The Truth about ADHD and Lying
I HATE TO SAY IT, but children with ADHD don’t always tell the truth. Consider this: What if, every day, you were asked to do all of the things you just weren’t good at—fulfill obligations that you found so onerous, you would gladly pay someone else to do them for you? Scrubbing the toilet, mowing…
Read MoreStill Distracted After All These Years
Exploring ADHD After Sixty AS A PSYCHOLOGIST who has spent the past several decades thinking and writing about ADHD in its various manifestations, I have always tried to focus on segments of the ADHD population that have been underserved—adults when most thought ADHD was a disorder of childhood; girls and women when most thought…
Read MoreDiscontinuing ADHD Meds
Sometimes the only way to move forward… is to stop. MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about starting medication for ADHD. Carefully controlled treatment trials are crucial in determining who will benefit, what medicine works best, and at what dose. But much less attention has been paid to stopping ADHD treatment. At the beginning of treatment for…
Read MoreSelf-Driven Kids with ADHD
IN MY THIRTY YEARS OF TESTING KIDS WITH ADHD, I have seen hundreds of kids like fourteen-year-old Alex, whose homework is an enormous source of stress and frustration for him and his parents. Even with constant parental nagging, teacher reminders, the help of a tutor, and an elaborate home-school communication program, Alex commonly forgets to…
Read MoreChildren and Teens in Southeast Asia Have ADHD, Too
Children and Teens in Southeast Asia Have ADHD, Too By Roby Marcou, MD FOR THE PAST TWENTY-FOUR YEARS I worked as a developmental behavioral pediatrician throughout Asia, based out of Indonesia and then Singapore. My patient population included children and teens from every corner of the world–children attending local schools in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines,…
Read MoreDoes My Child Need a Tutor or a Coach?
A tutor who tooted the flute Tried to teach two young tooters to toot; Said the two to the tutor, “Is it harder to toot, or To tutor two tooters to toot?” TOUGH TONGUE TWISTER. . . GOOD QUESTION! But perhaps more importantly, if you’re not into flute instruction, when should you consider a tutor…
Read MoreWe All Have Our Parenting Kryptonite
PARENTS ARE MY SUPERHEROES. Who else but a superhero would wake up multiple times every night to help a crying child calm down? Who else would carry a baby everywhere, even when it means that they cannot sleep, sit, or eat? Who else would drop everything and dash to the aid of their child when…
Read MoreMindfulness for Fidgeters
TODAY EVERYONE IS SO FOCUSED ON STAYING CONNECTED AND WORKING HARDER. We want to learn more, produce more, keep up, communicate, and cram as much into our day as we can. Whether in school, at work or in our personal lives, we are focused on productivity, outcomes, and staying connected. We seem to have lost sight…
Read MoreBasic Truths and Observation Skills
MY FRIEND RICK GREEN of TotallyADD has a long history in television. He helped me use my basic observation skills to discover what I call a basic truth: Facts don’t sell; stories do. How can that be? A fact is a fact. Stories can have facts, but fiction rules. Stories rule, and the stories we…
Read MoreADHD and Criminal Justice, Part Two: Raising ADHD Awareness in the Local Community
EVERY OCTOBER we observe International ADHD Awareness Month. Those of us in the worldwide ADHD community have the opportunity, even responsibility, to raise awareness about ADHD during the other eleven months of the year as well. The people we encounter in our communities impact our lives in many ways. Those impacts are much more likely…
Read MoreAdvice on ADHD Advice
MY BROTHER SAYS FREE ADVICE IS WORTH JUST WHAT YOU PAY FOR IT. And while most people agree, that doesn’t stop any of us (admit it) from sharing free advice from time to time—with best intentions, of course. Recently, members of Attention‘s editorial advisory board happened to discuss the subject of ADHD advice. We thought…
Read MoreEmotional Aspects of ADHD
THIS COLUMN focuses on emotional aspects of ADHD, including a study on the effects of a preschool intervention on parental negativity and another that examined child physiological markers of emotion and behavior regulation. ADHD & EMOTIONAL UNDERSTANDING How do ADHD symptoms impact emotion understanding, reactivity, and regulation? In this study, researchers compared young children who…
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