If ADHD medications like Ritalin are chemically similar to substances like cocaine and amphetamines, does that mean they are addictive? Technically, the answer is no.  Although both Ritalin (methylphenidate) and cocaine stimulate the production of dopamine, Ritalin takes longer to metabolize while cocaine works instantly. For pleasure-seeking recreational users who want the immediate gratification of stimulants, this makes all the difference in the world.  The effects of cocaine wear off faster than Ritalin, causing the user to crave for more drugs to sustain the high. Based on this major difference, experts conclude that ADHD medications metabolize too slowly to be habit-forming – as long as kids and teens take their pills as instructed by their doctor, that is.

But as it turns out, not all teens that use ADHD medications take them as prescribed.  In fact, many of them might not even have ADHD. According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, the number of teens who overdosed on ADHD medications rose 76% over the last seven years.

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Summer is no doubt a favorite season for kids of all ages.  There’s no school, there’s no homework, and there’s nothing to do but relax and have fun. You probably think that summer also means a break for you – after all, you don’t have to supervise the kid’s study hour or wake up early in the morning to help them get ready for school. Sounds like a good time to relax and take it easy! That is, until your ADHD kids start complaining that they’re bored or find potentially dangerous ways to amuse themselves.

During the school year, the routine of waking up, getting ready for school, and coming home to do homework keeps many ADHD symptoms in check.  But as soon as the kids are faced with long days of doing nothing, the hyperactive, impulsive, and inquisitive nature of children with ADHD can pose a few problems.  Since ADHD kids require constant stimulation to keep themselves entertained, your child might get bored easily and often.  He or she will probably be more demanding of your time and attention. And since it’s not possible for you to keep your child entertained 24/7, he or she may get into trouble for finding new ways to stay amused. For instance, there was this 8-year-old boy who tried to cut a large tree in the backyard with a hand saw because he wanted to find out the tree’s age.  Fortunately, he was unharmed, but his parents quickly realized that the rest of the summer cannot go by without some sort of plan.

Here are a few tips that will help you plan the perfect summer with your ADHD child.

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Most parents are at a loss as to how to discipline their ADHD child. Your warnings go unheeded, the house rules are ignored, and threats seem to make no difference to their behavior. Managing the behavior of kids with ADHD definitely has its challenges, especially since traditional parenting skills do not usually work on them. But with a little help from experts on ADHD, you might become more effective at helping your child overcome ADHD while keeping their behavior in check. Below are five books that offer handy hints on parenting kids with ADHD.

Parenting Children with ADHD: Lessons That Medicine Cannot Teach

This book offers easily digestible information on how nutrition and certain therapies can improve the concentration, attention span, and behavior control of kids with ADHD. Although the book sometimes advocates the use of medication to treat ADHD, it also offers practical advice on behavior management. The author provides a well-rounded approach to teaching essential life skills, improving school success, and building compassion for others. There are also questionnaires, checklists, and homework at the end of every chapter for easy application.

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Text messaging not only distracts students and frustrates teachers who try to keep their attention. According to a new study, text messaging encourages laziness, impulsivity, and carelessness in adolescents.

Australian epidemiologist Dr. Michael Abramson discovered that text messaging can rewire young people’s brains and train them to become careless. One of the main culprits is a feature called predictive text messaging, where the phone’s software guesses the word the user wants to type and completes it with a keystrokes. It’s fast and efficient, but horribly inaccurate. Experts believe that a developing child’s brain can be vulnerable to this sort of carelessness with frequent use.

In a pioneering study, Dr. Abramson and his colleagues from Monash University in Melbourne examined the cellphone use of 317 non-ADHD adolescents aged 11 to 14. 25% made more than 15 calls a week, and another 25% sent over 20 text message weekly. This data was then compared these to their scores in a battery of computer tests. He observed that students who used text mobile phones accomplished the tests faster, but their answers were considerably inaccurate.

The findings of this study seem to support the observations of cognitive scientist Laura-Ann Petitto from the University of Toronto. She points out that adolescents today are more vulnerable to behaviors promoted by cellphone use because their dependence on these gadgets occurs at a critical age of brain development. During the pre-adolescent and early teen years, the mind is still open, changing, and growing. When confronted by a technology that demands speediness and automatic behavior, it increases the likelihood of making careless errors and impulsive responses.

Dr. Petitto adds that text messaging in particular addresses a brain function that is central to human beings – language. Although text messaging is visual, it also makes use of language, and features like predictive messaging may stunt the language growth of adolescents. Researchers observe that heavy cellphone use makes young people likely to commit spelling errors in everyday words like “occurrence”. They are also more likely to be more tolerant of grammatical mistakes and incorporate these into their lexicon.

Fortunately, young minds are also very resilient. Dr. Pettito says that the bad habits instilled by text messaging can easily be reversed. But first, you need to pry the child away from the cellphone.

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