Doing Before Thinking - young adult ADHD

This episode explores the experience of an ADHD diagnosis when you are 18, in your final year of school, during a pandemic!  Lou's son Matt has recently been diagnosed with ADHD at a very fragile and difficult time in his life.  They discuss his experiences to the present day and hopes for the future.  It's a great baseline discussion for future follow up episodes to see how Matt gets on and the sorts of scaffolds and accommodations that help him to function and thrive.

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Matt discusses his ADHD coach and the assistance he gets at school during the episode. 

Here is a list of the scaffolds and accommodations in place to support Matt at this time:

1. Mentor teacher - Matt meets with his mentor teacher every week to discuss his plan and mental health.

2. SLSO (Learning support teacher's aide) - Matt meets with his SLSO to help him to be organised, plan out his study time and to go over work that he is "stuck" on.  They also discuss exam technique.

3. Tutor - Matt meets with his tutor to work on subjects that he is struggling with at that time.  His tutor is a past student from the school and she helps him work on a weekly study plan that is shared across google as well as subject content.  She gives him ideas for visual aids and other ways to remember information needed for the exams.

4. Matt meets regularly with his ADHD coach, Sarah Andrews (https://www.sarahtheadhdcoach.com/).  They work on developing Matt’s strategies and supports for school based responsibilities. Sarah helps Matt to understand his ADHD, so he recognises challenges to develop a growth mindset. During coaching, Sarah uses Assistive Technology to support executive functioning. The AT can also support social/family communication, or multi-disciplinary working if Matt wanted to use it in either context.

5. Matt has a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who diagnosed the ADHD and prescribes appropriate medication in consultation with Matt and his parents.