With all the hard work you and your child have put into learning this year, you don’t want to let summer slide take its toll. Hard to believe, but even the neurotypical child can lose from thirty to fifty percent of their learning over the summer break according to at least one study (Brookings.edu). For…

What do emerging adults with ADHD experience as they navigate postsecondary education? What types of supports are available to them? More research exists on ADHD in childhood, and there is a pressing need to understand the perspectives of older adolescents and adults with ADHD. This research brief reviews two studies that pertain to the experiences…

SMARTS—Success, Motivation, Awareness, Resilience, Talents, Success—is a web-based curriculum designed to help teachers create a school culture that celebrates students’ use of executive function strategies to overcome challenges and reach their goals, both in school and in life. CHADD honored SMARTS as the Innovative Program of the Year in 2018. The evidence-based program has grown…

“Why is it such a battle when we ask our son to get ready for bed? It can take an hour just to get past the meltdown and get him to his room!” “If she can’t do something she wants to do, it becomes a major crisis!” “When she’s tired or hungry, you’d best stay…

Hygiene is often difficult for individuals who have ADHD due to their brain and body differences. Tasks like showering and brushing teeth are low-reward activities that involve sensory input that doesn’t always feel good. Most adults with ADHD can remember spending more time trying to trick their parents that they brushed their teeth than actually…

Diagnosing combined autism and ADHD is challenging, as the symptoms vary from person to person. And yet, diagnosis is key to effective treatment. In this article, I will share observations from my practice as a coach and educator for parents of complex kids, offering insights to identify intense young people diagnosed with ADHD who might…

Many teens and adults are a bit shy when they are meeting unfamiliar people or giving a talk or presentation for a class or a meeting. They wonder, “Does what I’m wearing look okay? Did what I just said sound okay?” For most teens and adults such worries are brief and trivial. But for some…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…