Improving Anger Behavior
“I think the issue is we really don’t communicate, even with ourselves, to know what we need in our world, or we don’t communicate well enough with others to tell them what we need and how we can each help to make each other’s worlds better,” says Dayle Malen, LCSW, MEd, a therapist based in…
Read MoreTeens & Parents: Understanding Strategies to Reduce Conflict Ask The Expert
Understanding Meltdowns: The ADHD Volcano Model
A MELTDOWN CAN SEEM TO COME OUT OF NOWHERE. It’s one of the challenging or explosive behaviors we see in those who have ADHD. Sometimes it appears as poor self-esteem, yelling, rage, or tears. But sometimes the challenging behavior is your own in reaction to your spouse, child, sibling, or friend who has ADHD: “Why…
Read MoreCelebrating the 2019 CHADD Research Awards
THROUGH its Young Scientist Research Awards program, CHADD has supported emerging researchers for twelve years, encouraging excellence in the field and broadening our understanding of ADHD. The recipients of the 2019 Awards—Rosanna Breaux, PhD, and Samuel J. Eckrich, MS—were selected from a pool of highly qualified applicants by a team of seasoned ADHD researchers, which…
Read MoreMindfulness, ADHD, and Managing Emotions
A NEW STUDY* SHOWS BENEFIT TO CHILDREN WITH ADHD as young as seven years old when they practice mindfulness. Perhaps surprisingly, the study is not really about attention. Instead, the researchers measured improvements around behavior and emotion. That’s because neither ADHD nor mindfulness specifically have to do with focus. On a much grander level, both…
Read MoreTreating ADHD and Emotion Dysregulation
A TENDENCY to experience and express intense negative emotions is among the most significant problems people with ADHD face. Among children, low frustration tolerance, rageful outbursts over seemingly small annoyances, and explosive overreactions to disappointments other kids handle with composure often make peer relationships and family life difficult. These difficulties can lead to a cycle…
Read MoreWhat Makes a Good Accommodation?
PARENTS AND EDUCATORS OFTEN STRUGGLE when it comes to deciding whether or not to provide a child with an accommodation or modification. In giving a child a “leg up” or a “crutch” are we making them more dependent? Are we preventing them from trying their best? Are we giving them a message that they aren’t capable…
Read MoreBeyond Fight, Flight, or Freeze—the Fib
When did you first tell a lie? You were likely very young (maybe two or three years old), afraid or ashamed of a situation, and used language to protect yourself. What if some fibbing is not a character flaw? What if fibs are a self-preservation response, an outcome of challenges with inhibition, emotional regulation, working…
Read MoreWhy Can’t I Do This? How Emotional Intelligence and Self-Regulation Pay Off for Adults with ADHD
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you experienced a set of emotions so intense that they overtook your mind, resulting in a lack of normal functioning? Perhaps you blanked in a job interview, shut down during an exam, or spent days wiped out after the emotional explosion with your kids or your spouse. Perhaps it’s been…
Read MoreEnough Is Enough: The Adult ADHD Guide to Saying No
DO YOU AGREE TO DO THINGS and feel resentful later? Can salespeople persuade you to go over budget? Do you “go along to get along” all too often? This happens to everyone occasionally. For adults with ADHD, saying no can be a challenge. Executive function issues and nonlinear thinking make it hard to weigh pros…
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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