Learn how ADD-related traits have served to further human evolution. Author Thom Hartmann spotlights how modern life contributes to ADD, including a toxic environment, nutritional deficiencies, our quick-fix consumer culture, and the effects of television and overpopulation. Hartmann also documents the difficulties gifted children encounter in our educational system, and the hardships visual learners encounter in an auditory environment. As he discusses brain chemistry and physiology, he examines the pros and cons of the controversial drug Ritalin. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Ingram
A researcher of Attention Deficit Disorder explores the range of behavior covered by the disorder, its possible link to genetics and evolution, and challenges faced by its sufferers, especially gifted children. Simultaneous. 35,000 first printing. IP.

From the Publisher
Thom Hartmann is a pioneer in ADD research. His previous books have shown how individuals with ADD are not just "hyperactive" or "easily distracted," but actually possess highly adaptive, entrepreneurial skills - traits which served ancient hunters but meet with resistance in modern agrarian societies. His theory was profiled in Time magazine. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap
Beyond ADD deepens the discussion (of ADD) by showing how different people with the same diagnosis can exhibit different behaviors, ranging from hyperactivity to being withdrawn, from forgetfulness to being obsessively hyperfocused. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author
Thom Hartmann is the author of six books on ADD and former executive director of a residential treatment facility for abused and emotionally disturbed children. He authored more than 200 published articles and has spoken at conferences around the world. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Excerpted from Beyond ADD by Thom Hartmann. Copyright(c) 1996. Reprinted by permission, all rights reserved
We Now See More ADD Because of Standardized Curriculum
"Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art, it is the part the schools cannot recognize." (Pauline Kael)

This chapter posits that the reason why we're seeing so much ADD diagnosed in our public schools (and, as adults, in the workplace) is because of a standardized school curriculum and similarly structured workplaces.

A few years ago I heard a fellow who was ridiculing the idea that there may be such a thing as ADD point out that "there is no ADD in front of a video game." He went on to conclude that "if ADD goes away in one environment, like the video arcade, but appears in another environment, like the school, then where is the real problem? Is it in the person or the environment?"

While this argument was meant to imply that there's no such thing as ADD, it suffers from a basic flaw in logic. Virtually all children can be transfixed by a video game, yet only a minority (albeit a substantial and growing one) are unable to succeed in school because of attentional problems. This implies some sort of fragility in their attentional structure or ability to learn that simply doesn't show up in front of a video game, but becomes apparent in the classroom; it doesn't indicate that there's no such thing as ADD.

A fascinating but largely overlooked study was published in 1983 that measured how far a child with ADD could be pushed with and without medication to do unfamiliar schoolwork. They found that if the amount of unfamiliar material a child was asked to learn or read exceeded the 15% to 30% range, then ADD children experienced a breakdown in their ability to complete tasks, to stay on-task, and to comprehend the material. When they were given stimulant medication, their ability to stay on-task dramatically improved and there was a slight improvement in their task comprehension, but their ability to complete tasks actually dropped.

The startling part, however, came when they changed the difficulty of the schoolwork. Shifting the percentage of new material to the 3% to 7% range, suddenly all the ADD children's ADD school problems vanished both when they were medicated and when they were not.

Non-ADD children were equally able to handle the 30% new material and the 7% new material, but ADD kids needed medication to make the transition into the more difficult classroom. On the other hand, when the ADD children were allowed to move ahead at their own pace, keeping a daily 3% to 7% new material learned rate, they did as well as, and in some cases better than, their "normal" peers.

A Positive View of ADD, February 18, 2003

Gives various reasons for ADD, some traditional and some not as traditional. Very helpful to the self-image of people with ADD and clarifies that society is part of the problem. Some key points include;

1) Education is conditioning and is particularly hostile to children with ADD.

2) ADD is now an industry with victimization and illness now fashionable.

3) The industrialized world provides an environment particularly challenging for people with ADD for reasons such as lack of exercise, lack of exposure to sunlight and too much television.

This review appeared in the Annotated Bibliography of Learning A Living, A Guide to Planning Your Career and Finding A Job for People with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia