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Dunvegan Publshing 1998, 273 pgs.
Paperback
ISBN: 0966259009  

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Reviews and Commentary for Grandma's Pet Wildebeest Ate My Homework (And Other Suspect Stories): A Practical Guide for Parenting and Teaching ADHD Kids by Tom Quinn

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Synopsis:

A practical guide for parenting and teaching kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Funny, straightforward, and crammed with creative techniques for behavioral management of ADHD kids at home and school.

From Back Cover:

If Your ADD/ADHD Kid Drives You Nuts, Then This Book Is For You!

• Discover effective methods to help your child achieve success and improve self-esteem
• Learn creative techniques for behavioral management in the home and in the classroom
• Insure victory in the Homework Wars
  

About the Author
Tom Quinn, Licensed Professional Counselor

Tom Quinn has worked with adolescents since 1980, when he was a social worker in his native Glasgow, Scotland. He continued his career in St.Louis, Missouri, earning a Master's Degree in Counseling from Webster University. From 1993-1996 he was an Adjunct Faculty member of St. Louis Community College at Meramec where he taught Adolescent Psychology, Abnormal Psychology and Alcohol and Drug Studies.

As an ADHD adult himself, Quinn draws upon his own unique experiences giving the reader an "insider's view," making use of straighforward, creative behavioral management techniques along with a keen sense of humor.

An entertaining speaker and workshop presenter, Quinn is also the publisher and editor of the "Grandma's Pet Wildebeest Ate My ADHD Newsletter" (formerly the St. Louis ADHD Newsletter). It is published 6 times per year, the subscription is free if you call (314) 692 0880 and ask to be put on the mailing list or there is an electronic version also in PDF format at his website, www.adhdcounselorguy.com.

Quinn has been in private practice since 1989. His private practice is at Sutherland & Associates, 600 Emerson, Ste. 218, Creve Coeur, Missouri 63141. (314) 692-0880.

Reviews
Sheryl Silvey, President, Learning Disabilities Association, St. Louis Affiliate.
"Informative, practical and entertaining--a "must read" for every parent and teacher struggling with an ADD child!"

Brett Newcomb, Licensed Professional Counselor, St. Louis, MO.
"The funniest ADHD book I've ever read!"

Mary Ellen Connolly, Hazelden Center for Youth and Families, Plymouth, MN.
"Hilarious! The Erma Bombeck of the ADHD World!"

Bill Allen, Assistant Principal, Christian Brothers College High School, St. Louis, MO.
"Our faculty have found many of the strategies detailed in this book to be invaluable."

From the Publisher
Tom Quinn is a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in ADHD and Learning Disabilities. Quinn, an entertaining and knowledgeable international presenter on the subject of ADHD, draws from his own experience as an ADHD adult, weaving a hilarious thread of autobiography throughout the book from his own childhood. Quinn is the publisher and editor of Grandma's Pet Wildebeest Ate My ADHD Newsletter, formerly The St. Louis ADHD Newsletter, and is Vice-President of the Learning Disabilities Association, St. Louis Affiliate.

From the Author
As a writer and counselor with ADHD, I felt I had no choice but to write this particular book for parents and teachers. There are many wonderful books on the subject of ADHD, but a number of the parents I work with found some of them to be overly-technical or too simplistic in their approach. I wanted to bridge that gap. Recognizing that most of my parent clients were in imminent danger of complete nervous breakdowns, I decided to use a humorous approach, making use of personal and professional experience, not just as a counselor, but also as a former ADHD kid myself!

Reader Comments
Kelly Conlon-Stark, ATTENTION! Magazine (KelConlon@aol.com) from Tampa, FL , March 19, 1999 (Rating 5 of 5)
Outrageously funny and informative!

Tom's brilliant use of humor keeps your attention and has you laughing and learning at the same time. This is a must read for any parent wishing to better develop their parenting skills.

Pam Kortum, mother of an ADHD child.

"Having been there himself, Quinn's insight (as well as his humor) took me inside the ADHD mind and taught me techniques that actually work!"

Excerpted from Grandma's Pet Wildebeest Ate My Homework (and Other Suspect Stories) by Tom Quinn. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From Chapter 1:

If there was ever a condition that has been misunderstood, ADHD is one of them. It's been called Minimal Brain Dysfunction, Hyperkinetic Syndrome, ADD, and ADHD, to name a few of the more recent labels. I'm sure there will be other names in the future which sound more pleasing to the ear, like Really-Creative-But-Doesn't-Like-Structure-Disorder or Really-Nice-Kid-But-a-Pain-to-Live-With-Disorder, but for the moment, we're stuck with ADHD.

Deciding exactly what ADHD is and what it isn't has been one of the ongoing debates in the psychology world, causing heated arguments not only in academia but also in the media. Rush Limbaugh even jumped into the fray several years ago claiming there's no such thing as ADHD, fueling the flames of controversy even further.

But let's assume Mr. Limbaugh was a little too hasty in his proclamation, and examine the subject for ourselves, beginning with the fact that we live in an ADHD-like culture, an observation wonderfully exemplified several years ago by a cable TV show on Comedy Central called "Short Attention Span Theater." Instead of having to sit through a whole thirty minutes of a comedy show, we were exposed to only one scene from a show, rapidly followed by scenes from other comedy shows.

We also live in a fast-paced, hyper type of society-Have a headache? Take Excedrin. Learn guitar in two days! Overweight? Lose three hundred pounds overnight by taking New Improved Fataway Tablets! Feel nervous? Pop a Xanex! Got ADHD? Here, have a Ritalin or try these new exciting Blue-Green Algae pills which are currently being touted as a treatment for ADHD. Where do you get this stuff anyway-scrape the inside of your kid's fish tank?

We now speak in sound bytes instead of sentences. TV commercials cram so many visual and auditory stimuli into a thirty-second time slot you can develop instant ADHD. And don't get me started on dizzying TV commercials by used car dealers or mad carpet salesmen, you know, those guys in loud, plaid blazers with buzz-cuts or slicked-down hair who scream at you on Friday evening, the cameras zooming in and out while they yell, "Boy, do I have a deal for you down at Billy Bob's Used Car Lot and Rugs!"

You get the idea. As you can see, we live in an attention-grabbing, impulse-spending culture, the results of which can be high distractibility, short attention span, restlessness, and jitteriness. Funnily enough, these are also major symptoms of ADHD.

So are we dealing with the side effects of our loony culture or are we dealing with a true neurological condition? In other words, we need to define exactly what we mean by ADHD, the Disorder Formerly Known as ADD.

First of all, we have to be careful we don't pathologize normal child and adolescent behavior. Our society is very good at labeling and making syndromes out of any number of human behaviors, and ADHD is no exception.

As a clinician, I spend some of my time un-diganosing ADHD kids who were incorrectly labeled and categorized after a ten-minute evaluation by some quack. They've been medicated ever since just because they were a little rambunctious or fidgety!

So what IS the difference between ADHD behavior and typical child and adolescent behavior? Many kids are distractible, rowdy, and don't like doing homework, but this doesn't mean they have ADHD. But a child who has all these symptoms over an extended time period in such a way that they interfere with their lives, well, that's probably more than just typical kid stuff, possibly ADHD. So let's take a look at the official signs and symptoms to find out what we're dealing with.

Longer excerpt on being the father of an ADHD child available at CH.A.D.D. site. (The book also has a chapter on "Moms - the heroines of the ADD world")

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 -- ADHD: That Child Ain't Right
Chapter 2 -- Other Stuff Parents See But Can't Quite Figure Out
Chapter 3 -- ADHD Wannabes
Chapter 4 -- So Does He or Doesn't He? Accurate Diagnosis
Chapter 5 -- Treatment: How Do We Fix Him?
Chapter 6 -- Moms: Heroines of the ADHD World
Chapter 7 -- Dads: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Chapter 8 -- The Golden Child and Other Siblings
Chapter 9 -- Fact or Fiction: ADHD Myths
Chapter 10 -- ADHD in the Classroom: Parent Perspectives
Chapter 11 -- Teachers: How Not to Have a Nervous Breakdown
Chapter 12 -- Honestly, Grandma's Pet Wildebeest Really Did Eat my Homework!
Chapter 13 -- ADHD and Social Skills: Quit Picking Your Nose!
Chapter 14 -- The Three R's: Readin', Ritin', and Ritalin
Conclusion
References
Index

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