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General

3 December 2020 By spaceadmin

Advent Calendar 2020

ADHD Advent Calendar

We’re always looking for new ways to raise awareness about ADHD so a couple of years ago we started the SPACE Advent Calendar. Every day you’ll get a new fact, quote or interesting bit of information about ADHD

Visit the ADHD Advent Calendar

https://www.spacestockport.org/space-advent-calendar/

Filed Under: ADHD, General

28 April 2020 By spaceadmin

No Meet Ups Until Further Notice

SPACE Meet Ups

Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions our monthly meet ups are understandably postponed until further notice. The team are however still here for you online.

SPACE Meet Ups

If you are a parent or carer of a child with ADHD and would like to join our online community, please come and talk to us in our private Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaceadhdstockport

Filed Under: General, SPACE Meetings

13 February 2020 By spaceadmin

Funky Monkey

Funky Monkey

We hold our monthly ADHD meet ups at Funky Monkey Coffee Company on Bramhall Lane in Davenport, Stockport. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere has allowed us to welcome parents and carers into a venue with comfy seating and delicious drinks and snacks.

Coming along to a meet up for the first time can be very challenging for a lot of parents and we feel that the friendly, relaxing vibe definitely helps.

If you are parenting a child with ADHD and would like to meet other parents and carers in a friendly and informal environment, why not join us on the second Wednesday of the month?

Filed Under: General, SPACE Meetings

1 January 2020 By spaceadmin

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2020, the start of a brand new year. For those of you with shiny new diaries, today is a great day to add our parent and carer meet ups for the year.

Our first meet up of 2020 is on Wednesday 8th January from 7.00 pm until 9.00 pm at Funky Monkey on Bramhall Lane in Davenport, Stockport.

Our informal meet ups take place on the second Wednesday of every month except August and are an opportunity for adults raising children with ADHD to meet others in their position, get information, ask questions and get the latest ADHD news.

If you are parenting a child with ADHD, make 2020 the year that you connect with a supportive network of other parents who understand the realities and are able to share their experiences.

Happy New Year

Filed Under: General, SPACE Meetings

1 October 2019 By spaceadmin

ADHD Awareness Month

October is ADHD Awareness Month, so the SPACE Team are being more vocal than usual about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

For us every month is ADHD Awareness Month
For us every month is ADHD Awareness Month

ADHD is a life long condition and for us every single month of the year is ADHD Awareness Month, so why do we have a specific focus in October? Why does ADHD need an awareness month? Simply put we need an awareness month because the lives of those with ADHD are still being ruined by ignorance.

Ignorance, stigma and misinformation is still routinely ruining the lives of children, young people and adults with ADHD, which simply isn’t good enough. The ADHD community needs everybody to understand what ADHD is and sometimes more importantly, what ADHD isn’t.

When there are still head teachers claiming that “they don’t believe in ADHD” we need to raise awareness. When GPs tell adults that “only children can have ADHD” we need to raise awareness. When children with ADHD are routinely excluded from school, we need to raise awareness. When those with ADHD are significantly over represented in the prison population, we need to raise awareness. When well meaning friends and relatives suggest that frazzled parents should “give their kids a good hiding” we need to raise awareness. Whilst lives are still being ruined, we need to raise awareness.

We need to dispel the myths, at least the most common ones.

  1. Myth 1 ADHD doesn’t exist
  2. Myth 2 ADHD only affects children
  3. Myth 3 ADHD only affects boys
  4. Myth 4 ADHD Adults are incapable of being successful in any area of their lives
  5. Myth 5 Everybody with ADHD is hyperactive
  6. Myth 6 ADHD was made up my pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs
  7. Myth 7 Medication drugs children up so that they stop running around being naughty
  8. Myth 8 ADHD is a new thing
  9. Myth 9 ADHD is over diagnosed in the UK
  10. Myth 10 Those with ADHD are less intelligent than those without it
  11. Myth 11 Those with ADHD can’t concentrate on anything ever
  12. Myth 12+ ADHD is caused by insert popular nonsense theory here

ADHD is a neurobiological condition and is not caused by poor parenting, eating too many sweets or allowing children too much screen time. Common sense dictates that being a bad parent and allowing a child to spend countless hours watching uncensored YouTube Videos on a diet of nothing but sweets and full fat cola is unlikely to lead to a consistently well behaved child, but it doesn’t cause ADHD. A healthy diet, regular exercise and consistent boundaries within a loving family relationship will almost certainly improve the behaviour of a child with ADHD, but it won’t “cure” the condition.

Those with ADHD have brains which work slightly differently to those without ADHD. They’re not better or worse, but they are definitely different and problems occur when those with the condition are expected to use their brains in a way that doesn’t suit them without the necessary support to do so.

If a six year old genuinely struggles to sit still and you make them sit quietly on a carpet for thirty minutes, there is likely to be a problem. A problem that some teachers attempt to address by removing playtime for the “naughty child that wouldn’t sit still” Not because teachers are evil beings that seek to punish small children for their bodily functions, but because some of them still don’t understand that the child in question couldn’t sit still, not that they wouldn’t.

If every teacher in every school understood that the negative behaviours they see are the result of unmet needs, then that would change how the vast majority of them handle them. If every teacher and every parent understood that having difficulty with organisation was a common ADHD trait and not the result of being lazy and not caring, then most of them would approach the issues of children losing things and being late differently. Adults would look for strategies to help children be organised, instead of telling them off for being disorganised.

If people were aware that not everybody with ADHD bounces up and down with obvious outwards signs of hyperactivity, then less inattentive people with ADHD would be left unsupported, feeling that their struggles are their own fault and a product of their own incompetence. Less inattentive teenagers would feel that their inability to revise effectively for their exams is their own fault. Less people who fail to meet the naughty boy stereotype as a child, would go on to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety later in life.

The reason we need an awareness month for ADHD is to amplify these messages. There are organisations up and down the country sharing information about ADHD, raising awareness, destroying myths and fighting against stigma and we all make noise all year long, but when we all make noise at the same time, we’re a little bit louder and little bit harder to ignore. Unlike some large charities with a big marketing budget and a full team at their disposal, lots of the smaller groups are only heard occasionally by a small audience. When we all yell the same message, at the same time, our voices are more likely to be heard.

ADHD Awareness Month is the time when we all say the same thing at the same time. We get together to share knowledge and information. We network with our peers. We find out about the latest research. We raise our game and we bring that back to the families we work with.

We’re proud to support local families but we need to do more, so this ADHD Awareness Month we will also be fundraising through our Just Giving Account https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/adhd-awareness-month-2019

The SPACE Team are all volunteers and gladly give our time and professional expertise free of charge, but unfortunately some of things we do cost cold hard cash, as do a lot of the things we intend doing to support local families over the next 12 months. If you would like to support our work we would be extremely grateful for any donation however small.

Happy ADHD Awareness Month!

Filed Under: ADHD Awareness Month, Fundraising, General

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