By PHYLLIS BRITT

News Editor

Parents from all four Area 2 elementary schools got a chance to hear from experts in three different fields during a parenting workshop held last week.

Guidance counselors for the four elementary schools -- Shari Hooper of Hammond Hill, Dr. Virginia Jones of Mossy Creek, Juliana Johnson of Belvedere and Jean Taylor of North Augusta -- coordinated the effort, which featured Jamie Murphy with the Immanuel Baptist Church Parenting Project, Dr. Alex Mabe with MCG and Dr. Kevin O'Gorman with the instruction department of the school district.

Murphy detailed the program his church provides free of charge. It is a 10-week course with two-hour sessions on everything from the dangers of sex, drugs and alcohol to how to motivate kids to do homework. He emphasized the importance of encouraging children to get an education. "Most college athletes never make it to the pros," he warned. "You've got to have a talent or a skill or you've got to get an education."

To get children to do their homework, Murphy recommended three things -- Praise them, reward them and punish them. "Elementary students hang on every word coming out of your mouth," he said. Regarding rewards, Murphy suggested, "Would you go to work for seven hours a day and at the end of the week just appreciate being praised?" He also maintained negative consequences have their place. "Make them do things they don't like to do," he said, listing pulling weeds, hoeing ... hard labor.

A clinical psychologist, Mabe focused on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He answered questions about whether ADHD is real. He listed the most common signs -- inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. He admitted there are often mitigating circumstances that make ADHD more apparent -- degree of structure in an activity, complexity of the task, who's the caregiver, the detail of the instructions, the novelty of the activity, magnitude of consequences and fatigue.

On the treatment side, Mabe acknowledged medications help the most children in the short term. "Over time there are increased benefits with behavioral therapy," he said.

O'Gorman talked about assessments in South Carolina and in Aiken County. He detailed "summative" (goals are the same for all) versus "formative" (changes what is done in the classroom) assessments.

The school district official discussed diagnostic tests and normed assessments. He specifically talked about MAP and PASS tests, along with Dominie and Lexile scoring.

Lexile, for example, is designed to make sure a student is reading on the appropriate level for that child. One parent pointed out that sometimes the Lexile rating is used to the extreme. She said she has a seventh grader who is not allowed to read below his Lexile rating. He is a very good reader, she said, but is not mature enough to deal with the content in many books on his Lexile level. O'Gorman agreed that a student should not be punished for reading, no matter what the level.

The question and answer session that followed included a number of specific questions, particularly on ADHD. Dr. Mabe recommended a website, www.additudemag.com as a great resource.

O'Gorman reminded parents that each school now has a reading interventionist or a reading intervention team that can help with specific problems.