Podcasts about soli lazarus

In this Essentials episode of the School Behaviour Secrets podcast, Simon speaks with Soli Lazarus, a highly experienced mainstream primary teacher and SENCO who specialises in ADHD.Soli discusses how we harness the talents of our pupils with ADHD in school - and how using humour, distraction, and making children feel special can be more effective than using punishments in the classroom.Important links:Soli's websiteSoli's 5-minute ADHD podcastSoli's book , ADHD Is Our SuperpowerClick here for the full interview from episode 63.Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/SEN-handbook.phpDownload other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php

Many educators focus on the challenges associated with ADHD in the classroom. But what if that's the wrong approach? What if a child's ADHD were actually their superpower?In today's School Behaviour Secrets, author and expert Soli Lazarus talks to us about her experience being a parent of a child with ADHD, reveals the overlooked advantages the condition can offer, and ideas and strategies to bring out the best in your pupils with ADHD.Important links:Soli's websiteSoli's 5-minute ADHD podcastSoli's book , ADHD Is Our Superpower

Interview with teacher and ADHD expert, Soli Lazarus, based on the ‘A Fine Balance' blog post: “Sunny-Side Up, Please”. Read the blog at https://a-fine-balance.com/2020/12/06/solis-story-sunny-side-up-please-self-care-for-caring-professionals-finding-balance-in-mid-life-staying-positive-when-the-course-of-motherhood-doesnt-run-smooth/.

In this episode I talk to Soli an ADHD coach who is all about busting the stigma of ADHD and we look at how lockdown has been for these children. You can find out more about Soli via Facebook and Instagram at soli_yellowsun and yellow sun ADHD hub and at https://soli-lazarus.com/

In these bizarre and unsettling times, many of the things we took for granted have been severely curtailed—and in some cases restricted all together. As you know, I have always loved the fact that I get to meet all the guests on the podcast in person, be it at their place of work, their home, or at a location that is specific to them; on the diving platform at Highgate Mens Bathing Pond, on the lifeboat with the crew at RNLI Chiswick, over a cappuccino in Little Italy Soho, or at the top of The Monument in The City of London. But lockdown in London has stopped all that, at least for the time being, and so I am having to reflect and rethink. With over 80 episodes in the bag we have a decent back catalogue, and so we’ve been re releasing some of the older popular episodes for new listeners to find and enjoy, and older fans of the show to revisit. I may start to record new episodes over the internet but it is nothing like meeting the guest in person. Face to face. Eye to eye. Sharing a chat and a joke and building that all-important rapport. It was not what I envisaged nor what I want to do, so we will see how this pans out. With any luck the lock down will end soon and I can get back to doing what I love most, and what I know brings you the best possible experience, meeting the wonderful London personalities that make up our incredible capital city. This week, however, I thought I would take advantage of the lockdown in London, and chat once more to Soli Lazarus…my wife. In this episode recorded at home, we chat over the ups and downs, successes and failures that make up the emotional roller coaster of lockdown in one of the greatest cities on earth. It’s quite personal in many respects, but I hope it gives you a flavour of how we have been coping and managing our days. I hope you get something out of it and would love to hear how you have been getting on too. This is Your London Legacy. “I just think, how on earth can we think this is lovely—I mean there’s been nearly 31000 people who have died…It’s all so bizarre.” 7:30 Soli and I, gratefully, have taken the time allotted to us to spend more time with our son and go on long walks through the woods. We recognize that we are in a fortunate position where we haven’t lost anyone in our immediate family to the virus, and so there is a strange split feeling about having time to spend with one another. This too doesn’t come without its own difficulties at home—being locked in close proximity to anyone can cause issues, but we’ve managed to work through them and take the time to discover new things about ourselves, our surroundings, and how to better grow moving forward. 13:20 Our daily walks have provided wonderful insights and peace in our life—and this walk has taken on new light thanks to reading “On Looking” by Alexandra Horowitz (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Looking-Eleven-Walks-Expert-Eyes/dp/1439191255) which has pushed us to view our walk and surroundings form different perspectives; that of the trees themselves, ants, and each other—we even went on and did the whole trek in silence to better listen to the nature and city buzzing all around. 20:35 Soli and I both have been working from home and have been incredibly busy. Soli works with parents of children who have ADHD—and this time has proved to put her services in high demand. She’s stayed positive though and found ways to encourage parents to help their children learn and grow outside of the overwhelming demands the school system has tried to place on the students and their families. Soli has even devised a form for parents to use and highlight how their children have best been learning during lockdown, in hopes that upon returning to classes that their teachers can correct and help them better learn in school. 45:00 In the trend of focusing on the positive—Soli has won her first contract for a traditionally published children’s book she has written, due out in Support this podcast

This is a celebration episode, celebrating reaching 50 episodes, celebrating all the amazing guests who have been on the podcast and are out there changing the lives of young people and helping ensure that they will have the kind of independent lives they want. In this episode, rather than talk to a guest as I usually do, I share my own key takeaways in each of the 3 areas Journey Skills focuses on Purpose, Relationship, and Daily Living. This is an abridged transcript of the podcast with links to all the different episodes mentioned. Key Takeaways – Purpose It is all about a job and that should be a paid job. When I started, I firmly believed purpose was enough, but I no longer think that this true. Yes, it’s great to have somewhere to go but, if you’re a volunteer, you are helping but you’re not being rewarded in the same way as if it’s a job. Young people need to be paid; it reinforces their feelings of self-worth and they are making such a contribution to the organization that it warrants them getting paid. I’m not knocking volunteering, of course I’m not. My own daughter has got very valuable work experience from volunteering. But volunteering should be a step, a means to an end if you were. Now, obviously, not everyone is not going to agree with me because we all view things differently but if you listen to the podcast, you will hear so many inspirational stories about the impact paid work had on young people and how it changed their self-belief and also changed how their own parents saw them. So I know some of the objections like “my son or daughter couldn’t do that job”. This is where I think we need to change our perspective. I know it may sound a cliché but maybe we should think outside the box or inside the box, actually, because I believe technology is changing the world of work in a very positive way for young people with additional needs. New jobs using technology are emerging that enable them to access more employment options. There are also some traditional roles, which may not have been previously accessed, but can now be open to them using technology to help them perform the job. Just one example of this was when Alison Berkley from Invictus Enterprises talked about how they use a digital cookbook to help their young bakers. And for those who still want to test the water of work, there are programs like Shared Lives and Ark Bakery in the UK. Karen from Shared Lives explained the program itself and Hester from the Ark Bakery talked about how it helped young people develop work and independence skills. For some, this smaller, more local program will be the best first step. You could also start at home with practicing for job interviews and if you are at the stage of helping your young person prepare for a job interview then Sam, an experienced HR director, gave some excellent tips on preparing for interviews. Another thing with work is that we need to think about how jobs can fit into the skills our young people might have and this needs to be done in a way that not only benefits them but also helps the employer. Marjorie Madfis from Yes She Can talked about how small businesses could utilize the skills of young people in the roles that they wouldn’t necessarily see yet as being a defined role. In fact, Neil Willows from Pure Innovations gave this idea a name Job Carving. I think this could be the answer for young people who have a very specific skill where they could be matched with an employer who maybe is yet to define a role in their company but it is one which fits with that young person’s skills. This idea also works for young people who are only able to work in part-time roles as some of these jobs may be limited in the time required. The one model that I believe works best is commonly called a Supported Internship Model.  It can be used in a large organization like the Marriot Hotel or in smaller organizations like Bemix. The whole idea of a supported internship is for the young person to learn the basics of holding down a job, turning up on time, and working with other people as well as completing tasks when they are asked. They have a job coach and a job developer; the coach being on hand for day to day support and the job developer being the one to help each find paid employment at the end of the supported internship. In some cases, as with Team Domenica, an additional year of support is provided once a job has been found for the young person. But this support isn’t so much for the young person but for the employer to help them make those reasonable adjustments necessary. This whole idea of reasonable adjustment and how easy it can actually be was explained by David Hunter from Acceptable Enterprises. When it comes to working, I’ve learnt another thing. I may well be one of my daughter’s barriers to work. Quite a few of the podcast guests, who are helping young people in finding work, have mentioned they have often had to deal with parents being too overprotective. Is there such a thing? I wonder. Of course, we are overprotective because we know the vulnerabilities of our own children. I know my daughter is incredibly literal and needs time to process information. This makes her much more susceptible to suggestions. I’ve been protecting her for 17 years now and it’s a hard habit to break. So yes, I plead guilty to that one, but I also need to listen to all those people I’ve spoken to who say that, sometimes it is the parents putting the brakes on. But it can be harder for parents to let go because the process isn’t gradual, as it is with other children. For me, my older daughter got a part-time job and went out with friends. Of course, I was worried, but I hid it well. With my youngest, she has never had a part-time job and although she goes to movies with friends, I am inevitably the bouncer on the door – keeping her in or at least making sure she is exactly where I think she should be. So, questions like ‘How they will cope?’, ‘How will they get there?’, ‘Will they get anxious or stressed?’ and ‘Who will help them if they do?’ are very legitimate. Cutting the cord is never easy. Soli Lazarus explained this much better than me where she talked about how much more we need to do to give our young people a sense of control over their own lives. This leads to my other key takeaway which is: think small, not big. Small solutions are better than dreaming of the big Solve-Everyone’s-Problem approach. Again, when I started this, I thought let’s solve all these problems so everyone can use the same approach. I now realize that it’s all about small tailored solutions that suit the young person and the community they are part of. Nowhere is this easier to see how this can be effective than Project Search at the Marriot Hotel at Heathrow. Project Search is a programme which started in Cincinnati and is now operated around the world. But each of the projects is local-focused, helping a small group of young people learn transferable work skills. The key to this is that each project has a process to start with, ready to be applied. In lots of ways, it takes away those how-to-get-started issues. So actually, the Project Search process is the same wherever you are, but focuses more on helping a small group of people in a specific workplace or community. If you think about it, if helping 20 people get work skills in London is replicated 100 times, that had changed an awful lot of young people’s lives. One of the core purposes of Journey Skills is sharing ideas, so anyone inspired to start something themselves may it be a business or a social group, there is somewhere to look, someplace to hear what other people who had done it might have to say. They’ve faced the challenges and found solutions so you can refer to their templates. This is going to make things easier for all of us. And I think that many of us will go down this DIY option. There are plenty of examples of parents getting together to create amazing solutions. When I was back home in Australia last year, I visited Red Inc where parents had created an organization that helps, not only their young people find employment but also, benefiting the whole community. One of my favorite finds, and not for the reasons you might think as an Australian, is Ignition Brewery in London, where Nick essentially started from nothing but an idea and has since then created a sustainable business. These are the projects that should inspire us all to remember that there is a solution to every problem. What many of these organizations also do is break down barriers. I’m talking here about  L’Arche and The Shed who both share the same guiding purpose to change their local communities’ perception of young people with additional needs. In the case of The Shed, they decided to locate themselves right in the middle of the community so that people were almost forced to interact and to learn about each other and to come to accept each other as valuable members of the local community. Another idea I think also needs copying is from Acceptable Enterprises where David Hunter talked about their model of 1/3 – 1/3 – 1/3, which means they employ in their businesses 1/3 people who have additional needs, 1/3 who may have experienced other challenges in their lives like homelessness, and 1/3 people from the local community. As David explained, this creates a real sense of the integrated community where people look out for each other and that integration moves outside the workplace into the local community as well. It needs to be sustainable for the young person and the employer. This brings me back to the supported internships idea, particularly the fact that, for me, there seems to be an understanding, among the people using this model or one like it, that employers need support too. I don’t think sustainable employment comes from the charity I want my daughter to be employed because she is a useful member of the workforce and what she does adds value. Key Takeaways – Relationships By now, you might think that I’m a little bit one dimensional eyed, focusing only on employment. But that’s certainly not the case. Like many of you, I worry about my daughter when it comes to relationships. We all know how important friendships are in our own lives, and for our young people finding and maintaining friendships can be a difficult task. But I also think about my own relationship with her. It has to change as she gets older and it’s in relation to this that my first key takeaway when it comes to relationships is letting go. I’ve talked earlier about letting go when it comes to work, but here, I’m talking more about helping build resilience. One day, I will no longer be around and she will need to have developed the skills that enable her to deal with the world. I’m doing her no favors by not pushing her to do while I’m still around to catch her if she needs catching. One of the most listened to episodes of the podcast is Building Social Skills with Emily Hughes who talked about building resilience early, letting our children make their own mistakes and learn from them. Laura from the Surrey Wildlife Trust talked about similar ideas and the ethos of forest schools to provide a safe but challenging space. Fiona in Letting Go talked about a similar idea of letting our young people find their own solutions. It’s probably the hardest thing to do as we’ve kept them close for so long and been through an awful lot. Maybe like us, you’ve experienced bullying which makes you extra wary of sending them out into the scary world all by themselves. The thing is, though with my daughter is pushing me away quite hard at the moment, but that’s okay! At 17, she should be less interested in what I think and more interested in her friend’s opinions which are infinitely wider than mine. That’s the normal family lifecycle in action right there. I’ve talked to other parents who have helped me make my family relationships work better. Julie talked about siblings and I took some of her ideas to encourage my daughters to spend time with each other which has strengthened their relationship. Vicki Blair talked about how to manage the stresses of holidays, quite apt at this time of year. Maybe I’ll listen to that one again. I learned from Sarah that social media can be used in a positive way to build online friendships. Of course, the whole discussion around friendships is a very complicated one. I see them as key to my daughter’s independence. You will find plenty of examples of where social skills and friendships are being developed through organized activities. Jamie Wheeler has created a social group so that her daughter continues to have social interaction after leaving full-time education. She showed it can be done and I think she will have inspired more parents to do something similar. Lisa at Love Serving Autism is using tennis as a therapy to build social skills. Maire and Carmelina give the parents perspectives on how important sport can be in providing a lasting passion and links to the local community. Another key takeaway and I suppose a reminder too, one that I think we all need every now and then, is that we are all doing okay as parents. Okay that some days we get it wrong, but more often than not, we get it right. Claire talked about being the light and how our main job is to make sure they believe in themselves. Scarlett talked about rising to the challenge- I think we all do that. Taking time for ourselves was also a common theme when I chatted to other parents. Veronica talked about finding a common language – by that, she means support because it’s hard to do this alone. Antonia Chitty talked about the pressures on all our relationships that comes with having a child with additional needs. Again, she tells us to get support to find people to talk to that understand what you are going through. I strongly believe that what this podcast all about is our strapline sharing stories, sharing solutions. I know because of the focus of the podcast, you are probably near the same stage as me, but if you know parents at the beginning, get them to listen. They could start by listening to Carol, who at the beginning of the journey, is and has all the same questions most parents have at the earlier stages. For anyone with younger children, I can recommend a listen to Diane King who talked about how to use storytelling to build self-worth. Worth a listen just for Diane’s amazingly soothing reading voice. And also, probably very relevant for those who have younger children, the practical ideas to help with sleep from Vicki Dawson of The Children’s Sleep Charity. None of us has all the answers and I have a very long list of the things I’ve learned from other parents. Practical ideas like how to divide tasks into chunks to make them more achievable from Jackie. After listening to Ian, an ex-police officer, I made sure to help my daughter understand how to approach an authority figure and not be scared. I’ve heard what it’s like to be a stepdad from Rob. Okay, so I didn’t need to know that, but I know there someone out there that will benefit from Rob’s experiences. I’ve been educated, as well by other parents, like Caroline who does an amazing job of clearly explaining both auditory processing disorder and sensory processing disorder. Christine who helped me better understand Dyspraxia. Linda shared about what it is like for her son with Asperger’s, particularly as he becomes a young man. All these stories remind us that we are not alone, that others are out there having the same highs and lows as you. We need each other. Key Takeaways – Daily Living Without the ability to cook, shop and manage her own house, my daughter is going to struggle with being independent. So, my key takeaway in relation to daily living skills is to start planning early and to be developing these skills every single day because repetition is key. In lots of ways, it links back to the letting go. In fact, In The Stepping Back episode, Lisa, a Speech and Language Therapist, and Milla, an Occupational Therapist talked about the importance of letting young people know that it’s okay to make mistakes. They also provide some very practical ways that we can develop our young person’s skills in shopping, cooking, handling money and traveling independently. If you’re looking for help when it comes to wardrobe choices, then Elika and Katie Ellis have some great ideas. Andy and Robyn both offered some great tips on how to help our young people learn to travel independently. This whole idea of planning early though should be for everything as Laura said in Planning Ahead, “never concentrate on the present, it’s the future you’ve got to always be thinking about.” Laura got me to be thinking about how I need to think 5 years ahead particularly as I watch my daughter race towards her structured full-time education One area which I think continues to be a challenge, at least for me, is what daily living means in terms of housing. I know it’s possible she can live in a house of her own. My preference would be for her to do this with friends because I believe isolation is a massive issue for our young people. But I know it can be done because Julia provides an example in-house to rent, no experience required. I certainly don’t want my daughter in an annex at the end of the garden or in the house next door to me. And I know she doesn’t want this either. In my paid day job, I work in property. And if you are wondering, yes Journey Skills doesn’t pay; we fund this it out of our own pockets. But I also know that what I have learned in the last 50 episodes and what I will learn in the next 50 is priceless. Our long-term plan has always been to develop a model to help young people with additional needs to live in homes of their own. Similar to Project Search, we hope to create a model that can be used by others and adapted to their local community and situation. These will obviously vary in terms of support required, but we believe technology will be key and provide an extra layer of safety meaning greater independence. To be honest, my ideal model for own daughter would be her sharing a house with other people, some of whom don’t have any additional needs. This is the kind of integration I dream of for her. Final Words It all starts with a job. Paid work is key to my daughter’s future. I plan to do everything I can to find a way for her to get a paid sustainable job. A paid job will not only give her financial independence but also, self-belief and self-esteem. From work, will come her social network, which will sustain her long after I am gone. She will make friends who will wonder why she hasn’t turned up for work today. They will grow to understand her and view her as a work colleague not a person with additional needs. She will have an income her own that she can spend any way she likes. If I were, to sum up a meta key takeaway from episodes 1-49, it would be this overriding sense of optimism. When I recorded the introduction episode, I had no idea that I would find so many opportunities ready and waiting for our young people. It’s all out there! We just need to go find the right solution for our young person so that they have the independent future they want and deserve. This has been an amazing journey so far and I can’t thank everyone I have spoken to enough for giving me their time and their wisdom. And to you thank you for your support.

Ill let you into a secret. Soli Lazarus is in fact my wife of 30 years. For the majority of that time, she was Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) in a mainstream school in N. London, where she ensured that children with physical and emotional learning disabilities could access the curriculum in the  classroom and school environment. Soli recently took early retirement and set up her own consultancy Yellow Sun, to help support parents of children with special needs-primarily ADHD-to manage their behaviour, relationships and learning. Yellow Sun is a young business but is going from strength to strength with 1: 1 and group support, online courses, books, seminars, in school training and away day retreats for parents. Listen in and find out why Soli is so totally passionate about her work. “If I told you today, in 2018 how much training teachers actually got at teacher training college for special needs—it’s a day. One whole day for special needs.” [3:36] Teaching is all Soli has really ever done. After qualifying she went right into a school and worked, eventually becoming a Special Educational Needs Coordinator, or SENCO for short. While she loved the schools, children, and atmosphere, Soli couldn’t help but feel a pull to make a difference outside of the framework of the current school system. Part of her pull towards working with children with special needs was our own son, who was diagnosed with ADHD. This made Soli click instantly with kids on the periphery of the school system, those that got singled out through the highly targeted, inflexible curriculum and teaching methods put forth by the school system. [12:18] Support for special needs in the classroom has been a struggle to implement. When Soli first started teaching, words like Autism, ADHD, and Dyslexia didn’t exist in the vernacular. Children were just seen as disruptive, slow, or a product of careless parenting. Things have changed, with teachers becoming aware of the array of different diagnoses and learning disabilities that affect children—however, the support inside and outside the classroom is still lacking in many regards. [23:20] Soli realized this year that she could make a greater impact outside the classroom, away from the bureaucracy and stringent, often strangling standards put in place. So, she took early retirement and began work on a consultancy she’d wanted to start: Yellow Sun. Yellow Sun’s principal aim is to support families with children who are diagnosed with ADHD. This aid comes in the form of 1:1 work, a book Soli has written, workshops, and even a mom-centric retreat she has planned for next year. The goal in her support is to create sustainable practices and support systems through a community of like minded families. While the move from the closed bubble of the school system was scary, Soli is excited to see how much she’s accomplished already and where Yellow Sun is headed. The array of tools to support children with ADHD is more than ever before with apps, audio books, and other gadgets to help focus and maintain attention. Soli will be furthering the services she offers to her families through Yellow Sun and is sure to continue making a difference as the organization grows, and as a humble husband, continue to make me proud.   Links Soli-Lazarus.com (https://soli-lazarus.com/) Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/yellowsunsoli/) Support this podcast

The best way to boost the self-esteem of our children is to let them have their say, give them a voice and help them to feel a sense of control, according to Soli Lazarus this week’s podcast guest. Soli has a son with ADHD and so knows some of the struggles parents have first hand, as well as being a teacher for over 30 years. Her consultancy Yellow Sun delivers support and advice to parents of children with additional needs and challenging behaviour.  Soli believes one of the biggest issues for children with additional needs is suffering from low self-esteem due to society pressuring them from a young age to conform to the ‘norm’. Children may interrupt, be disorganised, be inattentive and so from an early age they are branded as naughty and constantly being told off. Consequently, their self-esteem plummets.     To help deal with this Soli talks about how important it is to provide our children with routine, whilst also giving them responsibilities so that they can be rewarded and praised. She discusses the importance of giving them the opportunity to make decisions when at home, because school can often be a very rigid place with little chance for make independent choices. By giving them the choice and the power, they feel listened to. Soli also addresses how this giving of more choice can impact on siblings and ways to deal with any feelings of jealousy they may have.  As an experienced teacher, Soli also talks about what she sees as an outdated education system focused on times tables when the focus should be on technology solutions which children with additional needs can access much easier.  She explains how children with additional needs often feel happier online and this is a great way to counteract the difficulties surrounding making face-to-face social networks. Soli feels that using online tools can help to develop social skills and move them to a point where they can say they have real friends. Obviously, this all needs to be done in a safe environment and she reminds us that as parents we need to make sure we keep up to date as much as possible with the online world.  Soli talks also about frazzled parents and offers some suggestions to deal with those feelings of overwhelm. She talks about the importance of taking a moment out of every day to do something for yourself without feeling any guilt. She also talks about her own experiences of being lonely and feeling like she was the only one in her situation when her son was diagnosed. For her finding others who understood even a little of what she was going through was essential in helping her move forward. The main idea from Soli is about sending messages to our children that help them build their self-esteem, develop their strengths and let them know that if they fail, that’s ok, it’s just a part of living their own lives. Visit www.journeyskills.com for more information and resources to help lead your child with additional needs toward greater independence. 

Episode 9 of The Teaching Space podcast is an interview with ADHD expert Soli Lazarus.  Martine: Hello, it's Martine here. Welcome to the Teaching Space Podcast. Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Soli Lazarus. Now, rather than tell you all about Soli, I'm going to ask her to introduce herself. Soli, welcome to the show. Soli: Hello, Martine. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's lovely to be here today. Martine: It's great to have you here. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do? Soli: Right. Yes, my name is Soli. I'm, at the moment, an assistant SENCO in a large primary school in London. I do that part-time. The rest of my time, I run my own consultancy, Yellow Sun. I support families with children with autism and ADHD. I support them on a one-to-one basis within a support group. We have a great Facebook group. I have an online training course and I've got so many other things in the pipeline. My head's buzzing with ideas. But I'm super, super passionate about particularly ADHD. Soli: My son has ADHD. He's nearly 30. As a parent, I really struggled to get support and help and it's very, very isolating as a parent with a child with any kind of difficulties. It's not the life you signed up for. It's sad. It can be lonely. You feel really isolated and don't know where to turn. This was my may name of Yellow Sun, is just really to empower parents and give support to parents and just give simple tweaks that can really change how a child feels about themselves. One of my plans, also, is to go into schools. Soli: We just need to get the word out there that if we change a little bit of a child with ADHD, change a bit of their environment and our reaction to a child, it can just make all the difference. I'm super passionate, super fired up. Yeah, that's me. Martine: That's fantastic. Actually, I think one of the best ways to make a difference in these types of areas is through education, isn't it? Ultimately, by educating people about what ADHD actually is and those small changes that you mentioned, then you can really make a difference. In the simplest of terms, what exactly is ADHD? Can you tell me? Soli: Yep. First of all, what it's not is bad parenting. It's a real condition. It's a biologically proven condition that is a chemical imbalance in the brain. It's real. That's not to say good parenting can make a difference. Similarly, bad parenting can make the situation worse. But it certainly does not cause ADHD. In a nutshell, we all know these children in our class because they're the one who is constantly fidgeting and on the move. Or they might be incredibly impulsive. They just do not have those brakes for them to stop before they think. They can be very inattentive unless it's something highly, highly motivating. The three aspects are inattention, impulsive, and hyperactive. Martine: Excellent. That really explains it well. Like you say, so many of us can relate to having these kids in our class or these kids in our lives generally. Personally, I teach adults. I can connect with that slightly less. Nevertheless, I do understand that ADHD is a very real thing in adults, as well. We'll touch on that in a minute. But even with children, I come into contact with through my family and things like that, it's quite easy to spot. Is it that a child will usually get a diagnosis of ADHD? What happens when a parent or a teacher suspects that a child might have ADHD? What, generally, is the process there? Soli: Well, that's a good question because it's quite a sticky point. There's no blood test. There are no scans, at the moment, to show this discrepancy in brain function. It's really just by observation and reports, reports from parents. Yes, it's all these behaviours that I've spoken about. Generally, I would say to parents, "If your child is behaving in that same way in whatever environment they're at, if when they're at Granny or if they're in an afterschool club or if you're shopping or at the cinema or a birthday party and at school and at home, if in all those different environments they're still more or less showing that same kind of behavior, then it's almost certainly something like ADHD." Soli: There are lots of other conditions that go alongside ADHD, such as dyslexia, sensory processing disorders. Sometimes there are other things going alongside. I'm of the mindset, though, I'm not really that bothered about a diagnosis. I'm more bothered about how we react to a behaviour. However, we label that behaviour, we have to do something about it. We have to change something up or react differently. Although I'm not saying don't get a diagnosis because that does help. It helps frame how we react. That child might even need medication. Some children really react very well being on a medication. Soli: My son, personally, was diagnosed by a great consultant. I think the way forward, if you really suspect or school really suspect that it could be ADHD, you do need to get some consultant to actually do the diagnosis. You need to go down the route of going to the GP and get referred to a consultant. Some children, yes, as I said, do react very well to being on medication. My son was diagnosed when he was eight and he was put on Ritalin. It was amazing. Ritalin is a very short-acting medication. It stays in the system for about three hours. He would take it and he would go from almost climbing the walls to then being very, I would say, subdued. Soli: But he actually said to me, and I will never, ever forget, he said, "My eyes are keeping still and I can now see the words." It meant that, at eight years old, he couldn't read. He started to read. He was able to focus on his work. But he hated the feeling. When he was 16, and it was actually the day before his first GCSE, he said, "I'm not taking it anymore." Soli: Obviously, there was nothing I could do about it 'cause he really hated it. But for some children and adults, I know medication really, really works. Actually, my son is 30 now and I do keep saying to him, "Please pop back to the doctor and just see if there's anything else. There might be other things now that all those years ago were not available." But it's not his thing. But I'm not saying it's not for everybody because there are some people, adults and children, who work really well with medication. But it goes alongside. Medication is not the answer. The most important thing is for us to change our reaction to a child and an adult and help them and support them so that their lives can be much calmer and happier. Martine: That's so interesting. What you're saying, from a teacher perspective, is that regardless of whether there is a diagnosis or not, if you spot these behaviors in your learners, regardless of the label that that child has been given, you can implement changes to make things better for them and generally make things better for the whole class. Soli: 100%. We'll probably talk about it a little later, the actual specifics of things that a teacher can do, but I can guarantee you do some of these strategies and it will help this child with ADHD, but it will also those other children who've got undiagnosed things or other learning difficulties or English is an additional language or a child who's had just a really bad, chaotic home life and can't focus. We've got all sorts of learners from all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of things going on at home, that at any one time some children just need that extra little bit of something different just to help them. Martine: Brilliant. We hear a lot about ADHD in kids and, obviously, that's when if there is a diagnosis, that's when it will tend to happen. But what does ADHD look like in adults? You said your son is 30. If you want to use him as an example, you can. Personally, I teach mainly adults. Very rare I teach children. Selfishly, I'm quite interested in it from my own perspective. But hopefully, listeners will be interested in it, too. Soli: ADHD doesn't go away. Let me say, as well, it's not a life sentence. It's just a different type of behaviour. There are all sorts of very famous, successful people with ADHD. Rory Bremner is one who goes very popular with his condition. Martine: I did not know that. That's really interesting. Soli: Oh, yeah. There's a really incredible documentary. I think you can get it on Catch Up on BBC. You can hear how his brain is working. It's firing from all different angles. Oh, I think will.i.am, as well. Soli: Adults and children are amazingly creative. They've got a zillion thoughts wandering around their head, which it shows up more in our school system because our school system is so rubbish that we expect children just to sit quietly, line up, sit on the carpet, be passive. Whereas, our people with ADHD, that's the complete opposite of what they need to be. Soli: Going again back to your question, an adult with ADHD will put themselves into a situation where their natural abilities and their natural skills and their natural way of behaving won't be a conflict. You're not gonna get somebody going working in a very quiet atmosphere of an office. They will do something a little bit louder and zanier. My son is a hairdresser. Soli: It's because he is creative. He can wander around. He can chat when he wants. He can more or less go and eat when he wants. There's loud music, which helps him concentrate. As an adult, you'll put yourself into the environment that suits you. The other thing is they're very disorganized. Again, as an adult, you can find those ways. You'll write yourself lists, have Post-It notes, do things on your phone to remind you, have alarms. You'll create a world around the things that you find difficult. It does affect adults, too, and adults do need help and support with organisation with going for lots of movement breaks and doing things in very short, sharp chunks and changing things up so they don't get bored very easily. Yes, we do have to still be considerate of adults with ADHD because it still exists. Martine: That's super interesting. I think a lot of teachers could really up their teaching game just generally by ensuring that they chunk things up into really small, attention-grabbing sections and supporting learners of all ages with their organization skills. There's a lesson in that, regardless of whether any of your learners have ADHD or not. We could learn a lot from just implementing those strategies as standard. Soli: Yes, yes. Some people just need help. "There's too much content here. I can't read it all." It needs to be in chunks. We need to realize what people's learning styles are. I'm an incredible visual learner and I need things being very, very clear with pictures and underline and bold. Those strategies really help our children with concentration difficulties. They can't just have a whole great, big chunk of writing or seven instructions or a page of 20 sums. It's too much. We have to chunk it up. Cut up a piece of paper so they only see one little part of an instruction or just give five sums. Soli: We use something called "red cup, green cup" in primary school. It's literally having two cups on your table, stacked, and if the green cup is showing, "I'm okay, that's fine, I don't need any help." If the red cup is showing, you stack it the other way, it just signals to an adult. It saves somebody having to put their hand up for 20 minutes. It's great. Something we haven't spoken about, which is the number one thing and, really, I should have said it right at the top, is our children with ADHD, their self-esteem is on the floor. Unless you get an amazing teacher who understands them, their life at school, they'll be labelled as naughty. They'll be the ones in the staffroom that everybody says, "Oh, watch out for this one. He'll cause trouble." Soli: Already, teachers have very negative expectations. The other children will see them as the one who is always being told off. Classically, they're the ones who do something just for that extra little bit of time. They'll get noticed. But the smart, clever ones will stop before the adult comes in. The child with ADHD will be the one always in trouble. Social relationships are nonexistent, really. My son has very, very limited friendships even now. New Year's Eve, he had to go out with his little sister because he didn't have friends. Birthdays, he never got invited to birthday parties. Never invited to play dates. The self-esteem of our children with ADHD is horrendous. We need to do everything we can just to build them up. Soli: Just going back to that red cup, green cup, that is such a subtle way of saying, "I need help." Nobody even needs to notice. The teacher then just goes over quietly and then just supports and helps the child. Martine: In terms of supporting learners with ADHD, clearly working with them on their self-esteem is really important. Through the discussions that we've had, I suspect that teachers getting to know their learners really well and anticipating issues is important, too. I would expect that. Soli: Yes. Yes. It's vital, really, because a lot of our children with ADHD want to learn. They're very creative. They've got great ideas. But they just probably need to learn in a different way. As we've said before, they really need help with organization. Visuals are great to use. Visual timetables, visual schedules, so they know the order of a day or an order of a session and they don't get overwhelmed. They might have real difficulty keeping still. There are some great resources that you can use. There are some wobble cushions, which sounds bizarre, but they're inflatable cushions that sit on the chair and it keeps children still. I don't know what the magic is behind it, but it's to do with their sensory equilibrium being balanced. Soli: You know the yoga bands, the stretchy yoga bands? You put those on the chair legs and the bottom and then a child can just keep kicking them and pressing their feet against them. All these things are aiding concentration because instead of them fiddling and squirming and disrupting and disturbing other people, these other little strategies can actually help them focus and concentrate. But saying that, if a child works better by kicking off their shoes and laying on the floor on a cushion to do their writing, I would say, "Why not?" If it suits your classroom, if it suits the environment, and he or she is going to be focused, not disturbing everybody else, might not be able to sit on a chair for 20 minutes. Might be able to do it for 10 and then as long as he's asking permission and just, "Would you mind if I just go and finish the rest on the floor?" Fine, if he gets the work done. Soli: Also, fiddle toys. A lot of our children do need to fiddle. I know we had the fidget spinners, which were banned. I think it was such a shame 'cause they're so great for our ADHD children. But I do understand why they were banned, 'cause they were a little bit dangerous. But it was great for our self-esteem of our children because, all of a sudden, they had a gadget that everybody else wanted and it made them feel really special. That was, for me, a win-win. But there are some great fiddle toys. There's one that's lots of little colored blocks on an elastic string. They're £1.50 and children can fiddle with those and they're silent. They don't disrupt or disturb anybody else. Soli: I say to my children, "If it disturbs you and makes you lose focus, you're not having it. If it disrupts anybody else around you, you're not having it." If they can quietly fiddle, or Blu Tack is also very good if it makes them concentrate then fine. Let them have it. It's really not a problem. The other thing, our children are very impulsive. Quite often, it's very hard for them if the teacher is saying something and they just are desperate to call it out, they'll call it out because they don't have the brakes to, "Do you know what? I'll just wait my turn." If you give a child a whiteboard or pen and paper so that they can write their answer and then almost show it up to the teacher so that she can see and just do a silent thumbs up and a smile, quite often that's enough. Soli: I keep saying "he" because a lot of our children with ADHD are boys, or more boys are diagnosed. Girls tend to not have the hyperactive element, so are quiet. They're ADD without the hyperactive. But most of them are boys. All they want to do is know that they've been seen and they've been heard. If you do this whiteboard thing and hold up their answer and smile and thumbs up, quite often that sort of thing is enough. You could try recording in different ways. If they find writing difficult, then maybe a laptop or speech to text software or using a little sound button. Sound buttons are great, actually. I don't know if you've come across them, Martine. Soli: They come in all different guises, but basically it's little recording device. It could either be something that looks like a giant Smartie and then you press it and you can record a message for, say, 30 seconds. What an assistant could do, what the teacher could do, could record the instructions. "Do five sums and then come and see me," or "Do five sums and show me your red cup." The child then just keeps listening to the instruction or they could use it for if a child forgets what their sentences they need to write, or forgets a plan that they need to do, or needs to use it to remind themselves of a job that they need to do. They're also really great. If you Google "sound buttons," they're really good. They're in the SEN bit of catalogues. They're really, really good. I recommend them, as well. Soli: Yeah, there's just so many. Visuals, visuals are always great just to remind our children what to do and to keep on track. As I said before with a lot of these things, so many of the other children in the class can also benefit. Who wouldn't want to kick off their shoes if it makes them feel comfortable or sit on a wobble cushion if it helps them or have their work chunked up or use visuals? Also, who wouldn't want to be made to feel special? These techniques really work for our children with ADHD, but other children, as well. I think the underlying things is that as adults, we must just look and understand the behaviour and change our reaction to a behaviour and don't always be so quick to tell off or to say, "Why did you do that? Weren't you thinking?" Soli: Quite often, our children are not thinking. That's part of the difficulty. Try to really understand the behaviour and react to it differently and just make our little children just feel special and valued and listen to their opinions. Martine: There are some great strategies there, Soli. As an adult learner, who doesn't want to feel valued? You're absolutely right. I think, ultimately, as teachers, it's our jobs to facilitate an environment where everybody has an equal opportunity to learn. By employing these strategies, we are really going to create a fantastic environment for our children, for our adults, for our learners, whoever it is you have responsibility for. Thank you for sharing those strategies. I think they've been really helpful. I hope that everyone listening has taken away all sorts from your wise words. Soli: Yeah, well, thank you. I'm so super passionate about changing things up. It's so simple. As teachers, we've got these little people's worlds in our hands, their futures, without being too dramatic. We can change the way these children feel about themselves. It's so easy to do. We can make them feel successful and valued. No child gets up in the morning and just thinks, "I really hope I'm shouted at today. I really hope I'm kept in at playtime. I really hope nobody plays with me." Everybody gets up in the morning and wants to have a good day. I think it's up to us educators to make all our little people have a good day. Martine: Definitely. I quite agree with that. Well, thank you, Soli. I have one final question for you and it's an important one. Where can people find you online? Soli: Well, go to my website, which is Soli-Lazarus.com. That is a lovely hub for all my other bits and bobs that I do. As I say, I've got some training online videos that are free to watch. One is how to stop the rudeness. One is how to build up self-esteem. One is blowing wide open the myths surrounding ADHD. Those are free to watch. Also, there are links to my mentoring program and my blog. I write a regular blog and I've got a fabulous Facebook group, which is just full of lovely, lovely parents who are just trying to get some answers to some questions and we give each other support. I offer some great free resources. Pop along to that website and you'll find my links there. Martine: That's brilliant. Thanks, Soli, and thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure speaking with you.