In ADHD & Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table , Parents of teens with ADHD will not only be informed but encouraged by this book written by Blake Taylor, a college freshman at UC Berkley.  It provides a personal insight into the struggles, and success of a teenage boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Blake’s memoir, written when he was 17, offers, for the first time, a young person’s account of what it’s like to live and grow up with this common condition. Join Blake as he foils bullies, confronts unfair teachers, struggles with distraction and disorganization on exams, and goes sailing out-of-bounds and ends up with a boatload of spiders. It will be an inspiration and companion to the millions of others like him who must find a way to thrive with a different perspective than many of us.

Blake’s mother first suspected he had ADHD when he, at only three years of age, tried to push his infant sister in her carrier off the kitchen table. As time went by, Blake developed a reputation for being hyperactive and impulsive. He launched rockets (accidentally) into neighbor’s swimming pools and set off alarms in museums. Blake was diagnosed formally with ADHD when he was five years old. In this book, he tells about the next twelve years as he learns to live with both the good and bad sides of life with ADHD.

Children with ADHD experience one or more neuropsychological impairment of functions such as concentration, memory, impulse control, processing speed or ability to follow directions.  These impairments are no different from those caused by head injury or neurological disease.  It has been standard practice for trauma or neurology patients to go through cognitive rehabilitation to restore functioning.  Recently, research has shown that children with ADHD may also experience improvement in neuropsychological functioning through a similar process.  Also, this procedure is now being recommended for middle age adults to improve and/or maintain cognitive functions as the progress into later stages.

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I have long believed that behavioral therapy is the key to helping kids with ADHD. In fact, a new study on ADHD said that comprehensive behavioral therapy works as well as medication over the long haul. Also, earlier studies showed that after 14 months, 30% of the behavioral therapy group did just as well as those with medication. Of course, there are no side effects to behavioral therapy—except, perhaps, much happier parents and kids.

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Recently, meditation has been featured in Newsweek as a way to help kids to calm down and focus.

For years it was thought that each of us was born with a generous supply of brain cells, but that we were unable to produce additional cells or make changes in how they function. Fairly recently, neuroscientists discovered the presence of something called “neuroplasticity” which enables the brain to actually grow additional cells or modify the function of existing cells.

Amazingly, cognitive exercises have been found to produce desired changes in not only how the brain works, but how it looks. What this means for parents is that you now have the ability to work with your child to help improve their ADHD symptoms.

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For the parents of a child with ADHD, simple, everyday tasks turn into battles—from getting the child out the door in the morning to getting him to bed at night. My son was diagnosed with ADHD at age 6, so I remember what it was like to have a daily tug of war with an attention disordered child all too well. Parents look for help everywhere.  They may read one book after another and hear a parade of behavioral experts speak who give them parenting tips that don’t seem to work. The more books they read and experts they seek out, the worse their child’s behavior seems to get.

In my practice and in my work with my own son, I discovered a number of techniques and strategies that can help parents improve the behavior of a child with ADHD.  

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A recent Associated Press article reports that a study conducted at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center estimated that lead levels of more than 1.3 micrograms per deciliter may account for more than 500,000 cases of ADHD among children ages 8 to 15 nationwide.

This research is consistent with previous findings.  A recent article in Science Daily on a similar study conducted in 2007 by Michigan State University provides additional information on this topic.  Parents who suspect their child may have been exposed to lead around their home or some other location should share their information with their child’s physician.

When someone hears the term ADHD the first thing that usually comes to mind is the boy they saw running all over the place or a boy having a major meltdown at the mall much to the chagrin of his parents.  Unless one knows personally of a girl struggling with this disorder, the wound-up boy is the image that instantly appears.  Of course one reason for this is the fact that boys with the diagnosis outnumber girls 3 to 1.  Another reason is that ADHD in girls is more often associated with impaired attention and concentration rather than hyperactivity and impulsivity. 

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Many parents ask me about the effects of diet and food additives on kids with ADHD, so I wanted to weigh in on this topic.

In a well-known UK study last year, the effects of artificial food color and additives (AFCA) on kids found that food additives make hyperactive behaviors more pronounced in children as young as 3 and up to middle childhood, around 9 years of age. The study found that a significant though small group of children exhibited hyperactivity as a result of drinking a specially concocted drink containing food colors and preservatives.

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The earlier you can diagnose ADHD, the better. Kids often struggle in school and in the community due to a lack of help and from a misunderstanding of their condition. This often leads to frustration, increased inappropriate behavior, poor academic achievement, and eventually low self-esteem and depression, not to mention an increased likelihood for substance abuse. Early and appropriate intervention can prevent these serious consequences, and instead promote healthy development with the prospects for a more satisfying life in childhood and as an adult. If you suspect that your child may have ADHD, start with a trip to a trusted pediatrician and go from there.

And if your child is diagnosed with ADHD, I would recommend that parents look into the type of cognitive behavioral therapy or program that provides cognitive exercises and simple biofeedback to improve attention, concentration and executive functioning that leads to improved academic achievement and success in other activities. Make sure it helps children to understand the difference in brain function, and to learn coping strategies that foster a positive self-image, as well.

I fully understand the concerns of parents regarding medication for ADHD. My wife and I struggled with this when my son was 5. He had a great response to stimulant medication and remained on medication until he was 14. He suffered no observable side effects. He is a 6’4” guy who completed college with honors and has been employed for 5 years in the film industry and currently is an editor for a top rated cable network show. We were at our wits end and what we called “the small vitamin” was a miracle drug. At home we also used psychosocial interventions from time to time during his formative years.

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