According to researchers, most children enter school with a good sense of self-esteem (at least as defined by psychologists) and yet leave high school with a poor sense of self-esteem. What happens in those years between starting school and finishing school?

If we are to define self-esteem as "having feelings of worth or value," then people with adequate levels of self-esteem should display a sense of realistic confidence in their abilities and performance. People with low levels of self-esteem would be expected to display feelings of inadequacy, a fear of failure, a sense of being unworthy, and perhaps depression.

It is estimated that 25-35% of children have Learning Disabilities. At least 5% have Attention Disorders. All too many times during the course of their academic careers these children are labeled by teachers (or parents) as being "lazy," or "stupid." Remarks of this type are typically interpreted by the child as, "You're no good," and the self-esteem levels drop. You can find resources to help children and teens with ADHD at http://www.ADD101.com.

At least 50% of children will experience the divorce of their parents prior to turning 18 years old. Most children, for whatever reasons too complicated to go into here, will tend to place at least a portion of the blame for the parent's divorce on themselves. Since the parents are typically placed on a pedestal in the eyes of the child, the blame for the divorce cannot be placed on the parents and must be placed elsewhere, most commonly on themselves. This also significantly impacts children's self-esteem levels.

Can you imagine the most difficult environment for a child who had difficulty sitting still, difficulty paying attention, and loved to talk to other children? Imagine that this child had to go into this environment every day, and was expected to perform successfully in this environment.

When you think about it, it is the classroom setting that is this difficult setting for these kids. There are a lot of distractions, yet they are told to sit still, don't move, don't talk, to pay attention to boring worksheets, and keep on task until the work is finished. None of these things come easily to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids. But day by day, off to school they go.

Many Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids "hit a wall" in school as the school year progresses. Every week they just get a little farther and farther behind, until they're so far behind that it's impossible to catch up. They lose their homework assignments, even after they have spent hours working on them. And they study hard for tests only to perform poorly the next day. They just slip farther and farther behind with each passing week.

The disorder is most often recognized and referred for treatment in third grade.This is when kids most often hit the "academic wall." In third grade they are expected to do more and more work on their own, and they are given more homework to do as well. We also see many referrals in seventh grade, or when the child leaves Elementary School for Junior High School, with several classes and several teachers. Many Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids who found ways to compensate in Elementary School are totally lost in Junior High School.

How can we help these children to be more successful in school? Begin by learning more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from the ADHD Information's family of web sites. Here is one of our outstanding web sites with over 500 Classroom Interventions to help your ADD ADHD Student succeed:http://www.ADDinSchool.com.

A couple of months ago we reported that Shire Pharmaceuticals was looking to receive approval on their third medication for the treatment of ADHD named VYVANSE, and now they have received it from the FDA. This new medication will go along with Shire's two other products for ADHD, Daytrana, a methylphenadate patch worn by children on the hip, and the somewhat controversial ADDerall XR. All three products are once per day dosing.

The product is expected to be on the market by the summer of 2007, and is expected to generate a lot of money for Shire. In fact, Shire is so fond of stimulants for the treatment of ADHD that they paid $2,600,000,000 (yes, that's 2.6 Billion dollars) for New river Pharmaceuticals, the company that actually developed Vyvanse. Read more in the press release below about the new medication, the money, and the companies.

Press Release - VYVANSE - February 23, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shire and New River Pharmaceuticals Announce FDA Approval of the First and Only Stimulant Prodrug VYVANSE (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) as a Novel Treatment for ADHD.