Talk looks at treatment of youth with ADHD and attentional difficulties

The LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research at York is hosting a series of talks and workshops this year, starting out with a lecture looking at adolescents with ADHD and/or attentional difficulties.

York psychology Professor Maggie Toplak of the Faculty of Health, along with PhD students Deborah Kanter MaggieToplak(MA ’12) and Alex Basile (MA ’12) will present their talk Monday, Sept. 16, from 10am to noon, at 280N York Lanes, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Maggie Toplak

They will discuss their work, “Adolescents with ADHD and/or Attentional Difficulties: The MECS Intervention in a High School”.

Adolescents with a childhood history of attentional difficulties are one of the highest risk groups in high schools. The very nature of the problems that these youth have is a major barrier for the development of autonomy and independence that is expected to unfold during this period of development, assert the presenters.

In this talk, they will give a context for the treatment of children and youth with ADHD and attentional difficulties from an evidence-based perspective. They will also describe a program they developed collaboratively with the York University Psychology Clinic specifically geared towards adolescents in Grades 9 and 10 and to be delivered in the school-context.

The program underwent a six-week pilot program last year. The presenters will discuss their preliminary observations and findings, and lead a discussion on the factors for facilitating interventions for youth at risk in contexts such as schools.

RSVP for this talk to lamarsh@yorku.ca by Thursday, Sept. 12.

For the list of coming workshops and talks, visit the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research website.