Reviewed by Phyllis Sorensen

As a classroom teacher for over a decade, I have run into my share of children who have given me great cause for concern. These special kids have a hard time staying on task, listening, following instructions, keeping their desks clean, and doing many other things that make what I considered a "model student." Occasionally I would see a glimmer of the potential that I knew was there. Just as quickly it would vanish.

One of my own children, a son, wasn't interested in school work, but greatly enjoyed the social interaction. His teachers really loved having him in class, or so they said, but he just didn't want to produce. I thought his "disinterest" in school was a form of rebellion. His father and I are both teachers. He could perform academically when something really interested him. Little did I realize that he probably suffered from ADD. He eventually dropped out of high school, but walked in off the street and passed his GED. He wasn't stupid or lazy. We just didn't know what he was! As parents and teachers of this boy, we felt like if we could just motivate him in the right way things would come together.

Reading Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorder was somewhat of an "ah ha" experience for me. The book was initially very technical with all the brain function talk, but as I got into it deeper, the puzzle of ADD started to come together for me. Understanding that attention deficits are part of a complex system, not in need of repair, but of understanding helped me recognize that many educators really misunderstand this problem. I had never considered that attention "deficits are essential parts of the self-organizing properties of an individual that are shaped by experiences from the first moments of life."(Pg. 5)

The question of whether a child suffers from ADD or is just unmotivated was very intriguing. The book points out that educators have an attitude that motivation means choice or will. They believe that we are all in charge of our own motivation: we need only will ourselves to do something and persist in pursuing the goal. If we wanted to, we could. I wish it were that easy. An "ah ha" came when I read that "motivation is certainly not an issue of 'I will.'" This book helped me understand that "motivation is itself a part of a complex system requiring regulation, a system that overlaps attention in many respects." (Pg. 82)

One thing that really made sense to me was that we only have so much "attention" to pay. Attention in finite. I know that I get over-stimulated in my own world. I have the tools that help me filter out some of it. I can turn off, tune out, or escape. Educators don't give kids those options. Novelty of material presentation with quick transitions is now the norm. School needs to catch up. As a teacher of ADD students, some of the stimuli has got to go. I need to integrate motor involvement and verbal interaction with the student into my lessons.

I have had my mind opened. When I go back into the classroom, I will go armed with a much better understanding of ADD. I will draw from the knowledge that Attention Deficit Disorder is "nonlinear and recursive, a set of feedback and feedforward loops that allow multiple aspects of the cognitive and emotional systems to communicate with one another, drawing upon prior knowledge and capitalizing on the human drive to notice novelty. Learning is, after all, the process of noticing something new, associating it with something familiar, perceiving relationships and consolidating the knowledge, and getting ready for more." Wow! This knowledge will benefit all my students.

Many of my practices will change. As an educator, I teach much the same way I was taught, very traditionally. My room is a plethora of visual stimuli. I "stack" assignments and give multi-level directions. I demand "eyes up front" and no distractions. (Even though I myself doodle, swing my feet, or do handwork to keep my focus in meetings) This works for some of my students, but not for all. I know about right and left brained students, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. I know a lot, but not enough. This book has helped a great deal to bridge that gap. By becoming more sensitive to the needs of my ADD students, I will structure the learning environment by establishing the needed supports, and I will work at tolerating the behaviors that are part of the students' efforts to learn. I will definitely use many of the strategies in this book.

In a perfect world, this book would be required reading for every educator, administrator and school employee. It would be course work in each pre-service education institution and the topic of in service classes in schools. ADD is very misunderstood.

The Reference section of the book in invaluable. I know where I can find more extensive information on ADD. The index is user-friendly. My only regret is that I can't keep this book. I will purchase it for myself.

I have recommended it to the National Education Association's Caucus for Special Educators. Thanks for the opportunity to gain more knowledge and insight to ADD.

Phyllis Sorensen is currently serving as President of the Utah Education Association. She has taught in public school for the past 14 years. Her experience covers 2-6 grades. Phyllis earned her degree in Elementary Education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She currently works with educators and policy makers in her state to ensure a quality public education for all children. She advocates on behalf of educators and works to increase funding for schools and to elevate the status of the teaching profession.