Does Adult ADHD Increase the Risk of Dementia?
The quick answer is “probably, if untreated.” A recent article in JAMA Open reported a study of this question from Israel. The investigators studied 109,218 members of a health maintenance organization who were born between 1933 and 1952, beginning the follow-up in 2003 when they averaged about fifty-six years old and ending in 2020. During…
Read MoreDoes Menopause Cause ADHD?
Worsening depression, anxiety, and new onset of poor emotional regulation are well known problems that often emerge during “the change” of life. There are two stages of this change, perimenopause and menopause. Perimenopause is the transition period prior to actual menopause, when all menstrual periods stop for at least a year. For most women perimenopause…
Read MoreNature Journals for Your Out-Of-The-Box Learners
Nature journals can provide your family with outdoor fun that helps your distracted kids to thrive. When children keep nature journals, they become more observant. It’s a family activity all ages can enjoy. You can keep nature journals whenever you go, around the world or around the block. Nature journaling is easy, thanks to some…
Read MoreDo Older Drivers with ADHD Outgrow Their Crash Risk?
It’s been well established that adolescent and young drivers with ADHD have an increased risk of traffic infractions and car crashes, which some studies suggest can be at least partially prevented by ADHD medication (Barkley & Cox, 2007; Biederman et al., 2012). Because hyperactivity and impulsiveness tend to improve with age, we might hope that…
Read MoreADHD and Family Conflict: How to Reduce Verbal Aggression
It’s a rainy Friday night and you decide to order pizza for the family for dinner as a treat. You call in the large cheese pie and whip up a salad to go with it. As you get your keys and grab your jacket, your twelve-year-old son (who has ADHD and oppositionality) bounces into the…
Read MoreUnderstanding ADHD from a Strengths-Based Perspective
What are the strengths associated with ADHD as perceived by adults with ADHD, as well as children with ADHD and their parents? ADHD symptoms are typically perceived as hindering children and adults from reaching their full potential and negatively impacting their quality of life. The positive psychology perspective emphasizes a strengths-based approach to ADHD, with…
Read MoreBecoming Comfortable in Your Own Skin
Do you remember tripping in front of the cool kids at school? Feeling wickedly embarrassed after stumbling through your lines? Feeling your skin tingle as the spotlight of attention fell on you at exactly the wrong moment? I know I do. For many adults with ADHD, the sense of being socially awkward has been a…
Read MoreA Focus on Empowering Girls
While not designed specifically for girls with ADHD, Girls on the Run may be ideally suited to address the social and emotional needs of many of these children and young teens, aged eight to fourteen. Under the supervision of a trained coach, GOTR combines physical activity with a well-designed curriculum-based series of activities that can…
Read MoreTime Unbound: Managing Time Blindness at Work
Time agnosia, commonly known as time blindness, is the consistent difficulty with “perceiving time (estimating how much time has passed or how much time is left before an upcoming event), time sequencing (correctly recounting the order in which events occurred), and time reproduction (repeating a task for the same amount of time that it occurred…
Read MoreADHD: Music to My Ears
Excerpted from the keynote presentation at the 2023 Annual International Conference on ADHD in Baltimore, Maryland. The text that appears in Attention magazine was edited for length and clarity from the transcript of the talk. The full video and audio recording is available at chadd.org/conference-recordings. ALL PHOTOS BY KAREN SAMPSON HOFFMAN/ CHADD My people! I…
Read MoreMidyear Reboot: Five Strategies for Building Effective Habits in Children and Teens
As we approach the midpoint of the school year, many parents notice that their children are less motivated and less engaged than they were in September. Perhaps their grades were disappointing or they struggled socially. If they’re in middle or high school, they may have changed schedules and teachers and are dealing with new experiences…
Read MoreHow to Improve the Educational Experience of Black Students with ADHD
African American students are many times more likely to be diagnosed with disabilities than their peers. Why does this happen, and what should schools do differently? Joy Banks, an associate professor at George Mason University, speaks on the overrepresentation and disparities in treatment of African American students in special education. She also shares the steps…
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