Putting a Challenging Child on a Path to Success

April 17, 2008, 6:48 am
Putting a Challenging Child on a Path to Success
Posted by Sara Schaefer Munoz
JetBlue founder David Neeleman (Credit: JG Howes)
Parents of hyper-active or disruptive kids, take heart. Sue Shellenbarger’s Work & Family column today looks at those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who went on to be professionally successful adults — even though they were kicked out of multiple schools or thought themselves “stupid.”
According to the column, JetBlue founder David Neeleman, Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea and host of the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Ty Pennington all caused grief for their parents and had problems with their teachers when young. But parental support (and in some cases, medication,) helped them cope with the constant feedback of failure they got in school.
These days, some 7.8% of children ages 4 to 17 have been told by a doctor or other health professional that they have or might have ADHD, the column says. In a society in which an ever-increasing amount of formal education is needed just to earn a living wage, the disorder is becoming “more impairing” to kids, and thus more troublesome, it says.
Mr. Neeleman’s father remained committed to seeing ADHD as a strength in his son, as a different and creative way of looking at things. Mr. Pennington’s mother used behavior-modification techniques to reward her son when he did something right. Mr. Orfalea’s mother came home in tears after he was expelled from school for the fourth time, but continued to believe in him, saying ” ‘Look at your five fingers. All five are different for a reason. School wants to make you all the same,’ ” he says she told him.
How parents cope with children who have ADHD is probably similar to how parents cope with a child with any number of behavioral issues that aren’t well-tolerated in today’s school environment. Readers, any success stories on keeping a challenging child motivated and confident even if he or she struggles in an academic setting? Have you needed to scale back or temporarily leave work in order to handle the issue?
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JetBlue founder David Neeleman (Credit: JG Howes)
Parents of hyper-active or disruptive kids, take heart. Sue Shellenbarger’s Work & Family column today looks at those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who went on to be professionally successful adults — even though they were kicked out of multiple schools or thought themselves “stupid.”
According to the column, JetBlue […]
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