The world is abuzz with the news about Michael Phelps. He who won eight (Beijing) Olympic gold medals in swimming, surpassing and breaking the record of Mark Spitz who had 7 gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics. All in all, he has 14 gold medals, the most any Olympian has ever won.

Need I mention that the predicted fortune the eight gold medals will bring him would be close to $100 million due to product endorsements?

As everybody knows by now, he has ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

So what so special about having ADHD and how does it relate to him winning a lot of gold and breaking world records?

It is NOT just having the ADHD that helped him win these, as the theme of the news reports reporting on this interesting aspect about him. It was a lot more.

His mother, Debbie Phelps was a middle school principal did her best to help her son: “I believe that appropriate treatment, including behavioral therapy and medication, can benefit children and adolescents with ADHD.” Click here to read more.

She was quoted here to have describing Michael as:

“He never sat still. He never shut up; he would never stop asking questions,” his mom says. “He just wanted to go from one thing to another.”

Debbie Phelps is a big help in developing Michael and his skills. She even wrote an article with tips on how to help manage a child with ADHD: Back to School: Help Your Child with ADHD Succeed In and Out of the Classroom.

Michael was diagnosed with ADHD and was on Ritalin until he reached 11 years old. He used to be angered easily when he losses. He focused instead, on winning, on getting his hand on the wall before anybody else does. Click here to read the article.

On dry land, Michael Phelps is said to be unsure of his footing. He even injured his wrist when he had a fall. He was hyperflexible on land, characteristic of those with ADHD who manages to trip on their own feet. Click here to read about the incredible prediction of Michael Phelp’s future victories when he was just 11 years old, written in a 2004 article.

So what does this post of mine have to do with sports and having ADHD?

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Last Saturday, I got the chance to be invited to join other bloggers to go to the Belo Medical Clinic. Here is my post about the event in my other blog.

I first thought why we were invited to such an event would be to present to us the different services that the clinics offer.

And I was right when Dr. Hayden Kho Jr talked about how the clinic began with its owner’s dreams, the stellar, Dr.Vicki Belo. He presented before and after photos, statistics and the usual line up of their services, focusing on the 80% non-invasive treatments that they have.

But then, when Dr. Vicki Belo put in an appearance, she also talked about how she was inspired to put up such kind of clinics and how the clinics have expanded over time.

She also discussed about the different products they offer at affordable prices. They have soaps and facial wash. I am not sure if they have pimple cream for sale.

Then when she started talking about giving back to others, I was surprised. I didn’t know that the purpose of having the bloggers invited was to spread information about this said foundation, named after her parents, Ike and Nena Belo.

There were questions all around. It was obvious that they are still organizing the details and procedures about how to go with this foundation. This foundation was launched when the clinics celebrated 18 years in the business. Click here and here to read about the launch.

This foundation will try to reach out to those in need of medical attention like the victims who had burns, surgery for children with cleft palate and giving of scholarships to those who are financially challenged.

Of course, the topic about the children with cleft palate perked up my interest though I have not worked with them but the speech-language pathologists I work with have worked with them.

I just hope that the BMG would be able to iron out the details so that they can start their screening procedures as soon as possible.

The mom of a long-time ago student called me up and told me that they need my help. This student of mine, I haven’t seen him for almost a year. He is now a college freshman in a college nearby. Last time I saw him was last year when he came to me asking for help in reviewing for his school’s  trimester’s exam. We do more than review, we also try to do some custom writing for his essays as part of the requirements he needs to give to the school. We have had several drafts and change the words according to the topics he needs to write. This is easier for him especially when I can not accommodate him for extra enrichment activities.

He is now a college freshman and has difficulty doing his research papers. The family first thought about doing these things easier and thought to buy essay from a company that does writing service for students like him. The idea sounded great to the said student. When I asked him if he can explain what was written when the time comes when his professors will ask him to, he was not able to answer affirmatively. So for now, when his course load is still light, he may have to write his own essays and would just seek more help when he needs it.

Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. The theme for this Saturday, August 16, 2008 is COLORFUL.

My vegetable salad: lettuce, tomatoes and yacon (apple of the earth). Click here to read about yacon.

Pink calachuchi flower

Red and green bell peppers

Have fun hunting for something colorful. There is so much color to see around us that makes life more beautiful and more colorful (without Photoshop touches of course) 

My husband’s nephew uses the Blaze Media Pro converter to convert to AVI the different music videos that he has collected. He does this conversion effortlessly. Nowadays, young people can do these things that used to be the expertise of the professional: conversion, ripping, editing, recoding, burning, and other tasks which use audio, video, and data CD/DVD burning. That was what we needed when my daughter Trixie was asking us to get a converter for her to watch some anime shows.

I may not be able to understand how the intricacies of this thing works and what the terms stand for, I am just glad that I can count on him to help me with these things if I need to do some conversion just in case I am not able to watch a video nor listen to my audio files like the one below.

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Money is always an issue when it comes to getting specialized intervention services or therapy services for special needs students here in the Philippines.

Here are the reasons why:

• For children diagnosed as having special needs, the government does not provide for, as far as I know, individualized instruction, after-school tutorial services and client-specific special education services in the schools.
• There are ( a lot) public schools that offer special education services but these are not as intensive as should be. Why? Simply because there is no budget that would allow the services to happen. Things like teacher trainings and materials require some costs.

Here is an example of how it happens with those in the rural areas. You will probably feel a pinch when you read this.

Yes, there are instances when it is the teacher who does these things and more, usually from her heart and good intentions but without compensation.

• Other therapy services like speech and language, occupational and even physical therapy services are not readily available for free in the government-run hospitals. Patients have to pay for a minimal fee but they have to be placed in a waiting list or are being given intervention in groups. There may be some hospitals that provide these services utilizing the students earning their degrees, but again, these are not enough to accommodate those who are in need of these services. Some of these hospitals are the Philippine Children’s Medical Center and the Philippine General Hospital, these are just what I know of. The Veterans’ Memorial Medical Center offers speech therapy too but the fee is not as low as the two hospitals. If I missed a hospital, please feel free to let me know.

• To even realize that it is only the University of the Philippines in Manila that offers the course of Speech and Language Pathology shows how much these professionals are in demand. I wouldn’t even want to think how many of them are still here since a lot has gone abroad already.

• Getting into a special education program is NOT ENOUGH to help children diagnosed as having developmental problems.

Why?

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