavioral and emotional problems. Dr. Vrabel also

provides therapy to children and families with concerns regarding ADHD,

behavior problems, depression, anxiety, social difficulties and other issues.

Read the blog, visit the website, or contact the offices to learn more about our child psychology services.

Lost homework? Messy room and book bag? Cramming the night before a big test? Does this sound familiar?

Most teens can benefit from learning organization skills. Teenagers with ADHD have specific neurological differences that often affect executive functioning, or the pre-frontal cortex area of the brain that “executes” tasks. Executive functioning refers to fundamental brain-based skills of getting organized, planning, staying on task, and inhibiting impulses. Fortunately, parents and teenagers can work together to improve executive functioning.

Regardless of whether your child has ADHD, teaching him or her executive functioning skills can foster independence and success. The first step often involves becoming aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses. The knowledge of one's own cognitive skills is called “metacognition.” Developing metacognitition can actually help improve executive functioning. The primary purpose of identifying strengths and weaknesses is to be able to design and implement interventions to address these weaknesses. A psychologist at Child and Family Development often works with families to formulate such a plan. One book that is often recommended is Smart but Scattered (2009), which has easy-to-read information, charts and tables, and plenty of real-world examples for home and school.

Source: Smart but Scattered by Peg Dawson, Ed.D. and Richard Guare, Ph.D. (2009).  

The Family Clinic: Multi-Modal Management of ADHD and Related Emotional Issues was founded in February 1991, a joint effort of Carolina Neurological Clinic and Child and Family Development, to provide services to children diagnosed with attention disorders.

Since 2001, Dr. Pleas Geyer of Carolinas Medical Center has led the collaboration. The Family Clinic has broadened it’s scope to include not only children with ADD/ADHD, but also autism spectrum disorders, developmental disorders, anxiety, depression, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and other emotional issues.

The Family Clinic meets at our Midtown office on most Wednesday afternoons.

The treatment goal is to carefully monitor and support children with diagnosed ADHD/ADD, anxiety, depression, developmental disorders, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and related emotional disorders, including medication therapy, focusing on the impact on development and school performance.

Pleas R. Geyer, M.D.. is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who provides care and medication management of children and adolescents diagnosed with emotional and developmental disorders. Dr. Geyer is in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Carolinas Medical Center, and is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He brings a depth of experience in his treatment of our child and adolescent population. Dr. Geyer is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Forensic Psychiatry.

Contact Jenny at our Midtown office to learn more about The Family Clinic. 

What are Executive Skills Disorders?

Many students, particularly students with learning disabilities, ADHD, Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, struggle upon entering middle school and high school. All at once, the student must shift from learning the specific academic skills of reading, writing and math to applying their academic skills in the content area. They now must be prepared to do literary analysis, report writing, and the reasoning of higher level math. Tackling this next learning step requires the student to draw upon the executive skills of prioritizing, multi-tasking, and time management. The struggle to garner one’s executive skills is frequently observed in these types of behaviors:

• Does homework, but forgets to turn it in
• Loses assignments
• Forgets materials
• Gets good test scores but loses points on daily homework grades
• Ignores or dreads homework

If this sounds familiar, the child's executive skills are likely not up to these tasks.

The executive control needed to handle these organizational demand increases dramatically upon entering middle and high school. Yet, the organizational support a student needs to learn these skills actually decreases. Consequently, many children with weak executive skills require direct instruction and individualized instructional support to manage the routine of studying, note taking, and homework.

Educators at Child and Family Development are experienced in working with these middle school and high school students who struggle.

Over the last few years the term Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) has become a term used to describe children with different behaviors which has lead to the label APD being applied (often incorrectly) to a wide variety of disorders. The symptoms of auditory processing disorder are similar to those associated with ADHD, language processing disorders, autism as well as a number of other disorders.    This article is going to focus on language processing and how it isn’t APD.    

Remember your first day in Spanish class and the Spanish teacher came in saying everything in Spanish…you recognized all of the sounds and possibly some of the words, but generally speaking you felt “lost.”  This phenomena is due to your not being able to process the language—not an auditory processing problem.  Children with a language processing disorder will experience difficulties with expressing themselves, following directions, reading and writing.  

A language processing disorder can only be assed by a Certified Speech-Language Pathologist.  The testing should encompass a comprehensive assessment that looks at expressive and receptive language skills and how the child is able to apply these skills at different levels-single word as well as in connected speech. 

It may surprise some, but as a Certified Speech Language Pathologist who works with children with possible auditory processing disorders, I am not able to diagnose an auditory processing disorder.  This diagnosis can only be made by a certified audiologist and it entails much more than a simple hearing test.  The testing does not look at the child’s ability to process language but does entail the child’s ability to process incoming auditory information. 

If you suspect your child if having difficulty with processing language or sounds you should contact a speech-language pathologist to determine what type of evaluation maybe appropriate for your child.       

Foods that require sucking introduce fun ways to include proprioceptive input and heavy work to the mouth. Including these foods in your childs diet may be beneficial for children with sensory processing disorders or ADHD. But really, it's not the food- it's the method! For added heavy work, try sucking the liquids through a straw. Consider using sports bottles and straws that require more "work", such as silly straws, long straws, or thin straws.

Foods:
- apple sauce
- Charleston Chews
- Flat Sugarless Candy
- Fresh Orange Wedges
- Grape Fruit Wedges
- Jello Cubes
- Tart Juices (Cranberry, Lemonade, Apple, Grapefruit)
- Smoothies
- Milk Shakes
- Peanut Butter
- Popsicles
- Puddings

Not every child will react the same way to oral motor (mouth) strategies like these. For more information, consult an Occupational Therapist at Child and Family Development.

Child and Family Development is pleased to offer Cogmed Working Memory Training.  

Cogmed Working Memory Training is a home-based program that helps people with attention problems by training and increasing their working memory capacity. Clinically proven results demonstrate that after training, people improve their ability to concentrate, control impulsive behavior, and better utilize complex reasoning skills. Better academic and professional performance can be achieved.

Studies consistently show that most people with attention deficits have a working memory deficit. That holds true for attention problems due to ADHD, traumatic brain injury, normal aging or general deficits from working memory overload; it is also true for milder concentration problems. 

A substantial and growing body of work documents the efficacy of Cogmed Working Memory Training. Most notably, Klingberg’s 2005 study on school age children with ADHD showed it to be effective in a placebo-controlled, multi-center trial. 

There were statistically and clinically significant treatment effects on non-trained measures of working memory, response inhibition and complex reasoning.

Substantial and lasting reduction of attention problems following training-induced working memory improvements is a research breakthrough.

Leading American and European research teams have now replicated the research using Cogmed products and protocol. They have presented results at several research conferences. For the latest results and research posters, visit www.cogmed.com/research. 

To find out if Cogmed Working Memory Training is right for you, call our South Charlotte office at 704.541.9080 to schedule an initial appointment with Dr. Joy Granetz.