Real parent training, with coaching to make it stick!
Just as great athletes require hours in the gym, students with ADHD require hours developing their study skills. Recent studies have shown that the human brain is more like every other muscle in the body than we had previously thought; and just like every other muscle, the brain has muscle memory. This means that effective... read more
Wouldn’t it be great if your child felt responsible to manage his/her own behavior? I constantly hear myself saying, “Are you on task? It looks like you’re distracted. How can you get yourself back on track?” Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Recently, my son surprised me by identifying a motivator and getting his... read more
Nearly every parent I work with struggles with this, “Why can’t my kid just ____!” You can fill in the blank with a variety of phrases: get his homework done? listen to me? stop talking back? get out of bed in the morning? If your spouse is an ADDer, you can probably use the... read more
Last year, my son and I attended the national ADHDAware event; a “leadership” summit. Being surrounded by a large group of parents and kids managing life with ADHD made me think about leadership from a new perspective. I wondered, is my 13 year old son really a leader? My first response was, “of course he... read more
Parenting a child with ADHD is no easy task. It’s at least double the work than typical kids. On the same token, it can be double the joy. I’ve given a lot of thought to the topic of Motivation for this month’s theme, and have landed on some of the best advice I can give... read more
It’s amazing how often we say the word “no.” Our kids probably hear it more often than most. They are frequently doing something out of line. In intimate relationships, for every negative or corrective statement, the ideal is to give 5 positive ones. It’s hard… I’ve tried! A few years ago I made a commitment... read more
I often hear parents ask. “Is it the ADHD or is it something else?” I can relate, because sometimes I find myself asking the same question. We call that “something else”: lazy pre-teen, normal 2nd grader, too much sugar, not enough sleep, just a boy. While I identify with the question, and the underlying desire... read more
It’s New Years 2013, and I wanted to re-post this tip on Celebration, because as Parents of ADD/ADHD kids we typically don’t celebrate enough. Spend time this week listing 10 things you want to honor and celebrate from the past 12 months. Celebration is the act of honoring a person or event. In families, this... read more
Raising my son with ADHD has been full of inspiring, albeit challenging, parenting moments. While preparing for a dessert party at my home, for example, I discovered that the cord had been severed from the base of my large coffee pot. “Matt!,” I yelled, coming upstairs. My then-15-year-old son calmly stated, “You weren’t using it... read more
It’s all in how you look at it. A client recently shared a negative interaction she had with her boss. After she described the events, and her completely normal response, I challenged her to look at the situation from a few other perspectives. What if: Her boss had just had a run-in with his boss?... read more