Survey for Teenagers

Dr. Esta M. Rapoport
Email: estamrapoport@gmail.com
Blog: adhdanswers.blogspot.com
Twitter: adhdanswers

Survey on Teenagers with ADHD

ALL ANSWERS TO THIS SURVEY WILL BE CONFIDENTIAL. NO NAMES WILL BE USED.

Instructions: Please type answers and send them to me on a separate piece of paper than the one that includes the questions. Please answer the questions in as much depth as possible, and email your answers to me at estamrapoport@gmail.com.  Feel free to write as much as you like in addition, especially whatever pertains to your emotions and/or feelings. You will be helping the many teenagers with ADHD who have academic and/or social difficulties who struggle to get through each and every day. I am very grateful for your input.

Dr. Esta M. Rapoport

Part 1

1.      When and in what circumstance did your parents tell you that you had ADHD?

2.      How did your parents describe ADHD to you?

3.      How were you sure that you understood what having ADHD meant?

4.      How did you feel about having ADHD?

5.      How did your parents respond to the fact that you had ADHD?

Part 2

           6. What symptoms did you exhibit as a young child?

7.      What symptoms do you exhibit or have you exhibited as a teenager?

8.      What symptoms did you exhibit as a child that have diminished when you became a teenager?

9.      If those symptoms diminished, why do you think that happened?

10.  What added symptoms do you exhibit or have you exhibited as a teenager that you did not exhibit as a young child?

11.  How have the symptoms or did the symptoms of your ADHD affect your school work and your grades as a teenager?

Part 3

          12. How is having ADHD or how has having ADHD been difficult during adolescence?

13.  How does having ADHD affect your self-confidence and self-esteem as a teenager, or how has having ADHD affected your self-confidence and self-esteem as a teenager?

14.  How do or did your parents respond to you when you experienced difficulties in your teenage years?

15.  How do your siblings respond to you or did your siblings respond to you when you had difficulties as a teenager?

Part 4

           16. As a teenager, what have you told your friends or what did you tell your friends 
                 about having ADHD?  If you told your friends that you had ADHD, how did they 
                 respond?

17.  As a teenager, what have you told or what did you tell your extended family about having ADHD? If you told your extended family that you had ADHD, how did they respond?

18.  How does having ADHD affect your social life, or how has having ADHD affected your social life, specifically being able to make and keep friends?

Part  5

           19. Have you been bullied or were you bullied as a teenager? (If you were not bullied,
                 were you teased?) If you were bullied or teased, what was done to you?

20.  What do you think was the cause of being bullied? (or teased-please clarify)

21.   How was being bullied (or teased-please clarify) related to your having ADHD?

22.  What did you do to stop being bullied? (or teased-please clarify) How did the techniques work that you used to stop being bullied? (or teased-please clarify)

Survey for Pre-Teenagers

After a house fire, I am finally returning to writing my book on pre-teens and teenagers with ADHD. I am copy and pasting here a survey for pre-teenagers with ADHD. If you have a pre-teen with ADHD, I would so appreciate if you would permit your child to complete my survey and email it to me.

Here is the survey:

Dr. Esta M. Rapoport
Email: estamrapoport@gmail.com
Blog: adhdanswers.blogspot.com
Twitter: adhdanswers

 Survey on Pre-Teenagers with ADHD

ALL ANSWERS TO THIS SURVEY WILL BE CONFIDENTIAL. NO NAMES WILL BE USED.

Instructions:

Please type answers and send them to me on a separate piece of paper than this one that includes the questions.

Please answer the questions in as much depth as possible, and email your answers to me as soon as possible at estamrapoport@gmail.com. 

Feel free to write as much as you like in addition, especially whatever pertains to your emotions and/or feelings. You will be helping the many pre-teenagers with ADHD who have academic and/or social difficulties who struggle to get through each and every day. I am very grateful for your input, and pre-teenagers with ADHD will be grateful as well.

Dr. Esta M. Rapoport

 Part 1

1.      When and in what circumstance did your parents tell you that you had ADHD?

2.      How did your parents describe ADHD to you?

3.      How were you sure that you understood what having ADHD meant?

4.      How did you feel about having ADHD?

5.      How did your parents respond to the fact that you had ADHD?

Part 2

6.      What symptoms did you exhibit as a young child?

7.      What symptoms are you exhibiting as a pre-teenager?

8.      What symptoms did you exhibit as a child that diminished when you became a pre-teenager?

9.      If those symptoms diminished, why do you think that happened?

10.  What added symptoms do you exhibit as a pre-teenager that you did not exhibit as a young child?

11.  How are the symptoms of your ADHD affecting your school work and your grades as a pre-teenager?

Part 3

12.  How has having ADHD been difficult during pre-adolescence?

13.  How has having ADHD affected your self-confidence and self-esteem as a pre-teenager?

14.  How do your parents respond to you when you experience difficulties in your teenage years?

15.  How have your siblings responded to you when you had difficulties as a pre-teenager? (No siblings? Do not answer)

Part 4

         16. As a pre-teenager, what have you told your friends about having ADHD? If you told
              your friends that you had ADHD, how did they respond?

          17.  As a pre-teenager, what did you tell your extended family about having ADHD? If  
                you told your extended family that you had ADHD, how did they respond?

          18. How has having ADHD affected your social life, specifically making and keeping
             friends?

                                                   Part 5

19.  Have you been bullied as a pre-teenager? (If you were not bullied, were you teased?) If you were bullied or teased, what was done to you?

20.  What do you think was the cause of being bullied? (or teased-please clarify)

21.   How was being bullied (or teased-please clarify) related to your having ADHD?

22.  What did you do to stop being bullied? (or teased-please clarify) How did the techniques work that you used to stop being bullied? (or teased-please clarify)

ADHD and Anxiety

Do you have a child/adolescent with ADHD and anxiety? Do you teach a child with ADHD who experiences anxiety as well?

Many children with ADHD have accompanying anxiety. You probably are asking, “Which comes first? Does one cause the other? If your child has ADHD and anxiety, or if you teach a child who has ADHD and anxiety, which do you treat first?”

It is difficult to say as to whether or not a child’s symptoms of ADHD caused him to become anxious. Children with ADHD typically do not have an accurate worldview. Therefore, they oftentimes do not realize that the symptoms of ADHD that they exhibit annoy other children. For those children with ADHD who do notice that other children rebuff them due to their symptoms such as excessive talking, for example, they may become anxious every time they need to speak.

In all reality, it does not matter whether ADHD precedes anxiety or if anxiety precedes ADHD. What does matter is which disorder to treat first. I always treat the most acute disorder first, which in most cases, is anxiety.

As a parent or as a teacher, how do you know what brings about anxiety in a child or adolescent with ADHD? The only way to successfully find out what triggers anxiety in a child with ADHD is to observe the child’s behavior and then to anecdote their reactions to events.

The largest yield for success, however, is for the parent and the teacher to observe and anecdote the child’s behavior and then to compare and contrast their observations. In that way, the most salient of the triggers that causes these children with ADHD to become anxious will not only be revealed, but additionally, will be validated.

After the triggers of the child’s anxiety are confirmed, what helps to diminish it? What are some steps to helping the child/adolescent to diminish his anxiety?

1.      Help him to become aware of the symptoms of his anxiety, i.e., perspiring, shortness of breath, a desire to run out of a room, trembling, a stomach ache, among many others.

2.      Help him to become aware of when he is experiencing the symptoms of his anxiety.

3.      If he is unaware of when he is exhibiting the symptoms of anxiety, secure permission from his parents to videotape him interacting with others in his home, or in another setting where he has previously experienced anxiety, so that he will be able to observe his own behavior as he watches the videotape.

4.      View the videotape with the child and go over it as many times as needed so that he will ascertain the triggers of his anxiety.

5.      Write down a list of the triggers to his anxiety and the responses that he will learn to make as a way of diminishing the triggers that cause his anxiety.

6.      Design task cards with the child that will cue him to respond in a way that diminishes his anxious responses to specific events.

7.       Teach the child to self-talk his way through the steps that are written on the task cards as a way to diminish his symptoms.

8.      Teach him to self-monitor his own symptoms of anxiety and his responses to those symptoms on a chart each time he experiences them. (or as close to every time as possible)

9.      Encourage an ongoing conversation concerning the level of anxiety that he feels and most importantly, how successful he is at diminishing his symptoms.