- Mistakes can cause frustration.
One mistake after another can cause frustration with reading, writing, listening, and math. People with ADD can feel frustrated by the reactions of those around them, or with the results of having a distorted sense of time and feeling like things are going too slowly or too quickly. - Frustration leads to compulsive "solutions.”
To stop the frustration, people develop tricks that become compulsive and ineffective solutions. These mental tricks are used to get around problems because the person doesn’t know a better way to really resolve them. For example, when children are very young the “alphabet song” helps them learn the alphabet. But when adults need to think the alphabet song when using the dictionary, it shows that they haven’t really mastered the alphabet and need tricks to get by. These tricks slow them down and are what really disable learning.
Some common “tricks” that really aren’t solutions
Dyslexic “Tricks”
- Extreme concentration
- Memorizing rather than understanding
- Rereading over and over
- Sounding out each letter
- Avoiding reading or writing tasks
- Getting others to read or write for them
ADD/ADHD “Tricks”
- Becoming the “class clown”
- Withdrawing from social situations
- Adopting the “I don’t care” attitude
- Extremely good at making up excuses
