The brain’s growth is mostly complete by adolescence, but a lot of its vital connections are still being made during the teen years. Next to infancy, adolescence is a period that requires a nutritious diet for healthy brain growth, especially if this brain has ADHD. Diets of the average teenager, however, tend to be sorely deficient in important nutrients and fatty acids.  Teens either eat foods with high levels of hydrogenated fats and saturated fats, or they restrict their food intake in order to stay trim. Here are some ADHD diet tips to help your teenager develop healthy eating habits.

Practice what you preach

Instead of telling your child what foods to eat, model healthy eating habits by practicing what you preach. Take your child to the supermarket with you and demonstrate how to buy nutritious foods. Point out which types of foods are just empty calories and which ingredients trigger ADHD, such as artificial coloring, preservatives, and flavoring.  Encourage your child to help plan meals at home so that he or she becomes more motivated to eat healthy.

Say no to processed foods

Resist the temptation to buy frozen foods, canned foods, and other highly processed foods. Not only do these foods offer low nutritional value; they are also loaded with harmful ingredients that aggravate ADHD symptoms.  For instance, processed foods contain high levels of hydrogenated oil, which can be incorporated into the brain structure. Once in the brain, these oils make neuron membranes rigid and inefficient at transmitting and receiving neurotransmitters, which affects brain function and behavior.

Use teenage thinking as a weapon

Teenagers are conscious about their physical appearance, and you can use this to your advantage when it comes to nutrition. Talk to your child about the relationship between a healthy diet and acne-free skin, or say that empty calories will only facilitate weight gain.  This type of teaching uses the idea of “relevance”. In order for a teenager to accept the message, he or she has to believe that it has a direct impact in their life. Be specific – talk to your child about how eating well can improve their growth, their sports performance, their attention span, or whatever issue seems to be important to your child at the moment.

Here are some of the specific nutrients needed by your ADHD teen.

• Iron. Teens with ADHD, especially menstruating girls, tend to be low in iron. Addressing this deficiency is important, because iron aids in the production of neurotransmitters.
• Zinc.  The trace mineral zinc is responsible for brain wave processes, producing serotonin, and vitamin B6 metabolism, to name a few. Dark meat, oysters, and legumes are excellent sources of zinc.
• Calcium. Besides aiding growing bones, calcium helps produce neurotransmitters and aids in vitamin absorption and enzyme digestion.  Instead of adding more milk and dairy to your child’s diet, use dark green vegetables like broccoli, which are healthier sources of calcium.

If there is one ADHD symptom that creates awkward social situations and hurt feelings, it has to be the lack of tact. It’s normal for children of all ages to say what’s on their mind, but those with ADHD are even more likely to have no sense of control over their speech. Regardless of whether or not your child was speaking the truth (and chances are, he or she is probably right), every parent needs to deflect these inappropriate statements. Once the words have been said, someone is bound to get offended and you, the parent, might feel helpless or embarrassed.

Teaching manners and tact to children with ADHD is just as important as helping them manage their symptoms.  Social skills do not come naturally to children with the disorder, and it’s a parent’s job to teach them what to say and what not to say. By doing so, you’re helping your child become appreciated and liked. Here are ways to teach tact to kids with ADHD.

Let your child know what to expect

Children in preschool and early elementary are expected to know how to behave in public and around society, but these skills have to be taught. If your child is not prepared to handle these situations, he or she is not going to know how to behave.  Experts in etiquette and parenting suggest anticipating problem situations and talking to your child about it to avoid hurt feelings and embarrassment. Let your child know what might happen and how he or she should react.

For instance, you’re about to go to grandma’s house. Grandma likes to cook healthy food, which your child is not too crazy about. Tell her, “Grandma is going to make dinner and she can get very sad if she makes a nice meal and you say yuck.” You can then suggest that your child keep quiet about what she thinks and avoid eating what she doesn’t like.  Similarly, if your child is receiving presents, let her know that the giver may be hurt if she says, “I don’t like this” or “I already have this toy.” Tell her to just smile and say thank you.

Let your child spend energy

For solemn occasions like weddings or funerals, tell your child that he or she will be expected to stay on their best behavior during the event. Of course, your rambunctious little one won’t sit still just because you said so; help your child along by suggesting that he or she let off some steam before you head out.  Let your child run around the park and scream while doing so, using up all his energy before getting ready for a serious occasion.

Role-play a situation

One other way to help your child understand what went wrong is by role-playing the situation. Experts suggest using stuffed animals and make a game of it to help younger children learn social skills in a fun manner.  Normally, adults get very tense when their child says something inappropriate. When we explain what went wrong while we’re tense or angry, the lesson doesn’t sink in very well. The child will then get confused or scared, and fail to understand what went wrong.

Using stuffed animals relieves this tension around the lesson you’re trying to impart.  For instance, have one stuffed animal say rude and hurtful things – “You’re so fat!” The other stuffed animal can interject and say, “That’s not a nice thing to say.” The first stuffed animal can insist, “But it’s true!” You can your child will probably giggle about the silliness of the conversation, and you can reinforce the lesson by adding, “It’s important to be careful about what you say about other people’s looks. If you see someone who looks a little strange or funny, try not to say it out loud. Whisper it into my ear or tell me about it when we’re alone.”

Be direct with adolescents and teens

When dealing with adolescents and teens, parents should be direct about the tact and behavior they expect.  Bad behavior should be confronted when we see it, and we need to be firm about our values. No putting other people down or hurting their feelings for being different.

Next to questions about ADHD treatment, many parents turn to me for advice on how to discipline ADHD children effectively.  Although natural treatments will help reduce behavioral problems in the long run, parents have to contend with their children’s stubbornness, hyperactive tendencies, and other misbehaviors today.  Parenting an ADHD child is no easy task. Even the most patient parents end up dropping their compassionate approach for a cycle of nagging, yelling, and punishing, which only seems to make their children misbehave even more.

So how do you get an ADHD child to behave?  As with ADHD treatments, there is no magic bullet or formula to better discipline; each child responds to different techniques. There are a few general guidelines you can follow to keep your child’s misdeeds in check.

Understand that discipline is not punishment

Before anything else, you must realize that there are differences between discipline and punishment.  Most parents assume that discipline involves punishing a child, but they could not be more different from each other.

Punishment is the act of doing something unpleasant to a child who breaks the rules or behaves inappropriately. This is usually done in the form of spanking or yelling. When it comes to children with ADHD, punishment is the least helpful way of encouraging proper behavior. First of all, ADHD children are more anxious and nervous than other children, and punishment only makes these emotions worse. A nervous child cannot learn from the experience and will end up repeating the same mistake. Since punishment is generally unpleasant, it will also encourage your child to tune out on your yelling and lecturing. Finally, punishment encourages aggression, especially when a parent hits a child. Punishment teaches a child that it’s all right to yell and hit someone when you feel frustrated about something that person did.

On the other hand, discipline teaches proper behavior by showing a child the natural consequences of deviating away from social norms or responsibilities.  Discipline forces the child to look at what went wrong and how his or her behavior made an impact on others, thus providing the child an incentive for avoiding that behavior in the future. Discipline also teaches children to deal with their frustrations in a calmer, more rational manner instead of promoting aggression.

In other words, discipline teaches children how to learn from their mistakes instead of suffering for them.  Punishment, on the other hand, is all about the parent being responsible for controlling the child’s behavior, rather than teaching the child to control his or her behavior.

How to discipline an ADHD child

According to Dr. Jane Nelsen, the author of the book Positive Discipline, there are Four R’s to disciplining a child.

Reveal

Make sure you reveal the consequences of certain behaviors in advance so your child knows what’s coming when he or she chooses to misbehave. Let’s say your child just got a new bike and you’re worried about her safety.  You can say, “If you want to ride your bike, you have to wear your helmet or I’ll know you’re not ready for a bike yet.” This wording is more effective than just saying, “Don’t ride a bike without a helmet, or I’ll take your bike away.” The latter sounds more like a challenge for the child to test the rule. The first statement, on the other hand, places the child responsible for her own safety and behavior.

Related

The consequences should always be logically related to the deed. For instance, taking away TV privileges has nothing to do with promoting bike safety.

Respectful

Give your comments respectfully rather than in a threatening matter. This helps your child realize that she has a choice about her behavior. You can say, “When I see you on your bike without a helmet, I know you’re not ready to ride it safely and need to keep it in the garage first.” Observe how this statement is less likely to encourage balk-talk than, “I’m taking your bike away! You could get killed riding it without a helmet!”

Reasonable

Finally, provide a reasonable solution that will help your child correct her behavior in the future.  You can say to your child, “You may ride your bike again with a helmet in the afternoon.” Stay consistent with the consequence of riding without a helmet (time away from the bike), but keep the time limit as short as possible to make your child pay attention to the lesson. If you keep your child away from the bike for a week after her first offence, she’ll spend more time feeling resentful than learning from her mistake. But if your child repeats the violation again, increase the time limit away from the bike to a day.

Children with ADHD need to practice behaving, and we need to give them second chances. Dr. Nielsen says that if any of these R’s is missing, the technique becomes punishment, and your child will react through another set of R’s – resentment, revenge, rebellion, and retreat (e.g. lying, running away). If your ADHD child shows any these responses, there’s a possibility that one of the four R’s of discipline was missing from the technique.  The good news is that you too have second chances to help your child achieve better behavior in the future.

Last week, I talked about how the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed over the last few years, and posited some possible explanations for this phenomenon.  While some might argue that ADHD awareness and overeager doctors contributed to this increase, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that diet and lifestyle parallels the high rate of childhood ADHD cases today.

This study, which was done by researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center, looked at 201 children and adolescents between the ages 10 and 18.  All children were referred the URMC’s Children’s Hospital hypertension clinic, and it was found that 101 had sustained high blood pressure or hypertension.  We’re all familiar with how hypertension increases the risk of heart disease among adults but in young children, high blood pressure has a stronger impact on their mental development and functioning.  Not surprisingly, 28% of the 101 children were found to have ADHD and learning disabilities.

Children with ADHD used to be excluded from studies like this because the medications they take may increase blood pressure. However, the researchers included ADHD children this time because they wanted to see if high blood pressure impaired their mental functioning. What’s interesting is that when ADHD was removed from the picture, hypertension was still related to a higher rate of learning disabilities in children.  This suggests that high blood pressure may contribute to mental development problems among children.

Hypertension in infants is usually caused by problems with the kidneys or heart, or premature birth. With proper management, blood pressure normalizes during early childhood. However, at least 3% of children today have high blood pressure, and many of these cases are not due to birth complications.  Many adolescents and teens with hypertension do not have other health problems, but they do have a family history of hypertension and live an unhealthy lifestyle characterized by excess weight, bad diet, lack of physical activity, and stress.

Fortunately, it’s not difficult to prevent hypertension in children, even if the child has a family history of the condition. These preventative measures are also often used as natural ADHD treatments:

• Regular exercise not only keeps ADHD symptoms at bay; it strengthens the blood vessels and helps control weight.  Though organized sports is the most common way to get regular exercise, unstructured activity like running, biking, or skating also works for kids with ADHD.
• Avoid high-fat and high-sodium foods – the two culprits behind high blood pressure. Give your child healthy meals with low-fat products, fruits, vegetables, and fish.
• Supplement meals with omega-3 essential fatty acids from fish oil. For ADHD kids with hypertension, omega-3 fats serve a double purpose – it reduces ADHD symptoms by forming the structure of the neuron membranes and facilitating neurotransmitter communication, and it prevents hypertension by keeping blood vessels supple.
• Get a regular check-up. A child’s blood pressure naturally increases with age, and a doctor can tell if your child’s blood pressure is normal for his or her age, height, and weight.

If children with ADHD are more likely to get injured in the playground, are ADHD teens of driving age at higher risk for motor vehicle accidents as well?  It seems that the answer is yes.  Teenage bravado coupled with distractibility, impulsivity, and difficulty with self-regulation can make the ADHD driver a force to reckon with on the road.  Even though a teenager with ADHD may have good knowledge of driving rules, applying these rules may be challenging, especially if he or she gets easily overwhelmed by new stimuli, increased responsibility, and distractions from gadgets.

Studies have also confirmed that teenage drivers with ADHD are indeed more accident-prone than peers without. According to the research of psychologist Russell Barkley, people with ADHD speed four times more often than those without the disorder.  ADHD drivers are also two or three times more likely to get into an accident, three times more likely to have their licenses revoked in their first five to eight years of driving, and five times more likely to get a parking ticket. The latest research on the subject comes from Central Michigan University, where PhD candidate Michele Oliver was able to compare the driving skills of young motorists with ADHD and without.

Oliver’s research is currently being done in cooperation with Professor Richard Backs, director of the Driving Evaluation Education and Research Center.  The Center is equipped with an AAA Michigan driving simulator, which allows driving instructors and researchers to test people’s driving abilities without endangering the driver and motorists on the road. Oliver has been able to test two groups of young drivers using the simulator – one with ADHD and one without. Both groups had displayed the same awareness of driving rules and possessed the same skills.  However, those in the ADHD group ran more stop signs, stop signals, and had more crashes and multiple crashes in the simulator.  Oliver is still determining the reasons for these outcomes and hopes to confirm these by the end of fall.

These grim facts don’t necessarily mean that your teenage ADHD driver will get into an accident. For one thing, the risk is greatly reduced once your child has managed to control his or her symptoms. There are also several things you can do to keep your child safe on the road.

Prolong driver education

The conventional practice is to delay driving education only until a he or she is old enough to get a license at sixteen.  However, the opposite approach might work better for those with ADHD. As young as 14, start explaining driving rules, demonstrating driving skills, and establishing safe driving habits. Depending on your child’s ADHD symptoms, it may be wise to delay licensure until he or she turns 18, when your child is more mature and careful.

Practice driving together

Use practice driving time as an incentive for good behavior.  Spend at least 30 minutes each time driving and use this as an opportunity to address the challenges faced by your child.  Ask your child if there’s anything that distracts him and find a way to overcome these distractions.   When your child gets a learner’s permit, don’t sign it unless you agree upon certain rules, such as no cellphone use while driving or limit music sources to just one CD or tape.

Restrict your child’s driving

Once your child gets his or her license, draw up driving restrictions or conditions where your child receives driving privileges in increments.  Here are some examples of rules you can enforce:

• Plan every trip ahead of time and inform a parent in advance.
• Driving is only restricted to necessarily trips, such as school, after-school jobs, or team events.
• Keep your cellphone on silent mode to avoid getting distracted by text messages or calls.
• For the first three to six months, no passengers are allowed except for parents.
• For the first six months, no night driving is allowed without a parent on board.

Remember, driving is a privilege, not a right.  Evaluate your child’s overall behavior and determine if your child really is ready to drive.  If he or she consistently throws temper tantrums or breaks rules, there’s a chance that your child is not mature enough to get behind the wheel.

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.

Researchers looked at data gathered by American Association of Poison Control Centers, which was based on calls from 13- to 19-year olds between the years 1998 and 2005. Throughout this time, nationwide calls for ADHD drug misuse increased from 330 to 581 yearly.  Around 42% of affected teens experienced moderate to severe side-effects such as aggression, seizures, personality changes, and psychosis. Most had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, while four of these cases resulted in death.

Indeed, abuse of Ritalin and other prescription drugs is a phenomenon college guidance counselors struggle with every year.  From the point of view of a teenager, the short-term side effects of ADHD medications are very desirable. Not only does Ritalin suppress appetite and cause weight loss; the drugs help students stay up all night while they frantically finish papers or study for exams. It’s common practice for teens to crush the tablets and snort the medicine as though it were cocaine; this makes the methylphenidate metabolize faster. Unfortunately, ADHD medications do have a strong potential for abuse if they are taken this way.

The study’s authors did not have information as to whether the abusers were diagnosed with ADHD or not. However, anecdotal evidence and previous research suggests that many of these teens did not have ADHD. According to a study by the University of Miami, students who were prescribed ADHD medications were least enthusiastic about taking them. On the other hand, non-prescribed students were more eager to use these drugs, which can be obtained from ADHD peers who are more than happy to sell or trade extra pills. It’s not uncommon for teens without ADHD to fake the symptoms so that they can obtain a prescription from a doctor.

Even though there are only hundreds of overdose cases compared to the millions of children who take Ritalin and other stimulants, the rising numbers are consistent and reflect a major increase in teenage substance abuse problems.  If your child or teen is taking medications for ADHD, make sure that you’re aware of where the pills are stored, how many there are, and who has access to these drugs.  Better yet, keep them in a place where your child can’t sneak them out.  Watch out for signs of abuse, which include difficulty focusing and increased agitation. You may also want to consider trying a non-medical approach to manage ADHD, especially if your child no longer shows improvements after years of taking medication.

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.

Provide structure

Since children with ADHD cannot be left to their own devices, it’s important for them to have some sort of structure during the summer months.  Sit down with your kids and create a calendar filled with a healthy mix of summer activities, like family vacations, picnics at the park, or weekend trips to the museum or zoo.  For young children, you might want to talk to other parents and arrange play dates.

Of course, summer should allow time for relaxation, so try not to over-schedule activities. A day trip to the beach sounds great, but three or four consecutive days of activities may feel hectic and rushed.  Allow your children to experience some downtime, where he or she can do anything – or nothing at all. Just make sure that you or another adult will be around to keep an eye on them.

Consider summer camp

You can also send your children to a summer camp or day camp. Not only does summer camp have a similar structure to school, but it provides great opportunities for learning and friendships. The question is – should you send your child to a camp that caters specifically to kids with ADHD, or will your child be better off at a “regular” camp?  Some children, especially those with predominantly inattentive symptoms (i.e. daydreaming or being easily distracted), can easily get along with other children in non-academic settings.  If this sounds like your child, he or she can attend a mainstream camp and have no difficulty socializing with “normal” children.  On the other hand, children who are too hyperactive or have marked social difficulties will do better at specialized camps. These camps will not only do a great job of keeping your child entertained, but they will also teach the social skills required in forming and maintaining friendships.

If a summer camp is beyond your budget, consider summer lessons in art, music, or sports.  What’s important is that your child stays busy, happy, and creative throughout the summer.

Maintain bedtime and other household routines

Sometimes, having a fun-filled summer will keep your child from getting a good night’s sleep.  It doesn’t help that children with ADHD often have difficulties going to sleep or staying asleep.  As a result, they become tired and cranky the next day.  On week days, maintain the same bedtime you impose during the school year, even if your child doesn’t have to wake up early the next day.  This will prevent your child from engaging in activities (ie, playing video games) that make it harder for them to settle down and fall asleep.  Encourage some downtime an hour before bedtime.  Read your child a book, watch a relaxing movie, or tell stories to help your child transition into the sleep phase.

Just because it’s summer, it doesn’t mean your child is exempt from household chores. If anything, helping out with the chores is a great way to keep your child occupied.  Aside from making sure your child does his regular share of the household work, you can also ask your child to help out with extra tasks like spring cleaning or gardening. Make sure to provide small rewards to keep your child motivated.

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.

From Chaos to Calm: Effective Parenting for Challenging Children with ADHD and other Behavior Problems

This book was written from three points of view – a parent, a therapist, and a child – to provide readers with the most helpful guide on raising an ADHD child. If you want to learn how to be a pro-active parent who provides consistent and constructive discipline, this book is for you. The ideas presented in the book can be applied to very young kids up to teenagers.

The ADHD Parenting Handbook: Practical Advice for Parents from Parents

Written from the point of view of parents, this book provides guidelines, advice, and suggestions to help parents interact and help their children. While the early chapters deals with general information on ADHD, the bulk of the book focuses on managing and preventing bad behavior, providing a healthy and stable environment for the child, and working with teachers to overcome learning problems. Counselors, teachers, and pediatricians have also contributed helpful recommendations and parenting tips.

School Success for Kids with ADHD

Who doesn’t want their children to make the most out of their education? Children with ADHD are very bright and clever, but the traditional school system is incapable of honing these skills. This book discusses ADHD in the context of how the symptoms appear in school and strategies you can use to help your child overcome the setbacks of inattention and turn them into strengths. The advice included can be applied to kids as young as the middle school years up until college and beyond.

How To Reach And Teach Children with ADD/ADHD: Practical Techniques, Strategies, and Interventions

This easy-to-read book is a user-friendly guide for teachers and parents who want to help ADHD kids succeed in school and life. There are research-based tips on how to manage ADHD in different academic areas like writing, reading, and math, as well as detailed advice on teaching your child impulse control and study skills.

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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