Taming Gremlins
and Your Kids' ADD
- Jane Massengill -

Millions of children and adults are afflicted with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and it’s a major source of problematic functioning in school, the workplace and in relationships. Many kids describe ADD as their brain being tuned to 3 different TV channels all at once, with poor reception and inconsistent sound. It’s easy to understand why school would be challenging for these kids; noisy clamor and visual clutter make it impossible to concentrate on classroom work, learn it, process it and remember it.

In addition, the constant frustration of early failure affects other areas of life resulting in ADD kids being labeled as “difficult”, “ disruptive” and “hard to handle”. Often, these negative labels continue into adulthood when people tattoo themselves with the hurtful belief that they cannot learn, they aren’t capable and they are not valued.

Parents struggle to find the most effective solutions to help their kids navigate around the negative effects of ADD. There are any number of possible remedies but no cure all, and parents often use a combination of strategies, including pharmaceutical drugs, herbal remedies, behavior modification, diet, and concentration-building exercises. It’s a constant struggle and sometimes in blended families, the challenges are more magnified when co parents disagree about the most effective strategy to use, or when kids are transitioning, and one parent is inconsistent administering medication or following through with behavioral exercises.

Jane Massengill, Director of The Gremlin Taming Institute is an ADD expert who has contributed to several publications in the ADD community and developed a dynamic classroom program for kids with ADD. She noticed that kids with ADD have greater sensitivity to criticism given their history of negative experiences and therefore some pretty vivid Gremlins. Her approach utilizes the highly effective techniques described in Taming Your Gremlin and in an imaginative and captivating way she teaches kids skills that they can carry with them and use whenever they need to, with parent participation or not.

What is a Gremlin and how does it affect someone with ADD? A Gremlin is a negative, critical inner voice that communicates with you and tries to control you when you face challenges, conflicts and problems. It’s a sabotaging dialogue that undermines your self-confidence and prevents you from moving forward and making the decisions that are best for you.

The obvious strategy would be to fight a Gremlin, get rid of it and squash it, but actually, that only makes it show up somewhere else. The most effective strategy is to notice it and incorporate it into decision making without allowing it to dominate in self-defeating behaviors like it wants to do. Kids with ADD who constantly interrupt, can’t follow directions, have trouble finishing assignments, and who struggle with processing and memory, undoubtedly have many Gremlins badgering them daily. These kids need to be able to tame the Gremlins to help them function more confidently in school.

The first part of Jane’s strategy is to teach belly breathing to help the kids feel grounded and aware; research has shown that relaxation techniques help the brain learn new skills so it is important for the kids to feel relaxed. Next, Jane helps them learn how to NOTICE their Gremlins by giving them a name, drawing them, yelling aloud what they are saying. This helps kids imagine that the bullying, negative voice they hear is not in control of them. Kids with ADD lack skills in guiding and controlling their attention so Jane helps shift their awareness to their body and the world around them and guides them with positive imagery in the form of language that tells the Gremlin he’s wrong.

There’s nothing more important than instilling confidence in every child and setting them up for success. However, self-defeating bullying inner talk can sap the confidence of the strongest kids, never mind those with the challenges of ADD. Jane’s Gremlin Taming for Kids with ADD is another technique you can add to the toolbox; find out if you think it would help you and your child.

There’s no substitute for reading Rick Carson’s insightful and imaginative book, Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way, or for attending Jane’s tele seminars. However, a great alternative to begin the process of Gremlin Taming is to join our conversation with Jane Massengill on July 31st.

Jane will be our Ask the Expert guest and will answer any questions you may have about your particular Gremlins and how to tame them. If you are unable to join the call, visit www.blended-families.com and submit a question on-line.

And go to www.tamingyourgremlin.com to visit the Gremlin Gallery and view Rick Carson’s video clip “On Gremlins”.

Action Step

How will kids with ADD tame their Gremlins?
Kids with ADD are easily distracted and have difficulties directing attention, shifting awareness to child’s body and surroundings and the use of language is a way for kids to tell the negative inner voice that it is wrong, in doing so kids with ADD can succeed and can function well in school.

Resources

There's so much more to learn about Taming Your Gremlin!
We at Blended-Families.com encourage you to pic up Rick's book either at the local library or online.

Sometimes it's hard to identify the Gremlin on your own, although you know it's in there talking up a storm while you're trying to do the complex balancing act of running a blended family with its multiple issues and challenges.

A tried and true Gremlin-buster is having a Blended Family coaching session with one of our expert coaches. We can help you identify the Gremlin of the moment and help you tame it in an expedient, effective way.