OP here. Eight minutes was just a guess.

A final note. We had our end-of-year meeting with the teachers and education specialists at the school today. Two of his teachers actually cried at the meeting when they described the drastic improvement in our son over the past three months since we started the new system. All said that the mindfulness chart, much more than the watch, seemed to be the key.

Specifically, the teachers all noted a dramatic improvement in the final quarter of the year, since this system was applied, not just in terms of focus, mindfulness, and the quality of his written work, and other academic measures, but also a big change in attitude. They said our son seemed to be walking in lighter shoes, happier, feeling successful and in control, and that his entire demeanor shifted outwards and opened up. They credited his use of the mindfulness system as somehow breaking through on many levels and helping him to feel in control of his life. He saw he could change, and change outcomes, through his own exertions, and it seemed to become self-reinforcing. From a kid who four months ago had passively waited for teachers to nudge him to finish his work, we were told he has shifted to finishing his work and then jumping in to help his classmates.

I hope this doesn't sound like a bragging effort - it is the furthest thing from it. I am just grateful the idea was suggested to me and that it worked with our particular kid with his particular mental makeup. We have many years of school to go, of course, but it seems the mindfulness approach can be really transformative for some kids.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry to have been slow to respond to some of these questions.

We are in an independent school and have the equivalent of an IEP. The school and the teachers have been very accommodating.

The idea was given to us, generally, by our school's educational specialist staff. They had not implemented it themselves but were aware that the use of vibrating watches and self-monitoring was being used by some educational psychologists. I did google research and it turns out there is a lot of material available on self monitoring. So we put together the system I described at home and in collaboration with the teacher. We kept the education support specialists at school in the loop but implemented on our own.

As far as the watch settings, we used the countdown timer not the alarm. The countdown clock can be set to buzz at the end of whatever interval you choose, and then automatically restarts.

why 8 minutes?

OP here. Sorry to have been slow to respond to some of these questions.

We are in an independent school and have the equivalent of an IEP. The school and the teachers have been very accommodating.

The idea was given to us, generally, by our school's educational specialist staff. They had not implemented it themselves but were aware that the use of vibrating watches and self-monitoring was being used by some educational psychologists. I did google research and it turns out there is a lot of material available on self monitoring. So we put together the system I described at home and in collaboration with the teacher. We kept the education support specialists at school in the loop but implemented on our own.

As far as the watch settings, we used the countdown timer not the alarm. The countdown clock can be set to buzz at the end of whatever interval you choose, and then automatically restarts.

Not the OP, but this device was on the list of possible accommodations that appeared on our neuropsych report.

Love this. How did you come up with it? A book? A professional? Thanks!

bump

Super helpful post. Is this a public school and did you need an IEP to get this from the teacher? We tried a similar assessment program at my son's school and the teacher basically said she couldn't handle doing that sort of assessment on a daily basis.

My DS has a Vibralite watch, which is great. Only 12 alarms a day though. We use it for things like when to leave for the bus, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Casio makes a nice one.

link?

OP here. It was Timex actually. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3DTRD2/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item

Can you please explain how to set this watch so that it automatically vibrates every 8 minutes?
I've been trying to figure it out, and I can only see how to set a daily or occasional alarm.
You mention it resetting automatically. How to you configure that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is great information and I appreciate you sharing it. Research does suggest that kids who are younger than their classmates do tend to be misdiagnosed with ADHD, so your observations and intuition may be right on:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/08/17/129255572/a-second-thought-on-the-accuracy-of-adhd-diagnosis-in-kids

I wonder if this is particularly true in this area, where so many parents redshirt their kids. If a kid has a summer birthday and one or two redshirted kids in his class, I'm betting his behavior might look more ADHD-like to a teacher who is comparing him to peers who are considerably older.

Can you just give it a rest? OP already said she didn't want to discuss it.

I beg your pardon? I think you missed her follow-up words, which were:

I want to answer your question on the ADHD but am sensitive to not setting off a disputation. Let's just say he has been diagnosed as ADHD by a well-known local education psychiatrist. I reject the diagnosis and do not believe my child has a "disorder" of any kind and so have been seeking alternative means to address the behaviors I mentioned. We feel, in his case, that the main issue is immaturity (he is very young for his grade) that he is highly energetic and sometimes finds it hard to contain himself for hours on end in the classroom. I am not saying that ADHD does not exist or that other kids don't suffer from it. [url]

I was affirming the OP, as you would see if you thoroughly read her follow-up post I quoted here. I think it's useful to know that up to a million younger kids in their classrooms may be misdiagnosed, which the OP clearly believes is the case here. Sorry if that offends you but I frankly don't see why it should.