FREE PARENT GROUP
with Dr. Robert (Buck) Weaver

January 19th, 7:00-8:30 pm

Get support and information on ADHD and Excutive Function issues, decreasing homework stress, advocating for your child and empowering your children to be self-advocates, behavior mangement systems, and more.

Please also join us on February 16 and March 15, 2012

30 Boston Post Road, 2nd Floor, Wayland, MA
(behind the Gulf station)

Walk-ins are welcome, but RSVP is helpful: 508-358-1112, ext. 210 or info@weavercenter.org

Dr. Weaver's Advice to Parents of Young Adults

Looking Toward A New Year

The prospect of a new year brings to mind fresh starts, making goals and resolutions to improve one’s life. You might have goals for your child or young adult, whether it be preparing for college entrance exams, getting him to apply for a job or become self-sufficient outside your home.

Young adults can get stuck at home and become difficult to dislodge. They make lots of cooperative statements, such as “I’ll apply for that job tomorrow,” but they are unable to follow through due to their habitual pattern of behavior.

Young people have difficulty taking initiation in terms of receiving services at Weaver Center, and are sometimes resistant to parents’ efforts to enroll them in tutoring or coaching programs. If this is true for your young adult, Dr Weaver offers this advice to parents on how to get your young adult child to engage in a workshop. Consider the following:

1) Parent(s) can have an initial meeting with Dr. Weaver and Marla Stone, Life Coach and Facilitator of Weaver Center’s “Failure to Launch” workshop, so all can understand the strengths and challenges of the young adult and develop a strategy to start and maintain their engagement in the process.

2) If there is a high interest in a privilege or material want, Dr. Weaver has found it successful to offer that as a payment for engagement in the program.

3) Often there is another adult in the child’s life who gets along with him or her and is trusted by the parents. Ask that person to help get your son/daughter to Weaver Center rather than have it be a stress-filled request by the parents.

4) Weaver Center clinicians are able, and have had success, working with young adults via Skype. If they are tough to get out of the house, we can work with them via Skype to help get them to engage in the process.

For more information on the "Failure to Launch" workshop, see http://www.weavercenter.org/page.asp?pg=94

FREE PARENT SUPPORT GROUP
Third Thursday of each month, 7:00 - 8:30pm

Format is Q&A with Dr. Robert A. (Buck) Weaver, III, Ph.D., Neuropsychologist and Director of The Weaver Center LLC

Please join us December 15, 2011 and January 19, 2012
30 Boston Post Road, 2nd Floor, Wayland, MA 01778
(behind the Gulf station)

Walk-ins are welcome, but RSVP is helpful: 508-358-1112 ext. 210

NANTUCKET PARENT GROUP

NANTUCKET PARENT GROUP

If your child is on an IEP or 504 Plan does he know what is on it and understand it? Is your child getting the services, follow-through and accountability she needs? Are you doing all you can to support your child at school and at home?

Dr. Robert A. Weaver, III, Ph.D., Neuropsychologist and Director of The Weaver Center LLC, will lead a Parent Support Group on two Monday evenings. He will provide information and answer questions to help you help your child get the most out of school.

Groups will meet on Monday, January 23 and 30, 2012, 7-8:30 pm in the Greenhound Building, 10 Washington Street.

The Parent Group is offered through Nantucket Community Schools. Please go to: www.nantucketcommunityschools.com to register. Click on Adult Education, then go to the 2nd page of the course list. The course is called "Winter 2012: Parent Support Group with Dr. Weaver." The fee is $15 to cover NCS's costs.

Failure to Launch?

Parents of young adults who are still living at home might wonder why their child is so lazy, so unmotivated! Why is he still living at home? Why won’t he get a real job?

The Dr. Phil Show recently addressed this “failure to launch”, as did the comedy movie of the same name – but both put it on the parents to change their children into independent adults who move out into the world. Dr. Phil advised parents to make their children set goals, take initiative and take responsibility for themselves.
Many young adults want to transition from life with their parents to independent living, but cannot take the steps or even envision what it would take. Especially those with ADHD or executive function disabilities find it overwhelming to come up with a life plan. They can become depressed and immobilized by their inability to make a plan and set it in motion.
How can we help these young adults set goals, delineate the steps they need to take and set out on their path to self-reliance and success? The Weaver Center’s Life and Executive Function Coach, Marla Stone, M.A., is offering a 4-week workshop for young adults which will help them define their goals, plan the steps to achieve them and learn how to navigate around obstacles they might encounter along the way. Individual coaching is also provided during the workshop, and group coaching for several months following the workshop is highly recommended to ensure accountability and progress.

The workshop takes place on Saturdays in January, 2012. Help your young adult start the year out with a plan to launch! For more information: http://www.weavercenter.org/page.asp?pg=94

This Thursday, November 17th, you will be able to ask questions of special guest Attorney Ellen J. Hutt and Dr. Robert (Buck) Weaver, Director of The Weaver Center. Attendance is FREE, so come find out everything you need to know about special education law and issues around how to advocate for your child at school! The group starts at 7:00 pm and meets in the conference room at The Weaver Center, 30 Boston Post Road, 2nd floor, Wayland. (behind the Gulf station)

WHAT PARENTS ARE ASKING

Dr. Weaver provided information to parents who submitted questions prior to the Parent Support Group session held last Thursday evening. Some of the topics covered were:
* the difference between Neuropsychological Testing and Psychological Testing
* how to prepare yourself for hearing the results of testing
* how to deal with screen time addiction.

Parents also expressed interest in how to write executive function goals/objectives into IEP plans which go beyond organizational strategies, such as promoting initiation, shifting focus, emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility. And how to access coping and calming skills in the moment.

These and other topics will be discussed at the next FREE Parents Meeting. Please join us on Thursday, Novemeber 17th at 7:00 pm!

FREE PARENT SUPPORT SESSIONS

Third Thursday of each month, 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Walk-ins are welcome, but RSVP is helpful: 508-358-1112 ext. 210

Format is Q&A with Dr. Robert A. (Buck) Weaver, III, Ph.D., Neuropsychologist and Director of The Weaver Center LLC

Please join us October 20th, November 17th and December 15th, 2011

30 Boston Post Road, 2nd Floor, Wayland, MA 01778

A Non-Medicinal ADHD Treatment

One method Dr. Weaver uses to treat his clients with ADHD is Cognitive Dissonance Therapy. This is a simple and elegant therapy that creates a dualism in the client's mind between the disability and the person. Through creating a persona for their disability, people with ADHD are able to view the disability as the antagonist in their life undermining their efforts to be more attentive, organized and productive. Likewise, they create a protagonist to represent their selves fighting to overcome the effects of this disability. For example, people have created antagonists such as Cruella deVille, Darth Vader or Dr. Doom, and protagonists such as Ariel, Yoda or "Eggplant" -- they can be whatever one wants as long as it keeps him or her focused and motivated. The dissonance between the two different identities detaches the problem from the person.

Next, the person begins to recognize the characteristics of their antagonist -- what makes this character so powerful and what negative influences need to be fought with new and effective strategies to change and better control their own behavior -- such as: Darth Vader makes the person sit on the couch when he should be doing homework, and that the antagonist is most powerful when the client is bored. The person with ADHD then develops strategies that the protagonist can use to stop the antagonist, such as to break down a task into tiny tasks and then put all of one's energy into completing each one of those tiny tasks, one at a time. Through the internal conversations that are created because of these two characters, the person with ADHD has an easier time changing and controlling the effects of his disability.

Dr. Weaver teaches Cognitive Dissonance Therapy through one-hour weekly therapy sessions. He says that usually after 4-6 sessions, the client sees improvement in their ability to address and overcome the symptoms of ADHD.