New Teen Author Helps Peers Understand ADHD

Update 2/18: (Taking the holiday off, will post part two of the series tmrw!)—

Kids DO listen to kids. No secret there. We use this fact in our counter-marketing tactics at Shaping Youth all the time…But what happens when 18-year old Blake Taylor turns the spotlight on himself (see today’s S.F. Chronicle article) to debunk myths, elevate the conversation, and turn first-person pain into productive media?

We’re about to find out…I’m hoping for some meaningful ‘aha’ moments among kids and adults alike. It’s always easier to understand when you hear someone who’s ‘been through the fire firsthand’ rather than an expert using ‘Ivory Tower of Babble’ clinical terms.

This ABC news 3-min video shows this bright UC Berkeley frosh sharing his personal childhood struggles of living with attention deficit disorder, and talking about his book, “ADHD & Me: What I Learned From Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table.”

Though 18 may seem young for his ‘memoir,’ the poignant, anecdotal candor looking back on his grade school years could clearly help many going through similar experiences RIGHT NOW and save plenty of turmoil and bullying in school yards everywhere.

After all, the CDC tabs Blake as one of 4.7 million Americans 18 and younger with inattention, hyperactivity, and misunderstood behavioral tics now known as ADHD.

I’m hoping to snag an interview with Blake at his book signing in S.F. next Saturday because I’d like to explore some of our similar peer to peer tactics we’re using at Shaping Youth to explain, enlighten and inform.

That’s Blake, at left with his mom Nadine (Photo by Liz Mangelsdorf, S.F. Chronicle) who implores parents to be advocates for their children, regardless of how exhausting the combination of mental and physical ADHD impulsiveness can be.

She said Blake would go from “concocting baking-soda volcanoes to dumping out all the Lego and K’nex sets to emptying out the linen closet to build a tent city,” and often worked with him to script ‘icebreakers’ to court friends since he was often avoided or ostracized. (before parents start thinking ‘hmn, sounds familiar’ recognize we’re not talking self-diagnosed wigglies or common pushback and yes, he CAN ‘sit still’…this is much different, see ADHD resources)

Blake said he was motivated to write the book since he’d always wished someone his OWN age could help him instead of the steady stream of adult psychologists and social education specialists.

One can only hope this could result in some positive reverb universally, and possibly even breakthrough some stigmas and misunderstandings.

At Shaping Youth, we’ve found that when kids hear from peers firsthand (whether it’s video, social media forums, or face to face encounters) the ‘street cred’ goes up significantly, from Freedom Writers programs to playground conflict resolution…It really does help kids relate, and we’ve noticed the narrower the age gap the better, usually just a grade or two apart is ideal.

Any word of mouth marketer can attest that peer to peer influence packs a huge wallop, so we’ve been seeding ‘viral empathy’ and collaboration in the hopes of create a promising snapshot of the future human condition…For example:

Awhile back the HBO documentary (4-min. video here) “I Have Tourette’s But Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me,” made the rounds on the CBS talk show circuit as children explained how hard it is to be different, hiding unavoidable tics and being teased and bullied relentlessly because of them.

Later, HASTAC posted the video on our social media hub and it triggered my thinking once again on best practices for using the power of media for positive change…

I started reading blog articles like “Confessions of a Former Bully” (visual credit at left) to wrap my head around the middle-school mindset and then started showing video clips like this on various topics, to hear what kids had to say.

We were hoping to shift kids’ thinking to a favorable path and interrupt judgmental behavior, going from ‘he’s a weird/obnoxious kid’ to direct child advocacy and intervention, ‘leave him alone, he can’t help it’ in the hopes of creating a kinder, gentler world for us all…

Sure enough, what once may have been sought out on YouTube as a ‘hilarious video of a kid cussing’ now is tempered with an up-close snapshot of the pain and heartache of living with a disease out of a child’s own control.

It’s counter-marketing in its most favorable form. And it works.

What does this mean over the long haul?

If there’s an opportunity for kids to transform from laughable, snarky ridicule to empathy and understanding in a click, this bodes well for civilization…

Nothing quite like putting yourself in someone’s shoes, in life’s own ‘reality show.’

If we can help redirect energy like this toward positive, peer to peer collaboration, we’ll be mind-shifting with the momentum of a movement toward aspirational change…from the environment to the geopolitical spectrum.

Robin Good elaborates on his MasterNewMedia blog, “as political, economic, and social systems transform themselves into distributed networks, a new human dynamic is emerging.” I’ll say.

As a new media thought leader, Robin’s blog peels the onion of layered knowledge repositories with profound intricacy worthy of delving much deeper…like this video interview with peer to peer theorist Michael Bauwens. But hey, that’s a separate post, yes, I’m well aware my OWN focus is a bit ‘ADD’ in writing style since my brain pings around like popcorn. (I’m anxious to read Blake Taylor’s book…)

Stay tuned for part two in our series on peer to peer interaction, navigating the bully pulpit, special needs, and choosing civility in a world of relational aggression. (I didn’t mention this was a series? Well that’s because I just made it one…social media is fast-acting.)

We’ll also showcase a ‘living book’ called “Can I Sit With You?” which draws from reader contributions in ‘flashback’ mode in a compelling social media format of ‘user-generated content.’

“The Stormy Social Seas of the Schoolyard” are indeed tough ones to surf.

As we used to say in Hawaii, Banzai!

Related Resources

About.com’s ADD/ADHD Blog

Celebrating ADD/ADHD: Moving to the Beat of a Different Drummer

CDC Report Summary on About.com; ADD/ADHD Statistics

LD Online: “The world’s leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD”

Pediatric ADHD Experience Journal: Children’s Hospital, Boston

Living with ADHD–Blake Taylor Talks with the Sacramento Bee

Blake Taylor: Youngest Student to Publish ADHD Memoir: UCB News

Visual Credit: Peer to Peer Manifesto Graphic from Robert Good’s blog