Things I wish I’d Done Before the Start of School

Hindsight, it’s a painfully beautiful thing: you can only learn from looking back, after suffering through the consequences of your choices.  As the school year starts in full swing, here are a few things, I am scrambling to do now, that I wish I had done BEFORE the start of school.  Here’s hoping by writing them down, I’ll remember to do them next year, and you will be sparked into thinking...

Creating Your Family Scafolding: Building a Support Network

It takes a village to raise any child; but for families managing ADHD, it often takes the the village, suburbs, and most of the countryside.  Kids managing ADHD need more support, guidance, empathy, and understanding than the average child, to achieve success. Parents too, need more empathy and support than most, as the limitations these families manage are largely invisible, stereotypically associated with misfit...

13 Things Kids (and Adults) Should Know About Their ADHD

1. ADHD is a medical condition, in which the body reabsorbs the chemical messenger between brain cells too quickly. 2. ADHD makes it easier to act without thinking about the consequences (that can be good or bad, depending on whether you are driving your bike, speaking in front of a group of people or playing as the team’s soccer goalie.) ADHD can make it easier to intensely focus on things that are...

Teach a Child to Fuel Their Passions: Steps to Making a Summer Contract

Summer with an ADHD child can be wrought with the symptoms of boredom: whining, teasing, and  irritability.  Turn your summer into a teaching opportunity.  Pre-script your summer with a list of boredom- breakers in the form of a summer contract between you and your child, and in so doing teach them how to make and attain goals for themselves, which will in turn build self-confidence, a positive self- image,...

Striking a Balance: Summer Survival Tips for Families Managing ADHD

One major issue with ADHD and summer vacations is the bored factor. Once the novelty of having all that free-time-to-do-anything wears away, what to do with all that free time becomes a problem.  On the other hand, over-scheduling and over-planning the summer can lead to burn-out and irritability for both parents and children.  The art of managing ADHD during the summer is really about the art of finding...