THere is a new after school development center for children with ADD or ADHD that teaches mental and physical techniques as an alternative to medication. It seems like a terrific program, but I do not know about the cost. It's $52.00 dollars an hour with a minimum of 50 hours. Is this too expensive? Would you pay it to get your child off med? Let me know your thoughts.

I would want to hear some very positive results before I shelled out the bucks.

I would also have to see it improving behavior and memory. Sounds similar to an article my dad sent me. It suggested I spend 1200 to teach my child how to crawl to have him overcome the ADHD.

I would be wary of any program that claims to be a replacement for medication. If the program is there to teach organizational techniques, study skills, social skill, ect that is one thing but to claim to be a replacement for meds sounds kind of fishy to me. Even Dore (http://www.dorecenters.com/) doesn't claim to be a replacement for ADD meds.

Maybe I wrote that wrong. They are promoting their center as a tutoring alternative to medication. Supposily a way to get to the root of the problem rather than just taking med. What do you think of the price though?

Without statistical evidence of prior success, I would not pay that price...medication is cheaper and likely more effective. The "root of the problem" is in Dopamine Receptor and Transporter sites, which don't get fixed by learning how to write down what you need to do.

This is the ADD kids worse nightmare.

"Sit here little Joey, we're going to teach you how to accept being a dunce and learn new ways to barely get by in life. We're going to show you how be completely miserable because you will become more accepting that you will never live up to your true potential. We're going to charge your parents $50 an hour so you can take tiny baby steps, and then have everyone clap and smile with the appoval you got when you said your first word."

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I guess i'm still a little resentful that after a dramatic turnaround while taking dexedrine, my mother took me off because medications "scared" her. Why wasn't my ADD about me instead of my mothers irrational fear? My life has been one failure and tragic event after another. Thanks Ma!

Ok, i'm done venting. I really do still love you mom.

I would say it's worth a try EXCEPT...

Realize that this program might be more successful when used as tutoring IN ADDITION to medication. IMO, treatment for ADD is best when multiple approaches are used (medication alone is not enough, tutoring alone is not enough). Think of it this way:
If you had a kid who was having trouble learning to read, you could teach him until you were blue in the face, but if he needed glasses, the tutoring is not going to "fix" his reading problem. Similiarly, if you got him glasses, he will not magically know how to read. He needs both the medical intervention (glasses) and the reading lessons (tutoring).

Also, what if you decide the program is not working for your child? Can you quit the program before completing the 50 hours? $50 per hour *might* be worth it and is reasonable IMO (a therapist is paid more than that per hour), but the fact that they are locking you in for 50 hours does not seem right. Do you have to sign a contract saying that you'll pay for 50 hours worth of tutoring, even if you decide after a few weeks that the program is not working?

Behavioral therapy has been shown to be as effective as medication in studies, but you have to keep up with the therapy in order to continue the positive effects - if you quit, the issues return. This doesn't sound like behavioral therapy either. And it sounds like it's way way too expensive! I too am wary of anything that's billed as an alterative to medication - they are using the fear that parents have aquired from the media to sell their product at astonishingly high profit margins!
And the "root" of the problem is at the biochemical level in the brain, so they aren't anywhere near the "root" as they claim, in fact medication is! There is no way to "cure" ADHD and the fact that they claim to be able to do so via tutoring is tantamount to saying that the parent is to blame! "If you did what we do, your child wouldn't have ADHD" - is that a fair paraphrase of their mission statement?

Behavioral therapy, without medication, does a good job of changing the outside, and leaving the inside exactly the same. It makes you look and act like everyone else, but does nothing for the personality. It's the classic "treat the symptom" approach. You cannot treat ADHD with willpower. In fact, the more I tried the worse I became. The years of unmedicated behavioral therapy had the end effect of making my life more neurotic by dramatically changing my outside and leaving my inside completely unchanged. I "looked and behaved" more like normal people, but I was still the same powerless, insecure and lost soul. Behavior therapy was good for my denial.

Hi, I teach at an alternative high school which is a program within our public school district. I have many students with add/adhd and what breaks my heart more than anything are the students who have been diagnosed with adhd and whose parents don't believe in taking medicine for it. The parents do not acknowledge what a disability adhd can be. And then, of course, because these kids are teenagers, lots of them stop taking their meds even if their parents have allowed them to be taking it. I do not diagnose kids, but they do confide in me after I have shared my observations of their distractibility with them. Having it myself, it's not difficult to pick out the kids with adhd.

Recently with the problems my child was having in school I looked into the the sylvan learning center which promised alot of things, you may have seen there adds on tv. Well to walk in the door and for them to evaluate my childs weakness was 150 beans and 5 to 6 hours of testing. After the testing they would then sit down with us and work out a plan to help my son based on his deficancies from the testing. Levi wanted help but didnt want to sit thru that type of testing. I went to the school and got a list of tudors for math, which is really his weakness, no test required. Well his Math teacher for next year, 8th grade, was one of the highest recommended. He charges 20 and hour.
The other place wanted 48. and hour and offered finacing. Its been three weeks and it seems to have helped and his teacher for next year, provided he passes, will have a good Idea where Levi stands in his math class before he even gets there. There are no hard and fast rules,just do whats best for everyone concerned. There are many ways to get to the same place.

i dont like the sound of this, mostly because they say its a minimum of 50 hours. it sounds a bit dodgy to me.

i'd say dont do it. and dont take your kid of medication if it IS HELPING him/her.

I think the lengths that parents go to get kids off medication is ridiculous.

Would i do the same to get the epileptic child's brain off anti-seizure meds? Not likely.

People need to start acceptiong that AD/HD is a real disorder with a real chemical basis.

People don't treat kids with medication but then they whine when they get in trouble, or are pregnant as teens. (The jails and welfare rolls are full of these kids.)

Tragic.

The children should not pay the lifetime consequesces for the parent's lack of medical/neurology knowledge and training.

We only get one chance to affect our children's growing brains.

Don't mess with what science has shown to be true.