Nowhere to Hide: Why Kids with ADHD and LD Hate School and What We Can Do About It

NOWHERE TO HIDE

Key to Unlocking Why ADHD & LD Kids Hate School

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Parents often tell their children that they should enjoy their carefree, youthful days while they last because soon ‘real responsibilities’ will set in.  While many children shake their heads and laugh, this may not so easy for kids with Learning Disabilities or ADHD.  For these children, the negative effects of stress have already entered their young lives.

NOWHERE TO HIDE: Why Kids with LD and ADHD Hate School and What We Can Do About it (Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley; July 2011; $24.95; Paper; ISBN: 978-0-470-90298-1) illustrates that stress (with a capital S) is the number one reason why children who are diagnosed ADHD, LD, or Asperger syndrome,  might hate school.  Students with LD or ADHD who haven’t learned how to “work smarter” to conquer their inadequacies are bombarded by requests to do things that are easy for most kids, but difficult for them, like sit still or read. Not being able to find success, these students face ridicule or reprimands. They are embarrassed, feel inadequate and start looking for the escape. Unable to get away from these brain-changing chronic stresses of school, these students often act up or act out, and the attention gets focused on their behavior, and not the underlying cause.

Clinical Neuropsychologist and author of NOWHERE TO HIDE, Jerome Schultz says, “As a result of chronic stress they experience in school, children who have LD, ADHD, Asperger syndrome, etc.. develop very fragile emotions that many parents and teachers often misread.  My hope is that this book helps them understand the cause of the negative emotions and behaviors and help kids gain a greater sense of control over their own educational futures.  This reduces stress and allows students to experience the success that so many of their classmates enjoy every day.”

Children often compare themselves to others to define their sense of self.  As they increasingly find that they cannot learn as easily as their classmates, or even their younger siblings, these kids’ brains go on “high alert,” a natural response of any organism that’s designed to protect us from harm. Animals under stress fight or run. Kids do the same thing.

NOWHERE TO HIDE provides the piece of the puzzle that’s been missing. This book is a joy to read and will bring a renewed feeling of hope that so many teachers, parents and kids have lost. Introducing his De-Stress model of intervention, Schultz offers abundant practical strategies to put kids on the path to confidence—the antidote for stress.

Stress enters all of our lives, and it sometimes inhibits our ability to move forward.  NOWHERE TO HIDE offers a blueprint for parents who want to empower their children and put them in their own driver’s seats as confident, capable learners.