On the 17th of December, Der Spiegel publised an article about ADHD (ADHS in German). In this article they refer to work from our group, where we investigated self-reported strengths in adults with ADHD. Please find the article here (in German)
Oct 2023: We hebben ruimte voor een postdoctorale onderzoeker in onze onderzoeksgroep. Voor details de vacature site hier. Het betreft een project over positieve aspecten in ADHD en maakt deel uit van het NWO-Vidi project van Martine Hoogman.
We zoeken iemand met een achtergrond in de psychologie, in de gedragswetenschappen of iets wat daar aan grenst. We zoeken iemand die Nederlandstalig is, dit in verband met een van de taken van het project (interviews afnemen/kwalitatief onderzoek). We hebben een leuke en jonge onderzoeksgroep bestaande uit 5 enthousiaste promovendi en een onderzoeksassistent, daarnaast wordt de groep ieder jaar aangevuld met meerdere bachelor en/of master studenten van verschillende studies. Wil je meer informatie over de vacature of over onze groep, neem dan contact op met Martine via Martine.Hoogman@radboudumc.nl. Sollicitaties kunnen tot 2 november via het Radboudumc portal worden ingediend.
June 2023: Martine: “I am really happy with the news I got this week: I will receive a Vidi grant for my ADHD SPARCS* project (*Strengths Positive Aspects and chaRacteristiCS study) from the Dutch Research Counsil (NWO). This grant is worth 800.000 euros and offers a huge opportunity for me and my research group to take the next step into investigating strengths and positive aspects in ADHD. In this project we will go beyond creativity in ADHD which was the topic of my NWO-Veni project 2018-2022.”
Short description of the project: People with ADHD also experience positive aspects of ADHD, but before we can use these aspects at school, at work or in clinical care, we need to learn much more about them, because our current understanding of strengths is still limited. In this project we will investigate 1. How others (e.g. teachers, employers) see strengths in ADHD to go beyond the self-reported strengths in ADHD, 2. Which neurobiological factors are related to these strengths to better understand them, and 3. How environmental factors play a role in strengths in ADHD. We hope this work will contribute to a more balanced picture of ADHD, facilitating a more inclusive approach to ADHD.
PS: “I am even more happy because I can share the joy: also my roomie Janna Vrijsen got a VIDI grant!!!
June 2023: In the context of Neurodiversity pride day, Martine gave a lecture about positive aspects of ADHD at ASML, a large tech company, in Veldhoven. This event was organized by ‘Atypical’, which is an employee network at ASML that spreads the word about neurodiversity by organizing events. They also aim to bring together people who are neurodiverse and help them to feel understood and to connect with others.
June 2023: [Lessa reporting:] On Thursday the 15th of June PhD students Han Fang and Lessa Schippers presented a poster at the Donders Institute poster session 2023. During the poster session researchers from the Donders Institute present a poster on their work from the past year, which could also be a poster they already presented on a congress, but sometimes they also present a new one. In this way, we get an impression of the research that is going on within the Donders Institute and we can learn from each other and form new collaborations.
We got a lot of positive feedback and people asked insightful critical questions to make our research better.
Lessa presented her master thesis work on the relation between ADHD traits and positive aspects in the general population. Even the rector magnificus from the Radboud university stopped by to learn more about her research!
Han presented the design of her first study. She got very useful tips for the analysis. She really liked the open atmosphere for academics during the event.
Afterwards, there was time for some drinks and chit-chat with our fellow researchers.
Juni 2023: [Lessa vertelt:] Op donderdag 15 juni presenteerden PhD studenten Han Fan en Lessa Schippers een poster tijdens de Donders poster sessie. Tijdens deze posterpresentaties presenteren medewerkers van het Donders instituut een poster over het onderzoek dat ze in het afgelopen jaar hebben gedaan, vaak een poster die ze dat jaar al eerder gepresenteerd hebben op een congres, maar soms ook een nieuwe. Zo krijgen we een impressie van al het onderzoek dat gedaan wordt binnen het Donders instituut en kunnen we van elkaar leren en samenwerkingen opzetten.
We hebben veel positieve feedback gehad en mensen hebben goede kritische vragen gesteld om ons onderzoek nog beter te maken.
Lessa presenteerde haar werk van haar master thesis, waar we hebben gekeken naar de link tussen ADHD kenmerken en positieve aspecten in de algemene bevolking. Zelfs de rector magnificus van de Radboud universiteit kwam nog bij haar poster langs!
Han presenteerde de opzet van haar eerste studie. Ze heeft hele nuttige en bruikbare tips gekregen voor de analyse. Ze vond de open atmosfeer voor academici heel fijn tijdens het evenement.
Na afloop was er tijd voor een drankje en om gezellig bij te kletsen.
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June 2023: On the 8th of June group lead Martine Hoogman contributed to the ‘ADHD and all it’s colors‘ symposium in the Dutch railway museum in Utrecht. This symposium was part of post-academic training of health-care professionals in the field of ADHD. Psychiatrist Mireille Boerma kicked-off the meeting on the podium that was in front of old trains and an old train time-table. Professor Sarah Durston gave insightful thoughts about (subjective) perceptions in the context of ADHD, Renske Mocking educated the audience about ADHD and detention, and Martine Hoogman about potential positive aspects of ADHD. The closing session included an informative talk about DISC profiles of people with ADHD and how this knowledge could be implemented in the clinic. in all, it was a great symposium, with many different topics, excellent visuals, great atmosphere and a knowledgeable audience.
May 2023: The world federation of ADHD hosted the ADHD world congres 2023 in Amsterdam this year. The theme of the congres was ‘Modernizing the concept of ADHD’. There were contributions from our group: Lessa Schippers presented at the ERC meeting prior to the congres, Martine presented her work on strengths in ADHD on Friday in the first plenary session of the day and Lessa again presented in the young scientist session (where she won the Young Scientist Award!) on Saturday. It was also great catching up with former PhD-student Zhaomin Wu, who continued investigating ADHD back home in China and displayed her work in Amsterdam. New PhD-student Han was also attending the conference (with the help of the KNAW early career award of Martine) and got overwhelmed with all the ADHD research that is out there. Good inspirations for her and her work on creativity and well-being in the context of ADHD. Hopefully her work will be part of the next meeting, in 2 years in Prague.
The meeting attracted >1400 attendees, among which many colleagues from Nijmegen, collaborators from our (inter)national collaborations such as MocA, IMpACT and ENIGMA-ADHD, and also our your researchers from ADHDplaza. You can imagine how much fun we had, seeing all these familiar faces in one place.
April 2023: Now that we are really of substantial group size, we are formalizing our interactions with a Hoogman-lab-meeting. In this meeting we share our ideas and our research output and offer support to each other. Our group currently consists of 4 PhD students, 2 master students and 1 research assistant. We started with introducing our projects through emojis. This was the result:
Really interesting to see how we all found different ways to put the concept of ADHD into emojis.
April 2023: Nu onze groep een echte groep begint te worden, hebben we besloten om een formele groeps-meeting te organiseren waarin we ons werk delen, feedback geven en support bieden. Als start hebben we geprobeerd om ons eigen onderzoeksproject/onderwerp in emojis uit te drukken. Dat bleek nog best lastig! We hadden allemaal andere emojies voor ADHD bedacht, van kangoeroes tot veel emoties en pijlen op en neer. Creativiteit en brein waren dan weer wat makkelijker.
March 2023: To optimaly prepare for our school visits in the context of the ADHDplaza project, we organised a training day for our young researcher who are going to visit the schools to teach about ADHD. VBMO-experts Walter Kamphuis and Inge Trapman had valuable lessons for us as researchers. Nice side effect: we now had a great opportunity to make our first ever ADHDplaza-group picture.
Maart 2023: Om ons goed voor te bereiden op de schoolbezoeken in de context van het ADHDplaza project, organiseerden we een traingingsdag voor de onderzoekers die de scholen gaan bezoeken voor een les over ADHD. VBMO-experts Walter Kamphuis en Inge Trapman hadden belangrijke lessen voor ons over escalatieladders en de verschillende rollen die je als docent op je moet nemen om de les tot een succes te maken. We maakten ook gebruik van de mogelijkheid om de allereerste ADHDplaza groepsfoto te maken…(mogen er nog velen volgen).
March 2023: Back in the classroom! We met with our youth panel and the web designer at the Rhedens in Dieren to exchange ideas for our ADHDplaza website. Young people are the target group in the ADHDplaza project. ADHDplaza has the aim to reach out to young peole and to educate them about ADHD. Therefore this session was very valuable. Also; it was kind of nice to be back in a high school setting: brings back memories.
Maart 2023: Terug in de klas! Op het Rhedens te Dieren spraken we met ons ADHDplaza jongeren panel en onze web designer over de ADHDplaza website. Adolescenten zijn onze target groep in het ADHDplaza project waar we proberen om jongeren over ADHD te informeren. De input van ons jongerepanel was heel waardevol! en daarnaast was het best leuk om weer eens op een middelbare school te komen, poeh dat was lang geleden ;-).
Research group 'Strengths, positive aspects and resilience factors in neurodevelopmental conditions' 