Institute 1 - Applying Efficacious Treatments to Improve the Home and School Lives of Youth with ADHD: Treatments for Organizational Skills and Executive Functions

Two efficacious psychosocial interventions are available for treating the challenging difficulties that youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have in managing home and school demands. One is for children and their parents (Organization Skills Training, OST; Abikoff et al., 2013) and one is for teens and their parents (Supporting Teens' Autonomy Daily, STAND; Sibley et al., 2016). Data indicate that a majority of youth with ADHD have impairing deficits in executive functioning (EF) and reflections of those deficits in organization, time management, planning (OTMP). Over the years, these deficits reduce school performance, create major homework problems, and add to family conflict, especially during homework times. Through extensive research, methods for evaluating and treating EF and OMTP deficits in all subtypes of ADHD have been created by two different clinical research teams. In over a decade of work, Organizational Skills Training (OST) for elementary-aged children was created to address the practical gaps that children with ADHD demonstrate at home and at school. For middle-school and early high-school teens, Supporting Teens Autonomy Daily (STAND) was developed and tested in a program of research that recognized the special challenges needed for teens to gain supported independence in managing school. Large RCTs have shown that the interventions led to improvements in OTMP skills, academic performance, homework performance, level of family conflict, and attitudes towards school and teachers that were sustained in follow-ups. Participants will learn how deficits in organizational skills and executive functioning hinder school productivity, school performance, and contribute to documented conflicts in family relationships and emotional distress in children and adolescents. Instruction is given on the details of the two interventions and how to implement components of the interventions. Special therapeutic techniques are incorporated, including motivational interviewing and how to view skill deficits as problems to manage, rather than personal character flaws. Participants learn how to deliver the interventions in clinical settings and how to select youth for whom the interventions are most appropriate.

Outline:
• Children and teens with ADHD are often hindered by weak development in executive functioning
• The deficits in executive functioning have a negative impact on major life areas including school performance and productivity and relationships with parents and teachers who are concerned about failure to advance appropriately.
• Two clinical research programs have addressed these issues in elementary school children and middle and high school youth.
• The research developed means of evaluating practical reflections of low executive functioning in organization, time management and planning skills.
• Additionally, the clinical research teams developed and tested treatments that are efficacious as documented in randomized control trials.
• The workshop will provide attendees with:
o strategies for assessing practical deficits in organization, time management, and planning, their impact on family and school functioning,
o determining which youth would benefit from treatment.
o a basic foundation for conducting both proven treatments.
o ideas on adapting the treatment for subclinical cases and for delivery via telehealth methods.
• Extensive time for discussion, practice, and questions is incorporated.