The Gift of ADHD PDF

You are the parent.
If you can change and do what this wonderful

book invites you to change and do, then you can give the most pre-
cious gift to your childtransforming your childs problem into a
strength. Please accept the gift of this bookfor your childs sake.
Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology
at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and author of The
Complete Guide to Experiential Psychotherapy
Honos-Webb grabbed my scattered attention quickly and held it

with this enlightening book, without resorting to drugs. I nervously
jumped to sections such as The Medical Model of Disease and
Why Medications May Not Be the Answer and found them bal-
anced and enlightening. Then I calmed down, read the rest, and
learned a lot. You will too . . . if you can pay attention.
Thomas Greening, professor of psychology at Saybrook
Graduate School and editor of the Journal of
Humanistic Psychology
Honos-Webbs book is a healing gift to children with ADHD and

their parents, teachers, psychologists, and doctors. Taken to heart,
her message could transform the lives of these children, their fami-
lies, and even the educational system. The Gift of ADHD is a must-
read for anyone whose life is touched by the unique children who
are given this diagnosis. Even adults with this diagnosis should read
this book to find a radically new way of understanding themselves
and celebrating their own gifts.
Lane Arye, Ph.D., author of Unintentional Music:
Releasing Your Deepest Creativity and internationally
known process-oriented therapist and teacher
the Gift of
ADHDSECOND EDITION
How to
Transform
Your Childs
Problems into
Strengths
LARA HONOS-WEBB, PH.D.
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Publishers Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to
the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged
in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or
counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Copyright 2010 by Lara Honos-Webb

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com
All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America
Acquired by Tesilya Hanauer; Cover design by Amy Shoup;

Edited by Karen ODonnell Stein; Text design by Tracy Marie Carlson
PDF ISBN: 9781572248502
Library of Congress has cataloged the print editions as:

Honos-Webb, Lara.
The gift of ADHD : how to transform your childs problems into strengths / Lara
Honos-Webb ; foreword by Scott M. Shannon. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-57224-850-2
1. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder--Popular works. I. Title. II. Title: Gift of
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
RJ506.H9H66 2010
618.928589--dc22
2010016100
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface to the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Preface to the First Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
CHAPTER 1
Difference Is Not a Disorder or a Deficit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER 2
How You Can Transform Your Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTER 3
Reclaiming Self-Esteem for Your Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Gift of ADHD
CHAPTER 4
How to Become Your Childs Advocate, Not Apologist . . . . 65
CHAPTER 5
The Gift of Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
CHAPTER 6
Showing the Way: Ecological Consciousness . . . . . . . . . 107
CHAPTER 7
Interpersonal Intuition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
CHAPTER 8
Your Exuberant Child: Reframing Hyperactivity . . . . . . . . 145
CHAPTER 9
Your Emotionally Expressive Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
CHAPTER 10
How to Navigate the Educational and Mental
Health Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
iv
Acknowledgments
I gratefully dedicate this book to Ken, Kenny, and Audrey Webb for
giving me the gift of waking up happy every day.
I thank my brother, John Honos, and my mother, Karen Honos,
for giving me a front-row seat, allowing me to understand ADHD as
a gift. Johns unique gifts and my mothers unique approach are the
inspiration for this book. Thanks also to Edward, Chrissty, Grace,
Cate, and Luke Honos for being my cheerleaders along the way. I
also appreciate the support from and interesting conversations with
Carole and Bill Webb and Anna and Rosie Chalfant.
This book owes much to the scholarly work of Larry Leitner,
whose pioneering work on humanistic assessment is the primary
scholarly inspiration for the approach taken herein.
I also want to thank my acquisitions editor, Tesilya Hanauer,
for her incredible support throughout the process and for her initial
interest in my work. Thank you for seeing so much potential in my
The Gift of ADHD
views on ADHD and in my work. I am also grateful for the thorough

editorial assistance of Heather Mitchener, Carole Honeychurch, and
Karen Stein.
So much of this book was shaped by stimulating conversations
with friends and colleagues Marc Celentana, Cy Estonactac, Jenny
Yeaggy, Rose Pacini, and Jeannie Lopez. Thanks to Kimberly McCoy
for her special insights and sharing of personal experiences. I am
grateful for the encouragement and support from Dr. Robin Goldstein
and Annemarie Roeper. I appreciate like-minded colleagues includ-
ing Dr. Scott Shannon, Barbara Probst, and Daniel Pink. I want
to thank Lema Almaddine for her research assistance. Im grateful
to Hagen Panton for his helpful conversations and idea to create a
When the Teacher Calls list for parents.
Many thanks are due to Dick and Alison Jones and their family
for their remarkable generosity of spirit, and I thank John Thomas
for his lifelong support and encouragement.
Finally, I am grateful to William Cangemi and Elizabeth Harrick
for their original interest in the research project that led to this
book.
vi
Foreword
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common

and difficult challenge for children and young adults. This disor-
der affects boys much more often than girls and has continued to
increase in rates over the last three decades. In the 1970s there were
about 250,000 children identified with this problem. Today, we have
almost four million youth labeled with this diagnosis and over two
million treated with stimulant medications. The United States uses
about 80% of the worlds stimulant medications. Rates of diagnosis
in other countries are a small fraction of what we diagnose here in
America. What is going on here?
In 2007 Phillip Shaw, MD and his colleagues at National Institute
of Mental Health published a groundbreaking study of ADHD. They
took brain scans of 446 kids (with and without ADHD) over many
years and monitored brain development. This is the by far the largest
study of pediatric brain development in ADHD. What they found
The Gift of ADHD
was remarkable: there was NO evidence of brain abnormality in

the children with ADHD, only developmental delay. This echoes
an earlier panel selected to explore this topic a few years previously.
National Institute of Health convened a panel of the countrys
experts in a variety of related fields to discuss whether ADHD was
a biological illness or not. After exploring all of the research on this
topic this panel decided that they could not determine if ADHD
was an illness or merely at the far end of normal development. They
also expressed concern that we have no clear ideas about the cause
or prevention of ADHD.
For many years I have been trying to educate the public and
members of my own profession about these issues. ADHD represents
a common collection of symptoms that can be triggered by a variety
of factors: iron deficiency, thyroid problems, poor diet, inadequate
sleep, head injury, allergies, excessive early television, environmental
toxins and any more controllable or treatable concerns.
If we accept the scientifically based perspective that ADHD is
a symptom rather than an illness we are then empowered to take
charge of this situation. We can alter the problems in the childs life
and improve their focus, attention and capacity to learn. Otherwise
we hold a view that the child has brain damage via faulty genet-
ics and imbalanced neurochemistry. There is little else parents can
do if they embrace this perspective other than medicate their child
indefinitely.
I reject that view and I encourage you to as well. I would embrace
the view that your child has strengths and challenges in their make
up. We all must hold the ecologically sound viewpoint that all things
are interconnected and interdependent. As part of the ecological or
holistic perspective many different facets of the childs life can affect
their mental and physical well being. As a parent and a culture we
must acknowledge that many aspects of our lives can support or
deteriorate a childs abilities and health. Once we do that we can
begin to see how we can help or harm our child by the choices that
we make each and every day.
viii
Foreword
Each young person must be seen as a vibrant and adaptable

being capable of wondrous change and growth. One of the most
defining characteristics of childhood is the neuro-plasticity found
within their central nervous system. This means that the young
brain can change, adapt and grow in response to their environment.
This includes their home life, emotional support, intellectual stimu-
lation, proper nutrition, viewed media, social supports, spiritual path
and academic fit among others.
Fifty years from now people will laugh at the diagnosis of
ADHD and shudder at the liberal use of stimulant medication in
young children. Instead we need to move towards a strength-based
approach that builds on the gifts and talents of each child. We must
support the child as needed but fully embrace their ability to grow
and change in a positive manner.
I am honored to write this forward for Lara Honos-Webb as I
think she has embodied this message in her work. This book is filled
with hope and promise for everyone concerned with the diagnosis of
ADHD. Rather than view ADHD as a negative psychiatric illness,
she has chosen to see that this concern comes with many strengths
and possibilities. See this book as a blessing that will help you as you
move through life. Thank you Lara for your message of hope.
Scott Shannon, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry
University of Colorado
Childrens Hospital
Denver, Colorado
ix
Preface to the
Second Edition
What if you defined yourself by what you are good at rather than by
what you are not good at? What if you asked, What went right?
instead of What went wrong? What if you believed that those
talents that come easily to you were your greatest gifts? Now ask
yourself those same questions about your child. Can you imagine the
momentum you would generate if you called your child an innova-
tive problem solver rather than someone who stinks at math? It
may seem difficult to believe, but the motivation and confidence
you gain through defining your child by his or her gifts can make
it easier for your child to plow through weaknesseslack of focus,
difficulty paying attention to details, impulsiveness, or lack of stick-
to-it-iveness.
The Gift of ADHD
Ive always been amazed that, though the terms ADD and
ADHD are bandied about like the latest fad in some circles (and
are like a life sentence in other circles), only a few people ask a very
important question, which is fundamental to a disorder defined by
an attention deficit.
That question is What is attention? If you are awake you are
paying attention to lots of things, all the time. So how can someone
have a deficit of attention? Upon further examination, we may realize
that an attention deficit is really a case of not paying attention to
what you are supposed to be paying attention to. Many diagnoses of
children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) result
from a child not paying attention in school or to their parents.
Imagine a child who does not play basketball very well. We
notice this childs difficulty with the game, and we give him the
label basketball deficit disorder. But what if we asked ourselves,
How can I increase his skill in playing basketball? We know that
the answer lies in increasing his skills through coaching and practice.
Now consider the child who has difficulty paying attention. I wonder
how different things would be if, when we first noticed a child not
paying attention to an assigned task, we paused before issuing the
ADHD label. And what if, in that pause, we asked ourselves, How
do we increase this childs attention?
Just as we can increase basketball skills through coaching and
practice, we can increase attention through coaching and prac-
tice. In this second edition of The Gift of ADHD, you will find
many methods of increasing attention that did not appear in the
first edition. These techniques include various forms of medita-
tion and one of the newest rages in the field of psychology, brain
fitness training, originally developed for the treatment of aging in
the brain. This techniques potential for application with ADHD is
obvious and ripe for exploration.
Besides skills, there is another facet of attention, which we all
know from personal experience: interest. We pay attention to what
we are interested in.
xii
If you want to increase a childs attention, find out what he is
interested in and use that as rocket fuel to propel an increase in
attention. Its a simple formula that gives a child a chance at some-
thing other than a label that stings.
Too many times, my desk is stacked with psychiatric evalua-
tions that can be summarized like this: Age ten, diagnosis ADHD.
Age twelve, diagnosis ADHD and major depression. Age fourteen,
ADHD and cannabis dependence. We cant deny that giving a
child a deficit-disorder label can impair confidence and motivation.
But there is another way.
Once, when I was a guest on a radio show, the host said about
my book, The Gift of ADHD, So whats the big deal? We all know
that if we go to work and our boss tells us we are doing a good job
we will feel good about ourselves and try harder. Although this
might seem like he was trivializing my book, I had never heard
sweeter words. He was absolutely rightit is obvious.
I dont mean that its easy, however. Ive gotten e-mails from
parents telling me, If you knew my kids you wouldnt call it a gift.
If you cannot look at it as a gift, then perhaps you can see it as an
opportunity for intervention. Consider that you are likely to get more
of what you focus on. If you focus on the deficit disorder, you are
likely to get more deficit. If you focus on gifts, youre likely to get
more positive results. It doesnt work as quickly as medication, but it
could change a persons life, and it would certainly have the positive
side effects of increasing confidence and motivation.
In the five years since the first edition of The Gift of ADHD
was released, much of what was in the book has gone mainstream.
Research has emerged that supports the idea of spaciness being a
gift related to both creativity and interpersonal skill. Ecological con-
sciousness, the most marginalized of all the ideas in the first edition,
has been listed by Time magazine as one of ten ideas changing
the world right now (Walsh 2009). Last Child in the Woods: Saving
Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv (2005), a
book released at about the same time as The Gift of ADHD, spurred
national movements including one named No Child Left Inside.
The Gift of ADHD
The research on the attention-boosting benefits of spending time in

nature has shown that nature is medicine.
The largest nationally funded study (MTA Study Group 2009)
on the effects of medication to treat ADHD reached the conclusion
that, though medication works quickly and in the short term, after
eight years the benefits for those who initially received medication
are not different from the benefits of treatment without medication.
Even years ago, any neuropsychologist would probably have told you
that the brain will habituate to medication treatment, and now the
state-of-the-art, nationally funded research tells us the same. The
conclusion of the biggest study with the longest follow-up and leading
experts is that we need to develop new and additional treatments
for ADHD.
This book does offer a new treatment approach. Its an approach
that builds on the very latest developments in neuropsychology, posi-
tive psychology, personality psychology, developmental psychology,
and my own field, clinical psychology. The most exciting develop-
ment in our understanding of the brain is in the area of neuroplastic-
ity, which simply means that we can change our brains. So, before we
label our children, why dont we start by encouraging them to take
advantage of the newly discovered fact that the harder they try, the
more they can change their brain.
xiv
Preface to the
First Edition
If each historical period comes with its own popular diagnoses, then
ADHD would be a likely candidate for a diagnosis that characterizes
our society at this point in history. One can hardly watch a television
show or read a popular magazine without seeing an advertisement
for a new or improved medication for treating children diagnosed
with this disorder.
With all the attention this disorder has received in the popular
press recently, the label of ADHD has taken on a power of its own.
Media outlets would have us believe that ADHD has grown to
epidemic proportions. Researchers estimate that 3 to 7 percent of
all school-aged children have been given the diagnosis of ADHD
(American Psychiatric Association 2000). ADHD is three times more
The Gift of ADHD
likely to be diagnosed in boys than in girls (Barkley 2000). Estimates

indicate that the rates of diagnosis of ADHD have increased 400
percent since 1988 (Stein 1999), although the explosion of this dis-
order seems confined to the United States. Some experts suggest that
the increase indicates increasing misdiagnosis. As developmental spe-
cialist Robin Goldstein writes, Parents and teachers worried by the
increase in ADD need to know that there are a variety of other, more
common reasons why a young child would have trouble listening to
adults or paying attention to his responsibilities (Goldstein 2002,
163). Dr. Goldstein points to some clear guidelines for addressing
these reasons, including finding more flexible day-care arrangements,
limiting TV, and making discipline a priority.
As a parent of a child with ADHD, you may find comfort that
you are not alone in facing the recent explosion of information, ser-
vices, and medications aimed at treating ADHD. You may also feel
confused by so much information, much of it contradictory.
WHAT IS ADHD?
The term ADHD is often used in an offhand manner to describe
children who seem to be out of control. However, it is actually a
diagnosis that requires many specific criteria in order to be met.
The two major dimensions of ADHD, according to the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric
Association 2000), are inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.
The behavioral symptoms of inattention include making careless
mistakes, being easily distracted, and having a difficult time complet-
ing projects. Other behavioral manifestations of inattention include
difficulty listening, difficulty following directions, and difficulty with
organization; a person may often lose homework and other things,
run late, or forget appointments.
The symptoms of hyperactivity include fidgeting, difficulty
sitting still, excessive talking, and difficulty doing quiet activities.
Children with hyperactivity often feel as if they are being driven by
a motor. Symptoms of impulsivity include blurting out inappropriate
xvi
Preface
comments, being unable to wait for ones turn, and acting without
thinking.
Although many children display some of these symptoms some
of the time, a diagnosis of ADHD requires that there be evidence
that these symptoms are severe enough to impair functioning in
more than one setting. Usually this means that the child is disrup-
tive both in a school setting and at home. Furthermore, a diagnosis
of ADHD requires that other possible disorders be ruled out. For
example, a child who is anxious, depressed, or oppositional may have
many symptoms that look like ADHD. However, if the symptoms
are better explained by another diagnosis, ADHD will not be given
as a diagnosis.
A diagnosis of ADHD requires a thorough assessment and
usually entails testing and collecting information from children,
parents, and teachers. Because the diagnosis requires evidence that
the behavioral disruptions occur in more than one setting, teachers
and parents play an important role in a formal assessment process.
If your child has been given a diagnosis of ADHD without a
very thorough assessment involving parents and teachers, you may
want to consider getting a second opinion. Because the diagnosis
may have an impact on your childs expectations and feelings of
self-worth, you want to be sure that a thorough evaluation has been
conducted by a trained professional.
WHOM THIS BOOK IS FOR, AND HOW

ITS DIFFERENT
This book is intended for parents of children who are six to twelve
years old and have been diagnosed with ADHD by a trained pro-
fessional. It is written for parents who are interested in transform-
ing not only their childs symptoms but also their own vision of
what ADHD means. Even if your childs ADHD diagnosis came as
a relief, because it seemed to answer many of your questions about
your childs behavior, this book will be helpful to you. A child with
xvii
The Gift of ADHD
ADHD is different from other children in predictable ways, and this

book will help you to see that though your childs differences pose
many challenges they also offer many gifts. So whether you were
happy, relieved, distressed, or distraught when your child was diag-
nosed with ADHD, this book will guide you toward transforming
your vision of your childas well as your relationship with your
child and his symptoms.
Many books for helping children and parents with ADHD offer
very complicated, labor-intensive exercises for parents and children
to do. These are not so helpful because children, and sometimes
parents, have difficulty completing and following through with
complex plans and long, drawn-out exercises. This book is different
because it recognizes that an effective treatment plan has to match
the difference that your child exhibits. In fact, the techniques in the
book are designed to cater to your childs differences. They will use
his need for concrete sensory engagement rather than abstract theo-
rizing as a strategy for learning new information. Also, many of the
exercises ask you to build on your childs areas of specialized interest
and enthusiasm, whether its Harry Potter or American Idol. You will
help your child channel his existing energy for special interests into
pretend games that transform his symptoms.
As you go through the book, keep in mind that there are more
than enough exercises throughout to help transform your childs
problems into strengths. If you or your child doesnt like some of
the exercises, dont push it. Just move on to another exercise. The
best strategy will be to find a handful of exercises that your child
enjoysthe ones that are so much fun that they seem like playing
and to use those exercises over time. You can think of this approach
as similar to going to the gym to build muscles. The more your child
learns how to manage his thoughts, behaviors, and sense of self-
worth, the more powerful his transformation will be. These exercises
are not just one more thing that pits you and your child against each
other. Rather, they will be fun activities for you and your child to
share, and they will help you build your relationship and closeness
with each other.
xviii
Preface
ADHD AS A GIFT: A PARADIGM SHIFT

This book will offer you not just information but rather a radical
new way of looking at your childs diagnosis: although your child is
different, the constellation of traits labeled as ADHD is in fact a gift.
To go from seeing your child as having a deficit disorder to seeing
your child as having a unique gift would be a major shift that would
help both you and your child.
This radical way of looking at your child and his differences
will be the starting point for a program of change that will help you
shift from being your childs apologist to being your childs advocate.
As an apologist for your child, you may have accepted the critical
comments of his teachers and felt like you had to apologize for his
behavior. As an advocate for your child, you will learn to gently
challenge the teachers criticism and reframe your childs behavior in
a more positive light, providing the teacher with helpful suggestions
for handling your childs differences.
At first you may greet this positive reframing of ADHD as
welcome news, but you may also find it difficult to believebecause
perhaps your childs teachers, pediatrician, and psychiatrist have all
told you that your child has a serious problem. It can be very difficult
to consider that all these experts might be wrong. You may have
even found yourself frustrated with your childs behavior and lack of
motivation and perhaps feeling relieved to know that there is a name
for your childs problems.
The many educators and health professionals you have encoun-
tered are not necessarily wrong; your child is indeed different, just
different in a way that our culture has not learned to fully appreciate.
They are also correct in their observations that some problematic
behaviors have emerged. Where they may not be entirely right is in
their view of these differencesthey may be seeing the differences
as elements that define your child rather than as potential gifts and
opportunities. And they may have failed to notice the ways in which
the diagnosis of ADHD itself can cause problems in behavior, atten-
xix
The Gift of ADHD
tion, and motivation. This book will help reveal how your childs
differences have a lot to offer, both to him and to the world.
My first encounter with ADHD occurred when my own brother
was diagnosed with it, long before it was a popular diagnosis or even
a widely known condition. My mother never understood my brothers
ADHD as a disorder. She regaled us with stories about how intuitive
my brother was and how sensitive he was to peoples emotions. We
all noticed it. As a family, we saw that, although he often burst out
with irreverent comments about the people we encountered, he was
amazingly perceptive. When my mother reluctantly agreed to put
him on medication, she viewed it as a concession to particular teach-
ers who had complained about my brother in the classroom. She also
found that whether he needed the medication or not depended on
the teacher he had that year. Some years he would need the medica-
tion, but other years, he would do well and did not need medication
at school. It was my mothers understanding that the medication was
a means of appeasing others. For example, she would give my brother
his medication when her own mother came to visit. My grandmother
had a hard time tolerating my brothers rambunctious behavior; as
a result, my mom would give the medication to my brother so my
grandmother would not get so disturbed.
As a clinical psychologist I have spent years training to be sen-
sitive to other peoples emotions and to understand interpersonal
interactions. Despite all my training, I have found that my brothers
ability to capture the complexities of interpersonal interactions and
other peoples emotional states far surpasses my ownand the abili-
ties of many of my well-trained colleagues. He possesses an interper-
sonal intuition that no amount of training could bestow.
Its true that children with ADHD have a keen ability to per-
ceive insincerity and are not fooled by peoples efforts to appear to be
something they are not. Certainly, this represents a gift of interper-
sonal intuition, but you can see that, without some training in how
to use this gift, it can create relationship problems for your ADHD
child, who may be prone to making irreverent or inappropriate com-
ments based on his perceptions.
xx
Preface
The Frustration of Being Misunderstood

The following is a example of what typically happens to children
with ADHD in treatment settings.
Jack was a seven-year-old patient in a child and adolescent
psychiatric unit. One day, as he was sitting in a session of group
therapy, Jack noticed that the nurse running the session seemed
to have a permanently sour expression and was treating the young
group members with disdain. She displayed little compassion for the
struggles the patients were facing.
Jack, who had been given the diagnosis of ADHD, was making
faces at herin some way mirroring her sour expression but amplify-
ing it. He was not deliberately trying to be disrespectful and perhaps
wasnt even aware of the effect of his behaviorhe was just naturally
mirroring her body language. His behavior was appropriate for a seven-
year-old boy. Although he was somewhat impulsive in his display, he
created a very accurate characterization of the nurse. Unfortunately,
the nurse overreacted, threatening the boy with severe punishment if
he didnt stop making faces at her. As she escalated her threats, his
mocking behavior escalated to the point where two large male staff
members intervened, putting Jack in isolation and one-to-one watch
for the rest of the day.
As Jack was being carried out, his behavior had escalated to the
point where he did in fact look like an immensely disturbed child.
He thrashed around, screaming loudly about the injustice in the way
he was being treated. However, blame could also be assigned to the
nurse, whose behavior had been unprofessional. Its easy to under-
stand why a small child who is emotionally sensitive and interper-
sonally astute would become angry and disturbed in this situation.
However, in part because of his diagnosis, the setting of an inpatient
hospital, and the nurses own disposition, the situation escalated,
resulting in behavioral excesses that seemed to prove how disturbed
the boy was.
As a teacher and clinical psychologist, Ive found that my obser-
vations about my brother also applied to other individuals who had
xxi
The Gift of ADHD
been given the diagnosis of ADHD. Although it is true that the

students with ADHD often received the lowest grades in the courses
I taught, they far surpassed their peers in their ability to engage the
material in creative ways. They were often stimulated by what they
were learning, but not interested in mastering it in the ways that are
assessed through standard educational testing. Students with ADHD
often made me think in ways Id never considered before, and they
wanted to forge their own understandings and push the limits of
what was known by asking new questions, rather than settling for
the accepted answers.
You have likely noted these very same gifts in your child, but you
may feel steamrolled by the health care and educational systems, rep-
resentatives of which insist that these very same traits are symptoms
of disturbance. You may also have struggled with the fact that your
child really is quite a handful. Children with this diagnosis are a lot
of work, and they do act in problematic ways that disrupt others.
This book will acknowledge both sides of this realitythe gift and
the disruption it causes to others. Its important to keep in mind
that a difference of any sort is likely to be disruptive. For example,
intellectually precocious children who havent been diagnosed with
ADHD can also be disruptive in traditional educational settings,
because they get bored and may act out, distracting other students.
This book will show you how to understand your childs differences
as a gift and help change those behaviors that hinder him.
CHANGING PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIORS

In addition to trying to provide a balance between the vision of
ADHD as a gift and the difficult reality of managing your childs
behavior and the system he interacts with, I will present a balance
between shifting your vision and offering concrete exercises for
changing problematic expressions of your childs behavior. This may
seem like a contradiction. You may be thinking, On the one hand,
it seems like youre saying that my child is gifted, and on the other
xxii
Preface
hand, it seems like youre telling me how to change my child. And

its true. But both of these things are needed, for many reasons.
Even though your child is gifted, the label of ADHD can have
a negative impact, which can lead to problematic behaviors. For
example, if your son thinks he is stupid, then he will have a hard
time motivating himself in school. Similarly, if children with ADHD
believe that they will fail because of their ADHD, then they will
avoid trying, in order to protect their self-esteem. It is easier to say
I didnt try than to say I tried and failed. As a result of his dif-
ferences and the challenges of being diagnosed with a disorder, your
child may have adopted coping strategies like these, which are in
fact problematic. This book will offer strategies for changing these
unhelpful coping strategies.
Another reason your child may need to alter some behaviors
is that the school system and health care system have not yet rec-
ognized your childs differences as a gift. This failure has probably
led to negative interactions between your child and professionals in
these fields, which may, in turn, have led to problematic behavior
in your child. This is a common occurrence in school and treat-
ment settings, where your child is likely to detect when he is being
negated or undervalued and to have strong emotional reactions. He
sees clearly how he is being dismissed and feels intensely hurt and
humiliated by these interactions. These intense feelings, combined
with impulsiveness, often lead to episodes of acting out that, when
escalated by intolerant teachers and professionals, may be perceived
as profoundly disturbed behavior.
When this dynamic is repeated, your child may develop coping
strategies that appear to be ingrained behavioral problems. If these
behaviors are changed, then others will be less likely to make nega-
tive judgments about your child, in turn causing even more disrup-
tive behavior and continuing the pattern. Because of these tensions,
this book will strike a balance between changing your vision of
your child, helping you change your childs vision of himself, and
offering specific exercises for changing and managing problematic
behaviors.
xxiii
The Gift of ADHD
POWERFUL OR POWERLESS
As a parent, you may feel powerless in your interactions with the
educational and health care systems, but you do have an enormous
amount of power to heal your child. The school and health care set-
tings may not have conveyed this message to you, yet its true.
You may have felt angry with these systems for conveying such
disempowering messages to you. You may have heard that your child
is profoundly disturbed, that his brain is dysfunctional, or that you
must have done something wrong in raising him. These messages are
not necessarily true and can be defeating to you and your child.
When you heard a seemingly hopeless diagnosis and the mis-
guided notions about your child from people who were in positions
of authority, you may have felt more powerless, assuming that they
knew better than you about your childs condition. While you may
not be a psychologist or teacher, the paradigm shift described in
this book may be in line with your inner voice that told you the
negative descriptions of your child just werent right. While you may
have struggled with your child yourself, perhaps youve found yourself
resisting the severity of the diagnosis of ADHD, which may have felt
more like an insult than a medical term.
Your own perceptions of your childs gifts may have become a
still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12) by now as other authorities have
drowned out your own, more-positive reactions to your childs exu-
berance, surplus of energy, and emotional sensitivity. The Gift of
ADHD will help you reclaim your power in relation to yourself, your
child, the school system, and your health care providers. It offers
information to help you to connect with your own feelings that your
child may not be as bad as some of the authority figures have
implied. It will help you reconnect with your own belief in your
childs abilities, strengths, and gifts.
Your own expectations for your child will be a powerful source
of inspiration. So if you can trust your own positive feelings about
your childs strengths, amplify those feelings, and communicate them
clearly to your child, you can influence your child for the better.
xxiv
Preface
CHAPTER SUMMARIES
The first four chapters will review the paradigm shift represented in
the vision of this bookthat ADHD is a gift. Chapter 1 will review
current understandings of the diagnosis as a disorder and review
a countertrend in psychology that argues that differences are not
disorders. In line with this paradigm shift, chapter 2 will introduce
you to the cognitive behavioral approach to transforming your child.
Specific strategies for strengthening your bond to your child will be
offered. Chapter 3 will suggest that this sweeping revision of this
diagnostic label can also have the therapeutic effect of raising your
childs self-esteem. This chapter will also review how self-esteem can
be lowered by the diagnosis of ADHD and how each symptom of
the disorder, such as impulsiveness, lack of motivation, and lack of
attention can also be seen as resulting from lowered self-esteem, not
only from the purported brain differences alleged to cause ADHD.
Chapter 4 will encourage and support you in shifting both your
vision and your behavior as you become an advocate, rather than
apologist, for your child.
In chapters 5 through 9 we will review the specific nature of
your childs gifts. In chapter 5 we will review the ways in which chil-
dren who have been diagnosed with ADHD are creative. We will
see, for example, how goofing off is often a necessary requirement
for creativity. In chapter 6, we will review how your child may be
gifted with an ecological consciousnessthis means an attunement
with the natural world. In chapter 7, we will review the interpersonal
intuition common in children diagnosed with ADHD. In chapter 8,
we will review the ways in which hyperactivity can be viewed as a
surplus of energy and exuberance that can be tapped and rather than
managed and minimized. In this chapter, specific strategies will be
offered for channeling this energy in ways that do not disrupt others.
In chapter 9, well discuss the ways in which ADHD children are
emotionally sensitive and expressive. The balance between appreci-
ating the gift and managing the lack of control it can bring will be
addressed with specific strategies. The tenth and final chapter will
xxv
The Gift of ADHD
review strategies for navigating both educational and mental health

treatment systems.
As you can see, The Gift of ADHD will offer you practical sug-
gestions and strategies that accommodate both your inner voice that
has appreciated your childs differences and the one that has grown
impatient with his behavior and frustrated with the knowledge that
his behavior can be a problem for others.
xxvi
CHAPTER 1
Difference Is Not a
Disorder or a Deficit
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental

Disorders, symptoms of ADHD include difficulty paying attention,
impulsivity, and hyperactivity (American Psychiatric Association
2000). However, clinical anecdotal evidence suggests that individu-
als diagnosed with ADHD also tend to be particularly insightful,
imaginative, and intuitive.
As a parent of a child with this diagnosis you are probably
quite familiar with the symptoms its associated with. Children with
ADHD have difficulty controlling their behavior, act out in impulsive
ways, disrupt classes and other students, and find it almost impos-
sible to focus on academic tasks. Lack of concentration leads to poor
The Gift of ADHD
discipline, impaired relationships (due to an inability to listen to

others), and difficulty maintaining a routine.
Recent debates on ADHD reveal two dominant positions. One
is that ADHD is a brain disorder, and the other is that individuals
with this diagnosis are simply boisterous and not really different from
others, but that our culture does not tolerate rambunctious children.
This book takes yet a third position.
ONE OF THESE KIDS IS NOT LIKE

THE OTHERS
It is true that ADHD children are noticeably different from children
who have not been given this diagnosis. But calling this difference a
disorder is based on an interpretationone that has negative effects
on your child.
The name of the diagnosis itself shows that medical terminology
can be subjective and tends to pathologize a person. For example,
children with ADHD have hyperactivity, which means too much
activity. Why are normal children not considered to have an activ-
ity deficit or hypoactivity disorder? To add insult to injury, ADHD
children also have an attention deficit. Again, one might ask why
other children are not considered to have hyperattention disorder
or an overfocusing condition.
This is meant to illustrate that you should not be too discouraged
by the medical description of your childs tendencies. Differences do
not mean disorders, and it is an interpretative leap to say that they
do. A difference could be just thatno better or worse, just differ-
ent from others. Many people say that variety is the spice of life,
but psychiatrists do not agree. They are trained to see differences as
disorders. If one were to apply this logic to gender, then the medical
profession might well label women with a penis-deficit/hypermam-
mary disorder.
The other way to think of difference is that it can be a gift,
indicating that a person with that difference is in some way better
2
Difference Is Not a Disorder or a Deficit
than people who dont have it. In fact, the basis of evolution and
natural selection is mutation, or difference. As a species, we have
evolved through differences that are found to be adaptive. Many
differences give people advantages. Also, in our culture, we advance
in leaps and bounds through creativitythe ability to think differ-
ently from others.
In earlier times, a persons career depended on the ability to follow
specific instructions given by authority figures. However, it can be
argued that in todays technological culture a person is more likely to
get ahead by coming up with different ways of seeing the world than
by conforming to authority. With that in mind, I put forth the idea
that not only is ADHD a difference, but it is also a gift. It confers
advantages to the child that are not yet fully appreciated.
One way in which ADHD children are different is that they
are more engaged with the organic world in a sensuous way. They
may have more difficulty with abstract book knowledge, but they
often appreciate nature, animals, and the human body in a direct,
engaged way. These kids seem to demonstrate a form of ecological
intelligence that some people have argued is necessary for saving
the planet (Goleman 2009) from rampant pollution and environ-
mental destruction. The perspective of this book is that children
with ADHD have a different way of doing things that may allow
them to solve problems that cannot be solved by doing things in
the normal way.
A DISORDER OF THE BRAIN?

The perspective of this book is more informed by the current under-
standing of neuroplasticity of the brain than the current understand-
ing of ADHD is. Neuroplasticity is a recent scientific breakthrough
that shows us that the brain actually changes in response to a per-
sons experience. In short, it tells us that we have the power to rewire
our own brain. According to Daniel Siegel, When we focus our
attention in specific ways, we are activating the brains circuitry.
3
The Gift of ADHD
This activation can strengthen the synaptic linkages in those areas

(2007, 31).
You have probably been told that ADHD is first a disorder, and
second a medical dysfunction related to brain pathology (a dysfunction
or disease of the brain). Current explanations highlight the impor-
tance of neuropsychological deficits (a psychological problem attrib-
uted to faulty brain functioning) and brain anomalies. Though many
brain regions, such as the frontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens,
have been implicated in the causing of ADHD, it remains true that
unlike illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis, or epilepsy, there is no
physiological or pathological evidence for ADHD. The diagnosis is
entirely subjective and is based on how we interpret a collection of
symptomatic behaviors (Shannon 2007, 229). Thus, even though
the brain likely contributes to the symptoms of ADHD, a specific
causal link and clear method of biological assessment have yet to be
found.
If the lessons of neuroplasticity are taken to heart, we will hear
children diagnosed with ADHD saying things like My brain has
a difference called ADHD. Scientists know that the brain can be
changed, so I am working hard to increase my brains capacity. This
perspective increases a childs motivation. He works hard because
he thinks of himself as a brain athlete; indeed, he changes his brain
and goes on to lots of success. This is an example of how telling
yourself, or your child, a different story can result in a different
outcome. Sometimes we think of stories as misrepresenting reality
(for example, a parent might say, Oh, hes just telling stories). But
we are learning that the stories we tell can create reality. Its time for
neuroplasticity to be the major theme in our ADHD stories.
Psychology and medical science tend to call any difference a dis-
order. So, while your doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist may have
very complicated medical explanations for your childs disorder, and
studies discussed in the media may seem to provide that there are
brain differences and pathology related to ADHD, you need not be
fully convinced that he has actual brain pathology. There may, in
4
fact, be significant brain differences, but these do not have to indi-

cate brain disorders.
Its important for you and your child to be able to question
the belief that the differences you see in your child are part of a
medical disorder related to brain pathology and therefore unchange-
able. Otherwise you create expectations that can make it more dif-
ficult for you to help yourself and your child. You can change his
behavior and emotional impulsivity, but you and your child will need
to believe that change is possible and expect to see improvements
through the exercises described in this book.
Loss of Self-Esteem Due to Diagnosis

One of the reasons it is so important to understand that a dif-
ference is not a disorder is that the notion that it is a disorder may
undermine your childs self-esteem. Any medical or psychological
diagnosis can have this effect, but ADHD particularly so (Migden
2002). A diagnosis can become a central aspect of a persons identity.
With a diagnosis that has the words deficit and disorder in it,
the person may begin to see himself as simply defective. As described
later in this chapter, the diagnosis may convey to your child the fol-
lowing messages:
He has a disease.
He is a victim of a disease and therefore is not in

control of his behavior.
The self is fundamentally untrustworthy because it is

disordered or ill.
All of these messages can lead to low self-esteem. In fact, this

sense of shaken or damaged identity can, in itself, lead to behavioral
problems that look remarkably like ADHD, resulting in a vicious
circle. We can see how this dynamic often plays out by reading
Mikes story below.
5
The Gift of ADHD
THE LEGACY OF A DIAGNOSIS
Mike was a twenty-one-year-old student at a midwestern univer-

sity. He was a psychology major but was unsure what career path
he would follow. He described himself as struggling with the task
of growing up. He said that he was having difficulties acclimating
to society because of repeated failure experiences in the academic
arena. He had been a C student in grade school, high school, and
college. He attributed his lack of success to poor habits and a lack of
motivation. Since he was a child, he had been diagnosed many times
with ADHD and had undergone repeated testing. He described his
academic experience as an eternal struggle. Mike thought that the
fact that he had a disorder meant that it was impossible for him to
succeedthat it meant that he was not talented and that everybody
else had something he didnt. He even told his psychologist that the
thing that made him most upset was this idea that there was some-
thing fundamentally wrong with him. He said that when he com-
pared himself to others he believed that he was handicapped, that
he couldnt even compete with or compare himself to them because
his disorder meant he was worse than other people. He said his diag-
nosis of ADHD meant that not only did he have problems reading
books but he could not succeed in school or in life. Mike thought
that the diagnosis meant that he was, on the whole, a failure.
He told his therapist that he could not see why he should even
try if the diagnosis meant he would never succeed. All of these
negative feelings made him want to avoid his schoolwork and try to
stay out of school as much as possible. Yet coming from a family of
exceptional academic achievement made Mike think that he had no
choice but to get a college education.
Mikes reflections suggest that his avoidance of academic pursuits
was in part a result of the diagnosis. Having been told that he had a
deficit disorder, he avoided the arena (academic) in which he under-
stood himself to be flawed. His lack of interest and motivation in
this arena can be attributed to what he called a survival instinct:
6
Mike believed that, because he was destined to fail, he could keep

his self-esteem intact by not trying. Whereas this lack of interest is
typically taken to be a symptom of the disorder, in Mikes case this
behavior might actually have been a symptom of the diagnosis itself.
His experience also poignantly illustrates the extent to which the
label affected his core sense of self. Further, his comments illustrated
the idea that diagnoses act like computer viruses, changing and
erasing memories (Hillman and Ventura 1992, 74). Additionally,
psychologist James Hillman (1983, 15) has warned:
The force of diagnostic stories cannot be exaggerated. Once

one has been written into a particular clinical fantasy with
its expectations, its typicalities, its character traits, and the
rich vocabulary it offers for recognizing oneself, one then
begins to recapitulate ones life into the shape of the story
A diagnosis is indeed a gnosis: a mode of self-knowledge that
creates a cosmos in its image.
So, as Hillman points out, the diagnosis itself began to lower

Mikes view of himself. As a result of both the diagnosis and his
lowered self-esteem, he also experienced lack of motivation in
school. Because he believed himself to be handicapped in the school
setting, the diagnosis led to him to wonder why he should even try.
This is one area that this book will help addresschanging your
childs thoughts about himself in order to gain improvements in his
symptoms.
Mike felt flawed and hopeless in part because he had been given
a diagnosis from the mental health system that told him he had a
disorder. This idea that his differences constituted a flaw or disorder
also came from his interactions with teachers, who are part of the
educational system. Lets look at the two main culprits in our under-
standing of the traits of ADHD as a disorder: the mental health
system and the educational system.
7
The Gift of ADHD
THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

Although your psychologist, psychiatrist, or pediatrician may seem
like an authority that you cannot challenge, many mental health
providers do make a fundamental mistake.
A current trend in the mental health system is toward under-
standing psychological issues according to a medical model (Furman
2002). The medical model involves viewing behavioral symptoms as
organic diseases that should be treated with medical interventions.
The medical model presents ADHD as a brain dysfunction to be
treated with medication that changes the biology of the brain.
The Problems with the Medical Model

While medicalizing psychological symptoms may serve insur-
ance companies and practitioners, it may not always be in the best
interest of clients. By calling a psychological disturbance a disease,
mental health practitioners fail to consider the ways in which symp-
toms are meaningful in the context of their clients lives (Leitner,
Faidley, and Celentana 2000). For example, a child who has expe-
rienced family stressors, peer rejection, and failure at school may
disrupt the classroom as an expression of anxiety and anger toward
an environment that he perceives as punishing. In this way, the
symptom of disruptive behavior can be seen as meaningful from the
childs perspective rather than as a symptom of a medical disease.
SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT
Another significant problem with the medical model is that it

misrepresents the process of diagnosis, which is necessarily subjective.
Because the symptoms themselves are behaviors rather than biological
symptoms, such as fever, the assessment of the disturbance is essen-
tially a social judgment. In short, if a teacher is telling you that your
childs behavior is unmanageable, there is no thermometer that can
confirm the teachers judgment in an objective sense. As a social judg-
ment, the assessment is naturally biased, because the person making
8
the judgment and the social setting in which the behavior occurs are
not objective. In other words, the person making the judgment may
be biased, and there may also be a real problem in the social setting
that your child is responding to. For
example, recall Jacks story, where
the young boy was responding to a Telling a child that
setting that was harshly judgmental ADHD is a medical
and lacking in caring or support for disorder sets up a profound
him in his predicament. His behav- barrier to treating the
ior became out of control in response symptoms and helping
to the punitive actions of a care pro- your child heal.
vider. So when psychologists provide
a label that carries the weight of a
medical diagnosis, they are in some ways making the mistake of trans-
ferring medical notions, which are more objective, to the psychological
and behavioral realm, which can be measured only in subjective and
biased ways by individuals in particular settings.
UNDERMINING TREATMENT POSSIBILITIES
The medical model for understanding ADHD presents a lot of

problems when it comes to treatment. The diagnosis itself, which
conveys an irrefutable medical diagnosis rooted in brain pathology,
seems to contradict the idea that the symptoms could be reduced.
But, unlike more stable medical diagnoses, the realms of behavior
and emotion are actually considerably affected by how much you and
your child believe that he can change his behavior. The more you
believe, the more success you will have in effecting the changes you
and your child want to make.
Telling a child that ADHD is a medical disorder sets up a
profound barrier to treating the symptoms and helping your child
heal.
Because behavior and emotions are shaped so powerfully by
expectations and because the label of ADHD sets up strong expec-
tations, the label itself can be damaging and get in the way of effec-
tive treatment. Why is this true? If a doctor tells a child that he has
9
The Gift of ADHD
a deficit, then you can expect that the child will take the doctors
statement as unimpeachable truth and come to understand himself
as flawed. He will likely act out in ways that reflect diminished self-
esteem and reduce his chances of positive treatment results.
The label also affects how other people see and treat your child,
setting up negative expectations that get in the way of positive treat-
ment. If a teacher is told that your child has ADHD, that teacher may
act toward your child in ways that convey the expectation that your
child will be difficult to manage. An
enormous body of information has
Because behavior and shown us that teachers expectations
emotions are shaped so for students are very powerful in deter-
powerfully by expectations mining the subsequent performance
and because the label of of those students. In one of the most
ADHD sets up strong well-known studies, teachers were
expectations, the label told that a certain group of students
itself can be damaging were very gifted and that another
and get in the way of group of students were average. The
effective treatment. expectations given to the teachers
did not actually reflect the abilities
of the students at all. The research-
ers found that the students who
were expected to do very well had made substantial improvements by
the end of the year, whereas those for whom the teachers had lower
expectations did not make substantial improvements (see Rosenthal
1987 for a review of studies). These studies demonstrate that teach-
ers expectations of students are a self-fulfilling prophecychildren
have a tendency to perform in ways that are consistent with teachers
expectations for them. Because research has shown that diagnoses of
ADHD are increasingly suggested by teachers (Sax and Kautz 2003),
their expectations must be increasingly influencing childrens access to
or admission into the mental health system.
As mentioned above, once the child is admitted into the mental
health system, the diagnosis can interfere with the most potent treat-
ments for changing behavior. In a medical setting, if the cure for a
10
fever is aspirin, then the aspirin will work no matter what the doctor
tells you about the nature of your disorder. However, in psychologi-
cal settings, the very work of therapy and healing your child is often
obstructed by the diagnosis. For example, all cognitive therapies for
psychological disorders involve changing the way clients think about
themselves. If a child feels that it is hopeless for him to even try in
school, a cognitive therapy will help your child to challenge these
thoughts of hopelessness. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of ADHD
tends to undermine the power of these therapeutic interventions.
The diagnosis seems to say to the child, You have a disorder that
makes you inalterably less than other students. This message has
negative effects on your childs thoughts about himself and his abili-
ties and can undermine otherwise-powerful cognitive therapies.
The diagnosis also seems to convey that ADHD is the same
in every situation and is immune to change without medical inter-
ventions. This is not a fair way of representing a psychological
and behavioral difference, because your childs symptoms will vary
according to setting and interaction with specific individuals. You
have likely noticed this yourself. Around certain people or in specific
settings your child may act like an angel, and in other settings the
telltale behavioral symptoms emerge with intensity. This means that,
unlike a medical disorder, your childs differences are responsive to
individuals and environmentsthey can be dramatically affected by
changing situations and by guidance on how to respond to chal-
lenging situations. In summary, the fact that the constellation of
behaviors labeled ADHD is considered a medical disorder conveys
the expectation to parents, children, and teachers that behavior
should be unchanging, constant, and made better only by medicine.
In many ways, the diagnosis creates an expectation that manifests
in the very symptoms it sets out to describe.
THE PROBLEM WITH PSYCHOLOGISTS

AND PSYCHIATRISTS
Psychologists and psychiatrists are trained in the categorization

of pathology and disorders. Training for diagnosing disorders focuses
11
The Gift of ADHD
on asking the question Which diagnosis fits? rather than Is there

an alternative to a clinical label? Many children will have many of
the symptoms of ADHD some of the time. The problem is that too
often these children will end up with a diagnosis of ADHD when in
fact they simply have an active, flexible, highly aroused temperament
and not a mental disorder. A child who can be challenging to deal
with is not the same thing as a child with a mental disorder.
In her book When the Labels Dont Fit (2008) Barbara Probst guides
parents through the many different personality types, temperaments,
and learning styles that look a lot like ADHD. She describes several
predictable personality traits that map onto ADHD, such as high
arousal, broad focus, high intensity, irregularity and unpredictability,
quick tempo, nonperfectionism, and flexible and divergent thinking.
This list of personality traits looks a lot like the symptom checklist
psychologists use to make a diagnosis of ADHD. As mentioned in the
preface, a child should only receive a diagnosis of ADHD if a serious
impairment in functioning can be documented in more than one
setting. Knowing that the diagnosis itself has possible consequences
for your child, you will want to ensure that a thorough evaluation has
been completed before you settle on the diagnosis.
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

A defining feature of the U.S. public educational system is that it
reflects the lack of value our culture assigns to those who educate
our children. Current educational systems are plagued by insufficient
resources, resulting in overcrowded classes, overburdened teachers,
and inadequate support from school psychologists or social workers
(Furman 2002). Given these challenges, the medical model of
dealing with ADHD provides the quickest fix. Providing medication
to control childrens behavior is easier and cheaper than developing
schools that can respond to the individual needs of students.
As youll recall, when my brother was given his diagnosis, my
mother found that he could go without any medications in certain
school years, depending on the teacher. Perhaps the diagnosis of
12
ADHD did not carry as much baggage then as it does today, and
teachers were free to respond to my brother as a unique individual
rather than as a troubled child. Or maybe many teachers did not
even know what the diagnosis meant or were not aware that he had
been given this diagnosis. Today, these diagnoses follow the child
from year to year, and of course every teacher knows precisely what
to expect from a child given this diagnosis.
Because of this recent trend, any child who has a different learn-
ing style is most likely walking into the classroom, even in a new
year with a new teacher, with a heavy load of expectations that are
not in his favor. Its not surprising that his symptoms seem so consis-
tent from year to year, from teacher to teacher, if you consider that
hes walking into the same set of expectations.
While the mental health field has determined that your child has
a deficit disorder, research has shown that children diagnosed with
ADHD, on average, do not have lower IQ scores than other chil-
dren (Psychological Corporation 1997). The only significant deficits
are in working memory, which means that they cannot hold numbers
or other information in their memory as long as other children. Of
course, a deficit in working memory doesnt mean your child cannot
succeed in the classroom. Research has shown that 50 to 75 percent
of a childs academic success is dependent on nonintellectual factors
such as persistence, psychological health, and curiosity (Groth-Marnat
2003). This means that your child has a great deal of potential for
succeeding in school, though teachers in traditional school settings
may tend to view ADHD as a disadvantage. This book will show you
that one of the gifts of ADHD is your childs enormous curiosity and
energy. In addition, throughout this book you will be provided with
exercises for increasing your childs persistence and personal adjust-
ment. All of these will help your child succeed in school.
Handling Difference
Children with ADHD are immensely curious and interested but
learn best through engaging their senses and through immersion in
13
The Gift of ADHD
the organic world. If every day were a field trip, these kids would be
considered geniuses. They learn by doing, by being active, by being
engaged with the objects of their curiosity.
Recent advances in psychology and education reveal that there
are many different types of intelligence and that each child has a
unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, the edu-
cation system is not set up to handle these kinds of differences in
learning styles. As it stands, the current school model focuses almost
exclusively on developing one or two types of intelligenceabstract
reasoning in verbal and mathematical realms and the acquisition
of abstract facts and knowledge. Many children, even traditionally
gifted children, are failed by the excessive focus on the development
of abstract reasoning and learning through book knowledge. ADHD
children are particularly failed by this system because they tend not
to learn well in the ways that schools typically teach.
The school may develop an individualized education plan (IEP)
for your child, usually at your request, but this plan probably wont
in any significant way accommodate the true gifts and differences
of your child. Unfortunately, the educational system has profoundly
limited resources and as a result often fails children with significant
differences. Unable to recognize the lack of flexibility of the educa-
tional system to accommodate these differences, its representatives
(the teachers and administrators) may blame the child for not having
a mind that fits its model. I dont mean to say that your childs
teachers are bad people or that they are trying to hurt your child;
its just that the system is flawed and tends to work only for certain
kinds of kids.
As is the case with the mental health system, this tendency for
the educational system to point the finger at your child rather than
acknowledging its own failings further exacerbates your childs prob-
lems. Rather than hearing You are different, and our system is not
set up to meet your needs, your child gets the message Because you
dont fit our system, you must have a disorder.
I review these failings not to make you feel hopeless but rather
to empower you in becoming an advocate for your child. In my
14
experience, individual teachers and

mental health care professionals are The perspective of this
caring people who want to help each book is that, whether
child. As a parent working one-on- you choose medication or
one with your childs teacher, you not, finding and focusing
have enormous power to engage the on your childs gifts will
individuals who work closely with be an important way to
your child. You can help to change encourage positive
their vision and expectations. You change in your child.
will learn more about advocating for
your child later in the book.
THE MEDICATION DEBATE

Both the educational system and the mental health system rely on
the use of medication to suppress the symptoms of ADHD. Ritalin,
the most popular of these medications, is the brand name for meth-
ylphenidate, which belongs to a classification of mood-altering drugs
that stimulate brain functioning (psychostimulants). Although the
prescription for medication is so commonplace that most parents and
teachers have stopped questioning its use, a great debate continues
regarding using medication to treat ADHD.
Given the theory that ADHD is a brain disorder, it makes
sense that a drug that alters brain functioning would be the cure.
Nevertheless, as a parent, you will likely find the decision about
whether or not to use medication to be a difficult one, leaving you
with nagging doubts no matter which choice you make. The per-
spective of this book is that, whether you choose medication or not,
finding and focusing on your childs gifts will be an important way to
encourage positive change in your child. So the information offered
herein is entirely separate from the question of medication. For infor-
mational purposes, lets briefly examine both sides of the argument
about the use of medications.
15
The Gift of ADHD
Medication as the Answer

The main argument for the use of medications like Ritalin
to treat ADHD is that these medications work. Simply put, they
decrease the symptoms of ADHD. Children who are on Ritalin can
sit still longer, can focus more, and display fewer problematic behav-
iors. The largest-scale study comparing medication to behavioral
interventions found thatin the short termchildren showed more
improvements in ADHD symptoms if they were receiving medica-
tion than they did if they were receiving only behavioral treatments
(MTA Cooperative Group 1999).
In this way, medication may allow your child to manage his
behavior and therefore to hit appropriate developmental milestones
on time. Medication enables immediate, positive effects, to the
benefit of the child, parents, and teachers. Parents and teachers are
relieved of the constant stress of managing a child who, without
medication, seems incapable of managing himself.
Why Medications May Not Be the Answer

There are many problems with using medications to treat
ADHD. The first and foremost of these problems is that the largest,
most rigorously conducted scientific research (MTA Study Group
2009) shows that, after eight years of follow-up, the benefits are not
observed for those who initially received medication treatment com-
pared to those in other conditions. The long-term benefits are not
easily found, and there is reason for concern about the short-term
and long-term negative effects of being treated with ADHD medi-
cations. Short-term negative effects may include insomnia, stomach
problems, irritability, headaches, and heart palpitations. Long-term
effects are unknown, but neuropsychologists argue, based on knowl-
edge of those who are addicted to nonprescription stimulants and of
recent animal studies, that stimulants could alter the structure and
function of the brain in ways that may depress mood, boost anxiety
16
and, in sharp contrast to their short-term effects, lead to cognitive

deficits (Higgens 2009, 40).
Another concern regarding longer-term side effects is the poten-
tial for addiction to these drugs. According to one leader in the
field, People abuse prescription stimulants for various reasonsto
get high, to improve academic or athletic performance, or to lose
weightputting themselves at risk for dangerous health conse-
quences. Young people are at particular riskin 2005, 8.6 percent
and 4.4 percent of twelfth graders reported past-year non-medical use
of amphetamine and methylphenidate, respectively (Volkow 2006).
A deeper concern has to do with the support that the child
will not get because the medication will treat the symptoms but not
underlying causes. Its possible that the symptoms are in part being
caused by issues such as a loss in the family, high levels of family
stress, and mental and physical health problems in parents or siblings.
Children are very sensitive and their behavior can easily be affected
by anxiety and loss. By suppressing the symptoms with medications,
the underlying issues for the child may never get addressed and can
show up in more disruptive forms later in life.
To Medicate or Not to Medicate

As a parent, you will have to make your own decision, in col-
laboration with your childs psychiatrist, taking into consideration
the costs and benefits of medicating your child. If your child is cur-
rently on medication and you are interested in taking your child off
the drugs, you might wish to consult an important resource, Your
Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric
Medications, by Peter Breggin with David Cohen (1999).
SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD

One thing researchers have determined about treating people with
behavioral and emotional disorders is that the relationship to the
17
The Gift of ADHD
client is one of the most powerful factors in helping that person

change. The same concept applies to your relationship with your
child. So, in order for you to help your child, you must have a sup-
portive relationship with him. Many times, a childs problematic
behaviors cause frustration in parents, making them antagonistic
toward their child. This reaction is understandable, because children
with ADHD do require an enormous amount of energy and atten-
tion, and their behavior can test a parents limits in many ways. Also,
because of the pressures from educators and health care profession-
als, parents may feel compelled to apologize for their childs behavior,
which amounts to an admission that the child is in the wrong, rather
than defending the child or pointing out his strengths.
The more frustrated you become with your child, the more he
will feel hurt and act out in ways that cause problems for himself and
others. The more you can see your childs difference as a gift rather
than a disorder, the stronger your relationship will be and the more
helpful you can be. Further, because your child may interpret the
diagnosis as invalidating, he may believe that you buy into the view
that he is defective and assume that you lack confidence in him. In
order for you to use the tools in this book most effectively, you need
to find ways to make your child feel that you are on his side and
that you think very highly of him. Your relationship with your child
will be a powerful agent for transformation.
Accept Who Your Child Is, but Set Limits

The best way to forge a strong and supportive relationship with
your child is to achieve a balance: giving him the strong validation
that he needs while at the same time communicating to him the
changes that need to be made. Although this seems contradictory,
it will make sense to your child. Because your child needs to feel
safe, strong, and confident to engage the world, he will need lots
of acceptance and validation just for being who he is. This book
will help you give him that, because it will guide you in reframing
18
his negative labels as positive qualitiesaffirmation that your child

deeply needs to receive.
In addition to needing affirmation, your developing child also
needs the support, direction, and guidance of his parents. He may
not communicate this to you directly, but it is a fundamental need of
any child to receive direction and feedback. At heart, children rec-
ognize that they would be in trouble if they ruled the world. In fact,
many behavioral disturbances are actually efforts to engage parents
in setting limits. Children get very anxious if they have too much
power and need reassurance that their parents are strong and will set
limits when needed. Your child may communicate exactly the oppo-
site to you and tell you to leave him alone, but inside he is crying out
for direction and compassionate guidance. Your child will respond
positively to your efforts to change his behavior if you set strong
boundaries while communicating a feeling of love for who he is.
Reading this book will help you achieve this delicate balance.
Because the foundation of the book is the concept of reframing
ADHD as a gift, you can use the awareness and cognitive exercises
offered here to communicate to your child that you love and accept
the very traits that others are calling problems. The behavioral strat-
egies will also help you to communicate to your child that you care
so much about him that you will play an active role in guiding his
behavior and that you will be willing to set limits when needed. For
instance, exercises will guide you and your child to understand that
the symptom of hyperactivity can also be understood as an abun-
dance of energy. In this way, you are validating the child. In addition,
you will learn to help your child become aware of ways in which his
expression of this energy becomes distracting to others in school set-
tings. Further, youll learn techniques for shaping your childs behav-
ior in ways that reduce the frequency of these distracting behaviors.
Believe That Change Is Possible

Another reason for you to counteract the effects of the label
ADHD is that, in order for your child to make changes, he needs
19
The Gift of ADHD
to believe that change is possible. The impression that ADHD is

like a medical disease may make it seem to you and your child that
it is not possible to make internal changes that would turn things
around. However, ADHD is not like a medical disease, in that it is
not something a child has but a set of behaviors the child does.
For this reason, it is important that, if your child has been given
this diagnosis, you, as a parent, provide balance by reframing the
disorder as a difference and assuring your child that he can change
his behavior.
Increase Motivation to Change

Another way in which reframing the diagnosis of ADHD will
help you and your child is it will increase your and your childs moti-
vation to change. Experts in the field of psychology have recently
begun to acknowledge that clients have different levels of readiness
to change. Interventions may be offered to clients with the assump-
tion that they are highly motivated to make changes in their lives,
but many clients are resistant to change, for many reasons. With
ADHD, you and your child may not be motivated to work at the
exercises, because you feel hopeless. Why exert so much effort to
change, you might wonder, when your doctor has told you that it is
a brain disorder and that the only treatment is a medication that
changes the brain chemistry? Isnt it easier to take pills than to work
hard to change behaviors and emotions?
In order for you to feel motivated to change and to increase your
childs motivation to change, you have to believe that your hard
work will pay off. By reframing the disorder as gift, understanding
the significant resources your child has, and conveying this positive
message to your child, you can increase motivation to make changes.
Many of the strategies and exercises youll learn in this book will
require a commitment of time and energy from you and your child.
In order to follow through you will need motivation and an expecta-
tion that this investment will yield benefits for both you and your
child. But if you understand the nature of your childs gifts, you will
20
likely have more hope for your child and therefore feel more engaged
and willing to do the hard work of helping him change.
You can also increase your own motivation to practice the exer-
cises by viewing them as a chance for you to reconnect with your
child. You may want to reframe the exercises as a guided play time
with your child. You can set up a consistent, special time to do them,
and you and your child can engage in them together in the spirit
of fun. The exercises are designed to be appealing to children and
to use images that evoke fun and play. For example, in chapter 9,
when we discuss managing emotions, you will find an exercise that
involves surfing the waves of emotion. Thus, the exercises show your
child how managing and connecting with his own experience can
also be fun and playful. If you take such an attitude and let yourself
play with your child in these exercises, you can serve as a powerful
model for your child.
Put Your Child in Control of ADHD

The diagnosis may seem to carry the subtle message that your
child is a victim of a disorder and that he is therefore less capable of
making choices. Sometimes parents or children think that, because
ADHD is a disorder that they passively suffer from, the kids are not
in control of and therefore are not responsible for their behavior.
In the face of this assumption, they are more likely to act out in
impulsive and irresponsible ways (in other words, My ADHD made
me do it).
The diagnosis of ADHD also serves as a barrier to healing
because it conveys to you and your child that he cannot rely on
his own judgment. The pathway to healing from ADHD includes a
gain in self-esteem so he can trust himself to make important life
choices and commitments. For example, children with ADHD often
have an uncanny ability to read others. Often, because they express
these insights in seemingly irreverent ways, they are punished for the
expression of this gift, leading them to doubt their own perceptions.
This leads to conflict and confusion and lowered self-esteem, which
21
The Gift of ADHD
themselves lead to disturbances in the childrens relationships with

others. In this way, the childrens inability to trust their own experi-
ence of the worldagain, in part a consequence of the diagnosis
leads to some of the very symptoms the diagnosis points to.
The key to changing your childs behavior is for you to recognize
that your child can control some of his problematic behaviors. This
book will help you to help your child reclaim control and recognize
his own power over his thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
SUMMARY
As a parent of a child with ADHD, youve got your work cut out
for you. You probably struggle with your own feelings of hopelessness
about changing your child. You struggle with your childs motivation,
or lack of motivation, to change. Mental health and educational
systems may seem overly eager to change your child in ways you
might question. Although managing the complex puzzle of parenting
a child with ADHD may seem overwhelming, the goal of reclaiming
and celebrating your childs gifts is worth it.
You have the power to delight in your childs differences and
gifts and to share that delight with your child, your childs teachers,
and other significant individuals in your childs life. Most important,
through your supportive and validating relationship with your child,
you will reconnect with him and have the relationship with him that
you truly want. This relationship in itself will be the most powerful
healing agent of all.
22
CHAPTER 2
How You Can

Transform Your Child
One of the leading methods of therapy for treating a wide range of

psychological and behavioral problems is called cognitive behavioral
therapy (CBT). This type of therapy focuses on changing thoughts
and behaviors that create symptoms.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY

One of the central assumptions of the cognitive behavioral approach
offered in this book is that thoughts cause feelings and behav-
iors. Therefore, changing or challenging your childs self-defeating
thoughts can help her manage feelings and behaviors. Additionally,
changing her behaviors can affect her thoughts and feelings.
The Gift of ADHD
A cognitive behavioral therapist will actively work to chal-

lenge irrational and unproductive thoughts and attitudes, helping
the client change these to attitudes and beliefs that will lead to
more productive behaviors. Sometimes therapists will ask clients to
directly change behaviors and observe changes in the thoughts and
feelings that follow.
Throughout this book, you will be offered many different exer-
cises and strategies for helping your child identify and challenge
thoughts that lead to disruptive behaviors. The cognitive behavioral
approach also relies on breaking big behavior changes into very small
and manageable tasks. This helps increase motivation because it
does not require sweeping, permanent changes all at once. Instead,
by identifying and meeting small challenges, your child will have
success earlier and more consistently, which will further increase
motivation to keep making changes.
YOUR POWER TO ASSIST IN CHANGE

As a parent, you have the power to identify and shape your childs
attitudes and behaviors. This book will provide you with a rich
resource and specific strategies, techniques, and playful exercises for
helping your child adopt the most positive thoughts and attitudes.
The easiest way to get your child to sign on to a healing program is
to captivate her interest by making it a game. Many of the exercises
can be framed as games and can go a long way toward breaking
the vicious circle that can make your childs differences seem like a
disorder. When you cast the exercises as pretend games, your child
cannot failits a game, so these exercises are less likely to backfire
and make your child more discouraged if she doesnt fully follow
through. Similarly, if the exercises are cast as experiments in which
the point is to find out how this new attitude or thought affects the
childs experience, she cannot fail.
One of the challenges of treating symptoms of ADHD is to
engage and motivate kids who have trouble paying attention or fol-
lowing through. After all, if the child could follow the treatment
24
How You Can Transform Your Child
program, she would probably have an easier time following behavior

expectations in most situations and would not be exhibiting prob-
lematic symptoms. For this reason, treatment programs or self-help
programs that rely on self-discipline from the child are likely to fail.
This program of change has been designed to channel your childs
high level of energy, curiosity, and areas of interest to help her want
to engage.
Strengthen the Bond with Your Child

Though this program will not demand of your child skills that she
doesnt have, it will demand a commitment from you as the parent.
However, you will find that the playful nature of the exercises will
serve to strengthen your bond and relationship with your child. This
is not an extra choreit is part of your existing commitment to
spend more time with your child and to enrich your relationship.
Sometimes parents are hesitant to implement suggestions from
self-help books or mental health practitioners because they feel that
the suggestions might pit them against their own child or add to the
burden of parenting rather than increase the joy. The exercises in
this book will help to increase your intimacy with your child and,
because they are validating for your child and cast as play, will not
pit your will against your childs or involve getting her to adhere to
a demanding program for reform. The exercises in this book may
not only help your child with the specific problem of ADHD but
also address the overall problem of how to spend positive time with
your child.
Reframe
Looking at ADHD as a gift will help you to increase your childs
motivation by offering praise for the very symptoms that others have
found so problematic. Reframing the diagnosis is an example of a
central cognitive behavioral technique for treating any disorder:
reframing. In reframing, you change your cognitive interpretation of
25
The Gift of ADHD
some trait about yourself or some event in the real world that has
upset you. For example, if you find out that someone you are close
to did not tell you about something major that was happening in his
or her life, you might get upset and think he or she is trying to keep
secrets from you. If you reframe this situation, you might consider
that maybe this person did not tell you what was going on because
he or she wanted to protect you from getting upset. As you can prob-
ably imagine, the emotions and behavior that follow these different
interpretations will be quite different.
The strategy of finding alternative interpretations of events and
characteristics of the self is a central method of change in cognitive
behavioral therapy, the approach used in this book. Helping your
child to reframe the diagnosis of ADHD as a gift that makes her
different from others in potentially positive ways is central to her
healing process. Not only will the reframing help as a strategy in
and of itself, but it will also provide the motivation for engaging in
the program of change offered in this book.
Increase Motivation to Change

As mentioned in chapter 1, a reason many treatments fail is that
the therapist or program of change operates under the assumption
that the person who needs help is motivated and ready to change.
Often the person is not, and then therapists may blame their clients
for not wanting to change, or individuals may heap more blame on
themselves for their failure to follow through on rigorous programs.
Understanding ADHD as a gift will get around this problem in two
main ways: first, you are increasing motivation by elevating your
childs self-esteem; second, you are validating your child by convey-
ing the message that she is fundamentally okay just being who she
is. You are not trying to eliminate a disorder; you are trying to shape
your child so that she can use these differences in ways that help
her meet her goals.
The most important thing is to cast this program so that it
isnt about changing who your child is but rather helps her achieve
26
the goals that she really wants to achieve. In this way, you are not
working against your child but are offering your time and energy
to help her get what she wants. Children with ADHD want to be
liked by their peers and teachers, and they want to excel and be
respected for their abilities, but they have a hard time doing these
things without help. Before you begin this program, you might want
to warm up with some of the following exercises, which will help
your child to overcome negative expectations.
EXERCISES FOR SPECIFIC CHALLENGES

The rest of the chapter will be devoted to exercises for addressing
specific symptoms of ADHD. You may want to read through all the
exercises first and then use the ones that you and your child will
feel most comfortable with. There are many exercises throughout
the book, and its important that you find a handful of exercises
that you and your child really enjoy and that dont feel like chores.
If your child doesnt like some of the games, you dont have to push
it. Try some of the others to find some that she really likes, and
repeat those.
If you and she can engage in some of the exercises regularly,
you can expect to see your child (and your relationship with her)
transform. The exercises are designed to tap your childs existing
interests and strengths, so present them to your child as fun games
rather than as a reform strategy. To make them easier to implement,
try to find creative ways to integrate these games into your lives. For
example, some of the pretend games can be played while driving in
the car or sitting in a waiting room.
The Challenge of Persistence

One of the most often documented differences between children
diagnosed with ADHD and other children is that ADHD children
do not persist as long as other children do in academic tasks. Studies
27
The Gift of ADHD
have found that ADHD children who are asked to solve cognitive
puzzles will have less success and will quit working more often than
others (Hoza et al. 2001). In addition, observers noted children with
ADHD putting forth less effort and being less cooperative than
those in a control group (ibid.).
The following exercise will help address the causes of this char-
acterization of children diagnosed with ADHD. A typical strategy in
cognitive behavioral therapy involves the therapist asking the client to
evaluate the costs and benefits of a particular thought, belief, or atti-
tude. The exercise that follows invites your child to imagine the long-
term consequences of a belief that she does not need to work hard.
EXERCISE: Why Try?
When your child says, Why try? or makes similar comments, you
can offer many different helpful responses. Try the following exercise
with your child the next time she expresses this sort of dysfunctional
attitude in response to challenges. This exercise will demonstrate
to your child the power of this thought and how it can lead to self-
defeating behaviors.
Ask your child to imagine her favorite cartoon, movie, or book
character, and ask her how that characters life would be different if
that character adopted a why try? attitude.
The more concrete you can make this exercise, the better. For
example, after watching a specific episode of a cartoon or on the
way home from a movie, ask your child what would have happened
differently in that story if the character had said, Why try?
In this way, your child can begin to understand the power of
thoughts over her own life and success or failure. By looking at how
a thought can affect fictional characters, your child can explore this
powerful principle from a more objective point of view, which is less
threatening than thinking directly about her own attitudes.
28
RESPECTING AND UTILIZING YOUR CHILDS SPECIALIZED

INTERESTS TO INCREASE MOTIVATION
Children with ADHD think organically and imaginally. They

may struggle with abstract reasoning that is removed from everyday
life and their interests, but they are often ardently curious and have
passions in specific areas of specialization. The good news is that
they can be highly motivated if you engage these areas of intense
interest.
The tricky part about cognitive interventions is that, on one
hand, you want to change your childs thoughts and behavior, and,
on the other hand, children with ADHD are in deep need of valida-
tion and acceptance. For this reason, one strategy for teaching some
of the basic principles is to start out with fictional characters that
your child already has an intense interest in. As in the preceding
exercise, because you are talking about a character, rather than the
child herself, she will be less likely to feel invalidated and become
defensive and antagonistic.
As a rule, you will want to work with your childs passionate
interests. Children with ADHD often channel much of their energy
and enthusiasm toward what seems like a waste of time to adults.
They may get very excited about sports figures, sports teams, animals,
dinosaurs, or subject areas that dont seem likely to lead to academic
success. But these areas of intense interest are actually tremendous
resources for you as you go about supporting and teaching your child.
For example, if your child loves figure skating and identifies Sarah
Hughes as a hero, then you can use that energy and channel it
toward concrete behavioral change. At times when your child gets
discouraged about school and says things like Im not good enough
because I have ADHD, you can ask her to think through what
Sarah Hughess life would be like if she had said Why try?
One example of this strategy can be seen in the experience
of a seven-year-old boy who was obsessed with knights. He talked
about knights in shining armor, he drew pictures of knights, and
he loved to read stories and see movies that involved knights. In
this case, both the teachers and the parents were worried about
29
The Gift of ADHD
this preoccupation and wondered if, in itself, it might represent a

separate problemsome form of childhood obsessive-compulsive
disorder, perhaps. However, all children, particularly children with
ADHD, are quite imaginative and intense in their interests. Rather
than communicating their anxiety about his preoccupation to the
child, his parents channeled his energy around the subject of knights
into an exercise to help increase motivation.
EXERCISE: The Knights
In the example above, the parents invited their son to play a game
exploring the outcomes of two different knights, Sir Try-a-Lot and
Sir Why-Try. (For older children, you might want to choose sports
heroes rather than fictional characters. For example, you might use
Lance Armstrong, the cyclist who has repeatedly won the Tour de
France after recovering from cancer.)
To try this exercise, set up a fictional scenario, or ask your child
to provide the details of the challenges to be overcome, perhaps
including a dragon guarding a treasure or a damsel in distress.
Embellish your story to draw as many parallels as possible to your
childs own language and attitudes around ADHD. For example,
you might say that both knights had been told by the king that,
because they had a handicap, they could not be a part of the round
table, and so each knight set out to find adventures on his own.
One of the knights keeps trying as hard as possible in the face of
challenges and the other just gives up and says, Why try? As you
invite your child to elaborate on the fortunes of these two different
knights, highlight the major themes for your child. These themes
will include the power of a positive attitude to achieve goals and how
our thoughts create our behavior.
Encourage your child to identify thoughts leading to emotions
that might make a character say Why try? Help him see the
30
connection between these thoughts, emotions, and the behaviors

they encourage. Then challenge him to generate ideas or thoughts
that would help the characters to overcome their challenges or to
achieve their goals. If a knight was banished from the round table
for having a handicap and everyone thought he wasnt as capable as
the other knights, what might he say to himself in order to become
a hero? Ask your child to write down examples of helpful things this
character could say to himself. Help your child if he is struggling.
For example, you might suggest that the knight says, Well, I can
do whatever those other knights can doI just have to try harder.
In this way, the diagnosis of ADHD can be seen as an impetus for
more effort rather than an incentive to give up in frustration.
Let your childs imagination run wild as he explores the different
fates of the two knights (or other characters of interest). Then you
can gently bring him back to applying these principles to his own
life. You might quietly remind him, for example, how this situation
would apply to his struggles in social studies class, where your child
feels the teacher is always dissing him.
Be careful to extend this period of application only as long as
your child will tolerate. When he shows signs of distress, boredom,
or the typical symptoms of hyperactivity, let him guide the conversa-
tion back to the imaginal arena or whatever is of more interest to
him. If you push too hard, he will come to resent these games and
will become bored by them. In trying to help your child heal from
his difficulty paying attention, you must validate and cater to the
very symptoms you are trying to help him overcome. So dont resist
his lack of attention. You can maintain his attention by returning
as often as necessary to his area of intense interest, be it knights,
sports, or something else, and embedding the exercises within these
contexts. You may also want to play the game over and over again
in different settings and situations rather than drawing it out over
long periods of time.
31
The Gift of ADHD
EXERCISE: Be Your Hero
You can increase the effectiveness of the preceding technique by

challenging your child to a pretend game. For example, you might
say, This next week, when you feel that Ms. Wyatt is dissing you,
try thinking like the knight who was banished from the round table,
and try even harder in class! Tell your child its a game to play
just for one week, or frame it as an experiment to see what effect it
has on the teacher. In this way, you can attract your childs inter-
est. Each day, remind your child about your pretend game and then
follow up after school on what happened in the game.
Start out by focusing on one problem area. For example, focus
on one teacher whose class is particularly distressing for your child.
This way, she is likely to be able to follow through and meet with
some early successes. If you were to start by suggesting that she be
the knight in all her classes, or for a longer period than one week,
your child may not be able to sustain the exertion required to make
such a sweeping change and could give up in frustration. By starting
out in one class for one week, she may be highly motivated to follow
through and wont feel overwhelmed by the prospect of dramatically
changing her behavior overnight.
The Challenge of Encouraging

Rational Thinking
Children with ADHD need support in challenging their nega-
tive thinking. The following activities will also help build your childs
executive functioning skills by increasing his ability to identify and
weigh the pros and cons of any behavior.
Your child learns through being engaged with the world, by touch-
ing, tasting, feeling, and being actively immersed in what she is trying
32
to learn. This is important to keep in mind when deciding how you

will engage her in this healing program. Your child will have a very
low tolerance for lectures or moralizing, as she has difficulty with
(and little interest in) wading through abstract information. This
means that separating facts and figures from their real-world context
is almost intolerably boring for your child. The following exercise
illustrates how you can use concrete, sensory objects to impress upon
your child the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy.
ENGAGE YOUR CHILDS SENSES TO INTRODUCE CBT
In the following exercise, you will help your child see that atti-
tudes that lead to low persistence are obviously unproductive. In addi-
tion to making the process of examining her thought processes more
concrete, the following exercises will serve to increase your childs
commitment to this program of transformation. The more clearly
your child is able to see how her thought patterns are self-defeating,
the more she will be willing to engage in the other exercises.
EXERCISE: The Balance
1. Obtain a two-sided scale or balance that allows you to put objects

on both sides to see which side is heavier. You will be able to use
this scale for many exercises described in this book, helping your
child evaluate the costs and benefits of her thoughts, beliefs,
attitudes, or behaviors. If you cannot find a scale, you can do this
exercise by drawing a teeter-totter on a piece of paper, writing
the costs on one side and the benefits on the other, and asking
your child to identify which list would be heavier. For an older
child, you could ask her to draw a picture of a scale with lines
below each side so she can write the costs and benefits. Also,
gather a bunch of pennies to work with.
2. Sit down with your child and the scale (or the drawing of a
scale or teeter-totter). Work with her to identify one of her
33
The Gift of ADHD
self-defeating thoughts, like Why should I try if I have a deficit

disorder? You might do this by asking her what she was think-
ing about herself just before she engaged in a recent distracted
or frustrated behavior.
3. Invite your child to evaluate the costs and benefits of the

thought or belief by asking her to think of all the reasons that
her belief is good for her. Designate one side of the scale as the
side that weighs the benefits of this belief.
Identify the other side of the scale as the side that youll use
to weigh the costs of the belief, or the ways in which the belief is
hurtful to the child. Then encourage her to come up with some of
these ways. Start with how the belief is helpful, as she will likely
have more energy around that, and this will allow you to keep her
attention and gain momentum for the game. Place a penny on
the appropriate side of the scale for each reason your child gives.
For example, she might say that this belief prevents her from
trying and failing and getting hurt. If shes struggling for ideas
and hasnt hit on this one, help her by suggesting that perhaps
the belief prevents her from getting hurt.
After you have completed the positive side, you can then
say, Okay, lets put a penny on the other side of the scale for
each of the reasons that this belief will hurt you. What can you
think of? Your child might suggest, When I say Why try? to
myself, I dont work very hard, and I dont do very well. She
might say that the belief makes her feel hopeless. She might say
that she doesnt get good grades in school because of this belief.
On this side, encourage her and give as many hints and sugges-
tions as possible, making this a very long list of concrete results.
The idea is to generate examples of how this thought leads to
negative emotions and negative behaviors, which cause her to
do poorly in school.
4. Finally, show your child how the side with the costs is so much
heavier than the benefits side. You may want to briefly but
34
explicitly make a connection to how this disparity in weight

might cause her to want to change the belief. But keep in mind
that she wont be able to tolerate the moral of the story for
very long.
You will generally have more success with these exercises if you
follow these guidelines:
Keep the game embedded in the play aspect and avoid

abstract moralizing.
Do the exercises frequently and apply them to many

different situations, because your child does not gener-
alize very easily.
Refer to your childs thoughts as what you say to your-

self. Be prepared for your child to have some difficulty
identifying her thoughts and attitudes, because you are
asking her to draw abstract conclusions from her imme-
diate experience.
One important reason that your child has such a low tolerance for
a lot of talk about the moral of the story is that all moralizing implies
that she is wrong or something she is doing is wrong. This sounds
to her like invalidation. Kids with ADHD are particularly sensitive
and intuitive in regard to the underlying messages of interpersonal
interactions, which tends to give them a low threshold for invalida-
tion. For them, it is like the worlds volume has been turned up to
an unbearably high level and any implied, subtle, or well-meaning
efforts to reform your child will be heard by her as stinging condem-
nation. Also bear in mind that the diagnosis of ADHD itself can
be a profound invalidation of her way of being in the world. And
consider that any person, and certainly any sensitive child, can only
take so much invalidation.
35
The Gift of ADHD
For this reason, you will have more success with your child if
you engage her senses in using the exercises in this book and work
to increase her own motivation to change rather than imposing it
on her in a moralizing way. There are many strategies you can use
and activities you can do to make your childs desire to change come
from within, rather than from a wish to please you, her teachers,
or her mental health professional. These strategies are incorporated
into the exercises in this book.
The exercises weve looked at so far will have encouraged your
child to see how her self-defeating beliefs dont really help her. Ideally,
this realization is helping to motivate her to begin to change some
of those beliefs. The following exercise provides an opportunity to
explicitly introduce your child to a program of transformation using
CBT. By engaging her senses, she will come to see how CBT makes
sense and how it can help her.
EXERCISE: Detectives, Wizards,

and WinnersOh, My!
Start by collecting the following items: a detectives hat (any hat

that makes your child feel like a detective), a magic wand (available
at party or joke stores, or easily made with tape and a pencil (or
the cardboard tube from a metal clothes hanger), a stuffed heart
(available in card stores or toy stores), and a toy trophy. These items
will help externalize inner processes for your child and help her to
understand the basics of the CBT approach used in this book. The
detective hat will symbolize her ability to discover thoughts that
create emotions and behaviors; the magic wand will symbolize her
capacity to imagine a better outcome; the stuffed heart will symbolize
her feelings; and the trophy will represent her changed behavior.
Invite your child to play a game called the Sherlock Holmes
game or the detective game. Describe to your child that, like
36
sleuths, youre going to work together to find and uncover the beliefs
that cause problems and change those beliefs to create the outcomes
that she wants.
Briefly describe CBT theory in a way your child will understand.
Explain that thoughts lead to emotions, which lead to behavior.
Engage your child by setting up the game so it focuses on a concrete
issue that she is struggling with. To make this fun for her, give her
the detectives hat to wear as she tries to find the trail of thinking
that has led to problematic feelings and behaviors.
Once your child has identified some specific thoughts that are
creating problems, you can let her know that now she can pretend to
be a wizard. (If your child loves the Harry Potter books, you can ask
her to think about Harry Potter rather than just a generic wizard.)
Give your child the magic wand, which represents her ability to
imagine a better outcome. Ask her to pretend to be the wizard and
tell you what magic she would create with the magic wands unlim-
ited powers. This is meant to help your child expand her thinking
and imagine the most positive alternative outcome possible.
Once your child has imagined the best alternative outcome pos-
sible, you can show her how the heart symbolizes her feelings and
how the trophy symbolizes her successful resolution of the problem.
Invite her to think about how she would feel if she changed her prob-
lematic thoughts and how she could achieve the desired outcome.
For example, imagine that your child has come home complain-
ing that she is doing terribly in her social studies class. Invite her
to play the detective game, shaping it to match her interests and
the situation. Give her the magic wand and ask her to make a wish
regarding how she would like things to turn out. Then ask her what
thoughts she would need to have in order to make that happen. You
might invite her to put on the detective hat and investigate what she
could say to herself that would help make her wish come true. She
might identify thoughts like I would have to believe that I could
do better if I tried harder, or I would have to believe that even
37
The Gift of ADHD
though its hard I can learn how to concentrate. Then you could
ask her to hold the stuffed heart and identify how these thoughts
would make her feel. She might realize that by believing that she
can achieve her goals through hard work shell feel more hopeful or
determined to do better. Then you can use the trophy to symbolize
a concrete behavior that would help make her wish come true. For
example, you might help your child identify that if she worked on
social studies for one hour each night, she would be more likely to
achieve her wish.
As you can see, by engaging your childs senses and imagination,

you will have much more luck in making these exercises interesting
for your child and using one of her intense interests in the games.
The Challenge of Self-Blame

Because having a child with ADHD affects the whole family,
you, your partner, your diagnosed child, and your other children will
benefit if you apply some of the principles of CBT to yourself. Because
of your engagement in the mental health and school systems, you
may have come to feel as if you have made some serious mistakes as
a parent or that you are somehow to blame for your childs difficulty.
And this feeling can have a serious negative impact on you as you
may begin to doubt not only your abilities as a parent but your own
worth. You may begin to feel that youre not good enough or that no
matter how hard you try, you cannot do well as a parent. You may
begin to feel inferior to other parents. You may feel ashamed when
meeting with teachers and doctors about your childs behavior.
38
If you start to feel depressed and lose interest in activities

that you used to enjoy, you can benefit from trying some of
these cognitive behavioral interventions on yourself. Because
your child with ADHD is so sensitive, she will be dramati-
cally affected by your state of mind. Recent research has shown
that a mothers depression has a serious impact on her childs
behavior. The good news is that when a mothers depression
improves, the childs behavior improves too. According to
pediatric psychiatrist Scott Shannon, Researchers also found
that kids of moms with improved depression showed marked
reductions in their symptoms. A full third of the labeled kids
lost their labels when their moms got better (2007, 49). So
anything you can do to help yourself will indirectly help your
child, in part because as you help yourself you will be more
patient and loving toward your child. You will also have more
energy to spend quality time with your child and build the
relationship that will be the foundation for coping with and
transforming the diagnosis of ADHD.
To make things worse, some of the popular literature on ADHD

blames parents for the childs disorder, pinning the genesis of the
problem on parental abuse or neglect. Also, teachers wishing to shift
the blame away from the way they manage their classroom may be
too eager to place the blame on parents. But even if youve never
read any of this literature or been blamed for the diagnosis by a
teacher, you may have been haunted by the fear that somehow you
are culpable. Mothers are particularly prone to feeling responsible
and may even wonder if ADHD was the result of something they did
while they were pregnant. For a parent, the potential sources of self-
blame are endless. Be assured that these are normal reactions, but
39
The Gift of ADHD
there is much you can do to counter these notions and feel better.
And, as you help yourself, you will also be helping your child.
Try to remember that the more you blame yourself, the more
youll feel guilty about your childs ADHD, and the more your energy
will be diverted away from helping your child. It can sometimes be
difficult to see how this dynamic works, as guilt pulls at your atten-
tion. The next exercises will help you discover how guilt and self-
blame work against your efforts to help your child thrive.
EXERCISE: The Costs and Benefits

of Self-Blame
What do you gain by blaming yourself? Consider all the ways you may
benefit from self-blame, and write them in a notebook. For example,
perhaps by blaming yourself you feel like you are more in control of
the situation. Perhaps you feel less helpless by taking responsibility
for the ADHD diagnosis. Try to generate as many benefits as pos-
sible by asking yourself these prompting questions:
What are the benefits to my child diagnosed with

ADHD?
What are the benefits to my spouse?
What are the benefits to my other children?
What are the benefits to my professional well-being?
What are the benefits to my health?
Now consider the costs of self-blame, making a list in your

notebook. For example, perhaps you feel worse about yourself as a
parent as a result of blaming yourself. Perhaps you spend valuable
time ruminating about how you have failed your child. Perhaps you
are afraid of interacting with your child for fear that you might make
40
another mistake. Try to generate as many possible negative effects of

your self-blame as you can. Ask yourself these questions:
What are the costs to my child diagnosed with

ADHD?
What are the costs to my spouse?
What are the costs to my other children?
What are the costs to my professional well-being?
What are the costs to my health?
Examine your list of costs and benefits of taking blame for your
childs diagnosis. Most likely you have arrived at the conclusion that
it is to your benefit and your familys benefit to stop blaming your-
self. Now, remember that your thoughts will ultimately change your
feelings. Next time you find yourself feeling guilty, remind yourself
that there are no substantial benefits and many costs of self-blame.
Regardless of the truth or falsity of the charge, self-blame is simply
not productive. Further, one concrete way you can assist your childs
transformation is to stop blaming yourself. This will help you gain
control in a situation where you often find yourself feeling helpless.
If you find that, no matter what you do, you cannot relieve your-
self of feeling guilty, you can try the following exercise.
EXERCISE: Facing Your Worst Fears
Ask yourself the following questions. Write your responses in your

notebook.
1. Am I to blame for my childs ADHD?
41
The Gift of ADHD
2. If it is true that I am to blame, then what is the worst thing that

will happen? (For example, perhaps you fear that your child will
be taken away from you.)
Now, look at your answer to question 1. Ask yourself what evi-

dence you have that this conclusion is true. Write the evidence in
your notebook. Next, ask yourself what evidence you have that it is
false. Write the evidence for that in your notebook.
Youll most likely find that your fears are essentially irrational,
with almost no evidence to support them. For example, if you asked
yourself, What if it is true that I am a terrible mother? and you
replied that you should have your children taken away from you, then
you would likely see how ridiculous your deepest fears are, because
there is almost certainly no evidence to support that statement.
Similarly, you will probably be able to generate a wealth of
reasons why you are not a terrible mother. For example, you may be
able to see that your child is healthy and happy despite her struggles
with the diagnosis, that you love your child, and that you both enjoy
the time you spend together.
As you shift your understanding of ADHD from that of a disor-

der to that of a gift, you will begin to shift from taking the blame to
taking the credit for having nurtured such a gifted, unique child.
EXERCISE: Give Yourself Credit
Self-blame can become like a bad virus that spreads and infects the
way you perceive everything else. You may develop a tendency to see
all the ways in which you are a failure as a parent. If you blame your-
self, you may not be aware of and recognize all of the times youre
a great parent. In order to counteract this tendency it is important
42
that you increase your awareness of your strengths as a parent. Try

the following exercise:
1. Reflect on your parenting over the past week. Write down all
of the specific things you did as a parent that were loving and
caring.
2. Complete the following sentence: My child is lucky to have me

as a parent because .
3. As you move forward into this next week, keep a log of all the
loving, caring, and helpful things you do, say, or think as a parent.
You may want to buy a small notebook to keep with you so you
dont forget any of your great parenting moments. Be sure to pay
attention and look for ways in which you give to your children
and care for yourself so youll have more to give your children.
Be as specific, concrete, and thorough as possible. Do not leave
anything out. You might even find yourself thinking that you are
grateful to be a parent. If you do, write that downit counts.
SUMMARY
In this chapter we reviewed some general strategies for beginning
to transform your childs problems into strengths. The main tech-
niques of CBT involve challenging negative thoughts, examining the
evidence for negative expectations, generating positive expectations
for you and your child, and reframing negative traits and expecta-
tions as positive ones. This chapter reviewed some general strategies,
including CBT techniques, that will guide you through many of the
exercises in the rest of the book.
43
CHAPTER 3
Reclaiming Self-Esteem
for Your Child
Self-esteem is your childs fundamental sense of being worthy, of

deserving respect, and of respecting others. A child with a healthy
self-esteem does not feel less than other people, nor does he feel
better than anyone else. Central to transforming your childs prob-
lems into strengths is that your child develop a realistic and positive
self-esteem. He needs to regain a sense that he is able to change
outcomes in the world by changing his behavior. He needs to learn
that he is powerful and not fundamentally flawed because of the
diagnosis of ADHDthat he has much to offer his teachers, peers,
siblings, and parents.
Because of both the insulting sound of the diagnosis of ADHD
and his repeated experiences of failure in school, your childs
The Gift of ADHD
self-esteem is doubly at risk. Its important for you as a parent to be

aware of these threats, which jeopardize your childs ability to both
feel good about himself and believe that he should keep working
hard to achieve his goals. You have the power to identify your childs
self-doubt and to change it. To help you, we will review threats to
your childs self-esteem, not in order to scare you but so you can look
out for the signs that he may be losing confidence in himself and
then step in and help turn his thoughts around.
Your child may feel inferior to other students because he often
gets negative feedback from teachers and other students. He may
feel inferior because he notices he is having a harder time succeed-
ing than the other students. It may seem as though schoolwork and
behaviors such as sitting still come so much easier for others. It is
easy for your child to make the leap to believing that he is less
worthy than other students because of these difficulties. The loss
of a sense of positive self-worth and the feeling of being inferior to
others causes many behavioral disturbances and academic and social
disturbances, which look a lot like ADHD. As you can imagine, this
dynamic can create a vicious circle: the traits of ADHD lead to low
self-esteem, which leads to increased severity of the traits, which
then continues the cycle of lowering self-esteem.
In this chapter, after examining how self-esteem is the funda-
mental building block in transforming your childs problems into
strengths, well review a wide range of exercises for enhancing your
childs self-esteem.
SELF-EFFICACY
While your childs self-esteem reflects how he feels about his general
worth, his self-efficacy reflects specific beliefs about his ability to
make changes in his life. Self-efficacy is a component of self-esteem.
Your childs sense of self-efficacy is the set of beliefs and attitudes he
has about his power to make his dreams come true. If your child has
strong self-efficacy it means that he believes that if he wants to do
46
Reclaiming Self-Esteem for Your Child
better in school, he can work harder and do better. It means that if

he wants to get along more smoothly with other students, he knows
he can try harder, learn social skills, and make friends. The opposite
of self-efficacy is learned helplessness, in which a person learns that
his efforts wont achieve the intended results. If your child believes
that no matter how hard he tries he wont do better in school, he
will simply stop trying. If he believes that no matter what he does
he will never be popular with other students, he will act out aggres-
sively toward others. The most important belief to instill in your
child, after respecting himself and others, is that he can create and
change his reality.
Children with ADHD are at risk for giving up, thereby making
their symptoms worse and reducing their self-efficacy. Researchers
have shown that children with ADHD are less persistent in aca-
demic tasks than children who do not have this diagnosis (Hoza et
al. 2001), in part because they begin to believe that they do not have
what it takes to succeed. This chapter will show how the diagnosis
of ADHD creates or exacerbates some of its characteristic symptoms
by lowering self-efficacy. Exercises later in this chapter will help your
child believe he has the power to create the outcomes he wants.
Avoiding Rejection: Self-Protective Measures

As weve discussed, all of the traits of ADHD can be seen as
differences rather than problems. But because these traits elicit
responses of rejection from others, they get translated into problems
that become more severe as the childs self-esteem falls. Your childs
behavior has a certain logic to it: it can be seen as a predictable
response of a sensitive child to an environment in which he has
experienced repeated failures. Through accepted theories about how
people learn and adapt, we know that people are motivated to avoid
situations that are painful. So, if school has become painful and
your child cannot physically leave the environment, he will adopt
strategies for mentally leaving (inattention) or for changing the
47
The Gift of ADHD
environment in disruptive ways to express his anger and feelings of

rejection.
By understanding your childs behavior as a strategy for coping
with feelings of low self-esteem and low self-efficacy, you are empow-
ered to transform your child. You can help your child by trying the
exercises in this chapter to change his fundamental beliefs about
how powerful he is.
Before we get to the exercises, lets take a brief look at how the
specific symptoms of ADHD can be caused or exacerbated by low
self-esteem and low self-efficacy. The symptoms listed below match
the criteria used to make a diagnosis of ADHD.
SELF-HANDICAPPING: RESPONSE TO
NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
Negative feedback may cause your child to give up trying, or

to self-handicap. Self-handicapping may be a strategy your child has
developed to protect his self-esteem. This ineffective coping strat-
egy can sometimes result from learned helplessness. If your child
fails at something and can believe that he didnt really try, he can
hold on to the possibility that he would do well if he did try. In
the face of consistent and frequent negative feedback, children are
likely to adopt self-defeating coping styles to protect some remnant
of self-respect. Other symptoms of ADHD, such as losing things,
not following through on instructions, and forgetfulness, can also
be seen as aspects of your childs strategy to protect himself through
self-handicapping.
DIFFICULTY MAINTAINING ATTENTION AND

FOLLOWING THROUGH
As well discuss in later chapters, the label attention deficit

usually means that children are not focusing on what teachers and
adults want them to. Children are always paying attention to some-
thing, but it might be their own daydreams or the boy sitting next to
them in class rather than the teachers lessons. Although this kind of
creative focusing can be seen as a strength, it can definitely be seen
48
as a problem in the classroom, and problematic aspects of this trait

develop from the childs feeling helpless to change his experience.
How does this happen? If your child has given up hope that
he can succeed through sustained effort, then often he will direct
his attention toward other things, in an effort to avoid the painful
experience of receiving negative feedback. This is an effect of the
why try? attitude that results from repeated failure.
FIDGETING
High energy and exuberance is certainly a strength, but it

becomes problematic and disruptive for your child when he continu-
ally receives negative feedback. In turn, hyperactivity and fidgeting
may become a way for your child to avoid being mindful of a painful
or uncomfortable environmentbeing continually on the go is a
way of distracting himself from the awareness that in that environ-
ment he is not appreciated for who he is.
Somewhere within himself, your child knows that his differences
represent a potential strength and that the rejection he faces in the
school system represents an injustice. As a child, he is not equipped
to fully understand why he feels so rejected just for being himself. He
protects himself from full awareness of these feelings, which would
be terribly painful, by acting out and staying on the move.
DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND IMPATIENCE
Hyperactive behavior may be a way for your child to distract

himself from the pain of his predicament, but disruptive behavior
is the expression of his anger at the injustice of the situationand
its also a self-protective strategy. If a child has repeatedly been told
that his differences are a deficit and has come to believe that he is
somehow inferior to his peers, he may be motivated to disrupt the
environment out of a sense of anger. Its almost as if your child is
saying, If this environment rejects me, Ill show it! Disrupting the
classroom, teachers, and peers is a behavioral way of rejecting the
environment first.
49
The Gift of ADHD
ENHANCING SELF-ESTEEM
As we have discussed, the main way to enhance your childs self-
esteem is to reframe the diagnosis of ADHD as a strength. Chapters
5 through 9 will detail the five gifts of ADHD and will reframe the
symptoms as positive traits.
This idea is not just a rosy view of an otherwise problematic con-
dition. In recent years, the world has changed dramatically in ways
that even give a child with ADHD an advantage. In A Whole New
Mind, Daniel Pink (2005, 23) writes, The capabilities we once dis-
dained or thought frivolousthe right-brain qualities of inventive-
ness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaningincreasingly will determine
who flourishes and who flounders. These capabilities closely match
the gifts I outline in this book: creativity, ecological consciousness,
interpersonal intuition, exuberance, and emotional sensitivity.
It is important, however, that your childs self-esteem be realis-
tic. You dont want to create inflated positive expectations for your
child that will lead him to continued disappointment. Sometimes
children with ADHD act with bravado and overestimate their scho-
lastic competence as a protective mechanism (Owens and Hoza
2003). If your child has an unrealistic positive sense of his academic
performance, it may actually undermine his persistence on tasks.
Actually, children may adopt this unrealistic belief in order to justify
not persisting. ADHD children who have consistent patterns of low
achievement may tell their parents, I dont need to study for the
quiz. I know all the material, and Ill do great! If this is the pattern
your child displays, you will want to work toward increasing his self-
esteem while encouraging a realistic sense of how much work he
needs to do. The point is to protect and nurture your childs ability
to persist and his confidence in his capacity to accomplish success.
Success, it is said, is 99 percent hard work and 1 percent inspira-
tion. Children with a diagnosis of ADHD have a harder time staying
focused for long periods of time, have less motivation to try harder
because they think they are handicapped, and are likely to under-
estimate how much persistent effort and hard work is necessary for
50
success. The following exercises will help your child address these
tendencies so they do not become deficits.
EXERCISE: Accepting That I Am Different
In this exercise you will help your child to realistically accept that
hes different. You will also guide him to have a compassionate
response to his difference rather than getting mad at himself for
being different.
1. Ask your child what having ADHD means to him. Let him
respond as much or as little as he wants. Answer any questions,
but try to get a sense of how he feels about the diagnosis. Turn
this into a game by showing your child how he can use one of
his hands to share with you how his heart feels. Hold your hand
out in a tight fist and say, When someone tells me I did some-
thing wrong, my heart closes down and feels like this. Then,
open your hand with the palm up, like a bowl, and say, When
someone says Im great just the way I am, my heart feels like
this.
2. Now ask your child to show you with his hand how his heart
feels when the teacher says he is disrupting class or scolds him
for not paying attention. If your child says he cannot do it or
does not know what his heart is feeling, ask him to take a couple
of breaths and concentrate on his heart area. If he still does
not know what you want, tell him to just pretend. Remind him
that there is no right or wrong answerthis is just a game of
make-believe. After he shows you how his heart feels by using
his hand, ask him to show you what his heart feels like when the
teacher notices he is trying very hard and is pleased with him.
3. Now ask your child to show you with his hand how his heart
feels when he hears that he has ADHD. He will probably have
a closed fist. Ask him to tell you why his heart is closed. Ask
51
The Gift of ADHD
him what he needs in order to open his heart. Listen to him

and make note of changes you can make in the home and in
the school setting.
4. Tell your child that ADHD is something that makes a person

different, but that differences are good and the difference of
ADHD is a gift. Tell your child that because he is different
from other children this sometimes makes life harder for him.
Tell him that he can take one of two different attitudes about
the diagnosis: (1) he can be mad at others for not having the
diagnosis and he can feel sorry for himself for being different,
or (2) he can realize how strong he is for making it through
school when he is different from what the school leaders expect
of children. He can realize that his traits make him really good
at some things, and that his differences can serve the world in
important, needed ways.
5. Ask your child to show you with his hand how each of these
beliefs makes his heart feel. Likely he will show you that the
first one makes his heart close up and the second one makes his
heart open. Tell him that he will want to focus on repeating the
second option to himself in order to keep his heart open.
Rewarding Effort
One way to work toward increasing self-esteem is to encourage
your child to praise himself for making a real effort. If the child
learns to reward himself for his efforts, his persistence will increase.
On the other hand, if he were to praise himself only for successful
outcomes, he might not have as much chance to reinforce himself in
the beginning and would likely get frustrated; he might even begin
to value himself for his outcomes rather than his effort, which would
in turn lead to negative thoughts about himself. So, because your
52
childs diagnosis is a difference that is at odds with most current

school settings, he needs to learn to reward himself based on his
efforts.
Its also important that you learn to reward your child for his
efforts at improving his schoolwork, relationships with others, and
behavior. You can do this by committing to noticing when hes
trying and letting him know that you see his efforts. Give him verbal
praise. On occasion, you can reward him with whatever goodies are
motivating to him, whether it be a special snack, a dinner out at
his favorite restaurant, or a trip to the park. Heres an exercise that
reinforces the idea of making an effort.
EXERCISE: Try-Hard Bingo
This strategy is an example of whats called behavioral management.

Of all psychological theories about how to change people, behavioral
management is acknowledged as the most effective way of trans-
forming behaviors. Researchers have found that rewarding people for
good behaviors increases those behaviors, and punishing people for
bad behaviors decreases those. This powerful strategy for change is
effective with animals, little kids, the elderly, and almost any other
population or culture you can imagine. However, in this book, we
will focus on rewarding increased efforts. This book does not include
any exercises that use punishment of bad behavior. Because they are
rewarded, the positive behaviors tend to become so prevalent that
the bad behaviors eventually get edged out.
In this exercise, you make a game out of rewarding your child
for making positive efforts.
In your notebook, make a bingo card like the one on the next
page. Tell your child that you will be playing a game of Try-Hard
Bingo, in which he can get credit just for trying harder. Explain the
rules of bingo, but tell him that in this game he will get a star if he
can report one incidence of trying hard in one of the domains. Each
day he will have a chance to earn stars. He wins if he gets a star
53
The Gift of ADHD
in every domain on any one day or in one domain every day of the
week. Each week, work out what the bingo prize will be for a day or
a domain. For example, on any day that he shows that he tried hard
in every domain, he gets to watch an extra half hour of TV, and for
any domain that he shows that he tried hard every day of the week,
he gets five dollars.
Try-Hard Bingo Card

Schoolwork Relationships Behavior
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
To make this game more successful, give your child a chance

to think about what rewards would be motivating. Let him make
a long list, and talk with him about all the things he would like
that would be pleasurable. Of course, youll have to set limits. You
wouldnt want your child to be allowed to eat pizza every night. But,
54
within limits, agree on a wide range of rewards that are reasonable

from your perspective and motivating for him. By giving your child
a lot of time to think about and talk about all the things he likes
to have and to do, youll make the game more fun. You might even
come up with a reward scheme in which the Try-Hard Bingo card for
each week lists a different reward for each day and for each domain.
In this way, your childs interest will be maintained, and he will be
motivated each day of the week and in each domain.
Keep a copy of the Try-Hard Bingo card displayed prominently
at home. Also give your child a copy to take to school with him. Ask
him to try to be aware of every time that he tries harder to persist in
schoolwork, to gain skills for getting along with other children, or to
manage his behavior when he doesnt feel like it. Ask him to write
down in a notebook how he tried and what he did, in each of the
domainsschoolwork, relationships, or good behavior.
Every night, spend some time reviewing your childs notebook
and filling out the Try-Hard Bingo card. On any night that you
check off all three domains (you might want to use stickers or stars),
make a big deal of giving your child the prize for that day. At the
end of the week, determine whether your child has won bingo in the
domain of schoolwork, relationships, or behavior. If so, offer lots of
praise and the prize for that domain.
Change Your StateMake It Great!

Often, low self-esteem occurs in children with the diagnosis of
ADHD when they feel that they are out of control in their lives.
They often have good intentions, and they feel upset as they are
called to account for their bad behavior. Low self-esteem may result
also from being in a low mood, from feeling blue about being out of
control, or from the cascade of negative feedback they get in school
and from peers.
55
The Gift of ADHD
One of the quickest ways to give your child self-esteem is to show

him that he is in charge of his own state of mind. You can show him
that, no matter what happens, he can control his internal reactions
and feelings. And the quickest way for any personadult or child
to change his state of mind is to pay attention to his breathing.
The second-quickest way is to change body posture. The following
exercises can be played as a game with your child, to show him how
he can change his mood in minutes.
EXERCISE: The Be-a-Balloon Game
Before starting the game, ask your child to rate how he feels on a
scale of 1 to 10. Tell him that 1 means feeling pretty lousy and 10
means feeling awesome.
Remind your child of the balloons he has seen in parades, such
as Underdog in the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, or any other
inflatable toy he may have seen. Tell him to sit in a chair and pretend
that he is Underdog on the day before the paradehe is just an
empty, limp balloon. You can demonstrate by sitting in a chair with
your arms, shoulders, and head hanging down. Tell him that you feel
like a rag doll, loose and heavy.
Ask him to take a deep breath and imagine that he is being filled
with air and is expanding. Play along with him and demonstrate. As
you are being filled with air, stick out your chest, raise your hands
in the air as if they are being filled with air, and raise your head.
Imagine an inflatable person being filled with air, and tell your child
to imagine this also. When your child is fully inflated, say, Hold
it for one, two, threeand release, blowing out all your breath. As
you expel the air, make a whewww sound, as if air is being let out
of a balloon. Tell your child that when he releases the air, he is to
collapse again in a relaxed, loose, and heavy position.
Practice this exercise two more times. After you have done it
three times, ask your child how he feels now on a scale of 1 to 10,
with 1 being pretty lousy and 10 being awesome. It is likely that the
56
number will be higher than the one he started with. Point out to
your child that his number went up and that he was able to make
that happen just by breathing and changing his posture.
Show your child how he can do this in a smaller way, without
pretending to be a parade balloondemonstrate how to take a deep
breath, hold it for a count of three, and release. He can do this
anytime he feels anxious, feels upset, or has hurt feelings. This exer-
cise will show him that hes in control of his state of mind. Also,
show him that he can raise his head and hold his shoulders back,
and that just this change will improve his mood and cause others to
respond to him in a more positive way.
EXERCISE: Act Like Your Favorite Superstar
This exercise will tap into your childs imagination, which can
seem to be on overdrive all the time, and channel it to help him
change to a positive state of mind. As in the preceding exercise, the
important point is for him to learn that he canthrough simple
and quick gameschange his emotional state very quickly. Through
these skills, he will learn that he is in charge, and that other people
cannot control him.
Sometimes parents get worried when their child seems to have
an obsession with a sports star, a movie star, or a fictional character.
However, usually this type of preoccupation is an attempt at self-
healing for your child. And you can use his interest in this person
or character to your childs advantagethe superstar your child
has latched onto can be used as an inspiration and motivational
force. You can use your childs preoccupation with this person to
engage his interest in exercises to help transform his problems into
strengths. While your child will not likely be motivated to engage
in a behavioral management program per se, any game that involves
his hero will provide a lot of energy and motivation for the exercise,
57
The Gift of ADHD
and it will provide one more arena where you can work with your
childs interests rather than against him.
Of course, you will have to use your judgment. Typically, chil-
drens heroes are characters like Harry Potter, sports figures like
Lance Armstrong, or mythical figures like knights in shining armor.
If for some reason your childs hero is a villain-type figure, you may
want to move on to another exercise. Throughout this book you will
be given more than enough exercises for each problem youre trying
to address; do not push an exercise if you or your child doesnt like
it or it doesnt fit for some reason. If your child responds to only a
handful of the exercises presented in this book, you will still see
dramatic changes that will stop his spinning out of control.
It is best to demonstrate this exercise when your child is upset,
angry, or hurt, so you can demonstrate his power to change his state.
Say, Let me show you who is in control of how you feel. Tell me on
a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being terrible and 10 being awesome, how
you feel right now.
Next, tell him to think of his favorite superstar and to hold a
posture like that of the character or person. If its a book or movie
character, ask him to choose a pose from a moment or scene that is
particularly heroic. Tell your child to stand like the superstar, pretend
like he is that superstar, and feel all the feelings of that superstar.
Tell him that for the next two minutes he should walk, talk, and act
like the superstar.
After two minutes, ask your child how he feels different. Ask
him how he feels on a scale of 1 to 10. It is likely that he will have
changed his feelings, thoughts, and attitudes just by pretending to
be his favorite superstar.
Helping Your Child Reclaim Control

Children with an ADHD diagnosis have a more difficult time
controlling their behavior than other children do. It often seems
58
that words fly out and behaviors erupt without any filtering, and
these inappropriate behaviors are often disruptive to others. To
make matters worse, sometimes the diagnosis of ADHD, because
it sounds like a medical disorder, increases your childs belief that
he cannot control his own behavior. It is almost as if the ADHD
diagnosis gives your child permission to act out and justification for
bad behavior once its occurred. Feeling like you can control your
behavior, your thoughts, and your attitudes is a central component
of self-esteem. In addition to learning to manage his behavior, your
child needs to believe that he is capable of controlling his actions.
The following pretend game will help your child reclaim his belief
in his own power.
EXERCISE: The Coach and the Cheerleader
Set up this exercise by telling your child that, like any sports super-
star, he needs to have a coach and a cheerleader to do his best. Tell
him that you want to play a pretend game with him where he learns
to be his own coach and cheerleader. Any toys or props you can add
to the game will make it more fun. You could make some pom-poms
and a bullhorn out of paper for the cheerleader. For the coach you
could get a baseball cap or a toy whistle. If there is a specific team,
sport, or player that your child admires, see if you can find a team
jersey for him to wear and make this exercise come alive.
Start by asking your child to tell you how a coach and a cheer-
leader help sports players. Generate as many answers as possible. You
will want to make sure to include the following points:
A coach tells players how to handle certain problems

during a game.
A coach makes the players practice, practice, practice.
A coach tells the players what to expect.
59
The Gift of ADHD
A coach gives the players strategies to prepare for game

day.
A coach gives pep talks to the players.
A coach will challenge a player if the player has wrong

ideas.
A cheerleader gives a lot of support to the players.
A cheerleader says nice things to the players.
A cheerleader keeps hope up when the team is not

winning the game.
A cheerleader never gives up on the team.
Pick a concrete problem that occurred recently in your childs

life and show him how to be a cheerleader or coach for himself. For
example, if your son got in trouble for hitting his pencil against his
desk and disrupting class this week, that would be a good situation
to start with. Following is an example of how to do this. Well call
the child Marty for the sake of this exercise.
Mom: What did you say to yourself when the teacher asked
you to stop hitting the desk with your pencil?
Marty: I told the teacher I was trying, but I said to myself

that I couldnt stop. I didnt know what else to do
with myself.
Mom: Okay, Im going to pretend that Im a cheerleader.

(Mom takes out a paper bullhorn.) Go, Marty. You
can do it. Yes, you can! You can stop hitting your
pencil on the desk if you want to. You have the
power, Marty. If you try hard, you can do anything
you want! Now Im going to be the coach. (Puts on
a coachs baseball hat and blows a toy whistle.) Hey,
Marty, in order to win this game, take a deep breath
60
and calm down. Try taking a couple of deep breaths

and relax. That will help you win the game. Act like
youre a rag doll, and go limp. Let your body relax;
feel heavy and warm. Remember to breathe! Okay,
how do you feel now?
Marty: I feel better. I feel like, if I tried, I could do better in

class.
The next step is to reverse roles. You act out the same problem-
atic behavior (in this case, hitting a pencil against the desk), and
your child pretends to be the coach and the cheerleader. The follow-
ing is an example of how to do this.
Mom: Okay, Im Marty, and Im in class. (Mom has fun

pretending to be Marty. She sits down with a pencil
and begins hitting it against a table.) Whys everyone
looking at me and whys that teacher telling me to
quiet down and stop hitting my pencil on the desk? I
like the noiseit helps me calm down. Its so boring
in here! I cant stop anywayI have ADHD.
Marty: Hey, Marty, you can do it. You can stop hitting
the pencil on the desk if you want. Why dont you
calm down by taking a deep breath? You can do the
balloon exercise and fill yourself up with air. That
would be another way to calm down. Go, Marty! You
can do it!
Mom: But that teacher is so mean to me. If I stop, she wins.

She embarrassed me in front of the whole class.
Marty: Hey, Marty, you win if you stop hitting the pencil on
the desk, because then you show that you can control
yourself. Dont let the teacher bring you down. Focus
on you. You can do it. You can control yourself.
Mom: Great job being coach and cheerleader, Marty!
61
The Gift of ADHD
Tell your child that he can be the cheerleader and the coach for
himself any day and time he needs support and encouragement. Tell
him that everybody needs both a coach and a cheerleader with them
at all times, but that he has to provide that support for himself.
Get out some 3 by 5 index cards and together create coach and
cheerleader cards. Apply your creativity and have fun using stickers,
markers, and crayons so that the cards are fun to look at. On one
side, each card should say Coach or Cheerleader. On the other
side you should write a statement that will help your child believe
he can control his behavior or use a specific strategy.
Some examples of statements on coach cards are below:
Show respect and appreciation for your teachers hard

work.
You win if you keep trying!
Take a deep breath and calm down!
The harder you try, the smarter you get!
You can build your brain by working harder!
Look at your teacher and listen!
Pretend youre a rag doll. Feel your body as it gets warm

and heavy. This will help you sit still.
Some examples of statements on cheerleader cards are the

following:
You can do it!
You have the power! Try harder!
Keep going! Keep trying!
You can control your behavior!
62
You are in charge!
You win if you control your actions!
Your child can take these cards to school with him to teach him
how to talk to himself. The cards will be more effective if they are
specific to particular problems. For example, if the teacher repeatedly
complains that your son cannot sit still, you can create cheerleader
cards that say, I can sit still.
SUMMARY
This chapter offered many different strategies for helping your child
improve his self-esteem and his ability to try harder in managing
his behavior. Remember that if you or your child does not like the
exercises, its best not to push them. They will only work if you and
your child have fun with them. You dont need to do every exercise
to transform your child. If only a couple of these games work well
for both you and your child, then do those two exercises repeat-
edly. Also, keep in mind that the more creative and fun you can
be in creating these games, the more success you will have. Your
child has an immense capacity for imagination, and the more you
rely on that imagination in pretend gamesrather than moraliz-
ing about the right way to behavethe more you will engage your
childs attention. The fun you have together will also help you build
a strong relationship with him that will become the foundation for
transforming his problems into strengths.
63
CHAPTER 4
How to Become Your

Childs Advocate,
Not Apologist
The key ingredient in transforming your childs diagnosis into a

gift is your relationship with her. What your child needs more than
anything is for you to be on her side. After that, what your child
needs is for you to bring her teachers and mental health profession-
als over to her side too. In short, your child needs you to become
her advocate. Your support for your child will improve her behavior.
Kids tend to misbehave when they feel mad, sad, or alone. As you
support your child, these negative feelings, which drive bad behavior,
will go away.
The Gift of ADHD
BARRIERS TO BECOMING YOUR

CHILDS ADVOCATE
Advocating for your child may have been difficult for you to do until
now. This chapter offers exercises that will make this task easier, and
specific strategies for improving your effectiveness at advocacy. It is
important that you not blame yourself for how you have interacted
with your child in the past. Its also important that you not beat
yourself up for the times that youve failed to move forward. Many
things may have stood in the way of your becoming a forceful advo-
cate, and many parents feel all too ready to take on guilt about their
kids struggles. To help relieve you of some of this self-blame and
remind you of the real challenges youve been facing, we will review
the significant barriers that may have made it difficult for you to act
as your childs advocate.
More Than a Handful

The first barrier thats made it difficult for you to become your
childs advocate is that, most likely, your child really is a handful. In
fact, your child may be more than a handful. All young children are
energetic and rambunctious compared to their parents and teachers.
But its quite possible that your child has even more energy than a
typical child. In some ways, your child is like a 50-watt lightbulb that
has 100 watts of energy coursing through it.
Your child has a hard time managing her high levels of energy.
You, the parent, have to manage not only your childs high levels
of energy but also her difficulties managing her energy, despite the
fact that you do not have an enormous amount of energy yourself.
In short, children with ADHD can be exhausting for adults. Out of
sheer fatigue, you may have found yourself being short tempered with
your child. Or you may have found yourself using strategies that you
know will not be helpful to her in the long run.
Because you may have your own complaints about the difficulties
managing such a live wire, you may have become an apologist for
66
How to Become Your Childs Advocate, Not Apologist
your child in interacting with others, including teachers. For example,

when the teacher has complained about your childs behavior, you
may have found it easy to apologize to the teacher. You may feel
guilty, thinking that your childs teacher considers you a bad parent,
so you have to show him that its not your fault by apologizing for
your child. Your own exhaustion and frustration are probably among
the barriers you have faced that can prevent you from becoming an
advocate for your child. Later in this chapter we will review why,
although you may be sympathetic with complaints about your child,
you will need to gently challenge those complaints. See the section
below, What to Do When the Teacher Calls, for a cheat sheet of
ways to handle calls or complaints from the teacher. If your child
has already been diagnosed with ADHD, this section will help you
advocate for your child. If your child has not been diagnosed with
ADHD, but the teacher is seeking a diagnosis, this section will help
you feel confident that all other sources of disruptive behavior have
been ruled out.
What to Do When the Teacher Calls:

Stay Tuned to Your Childs Gifts
As parents, we love our kids so much, how can we not feel sick
to our stomach when that fateful call comesthat call from
the teacher saying that she thinks your child may have ADHD
or that your childs behavior is causing problems in the class-
room? Below are ten tips to remember if you get that call.
1. Realize that the call from the teacher is not a diagnosis.

Teachers are not qualified to make a diagnosis. A
diagnosis of ADHD requires a sophisticated data collection
procedure from both parents and teachers and a trained
mental health professional. Many other diagnoses need to
be ruled out. If this procedure has not been followed, then
its not appropriate for the teacher to make this claim. There
67
The Gift of ADHD
are many reasons a child might have difficulty concentrat-

ing or be disruptive in classthe label of ADHD should be
the last possible explanation explored, not the first.
2. Point to contexts that might be explanations for the behavior.

Many parents come to me near the end of the school
year wondering whats wrong with their children. Sometimes
kids know the end of the school year is coming and their
mind begins to transition to summertime, and they lose
focus. So, whatever time of year you get the call, remember
to think about any possible external situation or context
that might explain your childs behavior.
This is one component of optimistic thinking. An
optimist points to the external stressors to explain bad
behavior rather than internalizing it. Is your child going
through health challenges that might explain her behavior?
Are any major changes happening at home? Stressors are
usually the first and most probable explanation for disrup-
tive behavior. For example, I know of children who were
diagnosed with ADHD shortly after their parents divorced,
but I always tell parents that it is difficult to make a reli-
able diagnosis of ADHD in the year following a divorce.
The dramatic life changes are enough to explain disruptive
behavior and changes in focus and attention.
So, if you get a call from a teacher who is concerned
about your child, sit down and make a list of stressors
happening in your family. These should include financial,
family, health, and any reversals the child or family may
have experienced. You want the teacher and yourself to
see the roots of the problem rather than pointing to your
childs brain and looking for a deficit disorder there.
3. Ask the teacher, What are we going to do to support my child?

In many areas of life, when we see a person having a
68
problem, we look for ways to support the person and iden-

tify basic skills that can be improved. If you put a child
without practice out on a basketball court, you wouldnt
diagnose her with Basketball Playing Deficit Disorderyou
would recognize that she needed practice and some basic
skills in order to effectively play basketball. What does this
mean for your child? Children need to learn how to learn.
Not every stumbling block in education is brain dysfunc-
tion. Your child may simply need much repetition, practice
of basic skills, and coaching to excel in school.
4. Consider whether the school might be a poor match for

your child.
If a creative artist went to work as an accountant for
a Fortune 500 company, we would all know that she was
headed for trouble. Sometimes our childrens learning style
and profile of strengths and weaknesses mean that they need
accommodations. Many children who are natural athletes
or artists struggle with the demands of school for reasons
that have nothing to do with a brain disorder. In fact, some
people argue that the whole education system is broken;
they would say that we are preparing our kids for the global
digital age in schools that were designed to prepare them
for life during the Industrial Revolution.
If your school options are limited, you might refocus
your goals on getting your child through school unscathed
rather than hoping she will become a model student. You
can protect the childs passion and motivation by support-
ing her in areas in which she is gifted or in which she has
passionate interest and engagement.
5. Consider that slight adjustments might make big differences.

Sometimes making a small change can lead to big dif-
ferences. One time I had a client who said, I hate school.
69
The Gift of ADHD
When we explored deeply why he hated school, he said

the teacher was always dissing him. When we continued
to probe how the teacher dissed him, we realized that it
came down to one daily eventthe teacher positioned the
child (my client) next to herself when the class walked as
a group in the school building. My client thought that the
teacher didnt trust him, but it turned out that he was the
youngest child in the class and she always kept the little
ducklings closest to her. When he realized that the teacher
wasnt just dissing him, his attitude toward her and going
to school changed. Just by listening to your child closely
you can come up with some small changes, or offer new
understanding, that will lead to big improvements.
6. Consider that other students or the teacher might not be a

good match for your child.
It is possible that the match between your child and
the teacher or other children is creating problems. As adults,
most of us have experienced being miserable because of
a bad boss or unpleasant coworkers. But we adults have
supports and power to make choices to turn around these
difficult situations. The problem is that when a child has
a personality conflict with a teacher or other students, we
are quick to assume that it is entirely the childs fault, or
that maybe there is something wrong with her brain. Our
first approach should be to listen to the childs complaints
about a teacher or student. Bullying does happen, and it
has long-term negative consequences. Ask your child how
she sees the problemlisten, and take it seriously.
7. Reflect: is this normal behavior in a child her age?

Before you go looking for a brain disorder, you might
want to consider whether the school or teacher has unrea-
sonable expectations of students at your childs stage of
70
development. For active boys, it is completely normal to

display some rambunctious behavior. Teachers should be
willing to acknowledge the need for activity and movement
that all children have. There are many creative ways to
channel physical energy, and doing so often can eliminate
many so-called problems. Whatever happens, make sure
that your child is not punished for a failure to sit still by
having her recess or playtime taken away. Physical activity
is not a symptomit is a basic need for any child.
8. Look for explanations that do not involve your childs brain.

Even if you try all the techniques above and come to
the conclusion that your childs behavior really is disturbed,
you still dont have to land on the diagnosis of ADHD.
There are many other explanations for symptoms and bad
behavior that do not involve a brain disorder. Some things
to consider are nutrition, your own mental health, and
family stressors.
Many people ask me if I think poor nutrition causes
ADHD. Though research does not support that poor nutri-
tion causes ADHD, it is possible that it causes the misdi-
agnosis of ADHD. Look to the obvioustoo much sugar,
not eating breakfast, or other nutritional deficits can cause
difficulty concentrating and poor behavior.
The familys mental health can play a role in a childs
behavioral problems as well. If you or the childs other
parent is depressed or struggling with addiction or any
other mental health problem, that may be a likely expla-
nation for your childs behavior. Your child receives emo-
tional nourishment from her parents, so if you are having
trouble, she may be taking in your emotional pain. Take
a close look at how you are really doing; be honest with
yourself and get help if you need it.
71
The Gift of ADHD
Sometimes the explanation for poor behavior in school

is simplethe child needs more support. I have seen fami-
lies solve the problems that led to a diagnosis of ADHD by
getting tutoring or some other form of educational support.
So if the teacher suggests that your child has ADHD, you
can point to other things you will try before you open the
door to the possibility of ADHD.
9. Focus on the positives.

When a teacher calls with any complaint about your
child, it is important that you keep the positives about your
child front and center in your own mind and in the teach-
ers mind. For example, many ADHD children are creative.
They tend to generate ideas for interesting applications of
the material they learn rather than feel motivated to mem-
orize it and repeat it back on a quiz or worksheet. This cog-
nitive process of creativity, divergent thinking, is a different
type of learning style and one that is in great demand for
solving the worlds problems. Remember that your childs
divergent thinking may someday be responsible for solving
real-world problems and has great value.
In addition to creativity, the gifts of ADHD include
but are not limited to emotional sensitivity, exuberance,
interpersonal intuition, and connection to nature. Before
you pick up the phone to return the teachers call or go in
for a personal meeting, create a list of your childs many
gifts. Include a list of her intense interests, including artis-
tic or athletic pursuits. This will help keep you and her
teacher focused on her resources rather than the problem
areas.
Think of it this way: every strength is a resource for
patching up a weakness. Many children, if asked to come
up with creative solutions to specific problems, are able
72
to. For example, a child who needs to be physically active

might bring a sponge to school and tap his pencil on the
sponge so as not to disrupt other students while still feeding
his need for activity.
10. Advocate for your child.

Research shows that your childs teacher will dra-
matically affect your childs actual outcomes in the class-
room. This means you want to become an advocate for
your child. Advocating means pointing out what your child
is doing right and asking for support and resources for
solving specific problems. You will want to get the teacher
to be as specific as possible in his or her complaints and
adopt a problem-solving approach, rather than suggesting
that the child be evaluated for ADHD at the first sign
of trouble. For example, if a teacher complains that your
child is hyperactive and should get evaluated, ask for spe-
cific examples of this behavior and work toward solving
the disruptions. A wiggly child can be given permission to
leave his seat to go get a drink of water or get some mate-
rials from the principals office, for instance.
The main action you can take to advocate for your
child is to translate her symptoms into needs. For example,
hyperactivity is a need for physical activity, and creativity is
a need to explore novel applications and work toward novel
solutions. In each case that your childs teacher points to
a problem, you can try to find a way to translate it into a
specific need that can be met with support from you and
the school.
So remember, when the teacher calls, stay centered
in your ability to protect your child by focusing on whats
working and by using your childs gifts as the starting point
for any conversation.
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The Gift of ADHD
Iron-Clad Authority
Another barrier you may face is your own perception (or misper-
ception) that teachers and mental health professionals are iron-clad
authorities. If the teacher is saying that your child is a problem, you
may think, She must be right. After all, she sees lots of children and
has a lot of points of comparison. If a mental health professional
tells you that your child is disturbed, you may think, He knows
what hes talking about. He has studied this and is an expert on
child behavior. But in both of these cases, you, not the educator or
the doctor, are the expert on your child.
One of the reasons these authorities can be wrong about your
child is that they are almost certainly working from a different para-
digm. It doesnt matter how much knowledge or experience a person
hasif he or she is working from an inaccurate perspective, then
that person will not be the best judge of your childs behavior. For
example, for many years the worlds greatest astronomers looked at
the skies with the understanding that the earth was the center of the
universe. Although they were the experts, their fundamental world-
view was wrong, and therefore they made many mistakes in their
judgments. Similarly, this book offers a paradigm shiftor change
in worldviewsuggesting that ADHD is not a disorder but rather
a gift.
If you can overcome the barrier of seeing teachers and other
professionals as the final authority, then you can begin to advocate
for your child by showing people how to see your child as you do. It
may help you to remember that these experts may be right about the
details but wrong about the big picture. For example, your child may
jump out of her seat a lot during the school day and may interrupt
other students. But these behaviors dont have to be seen as indicat-
ing that your child is fundamentally flawed. As you shift your own
vision of your child, you can learn to help others who are involved
in your childs life shift their view and so better serve your child.
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Conflict Avoidance
You may have hesitated to advocate for your child because you
were afraid of being thought of as adversarial or oppositional
the very same words that may sometimes be used to describe your
child. Many people find it very difficult to confront others with a
viewpoint that challenges what the other person is saying. Almost
everyone is uncomfortable with disagreement. And many of us have
a tendency to exaggerate our fears in our mind. For example, if
your childs teacher says that your daughter is lazy, the apologist in
you will want to apologize profusely to the teacher and promise to
implement stricter controls in order to keep your child on top of her
homework. In contrast, the advocate in you might say that you do
not experience your child as lazy. Rather, you see her as very creative
and have noticed that she is capable of intense effort when working
on projects that involve her creativity.
As you imagine becoming an advocate for your child, you may
become fearful that the teacher will get angry at you for contradict-
ing him or her. You may worry that the teacher will think you are
just being difficult and will assume that you are the cause of your
childs problem. You may even worry that the teacher will be mad
and take it out on your child. Or you may wonder if the teacher will
think you are simply out of touch with reality. With practice, you
will find that many of your fears are unfounded. Try the following
exercise for coping with these concerns.
EXERCISE: Challenging Your Fears

of Being Challenging
1. In your journal or notebook, write down your major concerns

about reframing your childs behavior to a complaining teacher.
For example, you may be afraid that your childs teacher will
think you are a bad parent.
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The Gift of ADHD
2. Using a scale of 1 (very unlikely) to 10 (very likely), rate the

likelihood that the thing you fear will actually happen.
3. Now write down thoughts that contradict your fear. Include all
the positive things that may result from becoming an advocate
for your child. For example, if you are afraid that your childs
teacher will think youre a bad parent, you could write down
that he might actually think you are a good parent for having
such a positive view of your child. Or maybe the teacher would
begin to see that your child has many positive traits that he
hadnt noticed before. He might even start to give your child
more positive attention in class.
4. Write down strategies you could use in order to cope if the thing
you fear did come true; for example, if your childs teacher said
to you, No wonder your child is so difficult. Its obvious you
are overprotective of her and oppositional to boot. In writing
down coping strategies, you might write down specific responses
to such a statement, such as I know you dont have all the
resources you need, but I want to make sure weve looked at all
the angles here. Lets stay focused on what we can do to help
my child.
5. After reviewing your coping strategies, set up a time to meet

with your childs teacher who has given you negative feedback.
Share with this teacher your different vision of your child.
Emphasize your goal to become an advocate for your child so
that she will have the best classroom experience possible. Affirm
to the teacher that he has the same goals for serving your child,
but that you may have different views about the nature of your
childs behaviors.
6. After returning from your visit with the childs teacher, evaluate
your original fears. Write down all of the positive outcomes of the
meeting. For example, you might write that the teacher seemed
really interested in your perspective on your child and that he
did not get offended when you challenged his perspective. You
76
might also write that you hope that he will begin to see your
child as gifted, give her more positive attention, and help her to
improve in that class.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BECOMING

AN ADVOCATE
Having reviewed why you might have had a difficult time in the
past acting as an advocate for your child, you can let yourself off the
hook. Be gentle with yourself as you move into this new role. In this
section, we turn to the reasons it is so important that you become
your childs advocate. By becoming her advocate you strengthen the
foundational elements for transforming your childs problems into
strengthsyour relationship with your child, your childs environ-
ment, and your childs self-esteem.
Starting a Synergistic Cycle

As an advocate for your child, you will be starting a synergistic
cycle that transforms symptoms into talentsor, at least, into lovable
eccentricities. In a synergistic cycle, small changes work together to
create larger changes. A small change in direction can begin a cycle
that leads to more and more positive changes. This can work against
the vicious circle that easily develops when negative views are taken
of your childs symptoms. The synergistic cycle is made up of the
following factors:
As you advocate for your child, you feel empowered and

maintain your positive view of her.
As you feel better about yourself and your child, your

interactions with her are more loving and rewarding
for both of you.
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The Gift of ADHD
As your child feels loved and rewarded, she tries to

show love through increased efforts at home and at
school.
As your child tries harder at school, she begins to expe-

rience more positive feedback.
As she interacts with you in more loving ways, you

find it easier to maintain your positive view and loving
interactions.
Finally, you and your child have a loving, close, con-

nected relationship in which you work together and are
on each others side.
There will be a strong link between how supported your child

feels by you and how hard she will try to work toward the goals that
you and she have collaboratively set. The more you and your child
work together, the more she will transform before your eyes and the
easier it will be to create the connection you want. Also, by becom-
ing an advocate for your child and offering teachers some alternatives
and ideas, you will refocus your own energy in the direction that is
most helpful for your childtoward your parentchild bond.
The opposite of the synergistic cycle is the vicious circle. The
vicious circle that results when you act as an apologist for your child
looks like this:
You apologize for your childs behavior after a teacher

gives you negative feedback.
By accepting this negative feedback, you begin to see

your child as essentially flawed.
Seeing your child as flawed, you feel that you must

have done something wrong, and you feel worse about
yourself as a parent.
Feeling inadequate as a parent, you are more likely to

become angry or frustrated with your child.
78
As your child gets negative feedback from you and feels

a lack of closeness, she behaves in problematic ways to
express her own distress.
The more your child acts in problematic ways, the more

negative feedback she gets at school, and the more frus-
trated you feel.
The more frustrated you feel, the more difficult it is to

feel connected to your child.
You and your child both feel a growing distance

between the two of you, and you begin to feel helpless
and hopeless.
Becoming an advocate for your child means not accepting other

peoples negative evaluations of her. In addition, it gives you the
opportunity to tactfully offer an alternative way of understanding
your child to the teacher or health care professional. Below is an
example of a dialogue in which the parent acts as an advocate and
begins a synergistic cycle.
Teacher: Ms. Jones, thank you for taking the time to meet
with me. As we discussed on the phone, Andrea
has been a problem in class. She just doesnt seem
to pay attention, and she talks to her friends
during classroom exercises. This behavior is typical
of ADHD students, and you should know that your
daughters behavior is out of control. Every time
she does this, I have to stop class and tell her to sit
in her seat and refrain from disturbing the whole
class. After I warn her, her behavior seems to get
worse.
Ms. Jones: Mr. Welch, thank you for your involvement with
my daughter. I appreciate your concern for her
well-being and development. I, too, want the best
for her and want her to benefit from all that you
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The Gift of ADHD
have to offer students. Im very close with my

daughter, and Ive noticed that recently she has
overcome being rejected by her peers and is starting
to bond with other girls, so her friendships are very
meaningful to her. I think what youre describing
might be the result of her insecurity about losing
friendships. I wonder if, when you stop class and
single her out, she feels embarrassed. Maybe you
could try pulling her aside before class and gently
let her know that her friends might feel distracted
by her in-class conversations. In my experience,
Andrea responds very well to coaching and gets
embarrassed very easily. I wonder if you could try
this approach and see if it works. It might be that
singling her out in class is making her behavior
worse. It seems worth a try.
Teacher: Hmm, Ive never thought of it that way. I can try

what youre suggesting and see how it works. Ill
take her aside privately from now on. Thanks for
your suggestion.
When Ms. Jones gets home, she feels empowered that she chal-
lenged the teacher respectfully. Ms. Jones tells Andrea she had the
chance to talk to her teacher, Mr. Welch. She says that she told him
that Andrea doesnt like to be embarrassed in front of the whole
class and that Mr. Welch agreed not to do that anymore. Andrea
feels important because her mom stood up for her to her teacher,
and she resolves to make Mom proud of her by trying hard in Mr.
Welchs class.
As you can see from this dialogue, by becoming an advocate for
your child, you work to develop a positive interpretation of behav-
iors. In so doing you can change other peoples perceptions of your
child, and your own emotional reactions to her will be more posi-
tive. As you practice this, you will also feel more empowered. You
80
wont spend your time worrying whether others think you are a bad
parentyou will address the issue head-on and challenge it.
In contrast, the vicious circle of being an apologist for your child
can look like the following.
Teacher: Ms. Jones, thank you for taking the time to meet
with me. As we discussed on the phone, Andrea
has been a problem in class. She just doesnt seem
to pay attention, and she talks to her friends
during classroom exercises. This behavior is typical
of ADHD students, and you should know your
daughters behavior is out of control. Every time
she does this, I have had to stop class and tell her
to sit in her seat and refrain from disturbing the
whole class. After I warn her, her behavior seems
to get worse.
Ms. Jones: Mr. Welch, Im so sorry that Andrea is acting

out in class again. Were doing everything we
can to help her. After I got your call, I called the
psychiatrist. Maybe we can increase her medication.
Were doing everything we can at home, but were
just at our wits end.
Teacher: Well, Im glad that youve made an appointment

to check with the psychiatrist. Her behavior is
disrupting the whole class and making my job
nearly impossible.
Ms. Jones: (Embarrassed, feeling like a bad parent.) Im so sorry.

We will do everything we can at home to get her
not to act out in class. I will be sure to tell her that
she is disrupting your class and let her know that
there will be serious consequences if she doesnt
start behaving in school. In fact, I will tell her that
if I get one more phone call from Mr. Welch, shell
have to miss a softball game.
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The Gift of ADHD
Teacher: Well, thank you, Ms. Jones. I need as much support

as I can get from parents at home in order to
manage ADHD students. Im glad were on the
same page.
Ms. Jones goes home feeling helpless and like a bad mom. She
feels out of control and frustrated that, no matter what she does,
Andrea doesnt seem to change. She goes home and gives Andrea a
stern warning about what will happen if she continues to act out in
Mr. Welchs class. Andrea feels confused about why she cant seem
to control her behavior and feels all alone because her mom is mad
at her. She doesnt know whom to turn to. That night she plays too
roughly with her little sister and gets in trouble again. She wonders,
Why cant I be good like my sister? No one gets mad at her. I guess
I just cant do anything right.
In the dialogue above, you can see how apologizing for your
childs behavior sets in motion a vicious circle that affects the whole
family. Ms. Jones feels bad about herself and so does Andrea. They
get pushed farther and farther apart as they both conclude that
theyre failures. Andrea is frustrated that her mom doesnt support
her, and Ms. Jones is frustrated that Andrea cant control her behav-
ior. Both feel increasingly helpless.
As you can see from these two vignettes, becoming an advocate
for your child gives you the potential to change the environment she
experiences at school and, in so doing, reduce her bad feelings and
thus the bad behavior she exhibits in response. By reframing your
childs behaviors and traits, you may enlist teachers to shift their
perspective and try out strategies that are less discouraging to your
child.
Similarly, in addition to enhancing your relationship with her, you
will improve her self-esteem just by becoming an advocate. Children
internalize their parents attitudes toward them. When you show
your child that you are willing to go out on a limb to defend her,
she knows she is worthwhile and will be more likely to work hard to
demonstrate to you and her teachers that you are right in defending
82
her. She will feel safe, protected, and loved. All of these lead to feel-
ings of self-worth and a determination to do the best she can.
CONSTRUCTING GOOD BEHAVIOR

One of the most effective ways to encourage good behavior in your
child is to continually construct interpretations that her existing
behavior is already good behavior. Or you can at least identify ways
in which her behavior is meaningful or makes sense in some way.
For example, in the case of Andrea and Mr. Welch, the parent sug-
gested to the teacher that her daughters behavior was simply an
effort to maintain newfound friendships rather than a pernicious
symptom of ADHD. This ability to interpret your childs behavior
as having a nonpathological meaning will serve her in many ways
and will improve your relationship with her. In some ways, more
than anything else in the world, that is what your child wants and
needsfor you to be on her side.
As you demonstrate that you are her advocate, your child will
internalize the ability to reframe her self-understanding in positive
ways. This ability is the basis of self-esteem. In addition, she will
internalize the ability to defend and protect herself. This skill will
serve her in two ways: first, she will be able to soothe herself; second,
shell be able to stand up for herself. These abilities will become
a foundation of her ability to create positive mood states and to
change her internal state in the face of negative feedback.
The following exercise will encourage you to search for positive
explanations for your childs behavior, which will in turn help you
become an articulate advocate for your child. It will also help you
to teach your child how to do this for herself. This practice becomes
very important, because the diagnosis of ADHD has a tendency
to make all of the childs behavior seem to others like it is a result
of the disorder. In fact, much of your childs behavior may not be
related to the diagnosis of ADHD at all. And even the behavior
that is related to this difference can be reframed to show how it
represents a gift.
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The Gift of ADHD
EXERCISE: Storytelling
Spend a week observing your own reactions to your childs behavior

or to reports of her behavior from school. During this week, keep a
journal of these reactions and thoughts. Write down the behavior
that you observed or what the teacher said about your child. Then
record the story that you tell yourself about your child. For example,
perhaps Mrs. Dugan, your daughter Janets teacher, calls to tell you
that your daughter seems to be daydreaming throughout much of
class and, when shes called on, makes it clear that she wasnt paying
attention. Write down what the teacher tells you, then record your
thoughts about what youve heard. So, in this example, youd write,
When Mrs. Dugan told me about Janets daydreaming in class, I
felt frustrated with her. Why cant she just pay attention like all the
other kids? Maybe she isnt as smart as the other kids. Maybe her
ADHD is a progressive disorder and shes going to continue to get
worse. She might fail a grade or just drop out of school when shes
sixteen. How is she going to make it in the world if she cant get
good grades in school? Shes going to be shut out from all the oppor-
tunities for higher education and wont be able to make a career for
herself.
After one week of just recording events and your reactions, pur-
posefully change the stories you tell yourself. Search for positive inter-
pretations of your childs behavior. Write down a story that makes
your childs behavior meaningful and positive. Create happy endings.
It doesnt matter if the stories are true. What we know is that these
stories can become self-fulfilling prophecies. So for now just create
stories that frame your child in positive ways. For example, when Mrs.
Dugan complains about Janets daydreaming, a good story would be
the following: Today, after Mrs. Dugan called to complain about
Janet daydreaming in class, I was really frustrated with Mrs. Dugan.
Of course Janet is daydreaming in her class. She is very creative
and imaginative. I bet she was so excited about what Mrs. Dugan
had been talking about ten minutes earlier that she reflected deeply
84
about the class material and went off on an original, inventive line
of thought. Maybe I can teach Janet to share with Mrs. Dugan and
the class what she was thinking about the material. Maybe if Janet
can share her process, then Mrs. Dugan will gain an appreciation
for her curiosity and how reflective and imaginative she is. Someday
Janet will make brilliant, creative contributions to whatever field she
goes into, because of her powerful imagination.
Ask your child directly what was going on in her mind during
the event described by the teacher. Listen carefully to your child.
If she offers a meaningful explanation for her behavior, accept it
and incorporate it into your story. Keep in mind that often children
arent able to articulate their inner process clearly. They may just
feel confused and not have a good understanding of what happened
or why it happened. You can offer to your child the positive stories
you have generated and see if they seem right to her. You may be
surprised to find that your child says, Yes, thats exactly what hap-
pened. I was so flustered by getting in trouble that I forgot that I
had been thinking about the material presented earlier in class. How
did you know?
One of the most heartwarming stories I have heard about the

power of listening to a child is one told by legendary educator
Annemarie Roeper (personal communication). She had been called
in to talk with a young boy who consistently showed behavior prob-
lems. Her primary strategy was to listen and inquire rather than
lecture. After a lengthy discussion, she asked, But why do these
problems keep happening after we have these conversations? The
young boy answered, But, Mrs. Roeper, this is the first time Ive
ever grown up! This story reveals to us that each child is struggling
to do her best, as she goes through the challenges of growing up in a
changing body in a changing world, facing many difficult challenges
in mind, body, emotion, and spirit.
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The Gift of ADHD
EXERCISE: The Apple Doesnt Fall

Far from the Tree
One way to help yourself to generate positive stories for your child
is to explore ways in which your behavior has been similar to hers.
Through the power of nature or nurture, there are very likely some
similarities between your childs bad behavior and your own ways
of being in the world. This might be tough for you, especially if you
have worked hard to overcome a tendency to goof off, act out, or
rebel and have moved in the opposite direction by becoming overly
controlled. Or perhaps its obvious how much like your child you
are, but you have exerted enormous discipline to overcome your own
difficulties in paying attention or behaving appropriately. It can be
painful to admit that those difficulties are part of who you are. Even
if you feel as if youre the opposite of your child, try to recall times
when you acted in ways that were similar to the behavior that gets
your child in trouble.
Assign yourself a half hour a day for one week just to think
about how you are like your child. In your journal, write down spe-
cific memories of events in which you acted like your child or got
in trouble in the same way your child gets in trouble. For example,
maybe you remember that your freshman year in college you failed
two classes because you just werent interested in your studies and
wanted to explore your newfound independence. Maybe you recall
a time you got in trouble at school because you insulted another
student. Think about why you did what got you in trouble, and try
to understand it. Reflect on how you understood it at that time com-
pared to how you understand it now. One parent remembered being
dragged to the principals office in sixth grade for having hit another
student. She remembered being mystified about why she had done
this. She couldnt explain to herself or the principal why she had hit
the student. As the parent remembered this incident, she realized
that she had just experienced significant losses in her family at the
86
time she got in trouble. She realized that no one had talked to her
about how she was feeling and that she must have been taking it out
on this other student at school. Of course, when she was in sixth
grade she could not explain her actions, but as an adult she saw that
it was obvious why it had happened.
Write in your journal your own reflections about behaviors you
share or have shared in your past with your child. Try to see how
the reasons behind your own behavior may be similar to those that
explain your childs behavior. For example, the mother who remem-
bered hitting another student realized that maybe her daughter had
some feelings of loss around the fact that her husband had recently
lost his job and seemed depressed. She saw that maybe her daughter
needed to talk about the dramatic changes in the family.
Take action on any insights that emerge. For example, talk to
your child about any recent losses or stresses in the family. Make
sure she has a chance to talk about any feelings of sadness, anger,
or fear that she may be feeling in response to these events in the
family. Your child is very sensitive, and you may have felt that by
not talking about recent stressors you were protecting your child.
However, children will often be even more anxious when there is
silence around significant changes. The more open you can be in
talking about your own feelings and reactions, the more your child
will benefit, even if your own reactions are negative. Your child will
feel connected to you only if you genuinely share your reactions.
Because children diagnosed with ADHD are particularly sensitive to
when people are being insincere, your child will be disturbed by any
perception that youre not being straight with her, and she will tend
to think that things are worse than they really are. For example, if
the mother in the previous example shares with her child that she is
worried about Dad and that they both have some anxieties about his
job loss, her child will actually feel relieved and more connected to
her. The daughter probably sensed the tension all along, and now she
will have validation of these feelings and also a chance to share her
own anxieties. Of course, you want to be both honest and protective.
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The Gift of ADHD
This means revealing your fears, sadness, and anger but also reassur-
ing your child that many resources are available and that while this
is a difficult time, you are certain to make it through.
If it seems appropriate, you should share with your child your
own previous life experiences that are similar to what she is going
through. This will help you to connect with your child and show her
how one can overcome difficulties. You should also share what you
did to turn your situation around or what you wish you had done
to turn things around sooner. These stories will help your child feel
less alone and more supported, and that will help her get through
difficult times.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, we discussed the fact that what your child wants
and needs more than anything in the world is a close connection to
you. Your childs relationship with you will be the cornerstone of her
efforts to turn her problems into strengths.
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CHAPTER 5
The Gift of Creativity
In this chapter we begin our exploration of the five gifts of ADHD,

starting with the gift of creativity. We will review how your childs
spaciness, distractibility, and impulsiveness are essential attributes for
promoting creativity. Fire needs oxygen to shine and burn. Similarly,
creative genius or inspiration requires a certain sort of openness
exactly the sort of openness your child displays. Creativity often
requires reframing or rethinking old problems. Openness (sometimes
given the more negative name spaciness) provides a larger frame
for seeing a bigger picture, allowing for space to solve old problems.
Many people have said that the definition of insanity is doing the
same thing repeatedly but expecting different results. Spaciness lends
itself to achieving a different level of thought from that which typi-
cally creates most problems. Thus, children with ADHD who have
been labeled as spacey often have the capacity to solve problems
The Gift of ADHD
created by rigid modes of thinking. Daydreaming is the font of cre-

ativityit is essentially the process of engaging the imagination.
Imagination creates dreams of possibilities. In a review of the
emerging research on the benefits of daydreaming, author Josie
Glausiusz concludes that daydreaming, far from being a total time-
waster, is a potential portal to the Nobel Prizeas it was for Albert
Einstein, whose visionary daydreams helped him conceive the theory
of relativity while he toiled away at a humdrum job in the Swiss
patent office (2009, 86). Other research supports many benefits of
daydreaming. Daydreaming can increase social and emotional intel-
ligence. We can release troublesome emotions safely in our imaginary
world rather than in the real one, where the consequences would be
problematic. And in our imagination we can rehearse social inter-
actions, leading to greater intimacy and more mature relationships
(Glausiusz 2009).
SEEING THE BIG PICTURE

Children with ADHD are excellent at seeing the big picture, in and
out of the classroom. They may miss the little details, but they are
often masters at understanding the importance and meaning of aca-
demic material. For example, children with ADHD may be struck
with wonder and awe at the miraculous workings of nature as they
learn about photosynthesis and how plants take in sunlight to grow.
They may wonder what happens in cloud-covered regions of the
world and start to generate ideas for how to get sunlight to plants
on cloudy days. As this example illustrates, children with ADHD are
often deeply engaged with material in creative and novel ways. They
may not remember the symbols for sodium and potassium on the
periodic table of elements, but they are very curious and interested
and typically try to come up with solutions to problems in creative
ways.
Typical modes of assessment in the academic world require the
ability to repeat small details of abstract processes. This is the most
difficult way of learning for children with ADHD. There are methods
90
of evaluation in the educational system that acknowledge the star-

tling gifts your child has to offer. The good news is that, if your child
can emerge unscathed from his education, he can find a niche in
the real world that will reward him highly for his ardent curiosity,
creativity, and ability to solve problems in innovative ways.
THE ENERGY OF IMPULSE

To think daringly original thoughts and to create new ideas or per-
spectives requires impulsiveness. Impulsiveness is the urge to do things
or think things that are new and daring, that fall outside the boring
realm of the everyday. Impulsiveness is the urge to forge ahead into
new areas of thought and includes a tendency to be bored with what-
ever everyone else is doing or thinking. It is a necessary ingredient
for forging new ground in any area of study or thought.
Distractibility is the tendency to shift ones attention to thoughts,
feelings, or events in the environment that seem to call out to one. A
distractible person is the opposite of a horse with blinders on, plod-
ding along carefully in the path determined by his master. People who
are distractable have trouble focusing, because they are enchanted
with other aspects of their experience. Distractibility is also an
essential aspect of creativity, which often manifests in the mixing
together of ideas from apparently different and separate domains. In
Thom Hartmanns (1997) book Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different
Perception, he describes how Thomas Alva Edison, who invented
the lightbulb and many other things, was characterized by an easy
distractibility. He was known to have forty different inventions in
progress at one time. He would work on one until he got bored with
it and move on to another one as inspiration hit. Another word for
distractibility is flexibility, and it can be put to use in generating
groundbreaking innovation and productivity.
The open-minded, distractible spaciness of your child is much like
the beginners mind that students of Zen Buddhism purposefully
try to cultivate. Your childs way of being is, to some people, a highly
sought-after state of mind, achieved only after years of training. The
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The Gift of ADHD
beginners mind of Zen Buddhism is so important because it allows

one to perceive life anew in each moment with freshness and excite-
ment. It lends itself to creativity because, rather than imposing worn-
out modes of understanding on the world, the beginners mind looks
at the world in new and fresh ways.
NATURALLY CREATIVE
Your child is truly fortunate to have been given the natural ability to
engage in reverie or imaginative thought, to be bold and daring in
wanting to bring his imagination into the world, and to be sensitive
to inspiration. Despite these gifts, he may struggle in school. This
is because, in the early years, traditional educational systems follow
a regurgitation model. Children are expected to take in material
presented in a rigid format and regurgitate it back to the teacher,
to prove they were listening attentively. This style of learning clashes
with the great gifts your child has been given.
However, a naturally creative child who can learn to apply disci-
pline, pay attention to details, and follow through in translating his
imaginative flights into completed projects has a huge potential for
excellence. And it is much easier to train someone who is creative
to be disciplined than it is to teach someone who is focused and
disciplined to be creative.
In this chapter, youll do an exercise to experiment with how
impulsiveness can lead to creativity. Then you and your child will
have the opportunity to reframe and understand his behavior as
creative rather than disordered. You will also work on balancing cre-
ativity with respect for others.
EXERCISE: Disciplined Daydreaming
In order for you to gain some empathy for your child, and some
understanding of the potential rewards of spaciness and impulsivity,
92
try this exercise. It will guide you to experiment with purposefully

adopting these traits. You will want to have your notebook and a
pen handy for recording the impact of this experiment. This exercise
also includes prescribing a specified daydreaming session for your
child. By setting aside a specified time for daydreaming, you show
your support for this aspect of his personality while suggesting that
if he can limit his daydreaming to this time he may get more out of
his school time.
Our culture values hard work and achievement above all else. In
our culture, lounging seems almost criminal. With all the demands
for chronic self-improvement, who has time for sitting around and
spacing out? But what happens to the inner voices calling you or
your child to goof off, to lie around all day, or to play? What other
people call laziness is central to creativity and the discovery and
appreciation of life. Genius requires fortuitous insight, imagination,
daring originality, and intuition. These are cultivated when you get
lost in the corners of your own mindthrough play and goofing
off.
Opportunities often come from departures from the well-mean-
ing grind. By staying focused, you may miss the genius-making inspi-
ration. With only rational logic and your nose to the grindstone, you
can climb higher and higher, but you may never gain the vision that
allows you to see where the ladder leads. (Alternatively, by spend-
ing all of your free time watching TV or playing video games, you
are passively consuming the creative output of other people rather
than actively exploring your own inner world.) The exercises in this
chapter ask you to indulge your own need to goof off and space
out. Remember, this is just an experiment. You may not be able to
find the time to allot a half hour a day for the rest of your life, but
for one week you should make every effort to cancel unnecessary
appointments or commitments and give yourself this opportunity to
experience daydreaming.
1. For one week, each day spend a half hour daydreaming. Do not
try to solve a specific problem. Do not try to concentrate on one
topic. Just let your mind wander wherever it wants to go. Allow
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The Gift of ADHD
yourself to escape if that is what you feel like doing. Purposely

bracket this time off, allowing your mind to take whatever paths
it wants to take. Invite in fantasies and daydreams.
2. At the end of the week, write in your journal how this experi-
ence has affected you. Where did your mind wander during these
times? Your life as a parent is filled with enormous responsibili-
ties and concerns that require focus, discipline, and fortitude.
What did this period of reverie feel like for you?
3. Try prescribing your child one half hour a day to daydream as

well. Tell him that daydreaming is a wonderful use of imagina-
tion that promotes creativity, and so he should do it purposefully
for one half hour a day. Invite him to daydream at the same
specified time as you, but make sure you each do it alone.
4. Tell your child that, when he is tempted to daydream in school,

he should remind himself to save it for the special daydreaming
time that you have set aside. Tell him that if he thinks of some-
thing important he wants to daydream about during school, he
can write it down in his notebook and come back to it during
his scheduled daydreaming time. If you join him for one week in
this experiment, you can spend some time after your daydream-
ing sessions to talk about how it felt and what sorts of things you
each spent your time thinking about. You will want to emphasize
how you value getting lost in imagination.
FEELING GOOD ABOUT FREEING

UP TIME
The preceding and following exercises are experiments in escaping,
daydreaming, and allowing yourself and your child a break from
rational problem solving and effortful striving. You may feel tempted
94
to skip these exercises because you feel that there is no way to make
time for them in your schedule and your childs schedule. If you find
you cannot possibly set aside the time for these exercises, you may
want to review your commitments and see if they are in line with
your own values.
For example, are you running your children to multiple commit-
ments each week thinking that each child needs to be involved in
a sports activity, an artistic endeavor, and a social event? If so, you
might want to give yourself permission to schedule only one orga-
nized activity a week for each child. You may feel guilty, but children
need unstructured time alone and with their parents and siblings.
The symptoms of ADHD may represent a desperate attempt on the
part of the child to give his mind the unstructured time it needs to
explore. Giving your child this quiet time does him a tremendous
service.
Your child needs time away from structured activities for another
reason. Many structured activities have an implicit or explicit perfor-
mance expectation. If your child plays on a sports team, he may feel
he has to be good at it or that he is being evaluated and compared
to other children. In music disciplines, there is often a sense that
children have to master and even excel at the skills involved in the
practice. Most organized activities emphasize some form of achieve-
ment. If your child is doing poorly in school, these kinds of activities
may be a wonderful outlet for him to receive praise in another area,
or they may be just another setting in which he has to prove himself.
The more activities he is engaged in, the more intense and relent-
less is the pressure to perform and achieve. This pressure can take
its toll on anyoneespecially a young child. And it can negatively
affect a child diagnosed with ADHD even more intensely. Children
with ADHD have a strong need for unstructured time to nurture
their creativity. Creativity requires free time to explore, to play, and
to pretend. If much of your childs time is being shaped by structured
activities, he will be restless and disruptive. He needs and prefers the
time to explore and create his own structure. This is not to say that
children should not participate in any extracurricular activitiesjust
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The Gift of ADHD
that they need fewer. To start, set the guideline that each child in
your family gets to participate in one activity per week. If the soccer
season lasts for four months, then that is the only activity for that
child during that time period. Try this as an experiment and see how
you, your spouse, and your children respond.
Similarly, parents need their own downtime and personal lives. If
you are spending all of your free time running your children to their
commitments, youre not taking good care of yourself. Your marriage
needs time for you and your spouse to have adult conversation. If
you are single, your romantic life needs you to have energy to spend
in connecting with other people. Dont feel guilty for taking time
away from your children to focus on your love life. Parents who are
happily in love will find it easier to be better parents. Taking care of
children, particularly those diagnosed with ADHD, takes an enor-
mous amount of energy, and the energy generated by a fulfilling
connection to a romantic partner can be an important resource for
you as a parent. If you spend all of your time taking care of your
child, you will soon find yourself depleted, and you, your child, and
your partner will suffer.
EXERCISE: Fulfill Your Urges
This exercise will have one component for parents to try and one
for the child to try. You the parent will benefit from this exercise
by becoming more sensitive to your own impulses, which will create
a better understanding of your childs impulsiveness. Loosening up
may help your child in another way. Sometimes, the more rigid
parents are in controlling their own impulses, the more impulsive
their children are. This is similar to the clich that the pastors kids
will always be the most rebellious. In her book Awakening Intuition,
Dr. Mona Schultz links ADHD to intuition and the tendency to
act out unexpressed impulses in the family. She writes that chil-
dren with ADD often unconsciously act out any turmoil at home.
Mom and Dad fight, then try to smooth the matter over. But Junior
96
trips over the carpet and acts it out physically (1999, 330). While
her example relates to unexpressed tensions, it is also true of unex-
pressed energies, inclinations, and impulses. For example, if you are
overly restrained and never allow yourself to give voice to any irrev-
erent comments, you may find your child blurting out inappropriate
comments everywhere you go.
Reserve a whole or half day in which you can spend the time
following your own urges. During this time, if you want to watch TV
all day, do that. If you want to go to the woods and walk around and
then eat a hot fudge sundae, then let yourself do that. If you want
to sleep most of the time, do that. Allow yourself to closely follow
your urges. If some of your impulses are not appropriate to act on, let
yourself explore mentally instead. Ask yourself, What is underlying
this urge? Is there some way I can honor it? For example, maybe you
feel an urge to call a friend and tell him off. Spend some time think-
ing about what you would really like to communicate to this friend.
Think of how you could communicate your needs to this friend in
a way that is not explosively angry. Follow through and take action
based on this realization.
Write in your journal about how this made you feel. What did
you do? How did you feel, allowing yourself to indulge your own
urges and impulses? Did you learn something new about yourself?
Use this experience to help you connect with your child for the next
part of the exercise.
If your child is between five and nine years old, tell him you
want to talk to him about the Urge Monster. If he is older, you
can talk more straightforwardly about uncontrollable urges. You can
share with him some of your own urges as an example. Tell your
child that everyone has an Urge Monster and that it is important to
feed the monster but to not let it control you. Ask your child to talk
about some of his urges, and then brainstorm with him to find ways
to feed and control the Urge Monster without getting into trouble.
Here is an example of how this might go:
Dad: Remember when I talked with your teacher about

how you were disrupting art class by jumping around
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The Gift of ADHD
and telling everyone that you were going to have a

baby sister? Sometimes we all get urges to do things
like that, where we want to stir things up and blurt
out what we really feel. Just today, I thought Id like
to tell my boss to just leave me alone when she was
in a hurry for me to finish my work. But I realized
my boss might get mad at me if I told her what I
really thought. And I know that sometimes the Urge
Monster just needs to be fed a little bit, and it will
quiet down. So I called your mommy on the phone
and told her what I really thought about my boss.
Then I calmed down and could talk to my boss about
what I thought was a more reasonable time frame for
me to get my work done, and she agreed with me.
How could you learn to feed the Urge Monster?
Sandy: I was just so excited about Samantha in Mommys

belly, and I wanted to tell everybody how good I felt
about it. There was no way I could stay quiet.
Dad: How could you feed the urge without disrupting the
class? Maybe you could draw a picture of the Urge
Monster, or draw a picture for your sister when she
arrives?
Sandy: Yeah, I bet I could tell the monster that I could wait
and tell Daddy how Im so excited for my sister to get
here. And I could draw a picture for my new sister to
hang in her bedroom.
Dad: Thats a great idea. Sometimes just promising yourself

that you will tell someone else will help you keep
quiet when the teacher wants you to sit still.
The same urges that cause problems can also be seen as creative
urges for self-expression. By learning to feed urges through creative
98
expression, your child can learn to both honor his impulses and
channel those urges in creative ways. Creativity is often experienced
as an urge to create. When all impulses are suppressed, creativity often
gets suppressed, too. Being connected to your impulses and urges is
important for both you and your child. For your child diagnosed with
ADHD, connecting with his impulses allows him to utilize one of
his wonderful giftscreativity. When creativity is combined with
discipline, your child has the potential to be a superstar.
REFRAMING SYMPTOMS:
FINDING CREATIVITY
When a parent does not pay careful attention to a childs inner
process, it is easy to miss his creativity in everyday life. While the
teacher complains that he is spacing out during her presentation
on the structure of our government, your child may be generating
possible solutions for eliminating wasteful governmental spending.
While your child appears to be trying to get out of going to his music
lessons, he may be singing Broadway show tunes in his mind, with
perfect tempo and remembering all the words. As you can see, if a
child isnt doing what hes supposed to be doing, we commonly think
he is misbehaving. In fact, he may be exploring and expressing his
own unique gifts that do not match up with societys tight schedules
and plans for him.
In fact, what adults often think of as goofing off can be one of the
most important activities for any child, but particularly for a creative
child. If your child is diagnosed with ADHD, you may recognize that
he does not have the same attention span and sustained focusing
abilities of other children, but you must also acknowledge his supe-
rior creativity that, as a parent, you are entrusted with nourishing
and nurturing. But you cannot nurture his creativity by getting him
to conform to the demands of traditional ideas of achievement. You
nurture his creativity by making allowances for his differences and
unstructuring his life accordingly.
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The Gift of ADHD
Goofing Off Is Not Giving Up

Lets examine this idea of goofing off. Creativity requires goofing
off. Goofing off is play, experimentation, and trying out new ideas
then adjusting them to see what fits, what works, and what is more
fun. As a parent, you may have observed your child engaging in
an activity for a small amount of time and then starting to goof
off. For example, one parent complained that her daughter asked
to take lessons to learn to play the clarinet. She would practice her
lessons at home for only fifteen minutes, and then she would put
her clarinet down and dance wildly, running around the house like
a Tasmanian devil. Her mother considered this giving up, feeling
frustrated at how much it cost to buy the clarinet and pay for lessons
and thinking that the money was being wasted. But it can also be
viewed as another form of creativity, or a strategy for discharging
all of her excitement about playing music. It might be her boredom
with practicing lessons, which contrasts with her desire to add her
own daring and impulsive energy to the practice of the clarinet. So
goofing off is not giving up. In reframing this behavior as a form of
creativity, we can help the childs wild energy to be channeled into
creative musical abilities.
Music coach and psychologist Dr. Lane Arye has written in
his book Unintentional Music: Releasing Your Deepest Creativity
(2001) about how goofing off can feed ones deepest creativity. As
an example, he describes a music lesson with a classical guitarist
in which the teacher asked a student to amplify a particular hand
gesture that was irrelevant to the music being played. The student
amplified his gesture until he was making wild body movements and
screaming with delight. The teacher writes that, after the appar-
ent derailment of the music lesson, I asked him whether he could
express this ecstatic wildness in his music. Franz grabbed his guitar
and played the same piece as before. But this time he played it with
incredible energy He said, with an irrepressible smile, that he had
never thought it was allowable to play like that (Arye 2001, 109).
This interaction can be viewed as a model for parents interacting
100
with their children diagnosed with ADHD. You can become a detec-
tive and search for ways in which your childs apparent symptoms
represent creativity or could be channeled to enhance your childs
creative expression.
On the Importance of Being Confused

Similarly, lets look at confusion. Your child may get into trouble
in school for looking or acting confused when called on or when
participating in classroom exercises. His confusion or apparent dis-
orientation may give the impression that he is not paying any atten-
tion at all. It may make him look less intelligent and provoke harsh
comments from teachers and students alike. However, this sense of
confusion can be reframed as reflecting a higher intellectual sophis-
tication, because it can result from an appreciation of the deeper
complexity of the topic. It can be looked at as an appreciation of the
mysterious, as an expression of humility in the face of the complexity
of the world.
Confusion is an admission that one does not fully understand
the material being covered. And creativity requires that a person
acknowledge that there is a deeper aspect of what is being presented.
Therefore, confusion can also be thought to be a necessary com-
ponent of creativity. Confusion can represent an experience of the
mystery of what is being taught. For example, in reflecting on pho-
tosynthesis, a child with ADHD might be awed by the order and
harmony in the universe that allows for the sun to nurture plant
growth, which in turn nurtures the human environment. But that
same child might get derailed by the experience of awe and get con-
fused about the detailed aspects of the biology of photosynthesis. In
fact, the constructed explanations offered to students by teachers are
often oversimplifications. In pretending to know it all, students and
teachers gloss over the complexity and mystery of the world.
Confusion, though it is essential to creativity, gets a bad rap in
our culture, which makes a virtue of being sharp and quick at all
times. These cultural demands overlook the value of being slow and
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The Gift of ADHD
uncomprehending. But admitting or experiencing not knowing can

be liberating. In fact, the struggle to always have the right answer
actually prevents a person from learning. If we think we have the
answers, or if we are seeking only one answer, then we are not open
to a deeper understanding or to exploring other ways of seeing the
world.
EXERCISE: The Creativity of Everyday Life
In this exercise you will be asked to practice reframing your childs

symptoms as manifestations of creativity. You will be asked to search
for ways in which his behavior can be seen as acting or thinking
outside the box. In addition, you will be guided to find ways to honor
your childs expression rather than suppress it, and you will ask your
child to practice becoming aware of his creativity.
1. Start out by becoming aware of a symptom your child demon-

strates. A typical complaint about children with a diagnosis of
ADHD is that they dont follow directions very well. Lets say
that when you ask your son to keep quiet in church, he often
seems to become defiant and will burst out with irreverent com-
ments that the whole congregation can hear. You interpret this
behavior as purposefully defiant and rebuke the child with harsh
words and threats of dire consequences if he does not keep quiet.
In response, his behavior escalates, setting a vicious circle in
motion.
2. Generate possible positive explanations regarding how this

behavior is creative. For example, maybe your son is trying to
make the church services more lively. You might commend him
for trying to participate or make a contribution in his own way.
Perhaps your sons irreverence reflects a need for something
that is more down to earth and relevant to the concerns of the
parishioners.
102
3. Engage in a discussion with your child, asking him to reflect on

his behavior. Listen while remaining open to a nonantagonistic
understanding of his behavior. For example, you can calmly ask
him why he is contributing to the church service in this way
when he was asked to keep quiet. Listen attentively to how your
son understands his behavior. He may surprise you by saying
that he noticed that people laugh when he makes these out-
bursts, and he wants people to laugh more at church to show
how happy they are to be there. He might tell you that maybe
people would come more often if they laughed at church. This
is a radically different interpretation of his behavior, and it gives
you the opportunity to see it as sweet generosity rather than
defiance related to ADHD.
4. Give your child praise for his creativity and tell him that this
is an example of his ability to think and act in ways that are
outside the box. You might also commend him on his perception
of the problemsfor example, with the church serviceand
his efforts at solving the problems. Remember, creativity means
that, rather than mastering and following what other people are
doing, your child questions the way things are done and finds
ways of doing things differently.
5. Tell your child that, while you appreciate his creativity and think
he has a lot to offer, he needs to be aware that some people
might be disturbed by his outbursts and see his behavior as dis-
respectful. You can explain that while his behavior demonstrates
his gifts, he needs to balance his creative expression with respect
for other people.
6. Engage his creativity by helping him to devise ways to express

himself while still being respectful to everyone else. Spend
some time brainstorming ideas together. For example, you could
suggest to the minister that, rather than having a stuffy choir
every week, they could have a jazz band play renditions of some
of the hymns. Maybe your son could think of inoffensive jokes
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The Gift of ADHD
to tell members of the church during the social hour. Maybe he

could paint a picture of people laughing in church and give it
to the minister.
Having completed this practice of reframing, communicating,

and problem solving with your child, you will be well on your way to
increasing your connection. By trying to not become frustrated and
assume the worst about his behavior, you demonstrate an enormous
amount of respect for him. You will also find that, by listening to his
motivations rather than assuming the worst, you gain an increased
appreciation for his creativity and positive motivations; the common
reaction of frustration and threats is transformed into increased
intimacy. As you change your perceptions, you also transform your
childs perceptions of himself. As these ideas change, behavior will
follow. You are well on your way to transforming your childs prob-
lems into strengths!
EXERCISE: Fill In the Blank
One of the easiest ways to generate positive interpretations of your

childs behavior is to purposefully look for them. For the following
exercise, you will write the sentence stems shown below on a piece
of lined paper or on a page in your notebook and ask your child to
fill in the blanks. This can be fun for him because it asks him to use
his creativity and gives him a chance to show you what hes really
thinking.
1. I am most creative when .
2. I can show others my imagination by .
3. I am really good at .
4. My last really good idea was .
104
5. The last idea I had about something that needed to be improved

was .
6. One thing I do differently from everyone else is .
7. I do this my way because .
8. I can help others because .
9. I can make the world a better place because .
10. The thing I like most about myself is .
11. Other people like me because .
12. I wish people would understand that .
13. I wish I could show people .
14. I wish my teacher knew .
15. I wish my parents knew .
When you have completed these sentences with your child, you
can collaborate on translating some of the results into action. For
example, in the case where the child thinks that church needs to
be more fun, you can take his comments seriously and suggest that
you and he talk with the minister. If you agree that the church is
too dull, maybe you could try another church. Perhaps you could
give him a chance to show the family how he would create a sermon
or service that would be more fun. Once your childs impulse is
honored or given expression, you can expect his problematic behav-
ioral expression of it to be reduced.
Let Your Child Contribute

Another reason for honoring your childs impulses is that very
often he truly does have something to offer. Sometimes children
with ADHD are expressing what a lot of other people really think
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The Gift of ADHD
but are too controlled to say. Thom Hartmann (1997), an author

and advocate for understanding ADHD as a gift, has argued that
the ways in which children diagnosed with ADHD disrupt classes
are signs that our educational system needs to change. If your child
insists that classes are boring, he may be right.
Dr. Lane Arye writes, Old-fashioned ideas about music peda-
gogy are symptomatic of a larger societal pattern. Both rank and
privilege are bestowed on those who are older, better educated,
professional, successful. A mere child or someone in a lower socio-
economic position is often forced to humble herself, hold herself
back, keep her good ideas hidden, and follow those who have more
assigned power Being deeply democratic would mean giving the
student a say in this process, letting her in on the decisions that
affect her education For if the needs and ideas of students were
taken into consideration, then much of the rebellion that is a normal
part of education would be seen as creativity and used to further the
teaching process (2001, 132).
The educational system could benefit from providing more oppor-
tunities for creativity, less focus on obedience, more opportunities
for fully engaging students senses rather than just their minds, and
more attention to students individual needs and aptitudes. Not only
would such an approach honor the child by reframing his behavior
as creative, but it would also allow respect for the childs impulse
to transform structures that are not working and are in need of
change.
SUMMARY
This chapter reframed the ADHD symptoms of distractibility, day-
dreaming, and impulsiveness as creativity. Children with ADHD are
gifted in imagination and original thought. Specific exercises and
strategies were recommended for discovering ways in which so-called
symptoms are actually signs of creativity.
106
CHAPTER 6
Showing the Way:

Ecological Consciousness
Children with the diagnosis of ADHD have a preference for learn-

ing about the world through hands-on engagement. They like to
be immersed in the topics they are learning about. They are often
very curious about the natural and organic world, feeling a deep
connection to it. This gift for engaged, experiential learning is often
overlooked because existing educational systems focus on abstract
learning and rote memorization. What looks like a disorder can be
viewed as a poor match between a style of learning and current
standards of teaching.
Not only do children with a diagnosis of ADHD learn through
engagement, they have an ardent curiosity about the living, breath-
ing organic world. They often feel connected with and attuned to
nature and animals. As a result, they may represent a much-needed
force in the world: protecting the environment.
The Gift of ADHD
In chapter 1, we discussed how anything different from normal

is often labeled disorder by psychologists, psychiatrists, and teach-
ers. However, in order to argue that different from normal is bad,
one has to believe that normal is good and healthy. In contrast, if
one looks at the state of the environment, one might argue that
climate change, for example, is the result of normal modes of con-
sciousnessthe idea that nature is exploitable and expendable. Your
childs difference may be, in some ways, better than normal, because
she may become one who guides us toward a healthier relationship
with our environment.
WHAT IS ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS?

An ecological consciousness is a way of being that respects the
natural worldplants, trees, animals, and insects. Individuals with
this form of intelligence feel directly related to and engaged with the
natural world. Children with an ecological consciousness often are
very sensitive to animals and ardently interested in nature. These
children like to spend time outside, doing anything from picking
flowers and leaves and examining worms and insects in the dirt to
simply rambling.
Howard Gardner described naturalist intelligence as a separate
type of intelligence uniquely capable of solving problems related
to the natural world (1999). He discussed Darwin as an exemplar
of this type of intelligence, a person who was intensely interested
in understanding the natural world and who spent his life directly
engaged with the natural world.
Nature as Medicine
When the first edition of The Gift of ADHD (2005) was released,
many of the ideas presented in it were embraced and featured in
mainstream mediaexcept for the idea of ecological intelligence. In
some places this idea was received as California-speak. Ironically,
108
Showing the Way: Ecological Consciousness
even then it was one of the most scientifically validated interven-

tions for increasing attention. The research robustly demonstrates
the positive impact of time spent in nature on attention in general
and ADHD specifically.
Since the release of the first edition, the idea of nature as medi-
cine has gone mainstream. The National Wildlife Federation has
formed the national coalition No Child Left Inside. This coalition
advocates for legislation and other national initiatives to address the
crisis of childrens disconnect from nature as TV, computers, and
other digital media increasingly consume childrens lives. The need
for this effort is a clear sign that something has gone wrong in our
culture. One or two generations ago, children played outside until
dusk, dreading the call to come inside for dinner and bedtime. Now
we need public service announcements telling us about the health
benefits of playing outside and prescribing a recommended daily dose
of outside time.
Richard Louvs book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children
from Nature-Deficit Disorder (2005) became a national best seller,
and by 2009 Time magazine was declaring ecological intelligence to
be one of ten ideas changing the world right now (Walsh 2009,
66). Daniel Golemans book Ecological Intelligence (2009) describes
the need for the development of ecological intelligence as the solu-
tion to many global crises. The World Future Society ranked nature
deficit disorder as the fifth most important trend that would shape
2007 and the world to come (Charles et al. 2008).
The No Child Left Inside coalition is not the only organization
aiming to reconnect kids with nature. Others include the Children
and Nature Network and the National Forum on Children and
Nature, hosted by the Conservation Fund. These organizations seek
to address the growing concerns about the possible consequences of
a nature-deficit disorder as coined by Louv.
As is the case with any new idea going mainstream, there
are those who are at the forefront. These leaders are showing us
what happens when we take ecological intelligence seriously. Teton
Science Schools, for example, has taken the momentum of ecological
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The Gift of ADHD
intelligence and run with it. Teton Science Schools in Jackson Hole,
Wyoming, has been fulfilling its mission of connecting people,
nature, place, and education since 1967 (personal communication,
Teton Science Schools, 2009). The school not only nurtures ecologi-
cal intelligence but rightly views it as a possible cure for many child-
hood health issues such as obesity, ADHD, and depression. In this
program, children experience the intimacy of connection to people
and a place that forges a communityin sharp contrast to the expe-
rience of many children who spend large amounts of time watching
TV and playing video games. This school gives us a sense of what
education and child rearing will look like if we act to change our
increasingly technology-centered world.
Not only has the idea of ecological intelligence spread like wild-
fire, but, as mentioned above, scientific research is also increasingly
showing that time in nature has direct and measurable positive effects
on attention (Berman, Jonides, and Kaplan 2008). Stephen Kaplan
proposed the attention restoration theory, explaining that time spent
in nature offers a relief from directed attention and thereby restores
our capacity to pay attention. Research has shown improvements
in focused attention following time
spent in natural settings, includ-
When asked what they
ing sitting in gardens, walking in
are paying attention to
the park, or even gazing at artwork
in class, children with
depicting natural beauty. So many
ADHD often remark that
studies have shown positive results
they are looking out the
that one review of the literature
window. They are deeply
describes time spent in nature as
engaged in observing
a recommended healing method
the trees, birds, or any
a readily available therapy with no
glimpse of wildlife the
side effects and zero cost that con-
window opens up for
sistently and reliably boosts cogni-
the child. Often these
tive functioning (Berman, Jonides,
children are caught by
and Kaplan 2008).
what Abram calls the
While many children would
spell of the sensuous.
benefit from spending more time in
110
nature, it is true that kids with ADHD may have an intrinsic need to
spend more time in nature and are therefore doubly injured by these
cultural trends. Kids with ADHD usually dont want to sit in a class
learning about naturethey want to learn actively, in the natural
world. Whereas current education systems demand focused concentra-
tion on abstract concepts, children with ADHD may be gifted with
what author David Abram calls sensuous consciousness (1996).
The Spell of the Sensuous

David Abram (1996) writes in his book The Spell of the Sensuous
about the devastating impact of our disengagement from the natural,
organic world we live in. He depicts a culture that has become
so absorbed in its own intellectualized abstractions, supported by
increasingly sophisticated technologies, that we have become numb
to the destruction of our environment. Abram (1996, 272) refuses
to put forth any utopian solutions to the problems he poses, suggest-
ing that such ideas would themselves invite attention away from our
sensuous surroundings:
A genuinely ecological approach does not work to attain a

mentally envisioned future, but strives to enter, ever more
deeply, into the sensorial present. It strives to become ever
more awake to the other lives, the forms of sentience and
sensibility that surround us in the open field of the present
moment.
Abrams ideas offer one avenue for understanding the gifts that
our culture calls an attention deficitthe style of consciousness that
gets called ADHD is precisely what is necessary to reverse the envi-
ronmental damage wrought by the dulling of our senses. For example,
when asked what they are paying attention to in class, children with
ADHD often remark that they are looking out the window. They
are deeply engaged in observing the trees, birds, or any glimpse of
wildlife the window opens up for the child. Often these children are
caught by what Abram calls the spell of the sensuous. Under such
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The Gift of ADHD
a spell, the child perceives the concrete, everyday world as almost

magical, whereas the abstract world of thoughts and books is not
compelling. Abram argues that this is a positive quality and entails
being enchanted by the world of the senses, often linked to organic
natural events.
A student named Mike reported that, rather than listening to
what was going on in class, he would find himself drawn to watching
the way the sun reflected off the leaves of the trees outside the class
window, the way the wind blew through the leaves, and the way the
squirrels played among the branches. He found himself asking why
leaves are green and how the squirrels lived off of the tree. From the
teachers standpoint, this behavior looked like a failure to pay atten-
tion to the classroom tasks required for success in school. However,
Mikes apparent disengagement was actually engagement with the
small natural landscape available to him through the window of the
classroom. Mikes interest in the tree represented not a deficit disor-
der or a lack of intrinsic curiosity but an attunement to the natural
world. His questioning about what was inside the trees and interest
in why the leaves were green reflected a sophisticated curiosity about
the world around him, which was quite advanced for his grade level.
He was interested in questions that would not be addressed until
much later. He would have to wait until high school biology classes
to learn about the mechanism of photosynthesis and the greenness
of leaves. It may have been that his difficulties in school resulted
from his curiosity far outpacing the studies of his grade level, which
required him to contend with the mechanics of reading and writing
rather than nourish his ardent curiosity about the world around him.
Unfortunately, by the time he reached high school he had had so
many experiences of failure that the questions that had originally
interested him receded in the background, overshadowed by his
chronically negative academic evaluations.
Abram suggests that modern culture has turned its attention to
written text. The abstraction and intellectualization of the modern
consciousness has led to participation not in the world surrounding
us but in the books and texts that tell us about that very world. In
112
depicting the modern evolution of consciousness, from which ADHD

is a deviation, Abram writes, it is only when a culture shifts its par-
ticipation to these printed letters that the stones fall silent. Only as
our senses transfer their animating magic to the written word do the
trees become mute, the other animals dumb (1996, 131). For Mike,
the trees and animals were alive; it was the book that was dead.
To Abram, Mikes attention to the spell of the sensuous would not
be seen as regressive but could in fact show a way of being in the
world that would facilitate an ecological mind-set. In Abrams words,
it is only at the scale of our direct, sensory interactions with the
land around us that we can appropriately notice and respond to the
immediate needs of the living world (1996, 268).
If an attention deficit represents an increased sensitivity to the
wider community of nature, then this style of consciousness is one
that needs to be cultivated in order to preserve our environment
not dulled through medication. After all, it is the dulled modern
style of consciousness that has led to the growing ecological crisis
our culture faces. Daniel Goleman (2009), in his book Ecological
Intelligence, similarly suggests that sensitivity to the impact of our
behavior on the environment is one of many types of intelligence
that should be highly valued, on par with the intelligence measured
by standardized tests.
A TALE OF TWO STUDENTS

Although ADHD can represent a form of environmental intelligence
with many gifts to offer, you are familiar with how this gift can play
out negatively in the classroom. Below are brief characterizations of
two students, one with normal modes of paying attention (Sam)
and one with an ecologically engaged consciousness (John).
Sam is sitting quietly in science class. He is focused intently on

what the teacher is saying about the structure of flowers. Some of
the information is familiar from Sams reading in the textbook. Sam
wants to pay careful attention to what the teacher says because he
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The Gift of ADHD
knows there will be a quiz soon on the anatomy of a flower.

He wants to do well on the quiz.
John is having a hard time staying in his seat. The teacher is

droning on and on about something, but John is mesmerized by
the scene from his classroom window. Hes watching the rain
fall on the plants and trees near the fence across the street. John
wonders if the plants and trees drink the water and why they
dont get soggy. He wonders if all the insects get washed off the
plants and trees and if they need to drink water from the rain.
John hasnt kept up with his reading because the book seemed
really boring. When he tried to do his homework the night before,
he was too busy watching the neighbors dog chase squirrels to
focus on the text.
As you can see from these two vignettes, both students are
paying attentionjust to different things. One student pays atten-
tion to books, teachers, and the importance of getting good grades;
he remembers that there will be a quiz on the material and this
motivates him to pay attention. The other student pays attention to
trees, leaves, and animals; he shows ardent curiosity about the world
around him. Both are curious and smart, but Sam will likely succeed
in school, and John will probably do poorly. Despite his deep intel-
ligence, Johns failure in school will likely lead him to believe that
hes not smart. He may begin to believe that he just doesnt measure
up and will never succeed, so hell give up trying. John may begin to
think there must be something wrong with him, wondering, Why
do I always fail?
He may be failing because he is being taught using the wrong
strategies. There are many teaching strategies that would better fit
Johns gift of engagement with the sensual world. For example, if,
rather than being assigned reading, John was assigned the task of
exploring a garden, observing the flowers, and bringing a flower
to class, he might then be interested in paying attention to what
is going on in the classroom. Because children with ADHD learn
114
through their senses, anchoring lessons firmly in the sensual world of

experience will help them to be more involved in what is happening
in the classroom.
As a parent, you can engage your childs interest by encourag-
ing these interests rather than dismissing them as distractions. For
example, rather than forcing your child to sit down and read quietly,
you can ask the teacher to tell you the topic of study ahead of time
and then allow for some time to observe or explore in ways that
are related to lesson plans. If you cannot find a way to connect the
material with sensual learning, then you might offer an opportunity
for nature exploration around the neighborhood to help your child
prepare for book learning.
THE IMMEDIATE BENEFITS OF OUTSIDE TIME
A 2001 study found that the symptoms of ADHD were

relieved by time spent in nature (Faber-Taylor, Kuo, and Sullivan
2001). The study found that children were better able to con-
centrate, complete tasks, and follow directions after spending
playtime in natural, especially green, settings. Activities such
as camping, fishing, or playing soccer outside were examples of
time spent in natural settings. The authors suggested that these
findings were not explainable merely as a result of the subjects
physical activity. For example, playing basketball in paved sur-
roundings did not result in the improvements in concentra-
tion that even passive activities in green settings did. Also, the
results could not be attributed to the childrens engagement
in activities they preferred and were willing to settle down in
order to participate in. The researchers found that, while chil-
drens preferred activities were watching TV or playing video
games, these activities did not improve the ability to concen-
trate as much as playing in nature did.
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The Gift of ADHD
RELIEF FROM ADD SYMPTOMS
<FIG>
Indoors Paved Green

Outdoors Outdoors
Fig. 1. ADD symptoms in children are relieved after spending time in

nature. The greener the setting, the more the relief.
The authors explain their findings by suggesting that

being in nature facilitates a state of involuntary attention that
is effortless and provides a rest from directed attention, the
capacity to focus narrowly. The authors argue that the use of
directed attention is like exercising a muscle, and it results in
fatigue. The involuntary attention that is promoted by activity
in nature offers the child a rest, allowing her to exert directed
attention afterward.
Another explanation that supplements the authors find-
ings is that children with ADHD have a particular attunement
116
to nature and that feeding this need helps them to settle down.
So, in some ways, children with this diagnosis need to be con-
nected to nature and are unsettled until this need is met.
Further research support for the power of nature was found
in a study of at-risk inner-city girls. The study found that the
greener the view from a girls home (meaning the more nature
was visible from a window), the more that girl was able to con-
centrate, inhibit impulses, and delay gratification (Faber-Taylor,
Kuo, and Sullivan 2002). Although this study found this effect
only in girls in this sample, the results suggest that when chil-
dren who have difficulty concentrating stare out classroom
windows, they may be attempting to heal themselves. Another
study found that students whose dorm rooms had views of
nature had greater capacity to sustain attention than students
without nature views (Tennessen and Cimprich 1995). Other
studies have found physical health benefits to hospital patients
whose rooms had views of natural scenery.
These findings indicate a need for a change in how teach-
ers respond to window-gazing. Instead of punishing the child or
pointing to the behavior as evidence that she is not trying at
all, perhaps it should be permitted for limited amounts of time.
In this way, an ADHD child staring out the window can use
this intelligent strategy for restoring attention and have a better
chance of succeeding.
ENCOURAGING YOUR CHILDS

ATTUNEMENT TO NATURE
Given that your childs way of being in the world and easy connec-
tion to nature can be understood as a gift, it may be to her benefit to
encourage the development of this talent. Its possible that honoring
this gift outside the classroom will allow your child to pay attention
inside the classroom.
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The Gift of ADHD
Behavior Strategies
There are many strategies you can use to honor your childs gift
and shape her behavior to achieve greater success in school. One is to
never punish your child by taking away her time in nature. Because
this time is what she needs to help her concentrate, you would put
her in a bind if you were to take away her time in nature as a pun-
ishment for not following directions or not doing homework.
Another strategy is to avoid offering time spent in nature as a
reward, because it is not effective. It is more helpful to give your
child time in nature before she begins her schoolwork than to tell
her that if she completes her homework she can then play outdoors.
She may very well need her time in nature to facilitate doing her
homework. The main idea here is that you want to work with your
childs natural gifts rather than against them. By realizing that your
child feels a special connection to nature and knowing that this con-
nection is healing for her, you can use playtime in nature as a prepa-
ration activity to help her focus, concentrate, and follow through on
directions. You may want to create a schedule for your child that
involves nature time before homework or household chores.
You can also boost your childs self-esteem in the process of hon-
oring this gift. You can tell her directly that you understand and
value the importance of her connection to animals, trees, and the
living world. You can also tell her that her engagement with nature is
a great gift to offer the world. You can talk about the environmental
problems in the world and how they have resulted from the thinking
that nature is not as important as human wants and needs. You can
tell her how her direct connection to nature represents a different
style of being in the world that serves to balance the disregard that
can be seen in the normal state of mind. You can also tell her that
what the doctors call ADHD is this different style of being, and that
it is different from normal, but different in this good way.
Allowing your child to learn in nature is yet another strategy. If
you can find a nearby park that has picnic tables, you might choose
to allow her to study or read for some amount of time at the park.
118
Again, this strategy involves going with the flow rather than resist-
ing your childs natural inclination to be in nature.
Project-Based Learning Strategies

One powerful strategy for using your childs engagement with
the natural world is to develop and advocate for project-based learn-
ing exercises for her, both inside and outside the classroom. This
means that in science classes, for example, you try to engage her
senses with field trips and exploration of the world.
This type of learning exercise asks children to actually do things
rather than just read about them. Children with a diagnosis of
ADHD have a hard time processing abstractions or rational, linear
representations of the world. However, they can be very effective at
solving real-world problems and learning through engagement with
the world. As a parent, you can engage your childs interest by intro-
ducing her to a project or experience that helps to illuminate a topic
shes studying in class. The following exercise is an example that is
relevant to science or literature classes. But if you can increase your
childs motivation in one topic of interest, and she can demonstrate
success in one subject, her self-esteem and self-efficacy will increase,
boosting her motivation for other subjects. As she learns that she is
capable of succeeding, her enthusiasm will be enhanced and shell
believe that, with effort, she can succeed.
EXERCISE: Creating Your Own Field Trips
Choose one of your childs school subjects that lends itself to spend-
ing time in nature, such as science.
Plan and develop a trip or project that will engage your childs
senses and is related to your chosen subject. For instance, if your
child is learning about animals, plan a trip to the zoo. If shes learn-
ing about tree leaves, take a trip to a forest and ask her to pick out
some leaves.
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The Gift of ADHD
Provide praise for your childs energy and ability to follow direc-
tions as she participates in the project or exploration. In this way
you are validating that she does have the skills to follow directions,
focus her energy, and learn new things. You are also validating her
creativity and curiosity. When your childs full senses are engaged
in learning, her gifts will be evident as she shows a lot of energy,
curiosity, and creativity in exploring the world. Reflect back to your
child your appreciation of these gifts.
Once you have engaged your childs curiosity, connect her gifts
to the lessons being taught in the classroom. Have her think of
questions about the topic. Tell her that her school books and teacher
can help her find answers to these questions. So, for example, after
a trip to a nearby forest to collect leaves, you can direct her to some
readings that talk about the structures and function of leaves. In the
process, you will channel your childs energy and enthusiasm into
finding answers through books and other school resources. This will
increase her motivation to participate in the classroom.
You can use the same strategy to help your child with a literature
class. You might engage your childs interest by connecting some of
the natural elements of a story or book to real-world explorations.
For example, if the story takes place near a lake, you can plan a
trip to a lake or pond to motivate her to engage with the reading
material.
ADVOCATE FOR PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN SCHOOL
A personal testimony of the value of project-based learning for

students with ADHD can be found in the book Learning Outside
the Lines, written by two students with ADHD who made it through
an Ivy League school (Mooney and Cole 2000). These students
describe their personal struggle with school and how they overcame
their obstacles to succeed in a university setting. They advocate
for the use of project-based learning as one way of navigating the
120
educational system. These authors write about how simple changes

in the learning environment can make or break academic success:
Only as time went on did simple interventions like the ability to get
up out of our seats, the use of a spell checker, and progressive ideas
like project-based learning and other modifications to the learning
environment allow the pathology to slip into irrelevance and enable
us to be successful (2000, 65).
As a parent, you can become an advocate for these changes on
behalf of your child. These same authors talk about having teachers
who emphasized spelling and tormented them with bad grades and
public humiliation because they couldnt spell. The authors learned
to hate school and associate it with personal failure. One of the
authors writes about how one teacher, understanding the childs dif-
ferences, did not penalize the student for poor spelling or emphasize
the childs difficulty with spelling. This teacher allowed the student
to use a spell-checker, and one of the main struggles of elementary
school was ended. This teacher looked for and saw the strengths
of the student and emphasized those. These simple changes in the
environment can have powerful effects on your childs success and
attitude toward school.
If even small changes, like permission to use a spell-checker, can
make such a dramatic difference, then you can imagine the benefits
of larger changes, such as incorporating project-based learning into
your childs coursework. As an advocate for your child, you can meet
with each teacher and make them all aware of your childs diagno-
sis and the importance of project-based learning as an adjunct to
regular classroom learning. You can also request that your childs
grades be based on projects rather than quizzes or tests.
Each time you advocate for changes in your childs instruction,
you should let your child know what youre doing and why you are
doing it. In this way, your child will grow to feel that you are on
her side and not an antagonist. The power of her feeling that she
is supported cannot be overstated. As your child feels that you are
advocating for her interests, her motivation to do well in school and
to work hard will be increased. In addition, by advocating on her
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The Gift of ADHD
behalf, you are communicating to her that her differences are not
deficits, and that she has strengths. Your child will internalize the
good feelings that you convey when you advocate for her and when
you take action to change the environment rather than just try to
change her. As you place some of the blame for her failures on the
school environment, you can reverse the self-blame and self-defeat-
ing thoughts that have come to plague your child.
An example of what you might say to a teacher follows:
Parent: Mrs. Dugan, I wanted to speak to you about how you

can best facilitate my daughters learning in your class.
I have come to see that Janet has a different style of
learning. She shows a special engagement with nature
and the organic living world and learns best when she
is doing and touching and able to get her hands on
whatever is being studied. She struggles with details
and abstractions, but she is highly curious. I have
found that I can increase her motivation for book
learning if I tie it to some project or exploration of
the organic world. For example, I see you have an
upcoming quiz on labeling the parts of a flower. If
you can involve the class in looking for real flowers or
bring in real flowers and ask them to explore, touch,
and develop questions about the flowers, it would be
a great help to Janet. Im not trying to tell you how to
teach your class, but I know you have a commitment
to reaching each child and engaging each students
interest in science. This is one way that really works
with my daughter.
In addition to advocating for project-based learning, you might

also want to talk to teachers about strategies of punishment that
are likely to fail for your child. Its common for teachers to punish
ADHD students for goofing off in class by taking away their recess
time. You might want to advocate for your child that recess and
time spent out in nature actually help her to concentrate and settle
122
down. Once the teacher takes this away, her behavior is likely to get
worse, not better. Sometimes this form of handling behavior leads
to a vicious circle. Your child has difficulty sitting still in class, and
the teacher says that if she cannot sit in her seat shell miss recess.
Your child gets out of her seat and misses recess, which is her time to
connect with nature. In subsequent classes, her behavior gets worse
and additional forms of behavioral control and punishment follow,
which humiliate your child. All of this makes her feel more negative
toward school and more unable to control her own behavior.
Further, consider making the radical suggestion to your childs
teacher that, rather than having her recess time taken away, she
needs more time for breaks. It may be that instead of ordering time-
outs or trips to the principals office after bad behavior has occurred,
the school could implement preventative steps by giving your child
small breaks outside in nature before classes.
There is strong reason to believe that playtime in nature would
improve all childrens educational outcomes. Finland has one of the
most highly ranked educational systems, ranking first in literacy and
in the top five in math and science. It encourages playtime at regular
intervals throughout the school day (Louv 2005). A typical Finnish
school day follows a pattern of forty-five minutes of work followed
by fifteen minutes of playtime outdoors. Finlands example shows us
that we are headed in the wrong direction by creating more per-
formance demands in the classroom and taking away playtime out-
doors. It seems clear, from the growing body of research and Finlands
example, that time in nature and free play are a basic need of any
child and an essential building block of maintaining attention.
Schools and teachers regularly make allowances for children with
ADHD. The problem is these allowances are usually stigmatizing or,
at the least, do not allow the child to reach her full potential. Students
may be taken out of class for remedial help, which may attract the
notice and judgment of other students. These interventions may be
humiliating and difficult for your child to tolerate. It seems worth
advocating for your childs teachers and schools to allow for small
nature breaks in place of other forms of remedial intervention.
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The Gift of ADHD
Similarly, small allowances in the classroom can prevent major

outbursts. Simple behavioral interventions like permitting a child to
get out of her seat on occasion can go a long way toward making
school more tolerable for your child. As a parent, you can ask for
behavioral interventions that are not punishing or humiliating for
your child and can prevent major interruptions in the classroom.
Jonathan Mooney and David Cole (2000, 70), in Learning Outside
the Lines, speak to the powerful need for engaging, creative learning
strategies:
Trapped as children by a narrow understanding of what it

means to learn, we lost our passion for learning and our
passion for school, which we had to fight to regain later in our
lives. We also lost the opportunity to develop the intuitive,
emotional, and creative parts of our minds. These were identi-
fied as irrelevant, as learning became about memorization and
sequential thinking, and not about creative, intuitive ideas.
These words may serve as an inspiration for you to ask for

changes in your childs learning environment. In so doing, remem-
ber that your childs school is already changing the environment to
accommodate your child: she may be subjected to frequent time-
outs, trips to the principals office, requirements that she sit in the
hallway during recess, remedial interventions, and time out from the
regular schedule to take medications. As an advocate, youre simply
asking for different accommodations, which will prevent problems by
enhancing your childs passion for learning. Instead of punishment,
ask for prevention.
MATCHING ENVIRONMENTS
AND EXPECTATIONS TO YOUR
CHILDS NEEDS
Given the power of the environment to affect your childs behavior,
you may want to begin to think about how to create environments
124
that are a good match for your childs differences and gifts. You dont
have to lower your expectations for your childs level of achieve-
ment, but you should be sensitive to which directions are most
likely to suit your childs natural abilities. An enormous amount of
what looks like psychopathology can actually be the result of a ter-
rible match between a persons natural gifts and her environment.
For example, imagine how depressed and anxious a creative, artis-
tic person would be while working as a computer programmer in a
Fortune 500 company. Your child is stuck in a similar situation. Her
gifts dont match the way in which most schools structure learning
environments.
Although changing the school environment might not be fea-
sible, you can keep your childs passions alive by building on your
childs interests that wont be nurtured in the classroom. Very early,
you can take seriously your childs interests in the natural world or
other areas and begin providing guidance for how she might make
a career out of these interests. As a general rule for activities and
career directions, try to encourage your child in pursuits that build on
existing strengths rather than trying to compensate for weaknesses.
It may seem way too early for you to think about career choices
for your child, but your expectations deeply affect her perceptions of
what is and what is not an acceptable direction to move in. Some
children abandon interests at a very early age because parents convey
that these interests arent serious enough. But remember that any
specialized area your child expresses interest in can be thought of
as fuel for driving her interest in the academic arena. If she has an
almost obsessive interest in dinosaurs, you can use that interest to
get her engaged in reading books about dinosaurs or taking trips to
natural history museums. If your child has an avid interest in sports,
you can use that to develop her interest in math as she learns her
favorite players stats, records, and averages.
Sometimes parents make the mistake of suppressing interests
that dont fit with their expectations for their child. A child who
loves sports may later develop an interest in physical health in order
to excel in sports, which may then transform into an interest in
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The Gift of ADHD
medicine. A child who loves to play with animals may develop

knowledge and curiosity that leads her to a career as a veterinarian.
Children who love listening to music may be motivated to learn to
play and read it, which can facilitate the learning of math skills.
Similarly, your childs natural attunement to nature can be
encouraged and can suggest directions for vocational interests later
in life. Children with ADHD and a love of the outdoors can grow
up to be conservationists, marine biologists, or county employees
for managing and protecting water resources, for example. Although
book learning is a struggle for individuals diagnosed with ADHD, if
they achieve the discipline to make their way through higher educa-
tion, they can make excellent doctors or veterinarians. While the
rigors of a pre-med program and medical school are an obstacle,
many ADHD students are capable of sticking through it. When they
do, their sensuous consciousness serves them well as medical doctors,
due to their intuitive connection with organic, living anatomy.
You do not need to provide career counseling for your young
child, but you should not let your expectations deter your child from
pursuing any interest that she is passionate about. Not only can her
natural curiosity be channeled toward academic skills, but the inter-
est itself can also become a content area that will serve her later in
life.
On a much broader scale, your childs sensitivity may lead her
to a satisfying career in conservation or preservation of the natural
world. In that career, she may make a difference in the world, coun-
teracting the current mind-set that devalues the environment and
contributes to exploiting it for commercial ends.
SUMMARY
This chapter reviewed the way in which symptoms of ADHD can
be seen as a form of ecological consciousness or engagement with
the natural world. Rather than being a deficit or disorder, ADHD
may represent a surplus of sensuous attunement with plants, trees,
and animals.
126
CHAPTER 7
Interpersonal Intuition
Children with ADHD often cross interpersonal boundaries and

display impulsive behavior that alienates their peers and teach-
ers, leading to rejection and hurt feelings. One of the most painful
aspects for parents of children diagnosed with ADHD to endure is to
observe their child experiencing peer rejection. As challenging and
painful as this experience can be, you can come to see your childs
interpersonal style as a precocious but sometimes irreverent gift for
understanding human interactions.
The following account illustrates how you, too, can transform
your vision of the interpersonal style of ADHD.
A therapist in training, Amy Williams reported feeling anxious

about her responsibilities as co-leader of a group therapy treatment
for adolescent girls. Her anxiety as she assumed this new role
The Gift of ADHD
was not surprising. As the group developed, her anxiety turned to

dismay as she realized that one of the group members who had
been diagnosed with ADHD was unmanageable. This member was
loud and obnoxious and disrupted the group at every turn. Amy
felt like she was losing control of the group and worked hard to
keep it on track. After weeks of group therapy that seemed out of
control because of the disruption caused by this one member, Amy
mentally gave up. She walked into the next group meeting with the
realization that she could not manage this group, and she would
just have to stick it out. She accepted defeat and, in so doing,
banished her anxiety. No longer was she intent on making the
group work perfectly, nor was she doubting herself if she couldnt
control its course.
Amy reported a remarkable transformation. The very day she
conquered her anxiety, the group process transformed. The member
who had been so disruptive was suddenly the model group client.
The group therapy proceeded, and for the first time the process
facilitated healing for all members.
In Amys account of this remarkable transformation, the client

with ADHD had been acting out Amys anxiety about managing the
group and her new role. And, as the client continued disrupting the
group, Amys anxiety escalated. A vicious circle was set in motion
as the clients behavior grew worse and Amy became more anxious.
As soon as Amys anxiety dissipated, the vicious circle was stopped
and the clients behavior was no longer disruptive or disturbed. Amy
remarked that her first impressions of this client were that she was
pretty superficial and incapable of connecting to others. Amy saw
later that this client was in fact more connected to her than any
other client wasshe was so attuned to Amys emotional state that
she acted it out. Amys transformation from seeing the client as
superficial and obnoxious to seeing her as highly sensitive, attuned,
and connected to her will serve as our template for understanding
the interpersonal gifts of ADHD.
128
FREE-FLOATING AWARENESS
As shown in the story above, the intuitive ability of children diag-
nosed with ADHD bears a striking resemblance to the same gifts
that therapists try to cultivate to understand their clients. Once rec-
ognized, the gift of intuition can be transformed into an ability to
connect deeply with others.
Psychoanalysts utilize free-floating awareness as a way of picking
up what clients may be feeling, and people with ADHD often have
a similar form of awareness. It may allow the individual with ADHD
to be strongly attuned to another person despite his inability to pay
close attention to what the person is saying. This inability to listen
carefully to others, a common symptom of ADHD, might be akin
to what Freud called evenly hovering attention, which simply con-
sists in making no effort to concentrate the attention on anything
in particular [O]ne proceeds aimlessly, and allows oneself to be
overtaken by any surprises, always presenting to them an open mind,
free from any expectations (1963, 11820).
Freud thought that this form of attention was a talent neces-
sary for listening with the third ear, or for developing interpersonal
intuition. One of the gifts of children diagnosed with ADHD is this
talent to discern whats not being said, or the ability to read the
emotions of others.
One college student with ADHD reported that one of the reasons
she had a hard time listening to others was that she so often recog-
nized that what a person was saying contradicted what was really
going on with him or her. She found herself paying close attention
to a persons nonverbal cues, facial expressions, and gestures. Again,
although it may have seemed like she was not paying attention at all,
often she was very present and aware of the other personjust in
ways that werent typical. By this students account, her inability to
focus on the words being said allowed her to understand other people
more deeplybecause she wasnt guided simply by words. So, ADHD
may be seen as an intuitive form of intelligence that picks up the
present state of individuals, which they may not want to convey.
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The Gift of ADHD
The problem for a child with ADHD is that he cannot stop

his interpersonal intuition and sensitivity to others emotions from
flooding his experience. Because a child cannot process intense
emotions, he will often resort to acting out the emotions of others
in disruptive behavior. The exercises in this chapter will help your
child channel his gift in productive ways.
Emotional Contagion
You can help your child understand his ability by describing it
to him as emotional contagion. Like a cold or a flu, other peoples
emotions can be caught, and your child is especially susceptible to
catching them. This doesnt mean hes disabled or disorderedit
simply allows him to understand others in a different and deeper
way.
The steps to transforming this sensitivity into a gift are the fol-
lowing: (1) help your child become aware of the emotion he feels;
(2) help him figure out whose emotions he is picking up; and (3)
help him communicate his sensitivity to the person. There are also
some strategies for helping your child protect himself from being too
sensitive. The following exercises will help your child manage his
emotional sensitivity to others.
EXERCISE: What Is This Feeling, and

to Whom Does It Belong To?
Ask your child to remember an example of a behavior during which

he felt out of control and which he couldnt explain at the time. As
he tells you about the example, ask him who was most disrupted by
the behavior or was the target of the behavior. Get as many concrete
details as possible about the situation. It may be useful to start with
an example that involves you, because then you can validate his
feelings or explore them in greater depth.
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When you have a very vivid picture in your mind of what hap-
pened, ask your child to take a few deep breaths and relax. Ask
him to focus on what he was feeling at the time of the disruptive
incident. You can help him by asking the following questions:
Where do you feel it in your body?
How big is the feeling?
What color is the feeling?
Is it hot or cold?
Is it sharp or dull?
Is it hard or soft?
Does it make you more tired or give you more energy?
What shape is it?
Is it heavy or light?
Is it strong or weak?
Is it mad?
Is it sad?
Is it afraid?
Is it excited?
Is it happy?
Is it upset?
Is it disgusted?
Is it surprised?
What does it look like?
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The Gift of ADHD
Does it move?
What name would you give it?
As you go through these questions, help your child get a strong

impression of the emotion and help him define it or clarify the
feeling.
Once your child has described the feeling, tell him that some-
times he may catch feelings from other people. He may start expe-
riencing feelings that arent really his. Then you might ask him to
speculate about whose feeling it might have been. If the feeling
involves a reaction to you, he might say, I was just running around
when you came to school to talk to the teacher. I didnt know why I
couldnt stop, but I was afraid. You might want to explore whether
you were afraid and he was sensitive to it. If you find that you were
feeling fear in that situation, then you might say, You are very sensi-
tive to have picked up on that feeling, because I was nervous talking
to your teacher. I was afraid he would think I was a bad mom, and
I was afraid I would get mad at him for being impatient with you.
In this way you may be able to validate his feelings, which mirrored
your own. If the feelings arent related to yours, you can still help
him practice slowing down to think about the feeling, describe it in
as much sensory detail as possible, and put a name on it.
Because children often act out feelings rather than feel them,
helping your child slow down and feel, name, and describe whats
going on inside of him will help manage his behavior. Once he is
aware of his feelings, he wont act them out. Once he gains this
awareness, he can talk about his feelings and can use his gift to
increase intimacy with others. You can show your child how he can
use his feeling to communicate a sense of connection with others. In
the example above, you might suggest he ask you, Are you afraid,
Mommy? As he begins translating his inner experience into a gift
for connecting with others, people will respond differently to him.
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The very same emotions that previously disrupted his behavior can
now be channeled into forging connections with others.
After he practices this process with you, invite your child to
practice applying it at school with his peers. You can role-play an
interaction with a friend. For example, play a game of pretend. Ask
your child to imagine that you are his cousin Kate. Describe a real-
life example that ended in disruption. Remind your child of the
time Kates little brother started calling Kate names, for example.
While Kate continued to play calmly, your child started throw-
ing blocks at Kates little brother. After going through the steps
described above, encourage your child to practice saying to Kate
something like the following: I bet youre mad at your little brother.
Hes really acting like a pest. Then you can role-play Kate affirming
your child, feeling even closer to your son, and continuing to play
without disturbance.
EXERCISE: Force-Field Control
In this exercise you will help your child to protect himself from his
emotional sensitivity. He will learn to use the feeling of being out of
control as a signal that he is tuned in to someone elses emotional
state.
1. Ask your child to identify how he knows when he is getting

out of control. Ask him to identify the earliest warning signs
he can think of. He may describe the experience of being over-
whelmed, of feeling pushed, or of feeling like there is a motor
in him making him do things. Whatever language he uses to
describe the feeling, validate the feeling and tell him that this
is an important warning sign that he needs to pay close atten-
tion to.
2. Ask him to spend a week paying attention to what he feels

before, during, and after every episode of feeling out of control.
During this week, youre not trying to change his behavior; you
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The Gift of ADHD
are just trying to observe it. Every day after school, ask him how
school went and if there was an incident where he felt out of
control. Ask him to describe in as much detail, using the ques-
tions from the first exercise, what that out-of-control feeling was
like. Any time you observe him losing control, ask him to stop
and observe what that feels like.
3. Develop a detailed sensory description of what being out of

control feels like. It may be something like I feel like a rush of
energy, and I cant stop myself. Sometimes I know I shouldnt do
what Im doing, but I feel like there is a jet engine making me
move. I feel it as a stomachache, and usually it feels like a bright
red color thats shaking. Have him elaborate on the description
as much as possible.
4. Tell your child that he can think of this feeling as a warning

signal. It means Stop! Ask your child to take one week to pay
attention when he experiences this feeling. Whenever he gets
the feeling during the week, he should practice stopping and
taking a few breaths.
5. After having completed steps 1 through 4, teach your child to

use an imaginary force field to provide a buffer between him and
other peoples emotions. Ask him to imagine that he has control
over an invisible force field that can keep out impulses. Let him
create this field in his imagination with as much embellishment
as possible. For example, he may imagine a pink force field of
energy that vibrates, and any impulses bounce off of it as soon as
he senses them. Or he might imagine the field as a yellow bubble
that surrounds him and protects him from impulses. Spend some
time showing him how he can control this force field. He can
make it go up, and he can make it go down. He can make it
thicker or thinner. He can make it extend far from him or move
closer to him. He can make it change color. He can make it
stronger or weaker.
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6. Tell your child that, for the next week, as soon as he feels his
warning signal, he should practice using his force field. At the
earliest sign that his warning signal is coming on, he can play
this imaginary game.
7. When the week is over, ask your child to describe what happened
when he used his force field. If the outcome was good, reinforce
how much it helped and encourage him in using it. If the results
were not as good as hed hoped, help him problem solve and
figure out how he could use it in a better way. Encourage him
to keep practicing this imagination game.
FROM DEFIANT TO SELF-RELIANT

Children who have been diagnosed with ADHD are often perceived
as interpersonally defiant or oppositional. It is this quality that most
provokes teachers and sets up a negative interaction cycle. As you
have discovered, the teachers perception of and reaction to your
child will have a powerful impact on his behavior, motivation, and
success in school.
Because your child is so interpersonally sensitive, he will feel the
teachers judgment of him and act it out in class (or simply tune out
and not try at all), setting up yet another vicious circle: Your childs
teacher knows your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, so, at
the first sign of disruption, she reacts very negatively. Your child
picks up on the teachers negative feelings and begins acting them
out, causing even more disruption. Then the teacher punishes your
child, embarrassing him. Now your child not only feels compelled
to act out the teachers increasingly negative feelings but also reacts
strongly to being humiliated in class. Rather than being able to iden-
tify his feeling of being embarrassed by the teacher, your child is
more likely to try to show the teacher he doesnt care by acting out
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The Gift of ADHD
even more. So the teachers negative judgments and punitive behav-

ior can create behavior that is, in fact, defiantit is an attempt to
defy the teachers seeming rejection of your child.
So how does self-reliance fit into this process? Often, in this
cycle, your childs initial behavior is a form of self-reliance that gets
interpreted as defiance. The teachers tendency to interpret self-reli-
ance as defiance is what sets up the initial rejection, which leads
to the cycle described above. For example, a common disruption
involves a child getting out of his seat without asking permission.
The reason he doesnt ask permission may be that he feels confident
and does not want to bother the teacher. Imagine how different the
situation would be if the teacher recognized the initial act of self-
reliance rather than assuming that it represents defiance.
As mentioned earlier in the book, the teachers interpretations
of your childs behavior can have dramatic effects on his attitudes
toward education and the course of his motivation and achievement.
Research has found that teachers may be the force behind the dra-
matic increases in the diagnosis of ADHD. In one study, research-
ers who surveyed pediatricians, psychiatrists, and family physicians
found that in 47 percent of cases of diagnosed ADHD, the teacher
was the person who first suggested the diagnosis (Sax and Kautz
2003).
The implication of this finding is that teachers have a great deal
of power in the diagnosis and course of ADHD. In light of this, as a
parent who has a child diagnosed with ADHD, your efforts to work
with the teacher are essential to your childs transformation. It also
suggests that if your childs diagnosis was suggested by a teacher, you
may want to consider the validity of the diagnosis. Although teachers
dont make diagnoses, they usually are asked to fill out rating forms
that psychologists and psychiatrists use in assessment. Often teach-
ers are overworked, have too many children in their classes, and are
working with too few resources. Their capacity to manage a class
may be pushed to its limits due to increasing budget cuts in educa-
tion, and therefore they may suggest that ADHD be treated with
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medications that make a child easier to control in the classroom.

Teachers often have good intentions for your child, but they them-
selves have been schooled in the medical model of ADHD. They
often believe that it is a medical disorder rather than a behavioral
problem that can be caused and alleviated by changing thoughts,
behavior, and environments.
The emphasis on control in the classroom serves the purpose of
managing classes that are too large. But your childs best interests
are served by teaching him to think for himself, to learn to trust his
inner knowingto be self-reliant. Success in the real world depends
more on being able to think for oneself than on being able to sit still
and memorize facts. On a much larger scale, the atrocities of Nazi
Germany can, in part, be attributed to a nation that did not permit
its citizens to think for themselves. On a smaller scale, you want
your child to be able to think for himself as he becomes a teenager
and is subject to strong peer pressures. For these reasons, as a parent
you want to encourage your childs ability to think for himself. You
will also want to advocate to teachers and school administrators that
this capacity be appreciated.
There is a cultural element in your childs being labeled as oppo-
sitional or defiant. Ours is a culture that values teaching children
conformity and compliance over self-reliance. This clashes with the
tendencies of children with ADHD, who are often perceived as sen-
sitive and charismatic (sometimes even the class clown). In tightly
controlled classrooms, this charisma might be interpreted as defi-
ance, and your child might be subjected to punishment and humili-
ation, which can then provoke actual defiance.
The increasing rates of diagnosis of ADHD may point to a
failing in our educational system rather than a medical problem in
your child. The terms oppositional and defiant are relational terms.
One can only defy another person; it can only happen in a relation-
ship, not in isolation. Therefore the labels may also be pointing to
that which is being defiedin this case, very possibly the teacher,
school, or overall educational system.
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The Gift of ADHD
EXERCISE: Catch Your Child in Acts

of Self-Reliance
In order for you to change your own interactions with your child and
to become his advocate in school settings, you will need to practice
changing your own interpretations of his behavior. Try the following
exercise.
1. For one week, simply monitor your judgments of what you might
think of as your childs oppositional behavior. Keep a journal of
the behaviors that you felt were defiant, situations in which you
wanted something and he refused or argued with you. Observe
these situations, handle them as you usually do, and carefully
note your reactions, your emotions, and the outcome of the situ-
ation. For example, you might write, I told Steve that his friends
had to go home because he had to clean up his bedroom before
dinner. Steve got angry and said they were in the middle of a
board game, and he wanted to finish. I felt impatient and tired,
and I told Steve that he would not be able to have his friends
over next week if he couldnt follow my directions. He started
crying and got mad at me. His friends were obviously uncom-
fortable, and after they left Steve refused to clean his room and
didnt talk at all during dinner.
2. For the next week, practice redefining your childs episodes of

defiance as self-reliance in the moment. Try to see him as think-
ing for himself, and consider that he may be right. In many
situations, this wont be appropriate: for example, if your child
is cursing or hitting, you want to be sure to exert control in the
situation. However, there is likely to be at least one situation in
which your child may be right; in these situations, change your
behavior to reflect your newfound appreciation of your childs
self-reliance. As an example, if a situation like the one described
above were to happen, you might note, I told Steve that his
friends had to go home because he had to clean up his bedroom
138
before dinner. Steve got angry and said they were in the middle
of a board game, and he wanted to finish. As I watched him
play, I saw that he and his friends were deeply engaged in an
intense game of strategy. I realized they were at a critical point in
their game and that it really wasnt a good time for them to stop.
I commented to him and his friends about how challenging the
game was, but I reminded Steve that dinner would be ready in
twenty minutes. I told him that he could clean his bedroom after
dinner, but that he would still have to finish the game in ten
minutes so he could say good-bye to his friends and get cleaned
up before dinner. Steve said that was okay, that in ten minutes
they would reach a good stopping point.
3. Use your experience of reframing defiance as self-reliance to

become an advocate for your child. Make an appointment to
talk with his teachers and share your experience of how honor-
ing your childs will in some circumstances has transformed your
interactions from oppositional to respectful. You can also share
how in the process you have seen new talents in him that you
hadnt noticed before. Use some concrete examples to demon-
strate for your childs teachers how they can practice reframing
your childs oppositional behavior. Also share that you under-
stand that the teacher needs to control and manage her class-
room and that you understand that certain behaviors are far
outside the limits. Let the teacher know that simply honoring
your childs perspective on a few occasions each week can be
enough to persuade your child that the teacher does see his per-
spective and is not simply out to get him.
This may seem like a lot of work to do. You may find yourself
wishing that you didnt have to do so much for your child. It may
seem like youre being asked to try to change the whole educational
system. In some respects, that is exactly what you are doing. Each
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The Gift of ADHD
parent who advocates for change may begin to envision what we

want for our childrens education overall. There are effective models
for teaching children besides the ones that place the highest empha-
sis on conformity, compliance, and control. Parents can play a role
in shaping the demand for a different vision. In helping your child
to transform his problems into strengths, you may even find yourself
on the path of becoming a social activist.
SUPPORT YOUR CHILDS SUCCESS

As you introduce some of these new exercises and your child begins
to identify his own emotions and see them as sensitivity to others,
youll be able to notice your child engaging in interpersonal inter-
actions with you and others in a new way. Pay special attention to
what your child is doing right. This will not only serve to reinforce
or reward your child for transforming his behavior but also help you
problem solve around other interpersonal difficulties.
Sometimes problems are simply the result of unfortunate learned
behaviors. For example, if your child blurts out inappropriate com-
ments in social settings, it may be because he finds the eye-popping,
jaw-dropping reactions he gets from adults to be stimulating. Your
child may be interpreting these visual cues as positive reinforcement.
Remember that a major interpersonal gift of ADHD is that these
children are tuned in to peoples emotional reactions and attend
more to nonverbal cues than to what adults actually say.
Additionally, sometimes bad behavior can be easily managed
by working on solving problems in the conditions preceding such
behavior. For example, Sharon found that her daughter, Frances,
would bully her younger brother in the morning when they were
getting ready for school. When Sharon began looking for times when
this behavior did not occur or when Frances was helpful toward her
younger brother, she noticed one morning (Francess birthday) when
things ran very smoothlyFrances didnt bully her brother, and the
family was able to get out of the house without any major melt-
downs. As Sharon drove her daughter to school, she expressed her
140
appreciation and asked her what was different about this morning.
Frances said that because it was her birthday they had spent the
night before picking out her outfit and braiding her hair. When she
woke up that morning, all she had to do was put on the outfit she
had already picked out and eat breakfast. Frances explained that
since she was all ready to go in the morning, she didnt mind her
little brother following her around, because she didnt have to worry
about being late.
By catching her daughter doing something right and asking
What went right? Sharon was able to change a longstanding
interpersonal problem between her two children. Sharon had always
thought that the morning tantrums and meltdowns were because her
daughter had ADHD. When Sharon went out of her way to catch
her daughter doing something right, she uncovered the real cause of
the morning meltdownsher daughter had a lot on her mind and
a lot to do, and she rightly perceived her little brother as getting in
her way in the morning rush.
Paying attention when your child does something right leads to
positive reinforcement, which is likely to increase the good behavior.
In addition, by asking What went right? you can solve specific
problems and eliminate bad behavior. In Sharons case, she changed
the family routine so that either she or her husband spent some time
in the evening helping their daughter prepare for school the next
day. They picked out clothes, they planned hairstyles, they packed
backpacks, and they even planned breakfast. Frances could then get
up in the morning without pressure and not feel bothered by her
little brother. Sharon found that making this simple change dramati-
cally transformed mornings in their home.
By changing this one behavior, Sharon also saw how each behav-
ior had been a part of a powerful chain reaction that escalated the
tension in the home. When Frances was stressed out and trying
to get ready, she would tease her little brother. Her little brother
would cry, and Sharon would have to separate them and comfort
her son. As Sharon quelled these fights, she knew she herself was
becoming late and worried that she would not get to work on time.
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The Gift of ADHD
As she became more worried about work, she got mad at Frances
for seeming to cause all these problems and for putting this addi-
tional stress on the family. As Sharon got increasingly mad, Francess
bad behavior escalated because she was so sensitive to her mothers
anger. Frances usually acted out her mothers anger by hitting her
brother. Once she had hit her brother, a family meltdown was well
on its way to happening.
Before, it seemed like Frances was the sole cause of all the
morning tension; now, on reflection, Sharon could see that each
family members reactions led to a cycle that escalated the tension.
By paying attention when things went well, Sharon was able to
turn this cycle around and stop blaming Frances, which changed
the family dynamic. Sharons story illustrates not only the power of
actively searching for your child doing something right but also the
power of the ADHD label on your perception of him.
When you interpret your childs behavior as the cause of, rather
than a reflection of, family tensions, your sensitive child easily senses
the blame hes subject to and internalizes an image of himself as bad.
The more the diagnosis causes you to blame him for family tensions,
even if you dont express this blame verbally, the more he will feel
the blame and internalize it. And the more he blames himself, the
more he tends to think of himself as bad and unable to control
his behavior. The more he thinks of himself this way, the more his
behavior will reflect this internal image.
EXERCISE: What Went Right?
This exercise will help you to change the dynamic of blame and bad
behavior in your family.
1. Catch your child doing something right. Watch for an instance

in which your child does not engage in a habitual bad behavior
or when he has a positive interaction.
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2. Ask yourself and your child, What went right? What was dif-
ferent? What preceded the good behavior? What followed the
good behavior? Why were things different? Get as many details
as possible.
3. Ask yourself, In what ways is this bad behavior a reflection of

family tensions rather than the cause of family tensions?
4. Make changes in family routines as appropriate. If this exercise

reveals more deep-seated problems, seek counseling or outside
help. For example, a child with ADHD may act out negative
feelings stemming from marital conflict between the parents
or unresolved depression and grief experienced by one or both
parents. You or your partner, or both of you as a couple, might
need to work with a therapist in order to resolve an underlying
conflict or tension that your child is reflecting back to you.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have reviewed how symptoms of ADHD can be
seen as an interpersonal gift. Children diagnosed with ADHD are
very sensitive to the emotions of the people around them. They are
prone to emotional contagion, or reflecting and acting out unex-
pressed emotions of people they feel connected with. This ability
can lead to interpersonal disturbances, but it can also be channeled
to reveal and enhance your childs emotional sensitivity and deep
connection with others.
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CHAPTER 8
Your Exuberant Child:

Reframing Hyperactivity
If youre like most adults in our culture, you suffer from a sort of
hypoactivity disordernot having enough energy. Rates of depres-
sion, chronic fatigue syndrome, and sleep deprivation are skyrocket-
ing in our culture. In short, we are tired. Dont you wish you had a
lot more energy? Wouldnt that be a gift?
If your child has a lot of energy, then she is already blessed
with that gift. But because she may have what seems like an excess
of energy, she may have received the hyperactive label. However,
what doctors and teachers call hyperactivity can also be called exu-
berance. Exuberance is characterized by high energy and an intense
interest in and curiosity about the world. Exuberant children are
often playful, intense, and fun to be around. So why does a trait that
The Gift of ADHD
seems so obviously positive get turned into a disorder? As a parent of

a child with this diagnosis, you are well aware that your childs excess
of energy demands a lot of energy from you and her teachers. While
the focus of this chapter will be how to reframe this surplus of energy
as a gift, it is worth considering, in passing, whether the increasing
rate of ADHD diagnoses in children parallels the increasing rate
of depression in the adult population. Both of these diagnoses are
subjective, so if teachers and parents are reporting increasingly low
levels of energy, then by comparison our children may look like they
have abnormally high levels of energy.
Even so, your child with ADHD likely shows higher levels of
energy and activity than other children her age. This chapter will
help you and your child increase your familys appreciation for this
high level of energy. You will learn two complementary strategies
for helping you to manage your child. The first strategy will involve
techniques to help your child contain her high level of energy, so she
can avoid immediately and impetuously acting out her impulses. The
second strategy involves finding ways to channel your childs energy
that reveal it as a resource rather than a difficulty.
APPRECIATING AND MANAGING YOUR

CHILDS HIGH ENERGY
One of the reasons high energy becomes a problem in children is
that the energy seems to have a mind of its own. It exists at the
service of an unfolding urge or impulse felt by the child and is not
directed toward productive ends. The essential problem is that the
energy is unfocused.
However, you and your child can learn to view her surplus of
energy as a valuable resource. You can help your child learn to take
charge of this energy, rather than being driven by it.
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Your Exuberant Child: Reframing Hyperactivity
EXERCISE: Taking Over the Steering Wheel
Many children with the diagnosis of ADHD describe feeling like

they have an internal motor that makes them go all the time. This
exercise has two elements. In the first part, your child will practice
monitoring her internal motor activity. By becoming aware of her
motor, she will be less likely to be driven by it, and she will gain
skills to help her tolerate the driven feeling. In the second part, your
child will make fun cards with positive reminders telling her that she
can control herself and take charge of the energy.
1. To begin, talk to your child about how her excess energy can
be thought of as a powerful motor that drives her. Ask her to
draw a picture of the motor. Encourage her to talk about what
the motor feels like and how fast it makes her go. Ask her to
pay attention to the motor while shes at school and just notice
when it speeds up or slows down during the day.
2. While driving her home from school, or once she gets home,
check in with your child and ask her what she noticed about
the motor. Listen carefully as she tells you about her experience.
Here are some questions you might ask her:
Where in your body do you feel the motor?
How big is the motor?
How fast is it?
What color is it?
When does the motor speed up?
What happens before it speeds up?
What happens after it speeds up?
When does it slow down?
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The Gift of ADHD
What happens right before it slows down?
What happens right after it slows down?
Use some of your childs responses to suggest strategies for giving

her control of the motor. For example, if your child says she notices
the motor speed up when she sits next to her friend Tommy during
reading group, you can suggest that she try not sitting next to Tommy
during reading group. If she says she noticed her motor slow down
when she was trying to fix one of the toys at school, suggest to her
that, when she finds her motor revving up, she can find something
to fix or tinker with. You can also suggest to her teacher that your
child be given certain responsibilities that involve tinkering, such
as setting up audiovisual equipment, as a strategy for calming her
down. You can also suggest to the teacher that he value and praise
her abilities. Similarly, at home you may want to offer a great deal of
validation and approval of her work with mechanical objects. In this
way, she can receive approval and increase her self-worth by doing
activities that are intrinsically rewarding to her.
Make a fun game out of creating cards that remind your child
that she can control the motor. You will need 3 by 5 or 4 by 6 index
cards. Tell your child that she can notice when the motor revs up
and take charge by imagining that she is driving a car, with her
hands on the steering wheel and her feet on the brakes. She can cut
out and paste pictures of cars or boats, or draw her own, on one side
of the cards. On the other side, you can write out reminders for your
child, such as the following:
I can slow down the motor.
I can steer the car.
If I take a few deep breaths, I can put on the brakes.
If I take time to feel the motor, I can take charge.
Im in charge.
I can use this motor to help me pay attention.
148
I can use this motor to help the teacher.
I can use this motor to help other students.
I can use this motor to do my homework.

I can use this motor to clean my room.
I know how to slow down the motor.
I can put my hands on the steering wheel.
I can sit still even if the motor is going fast.
I can stay quiet just by noticing the motor.
Have your child take these cards to school and keep them at
her desk. You can also keep a second set around the house, to use
as reminders of how to channel energy in positive ways. The more
your child is involved in having fun in creating the cards, the more
shell be interested in looking at them and using them in school and
other settings. After a day or two, ask your daughter to tell you about
how and when she has used the cards in school. Listen carefully and
offer generous praise for using the cards and taking control of her
behavior, and help her problem solve if trouble arises. For example,
if other kids make fun of her cards, suggest ways she can handle the
situation by standing up for herself or help her figure out how to use
the cards in a way that wont draw the attention of other students.
You might also want to let the teacher know that your child will be
using the cards.
The above exercise combines some of the most fundamental

cognitive behavioral strategies for transforming behavior. First, you
guide your child in monitoring her behavior, because awareness gen-
erally precedes any change. By simply noticing the revved-up, driven
feeling, your child will be taking a significant step toward gaining
control. The more she is aware of the driven feeling, the less she
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The Gift of ADHD
will impulsively act out. Next, by identifying antecedents and con-

sequences of behavior, you and she work to shape her behavior.
In addition to the behavior strategies in the above exercise,
you will want to make changes in your childs environment so that
those situations that precede the motor slowing down occur more
frequently. Similarly, you will want to change her environment to
reduce or eliminate situations that cause her motor to speed up.
Also, when your child notices the positive consequences of the
motor slowing down, she will begin to notice the subsequent rewards
and may become more aware of the negative results when the motor
speeds up. For example, your child will likely report that one con-
sequence of the motor speeding up is out-of-control behavior that
gets negative responses from teachers and other students. By simply
observing how these consequences follow from changes in the speed
of her internal motor, she will change her behavior to increase the
frequency of positive responses.
In your journal, record all the information you get from your
child about what comes before, after, and during the changes in
motor speed. After a few weeks of taking notes, summarize your
findings under the following titles:
Behaviors That Slow the Motor Down
Behaviors That Speed the Motor Up
Consequences of Speeding the Motor Up
Consequences of Slowing the Motor Down
Once you have compiled a fairly long list of behaviors under each
title, you can shape your childs environment to help her manage her
behavior according to the information you have collected. Your goal
is to (1) increase the activities or events that slow the motor down
and (2) decrease or eliminate activities that speed the motor up.
Tell your childs teachers about the information youve gath-
ered to help her manage her behavior while at school. Share the
information with your child as well, to help her keep in mind the
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importance of paying attention to her inner motor. By reminding her

of the negative consequences of a revved-up motor and the positive
consequences of a slowed-down motor, you will help her increase her
motivation to exercise control over her motor.
Revving Down the Motor

The preceding exercise provides powerful suggestions to your
child that she is in charge. These suggestions and positive expecta-
tions can themselves effect changes in your childs behavior. They
are helpful in counteracting the message she may get from teachers
and doctors that ADHD is impossible to control without medica-
tion. In addition to increasing her perception that she can begin to
control her behavior, you can give her specific techniques for slowing
down the motor.
Children live in the worlds of their imagination, and research
shows that imagination can have powerful effects on feelings,
thoughts, and even physical health problems (VanKuiken 2004).
Your childs imagination can become a powerful resource for con-
taining and channeling her high levels of energy. Following are a few
pretend games your child can try. Some of them shell like; others
she wont. Try a few and repeat only the ones that are most fun for
your child. If it feels like a chore, your child wont be motivated to
use it. If none of the games clicks with your child, try to make up
your own images or pretend games that serve the same function.
EXERCISE: The Speedometer
Tell your child you are going to play a pretend game in which shell
use her powers of imagination. Ask her to sit down and take a few
deep breaths. Then tell her to imagine a control room, perhaps an
airplane cockpit, that contains a lot of dials and control valves. Invite
her to playfully explore this control room. Ask her to find a gauge
that tells her how fast her motor is revving. Ask her to imagine that
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The Gift of ADHD
the gauge goes from 0 to 100 miles per hour, then ask her to tell you
what the speed is now. Tell your child that, just as you can adjust a
thermostat to change the temperature in a room, she can change the
speed of her motor by adjusting a powerful control valve. Tell her to
imagine finding the control valve that determines the speed of the
motor. When she finds it, ask her to slow down the motor speed. If
it was at 50 miles per hour, tell her to move it to 20 miles per hour.
Ask her how this level of energy feels. Then have her experiment
until she finds a specific speed that feels comfortablea speed at
which she has enough energy to focus and pay attention but not so
much that she still feels driven or cant sit still.
Practice this repeatedly, and remind your child that she can use
the control valve to change the speed of her motor. Remind her of
her target speed, and tell her that she should use the control valve
to get to that speed whenever she feels she has too little or too much
energy.
Spend some time playing with your child to make the control
valve and gauge concept more concrete. She can draw the room or
cockpit where the gauge and control valve are located, depicting both
of these items in detail. If you can find any toys that look similar to
the valve, have her physically act out these control strategies.
In addition, ask her to draw a gauge on a blank index card with
the needle pointed at the most comfortable speed for her internal
motor. She can take this card to school to keep at her desk as a
reminder that she can control her energy level. You can also have
her carry a card that has a picture or drawing of her control valve.
On the other side of the card you can write, Im in charge!
EXERCISE: Gamma Ray Bursts
Children are often full of wonder about the universe, planets, and
deep space. You can tap into this interest to help inspire your child
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to work on focusing her intense energy. A particularly inspiring

example is gamma ray bursts, which are the brightest explosions
since the big bang (Nadis 2004). Gamma ray bursts have the highest
energy blasts yet found by astronomers, but what makes them par-
ticularly special is that the energy is not sprayed in all directions but
is focused into narrow beams or jets. They are powerful, energetic
bursts caused by the explosion of a star, and the energy is channeled
like a laser beam.
Tell your child about this fascinating scientific discovery and let
her know that she can be like a gamma ray burst by focusing her
powerful energy like a laser beam. Tell her to imagine focusing her
energy on whatever task is at hand. For example, if she has worksheets
to do for homework and has too much energy to sit still, remind her
of the gamma ray burst. Tell her that right now her energy is like an
explosion, with all the energy going off in every direction but not
able to accomplish anything. Tell her that she can focus her energy
like the gamma ray burst and use it to get her homework done. You
can have her draw pictures of what a gamma ray burst would look
like and put it on an index card to take to school with her. On the
other side of the card you can write, I can focus my energy like a
gamma ray burst. You might also want to track down gamma ray
burst photos from the January 2004 issue of Astronomy, the National
Geographic website, or other astronomy sites on the Internet. These
photos can provide powerful mental images for your child, reminding
her that she can control and focus her energy.
If you try these two games and your childs interest is not piqued,
work with her to develop an image or game that is fun for her. If she
has a passionate interest in a sport, video game, or movie character,
use her specialized interest to develop a game or visual image that
will help her channel and transform her high levels of energy.
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The Gift of ADHD
REDIRECTING THIS POWERFUL

RESOURCE
Even though your childs high level of energy can seem like a tre-
mendous drain on your own energy, you can begin to think of it as
a resource. Its important to remember that, though you can expect
improvements in your childs control of her energy, you cannot
expect to entirely quell your childs high energy level and sense of
being driven. If you keep this in mind, you will be more open to
parenting strategies that will lead to improvements in your relation-
ship with your child.
Staying Positive
Parents of children diagnosed with ADHD often wind up pun-
ishing their child for bad behavior or academic failure by increasing
the level of demands for quiet time or academic study. Unfortunately,
this tactic is not effective, because your childs high energy is not
willfulit is a reservoir that she needs to learn specific skills to
manage. By punishing your child, you communicate that she is
wrong rather than simply different.
Another problem with punishing children diagnosed with ADHD
is that most forms of punishment, while unpleasant for all children,
are excruciating for children with ADHD. For example, sending a
child to her room, prescribing quiet time, and taking away a favor-
ite activity are punishments that are more difficult for a child with
ADHD to endure successfully. For this reason, your child will likely
appear to defy your demands for quiet time. This looks like defiance,
which seems to warrant even more punishment, thus setting up yet
another vicious circle.
As a general rule, it is better to use positive reinforcement
strategies for any child, but particularly for a child diagnosed with
ADHD. One reason for this is that your child likely experiences
rejection and failure at school and desperately needs a safe place at
home where she can feel accepted for who she is. To the extent that
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you can eliminate punishment from your parenting repertoire, you

will improve your relationship with your child and serve her more
effectively.
Positive reinforcement means actively looking for positive behav-
iors or the absence of negative behaviors and offering praise and
rewards for this. In short, you want to catch your child doing some-
thing right. This dramatic shift in parenting a difficult child can be
hard, since you may have built up a lot of frustration and want to do
what works most quickly. But its important to remember the long-
term toll that punishment takes on your childs self-esteem and self-
worth. Though it may feel like a quick fix, punishment will reduce
self-esteem, leading to long-term aggravation of existing behavior
problems. It requires some thought and energy on your part to deter-
mine how you will offer praise or rewards. But the long-term payoffs
are often substantial. Positive reinforcement will improve your rela-
tionship with your child because she wont feel bad about herself or
be angry with you for taking something she likes away from her. The
stronger your relationship with your child, the more capital you
have for negotiating behavior change rather than enforcing it. Lets
now look at ways for you to build your capital with your child.
The Power of Responsibility

One of the more effective strategies for managing your childs
behavior might be called preventative behavioral management.
Knowing what your child is good at and what she continually strug-
gles with, you can begin to channel her energy in productive ways
that will prevent behavioral problems from occurring. For example,
your child has a basic need to be active and engaged in some form
of hands-on project, even more so than other children. You can
use this to your advantage. Instead of punishing your child after a
behavioral problem has occurred, you can prevent bad behavior by
practicing a simple strategy: giving your child responsibility for spe-
cific projects that are of interest to her and are helpful to you.
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The Gift of ADHD
The first transformative principle of this strategy is that, by

giving your child responsibility, you are conveying your trust and
confidence in her. Rather than making her do household chores as a
punishment for bad behavior, you can convey that you are entrusting
her with this project, which would be of great benefit to the family.
You are framing your request as a reward. For example, if you catch
your child engaging in good behavior, you can say that since she
is showing so much improvement, you would like to give her the
responsibility of a special project.
It is important to be thoughtful about the project you assign,
and match the project to something that your child might enjoy. For
example, you could give her something broken that could be fixed or
at least tinkered with, if she likes that kind of task, or you could ask
her to fold laundry or empty the garbage. As described in a previous
chapter, children with ADHD tend to find it calming to spend time
in nature, so you might ask your child to do some landscaping or pull
weeds, which would be a good use of her high energy and give her
some time outside. By using this strategy, you can begin to think of
your childs high energy as a resource rather than a defect.
Many people love to fix broken objects, get their hands dirty,
and manually labor to clean things up or improve the environ-
ment. These tasks can be even more enjoyable for children with
ADHD, who benefit greatly from sensuous engagement with the
world. Children with ADHD often like to see something get solved
or accomplished. In part, this relates to their frustration with school-
work: it is abstract and seems unrelated to everyday life. As a parent
you can take advantage of this frustration by directing your childs
energy and intelligence toward solving real-life problems and improv-
ing the environment, even the home environment.
It is also important that you convey respect for these tasks. Our
culture undervalues this sort of work and considers it to be menial
labor, instead placing an over-emphasis on book learning and school
achievement. So parents often use these sorts of tasks as punishment
for bad behavior because they dont value this physical work. But you
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can do the opposite and view it as useful and even therapeutic for
your child.
The second transformative principle of this strategy is that it
channels your childs energy, keeping her entertained and occupied
in what will seem to her a meaningful activity. This will prevent her
from getting in more trouble and will also be calming in itself, due
to the sensory, concrete nature of the task. This calming effect will
give your child more ability to focus on schoolwork or other tasks
requiring focused, abstract attention.
Following are two scenarios that contrast the use of punishment
with the use of positive reinforcement and giving your child respon-
sibility for household projects.
SCENARIO 1: PUNISHMENT
You are mother to two young girls. After school one balmy day,
your daughter Robin tells you that she wants to go play baseball
with some friends. You tell her no, saying that she doesnt have time,
because you will all be taking her sister to an appointment. Robin
starts crying and gets angry that she cant go play. Her emotional
display quickly turns into a full-blown tantrum with loud yelling. You
raise your voice and tell Robin to control herself, but she doesnt.
You tell her she has to calm down now or she will not get to watch
TV this evening. She seems to lose control even more and cries even
more loudly. Raising your voice, you tell her that she needs to get
herself ready to leave the house and to get in the car. After many
threats, she pulls herself together, still crying and sulking, and drags
herself to the car. During the appointment, Robin runs around the
waiting room and loudly asks you if she gets to watch TV tonight.
You say you will talk about it at home, and she complains louder
and louder.
That night, you tell her that instead of watching TV with the
family she has to go to her room. While in her room she whines
loudly that its not fair, cries, and creates messes by throwing her toys
around aggressively. Her father asks her to be quiet and reminds her
that this is the consequence of her temper tantrum. Robin continues
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The Gift of ADHD
to complain loudly that its not fair. Her father tells her that if she
doesnt stop whining, she wont be able to watch TV the next night.
Robin starts crying again and yelling that no one cares about her.
After her father leaves, Robin starts thinking that something must
be really wrong with her because she cannot control her behavior.
She feels very alone because she thinks her parents are mad at her,
and when theyre angry she doesnt feel like she can talk to them.
SCENARIO 2: RESPONSIBILITY AND

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
Robin tells you that she wants to go play baseball with some
friends. You tell her no, saying that she doesnt have time, because
you will all be taking her sister to an appointment. Robin starts
crying and gets angry that she cant go play. Her emotional display
quickly turns into a full-blown tantrum with loud yelling. You walk
away without giving her any attention while she has the tantrum.
After a few minutes of crying and yelling, Robin realizes that no
one is paying any attention to her. She sees that you are rushing
around looking for something. She says, What are you looking for,
Mommy? You tell her you cannot find the keys. She runs around
the house looking for the keys and finds them for you. When she
gives you the keys, you say to her, Thank you so much, Robin.
Whew! Youre a lifesaver. You have been so helpful. Youre doing
such a great job helping me out and helping all of us get your sister
to her appointment on time. In the car on the way to the appoint-
ment, you say to Robin, Since I can see youre trying so hard to
help out the family, I want to give you responsibility for a project. I
want you and your dad to work together to make something to hold
all the family keys so we wont lose them so easily. Robin gets really
excited about the idea and starts telling you all the ideas she has for
how to make a key holder to hang in the front hallway. While youre
in the waiting room at her sisters appointment, Robin continues to
talk about her ideas for the key holder.
That night, when her father comes home, Robin excitedly tells
him about the key holder that Mom said she could help him make.
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She tells her dad about all of her different ideas. Dad tells her that
if she does some of her worksheets for school after dinner, they can
run to the hardware store to get some of the material for the key
holder. Robin jumps up and down because she is so excited to go to
the hardware store. She says she will do her worksheets so she can
go to the store to pick out the stuff.
HOW THE STRATEGIES COMPARE
As you can see, the difference between punishment and positive

reinforcement has dramatic consequences for your childs behavior
and your relationship with her. In the second scenario, when you
chose to ignore the temper tantrum, you were taking away one rein-
forcer for such behaviorthe attention that Robin gets by engaging
in the behavior. It may be that by throwing a temper tantrum your
child successfully takes your attention away from something else and
puts it back on herself. Although your attention in such cases is
negative, it may be experienced as rewarding for a child. In fact,
children can often stop a temper tantrum quickly if it doesnt receive
any attention, positive or negative. Additionally, over time temper
tantrums will be less likely to occur if they are not given attention.
Just ensure that your child is safe and make sure that she doesnt
engage in any behaviors that could hurt herself or others.
More important than not reinforcing bad behavior is to offer posi-
tive reinforcements for good behavior. In the above scenario, when
you offered Robin a project to work on, she was able to channel her
high energy into the new project. Rather than tearing up the doc-
tors waiting room, she could excitedly plan for this new project. In
this case, the child got a boost to her self-esteem and felt the need
to live up to the responsibility she was given. In addition, the project
gave her an avenue for connecting with her father.
Positive reinforcement is effective because not only will it increase
the good behavior, it will increase your childs self-worth and her
sense of connection to you. If your child feels that you value her, she
will be more likely to feel she can share her thoughts and feelings
with you. The more she can share with you, the stronger your rela-
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The Gift of ADHD
tionship will be. The strength of your relationship with your child is
the single most powerful factor in preventing bad behavior.
SELF-CARE FOR THE PARENT

Parents of ADHD children are often in desperate need of finding
ways to increase their own energy level in order to work effectively
with their high-energy children. The quickest way to raise your energy
level is to take your own needs and passions seriously. Many parents
feel guilty if they spend time, money, and resources to honor their
own needs. However, the parents well-being has a direct impact on
the childs. To put it simply, if your energy is high, then you will be
more capable of connecting with your high-energy child.
Get out a piece of paper and a pencil, and write at the top I
would be delighted to Then write down the first ten things that
come to mind. Choose at least two to put into action this week. By
feeding your own passions and needs, you will be reenergized. You
will also serve as a better model for your child as you teach her how
to care for herself. Taking your passions seriously may be as simple
as signing up for a tap-dance class, or as complex as restructuring
your entire familys schedule in order to simplify your home life.
Begin taking a small first step in the direction of meeting your own
needs.
SUMMARY
Your childs energy can make her exuberant, charismatic, and fun to
be around, but it can also make her a challenging force for parents
and teachers. This chapter reviewed the way in which symptoms of
hyperactivity can be seen as a valuable resource. If your child can
learn to focus her high levels of energy, she can use what is seen
as a negative symptom to fuel productive accomplishment. If you
follow the techniques in this chapter, this high energy level can be
transformed so that she can use it to achieve her goals.
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CHAPTER 9
Your Emotionally
Expressive Child
One of the symptoms parents of children with ADHD struggle with

most is their childs emotional outbursts. Children with ADHD have
little emotional control. When theyre sad, they are given to fits of
crying; when theyre angry, they are given to tantrums; and when
they are excited, theyre prone to act like a Tasmanian devil, whirl-
ing around and leaving big messes as they go. Not only do they tend
toward big displays of emotion, but they also seem to be subject
to a more frequent loss of emotional control than other children,
leaving parents to cringe inside and dread social situations where
they expect their child to throw a temper tantrum.
However, these very same symptoms that parents may have
come to dread represent a remarkable gift: emotional sensitivity
The Gift of ADHD
and intensity. Your child may be prone to more frequent emotional

reactions because he is so responsive and sensitive to life, to other
people, and to his connection with others. Children with ADHD go
through each day living in a world that has the volume turned up
much higher than it is for others. This quality of emotional sensitiv-
ity may be seen as the fundamental distinctive feature of ADHD
and can be seen as helping to drive the other gifts of ADHD.
The gift of emotional sensitivity is directly related to the gift of
interpersonal intuition. Our interpersonal relationships and sense of
connection to others depend on emotional sensitivity. We connect
with others by understanding how they feel. Remember how President
Bill Clinton moved our nation by saying I feel your pain? Children
with ADHD have this same capacity. The more emotionally sensi-
tive a child is, the more he can empathize with others because he
has felt those same emotions. Your child has this gift of sensitivity
in abundance.
The gift of emotional sensitivity is also directly related to the gift
of creativity. Because the world affects your child more deeply, his
capacity to represent the world in artistic ways is increased. He can
see things others cannot see and feel things that others just barely
notice. His perception of the world strikes us as creative because it
is different.
Further, the gift of intense emotional experience fuels your
childs deep connection to the natural and organic world. Whereas
for many adults the natural world is merely part of the background,
the child diagnosed with ADHD is intensely sensitive to the organic,
growing, alive, nurturing qualities of the natural world. Your childs
ecological intelligence is related to a sensitivity to and concern for
his environment. Because the volume is turned up on the world, your
child can feel attuned to plants, animals, trees, and other aspects of
the natural landscape. As noted in chapter 6, this capacity is much
needed in the world today in order to promote conservation and
preservation of natural resources.
In addition, emotional expressivity is also directly related to your
childs surplus of energy. His intense emotions are like a high-powered
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Your Emotionally Expressive Child
fuel compelling him to give behavioral expression to his intense

experiences. In fact, hyperactivity is a behavioral strategy that allows
your child to discharge high levels of emotional experiences. Its hard
to sit still and focus attention with such powerful emotions coursing
through ones body and mind.
EMOTIONAL SENSITIVITY AND

EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
Transforming emotional intensity from a symptom into a gift involves
helping your child to separate emotional sensitivity from emotional
expression.
There is an automatic quality to your childs behavior: impulses
are immediately followed by behavior. And this is true in all children,
because the part of the brain that controls emotional expression is
still developingso the capacity to control emotions is a skill all
children must learn. A child diagnosed with ADHD shares this lack
of control, but its paired with an emotional experience of a much
greater magnitude than in other children. The intense emotion felt
by a child with ADHD typically does not enter his awarenessit
just gets acted out impulsively and discharged.
This chapter will offer an exercise for reining in emotional sen-
sitivity, but our emphasis will be on breaking the pattern of intense
emotion that is automatically followed by an intense emotional out-
burst. Your child will learn how to maintain his sensitivity without
disrupting the environment with intense displays of emotion.
EXERCISE: Helping Your Child Ask for Help
In this exercise, the goal is simply to increase your childs awareness

of the difficulty of managing his emotions. By increasing his aware-
ness of his struggle, he can be guided to ask for help. By asking for
help, your child will increase his chances of channeling his intense
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The Gift of ADHD
emotions in socially appropriate ways. Because every social situation

is singular, you cannot give your child a simple formula to help him
develop social skills.
The most important aspect of the following exercise is that it
reminds your child to put one stepa request for helpbetween
emotional expression and emotional outburst. By directing your child
to ask for help, youre offering him a strategy for breaking the auto-
matic pattern in a way that seems reasonable to your child. By giving
him help, you are acknowledging that the intensity of his emotions
may prevent him from rationally deciding how to effectively channel
his sensitivity. Most important, you are giving him a wedge to insert
between a strong emotion and a socially inappropriate behavior. Just
that one step between the emotion and action may be all that it
takes to break the pattern of disruptive behavior.
Start by talking with your child about his emotional intensity
and reframing it for him as a gift. Give many examples, like the
following, of how emotional sensitivity is a much-needed trait in the
world.
Emotional sensitivity helps us to connect with others

by showing them we know what they are feeling.
It helps us see parts of the world that need to be

fixed.
It helps us see people who need our attention.
It helps us know our own selves.
It can lead to creativity.
It helps you to care for other people.
Talk to your child about how there is a difference between our

strong feelings and our behavior. Let him know that you can feel
something strongly and not act it out in ways that disrupt others.
Tell him that because he is so gifted with emotional sensitivity, he
may need to ask for help from adults in order to find positive ways
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of expressing his emotions. Tell your child that, whenever he feels

a strong emotion that begins to feel uncontrollable, he should ask a
trusted adult (such as his teacher at school, you, or his other parent)
to help him with it.
For one week, practice this with your child at home. Whenever
you notice him getting highly emotional, remind him to ask for help.
If you catch him after his behavior has gotten out of control, avoid
acting angry at him; instead, remind him that next time, he can
ask for help before he loses control. Reassure him that he does not
have to figure out how to control himself. All that he has to do is
ask for assistance.
After practicing for a week, ask your child to practice this at
school. You will want to let his teachers know what youre working
on. You may want to share with the teachers some specific strategies
you have discovered in your weeklong trial period. Once he has had
a chance to practice this strategy at school, look for a time when
your child is in a positive and calm frame of mind, and ask him the
questions that follow. Write his responses in a journal.
What can you do to help yourself when your emotions

start to feel too big for you?
What can we (your parents) do to help you when your

emotions start to feel too big?
What can your teachers do to help you when your emo-

tions start to feel too big?
What can your brother and sister do to help you when

your emotions start to feel too big?
What can your friends and classmates do to help you

when your emotions start to feel too big?
As you go about your activities, begin to try some of the sugges-

tions your child comes up with. For one week, when he asks for your
help, guide him to ask for the aid that he identified as helpful. For
example, your child might tell you that when he gets mad at his little
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The Gift of ADHD
brother and asks for help, he wants you to not only separate him and
his brother physically but also show that you understand why he is
mad. So, the next time your child gets mad and asks for help, do
what he has asked: separate him and his brother and reassure him
that you can see why he got frustrated at his brother.
In trying this exercise, you can expect to transform your childs
behavior just by guiding him to insert one actionasking for help
between his intense emotion and his impulsive action. By doing this,
you are not repressing your childs sensitivity but helping him to gain
social skills in one social situation after another. As he learns to get
help, he will gradually gain the skills and strategies he needs to stay
connected to his own gifted emotional life without disrupting the
environment.
Often you will find that the more you validate the intense
emotion your child feels, the more hell be able to gain control. Any
time you can immediately validate the feeling while channeling its
expression, you can defuse a potential outburst. It is paradoxical
that the more you negate, criticize, or deny your childs feeling, the
more it will grow out of control; similarly, the more you validate it,
the smaller it will get. Youll be amazed at the power of this one
technique.
Heres another example of how this strategy plays out. Imagine
that your child is jealous because you are spending a lot of time
nursing his baby brother. You will help him to gain control by deeply
affirming his feelings: Of course you want some of the attention
that your little brother gets now. Its okay if sometimes you feel mad
at him when Mommys nursing him. But remember to ask me for
help when youre mad rather than jumping up on Mommy when she
nurses your little brother. In this way, you do not make him feel like
he is a bad person for having his feelings. The worse he feels about
himself, the more his behavior is likely to be disruptive. The more
he sees his feelings as acceptable, the more he will be motivated to
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work with you to help manage them. Figure that you will have to
remind your child frequently to ask for help in the early stages of
using this strategy.
In addition, this simple technique of labeling your childs emo-
tions has been found to have long-lasting positive impacts. One
recent study found that children with mothers who talk to them
about emotional states have significantly better social skills than
children with mothers who dont talk about emotional states (Yuill
et al. 2007; also Ruffman, Slade, and Crowe 2002). So, by frequently
labeling your childs emotions and talking about other peoples emo-
tions, you are preparing your child for both emotional intelligence
and high-level social skills. As you can imagine, these abilities will
help your child through his entire life. Below is another activity for
building your childs ability to master his emotions.
SURFING THE WAVES OF FEELINGS

The next exercise will help your child use the image of surfing, a
fun and exciting sport, to help him manage his emotional sensitiv-
ity. He will learn how to go with the flow of his emotions. By doing
this he will avoid two pitfalls of managing emotions: resistance and
outbursts. A common mistake in dealing with emotions is trying to
teach your child to resist his emotions through effort or willpower.
But the more your child tries to resist a powerful emotion, the more
likely he is to lose control. Resistance tends to make the emotion
grow stronger and more primitive. Throw on top of that a feeling
of failing to control the emotion, and resistance becomes like fuel
to a fire.
EXERCISE: Stay with the Emotion
Ask your child to play a pretend game with you that will help him
with his powerful emotions. Start by telling him (or reminding him)
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The Gift of ADHD
that his ADHD means that he has a special gift of emotional sensi-
tivity, so he feels emotions more intensely than others do. Ask him
to think about how we use the volume knob to turn the sound up
or down on a TV or radio. Tell him that he is like a radio with the
volume turned up high, which makes him more in tune with and
more sensitive to the world and other people.
Explain that he needs to have special skills to manage his intense
emotions so he can fit in at school and not get in trouble. Tell him
that, like superheroes who have special abilities, he may sometimes
struggle to fit in and need to develop strategies for getting along with
others. Tell him that you will practice a pretend game to help him
with this task: Surfing the Waves of Emotion.
In this game he pretends that his emotions are waves. Tell him
that, like waves, emotions tend to get bigger and bigger and then,
right after they peak, they start to get smaller. Ask him to imagine
his powerful emotions as waves and picture himself surfing a big
wave. He can plan on the wave getting bigger, but if he just hangs
on it will start to get smaller all by itself. He doesnt need to do
anything; he just needs to imagine surfing a wave.
Now you can try the exercise. Have him think of a strong
emotion he recently felt. Ask him to bring the emotion back, feeling
it almost as strongly as he did then. Tell him to take a few deep
breaths and to relax.
Next, ask him to pay attention to the emotion hes feeling and
imagine surfing the wave of the emotion as it gets stronger. Like a
surfer, he stays with the wave and rides it out as it gets smaller and
eventually dies away. Remind him to stick with the feeling as it goes
up and down and not try to jump away from it.
Practice this with your child daily on smaller, more manageable
emotions. You might have more success with this exercise if you start
out practicing in a calm setting before applying it in real settings.
Tell your child that, like a surfer, he needs to practice on the smaller
waves, but the real test will be when the big waves come. Talk with
him about how he can remember to practice this when he is in
school or when the waves seem really big. Develop strategies for him
168
to remember to try surfing his emotions in other settings. The cards

described below can serve as prompts that help your child remember
to use this strategy in other settings.
Spend some time creating playful reminder cards. Take some
blank index cards. Cut out magazine photos, or have your child draw
pictures, of surfers, surfboards, big waves, or other images that evoke
surfing. Paste these on one side of the blank cards. On the other side
of the card, write a reminder affirmation. Here are some examples:
Surf the wave.
Stay with the feeling.
Watch the wave get bigger.
At the highest point, the wave will get smaller.
Take a deep breath.
Ride out the wave.
You can surf the feeling.
You can stay in control.
Keep track of how your child is using this strategy at school.

Talk to him about when it seems to work and when it doesnt. Help
him problem solve if there are specific obstacles. Remind him that
the key to becoming a world-class surfer is practice, practice, prac-
tice. Tell him not to get discouraged if it doesnt always workeven
the best surfers wipe out on big waves and he will get better with
practice.
The Problem with Resistance

Its common for frustrated parents to frame emotional outbursts
as a moral failing. Parents may be tempted to express to a child
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The Gift of ADHD
that failure to control emotions is morally wrong because it involves

defiance. This strategy will likely backfire, because the more you
make your child feel wrong, the more negative emotions will pile up
and the more unmanageable his emotions will become. One way of
understanding this is the container model (Honos-Webb, Sunwolf,
and Shapiro 2001). According to this model, you can think of each
person as having a container that allows them to hold a certain
amount of emotional experience. If too many powerful emotions fill
the container, the person can no longer hold them, and a break-
down of sorts occurs. In children, this breakdown looks like a temper
tantrum. So if your child is already struggling with a powerful nega-
tive emotionfor example, jealousy of a brotherand you tell him
that the emotion is bad, he then has to contain the feeling of being
jealous of his brother, the feeling of guilt about being jealous, and
the feeling of sadness at being misunderstood. This is a recipe for a
behavioral breakdown.
Thinking of your child with the container model in mind can
help your understanding of him. Consider the following. A childs
container is much smaller than an adults, which means that behav-
ior that would be terrible in an adult is often actually appropriate
for a child. Not only is the childs container smallermeaning that
he has less capacity for tolerating emotionsbut his brain is less
developed. He cannot understand the world as well as an adult can,
so he is more prone to being frustrated and experiencing negative
emotion.
Imagine that you are at the bookstore with your son, Mark. Mark
finds a thick science fiction book, which he pulls off the shelf and
brings to you to buy for him. You know that the book is far beyond
his reading level and that even if he could read it he wouldnt be
interested in the subject matter. You tell him that the book is not
appropriate for him and that you wont buy it for him. You point out
that he has already picked out a book and that if he wants more he
can pick some out at the library when you go there the next day.
Mark starts to cry, saying that he wants this book and needs it now.
170
As you remain firm, Mark throws himself on the ground and has a
temper tantrum, embarrassing you in the process.
Depending on how old your child is, this behavior may be per-
fectly predictable. For a younger child, the disappointment at not
getting what he wants can be enormous. In addition, because his
brain is not fully developed, he does not have as much capacity to
hold back his emotional expression. On top of that, he isnt able to
fully understand your logical explanation that he would not really
enjoy or even use the book. His disappointment and frustration may
be more than he can contain. As a parent, you are absolutely right
to calmly persist in being firm by not buying the book. Over time
these early disappointments serve to expand your childs capacity to
contain disappointment. Not only are there real limits to what you
can provide your child with, but he actually needs disappointments
in order to build his capacity to tolerate future disappointments. So
you do want to be firm, but you dont want to get mad at your
child because his reactions are so immature. Children are imma-
ture by nature, and acting in the way described above is predictable
for young children. The struggle for you as a parent is to increase
your own capacity to tolerate your childs temper tantrums without
punishing because of social embarrassment. Remember that, because
of your childs interpersonal and emotional sensitivity, the angrier
you become, the more your child will be tuned in to your anger.
This sensitivity is more likely to bust his container, literally creat-
ing an outburst. And, the more he is punished, the worse he will
feel about himself. This will fill up his
container with bad feelings, making
him incapable of tolerating other dis- Not only are there real
tressing emotions. This intolerance limits to what you can
extends to even small disappoint- provide your child with,
ments like the one described above. but he actually needs
Similarly, the more you give in to a disappointments in order
temper tantrum, the less opportunity to build his capacity
to tolerate future
disappointments.
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The Gift of ADHD
your child has to increase his capacity to tolerate disappointment

and other negative emotions.
So how do you achieve this seemingly impossible task of remain-
ing firm but not getting angry in the face of irrational, immature
behavior? Many parents who have success with decreasing temper
tantrums describe an episode that is a turning point, which I have
come to call The Showdown. It is a moment where a child pits his
will against the parents willusually in a highly public place threat-
ening a major meltdown. When a parent has lain down a rule such
as Were not buying any candy today, the child becomes deter-
mined to show whos boss and get the candy. Make no mistakeit
will be much easier to just get your kid the candy than to stay strong.
But this showdown is not at all about the candyits about who is
in charge. If you can handle the showdown in the home many times,
you may prevent it from happening in a public place. But chances are
that your child will figure out that you cave in more easily in public
places and test your will in one of these highly embarrassing situa-
tions. If you can win the showdown you will often notice a turning
point. As in the alpha-male tests in the animal kingdom, the results
of the showdown can be decisiveletting your child know that you
really are in control.
The Problem with Outbursts

When you are helping your child manage his emotions, the
second pitfall to avoid is to allow him to discharge his negative emo-
tions by acting out in a disruptive way. Its important to recognize
that, while you dont want to facilitate your child in resisting pow-
erful emotion, neither do you want to facilitate negative behavior.
You dont want to punish your child for outbursts, but you do want
to direct him to more appropriate strategies for coping with intense
emotions. The exercise below provides one such strategy that can
serve as preventative medicine. It will help decrease the likelihood
that your child will see only two options for dealing with emotions:
172
repress or act out. This third strategy will serve him for the rest of
his life: staying with the emotion without acting it out.
THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE

You may have become discouraged about your childs negative atti-
tude toward school. You may be surprised to learn that scholars of
education also do not agree with the current educational system and
are calling for sweeping changes.
It has been argued that the current education system is an
outdated model based on principles developed in the Industrial
Revolution: children are like products, and schools are like factory
assembly lines that use the same approach to assemble each product.
The model has not accommodated the recent technological revolu-
tion and it does not accommodate the unique needs of individual
students. As scholar Chris Yapp argues, Education is the last model
of Fordismyou put children on a conveyor belt at the age of four
and let them fall off at different stages. From a quality viewpoint,
they fall off at the point at which they fail. But you can choose your
car, so why cant you have millions of national curriculums? Why
not have a curriculum that meets the needs of each child? (Fulton
1997, 69).
Even with the advent of the digital age, the current educa-
tion system has not fully taken advantage of the many possibili-
ties that technologies offer for transforming the way students learn.
In one model, students could use current technologies and Internet
resources to direct their own content areas and to gain technical
expertise necessary for operating in a digital world.
Professor Brent Davies envisions a future in which children could
engage in independent learning either in a school technology center
or even at home (Fulton 1997). He argues that technologies such as
the Internet, video conferencing, and educational software programs
would allow for a comprehensive school program that would not
require students to go to school five days a week. He also suggests
that taking full advantage of technological innovation would reduce
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The Gift of ADHD
the burden on teachers, who are often underpaid and must work in
overcrowded classrooms without adequate resources, due to budget-
ary constraints. Similarly, Chris Yapp has challenged our current
expectations that a teacher be guard, nanny, subject expert and
administrator (Fulton 1997, 69). Given the unrealistic demands and
expectations put on teachers, it should come as no surprise that they
are eager to find quick solutions to the problems wrought by children
whose behavior is disruptive to class.
In short, your childs critical view of school is shared by forward-
looking scholars. Your childs complaints may be less a symptom
and more a perceptive summary of the current failings of an out-
moded education system. All of this reflects your childs emotional
sensitivity.
In past centuries, miners would carry a canary when they were
working in mines, as a gauge of oxygen levels. Because canaries are
more sensitive than humans, the canary would die first if there wasnt
enough oxygen. If the canary died, the miners knew it was time to
leave the mine. This metaphor can be applied to ADHD, because
your childs difficulties in school may be seen as a warning sign not
of an individual failing but of the failings of the education system.
The purpose of suggesting this metaphor is to help you to value
your childs viewpoint about school. It does not mean that you should
say, Yeah, the education system is a mess, and its all the teachers
fault that my child is struggling. However, it may give you a certain
appreciation for your childs cogent perceptions of the school system
and a sense that he really is not getting his needs met. As a parent,
its your responsibility to make sure your child gets those needs met,
and there are several strategies you can use in handling your childs
complaints.
Honoring Your Childs Complaints

One strategy is to avoid devaluing your childs complaints that
his needs are not being met. In fact, you might want to encourage
him to elaborate on his complaints in a constructive way. Ask him
174
to identify how his needs are not being met at school, and write
down what he says is not working. Some predictable complaints
might be the following:
The teacher is boring.
I get in trouble for not sitting still.
Nothing I learn has anything to do with the real

world.
Classes are boring.
Im more interested in other subjects.
I want to play with the computers more.
The worksheets are too much work.
I get in trouble when I talk to other kids.
I cant get help when I dont understand.
School days are too long.
If your childs comments are like the ones above, then you will
note that many of them are similar to the demands for change that
are being made by scholars. So rather than getting mad at your child
for not adapting to an outdated system, you can honor his complaints
and then start to problem solve about how to get his needs met.
How to Get Your Childs Needs Met

Once you have the list of your childs unmet needs, begin to
talk to him about what could be done to meet them. Let him talk
about how he would solve the problem. He might come up with
some creative ideas that you can put into action. He might realize
that, with so many students and one teacher, it will be difficult to
get every need met. What is important is that you show your child
175
that you honor his needs and complaints. In this way, youre not
attributing his problems to his diagnosis, and you can reframe for
him the importance of his own experience.
BECOME AN EDUCATION REFORMER
As a parent, you probably havent expected to have to become an

activist just to see that your child receives the education he deserves.
And perhaps you dont have to become a banner-waving, protest-
attending activist. But by taking action to improve your childs expe-
rience at school, you are indeed being an activistjust of a quieter
variety. So narrow down the list of your childs complaints to a few
legitimate, actionable ones, and consider presenting these concerns
to your childs teachers and principal. You can use many of the strat-
egies you learned in chapter 4 on how to become your childs advo-
cate rather than his apologist.
Like evolutionary mutations that help a species to survive, your
childs intense sensitivity may help school administrators to recog-
nize the dramatic changes that need to happen in the education
system. These may be appealing to administrators, because some of
the changes that were mentioned earlier actually have the potential
to save resources. For example, allowing children to have self-directed
learning sessions where they use computer and Internet resources to
explore individualized topics of interest would meet the needs of both
children and teachers: students could explore their own interests
and teachers could have a break from trying to keep the attention
of a large group of children on one topic. Although these sugges-
tions may seem far-fetched given the bureaucratic systems of school
districts, it seems worthwhile to envision a future where all sorts of
neurocognitive differences are fully accepted and accommodated.
In the next chapter we will discuss some alternatives to a stan-
dard public school education. If your child is not succeeding in a
setting that wont accommodate his unique gifts, you may want to
consider an alternative educational setting. However, your childs
sensitivity may give you an opportunity to work for change in the
setting that needs to be changedthe traditional public schools.
Encouraging your child to join you in your crusade to transform

the educational system can help utilize his gifts. His creativity and
impatience can be fuel to generate ideas for changing the system, or
at least changing things in his classroom. For example, on a smaller
scale, he may propose fund-raisers to get more computers in school
or suggest field trips to high-tech museums. His energy might be
contagious to you and others.
KEEP THE CONNECTION

The most important benefit that will result from seeing your child
as an intensely gifted and sensitive agent for change is the connec-
tion you will forge with him. Even if you dont succeed in making
any changes in the structure of his education, you will succeed in
showing him that you value his way of seeing the world. This is the
single most important element in transforming your childs symp-
toms into gifts.
The main reason that children who are diagnosed with ADHD
become increasingly difficult to manage in school and home set-
tings is because their symptoms separate them emotionally from
their parents. You can change this easily. If you emphasize connec-
tion over compliance, you can radically transform your child. More
than anything, your child needs you. While it is perfectly predictable
that parents will get angry and frustrated with children who wont
comply, you have to remember that, even though it seems your child
is pushing you away, he needs you to stay connected to him even in
the face of his increasing independence.
It may help you to realize that your childs connection to you
is not at all the same thing as compliance. As we discussed earlier
in this book, sometimes what looks like defiance is actually self-
reliance, and you can stay connected to your child by honoring his
self-reliance. It seems like a paradox, but the more you honor his
self-reliance, the more you connect with him because youre accept-
ing him for who he is rather than trying to change him. A further
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The Gift of ADHD
paradox is that the more you honor your childs unique perceptions
of the world, the more he will honor your need to set limits.
Out of all the exercises and strategies presented throughout this
book, the most important one is to stay connected to your child.
The more you can find a way to honor his differences, the more his
behavior will be transformed. Children with ADHD get many com-
plaints about their behavior, and it can be confusing. Some of their
behavior simply represents their difference. Some of their behavior
truly is inappropriate or defiant. Different behavior becomes bad
behavior when children feel that they are being punished or feel
disconnected from their parents. You may not always be sure when
the behavior has crossed the line from different to bad. In either
case, the more you can stay connected, the more you will decrease
bad behavior and increase your childs willingness to honor your
perceptions and needs.
SUMMARY
This chapter reviewed the way in which symptoms of ADHD can
be seen as a form of intense emotional sensitivity. Your childs sen-
sitivity can be seen as a gift, increasing his capacity to create and
to connect with others. One strategy for helping your child pre-
serve his sensitivity and maintain socially appropriate behavior is to
encourage him to ask for help when he finds his emotions getting
out of control. This strategy gives your child permission to admit
that he cannot control his emotions while giving him a technique
for learning on-the-spot methods
for effectively handling social sit-
A further paradox is uations. The chapter also offered
that the more you honor specific techniques for monitoring
your childs unique and managing emotions as they
perceptions of the world, emerge.
the more he will honor
your need to set limits.
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CHAPTER 10
How to Navigate the

Educational and Mental
Health Systems
As a parent of a child with ADHD, you may now have a new per-
spective on your child, and you may be experiencing a whole range
of thoughts and feelings. Perhaps you are heartened by this new
perspective. You might be saying that you have thought your child
was uniquely gifted but unappreciated all along. You may have found
yourself charmed by your child at times and annoyed at other times,
when you thought that her behavior was part of her ADHD symp-
toms. You may have even hidden your affection for your childs irrev-
erence, fearing that you might encourage bad behavior.
The Gift of ADHD
The main point of this book can be summarized in two major

principles: your positive perceptions of your child will transform her;
your close connection with your child will transform her.
Because your child is so sensitive and interpersonally intuitive,
she knows exactly how you are evaluating her and is particularly
attuned to your reactions to her. You cannot hide your feelings from
her. The more you can view her in positive ways, the more she will
internalize that perception and act it out. The power of the self-
fulfilling prophecy cannot be underestimated.
This power means that your expectations for your child will
create those very same qualities. Research has demonstrated that
teachers expectations for students performance comes to have pow-
erful effects in creating the behavior they expected to see (Rosenthal
1987). This phenomenon is much more powerful for parents and
children. The good news is that your expectations for your child
have a lot of power to transform her. On the other hand, as a parent
you may need to label your child in order to gain access to accom-
modations in the school system. With appropriate confidentiality
within the school, you can balance the need for positive perceptions
of your child and the need for an environment in which your child
will thrive.
The premise of this book, that your child has a difference that
is a gift and not a disorder, has the power to transform her life.
You need only to convey this powerful expectation to your child,
and she will absorb it like a sponge. As your expectations change,
so will your ability to connect with
your child. The more you connect
The main point of this
with your child, the more dramatic
book can be summarized
a transformation you can expect to
in two major principles:
see.
your positive perceptions
When children with ADHD
of your child will
behave badly, it is usually because
transform her; your close
they feel badly about themselves.
connection with your
Children with ADHD feel poorly
child will transform her.
about themselves in part because of
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How to Navigate the Educational and Mental Health Systems
the extreme emphasis on school achievement over all other talents

and interests. One psychologist attributes the high rates of depression
that accompany learning disorders to this emphasis: In our modern
technological society, where education is more important and more
highly valued than ever, academic achievement and school-related
intelligence have attained an importance that is probably far greater
than ever before (Migden 2002, 155).
By conveying to your child that the label of ADHD means she
has a gift, you can turn around both of these causes of bad behavior.
As your child learns to value her difference, she will not need to act
out her sense of inferiority or frustration. Also, if you can maintain
your sense of closeness with your child, even in the face of appar-
ently bad behavior, your child will no longer need to act out her
sense of being alienated.
Just by transforming your vision of your child from disordered to
gifted, you can facilitate a dramatic transformation in her. While it
is predictable that parents of children with ADHD will at times feel
anger, impatience, and frustration with their child, you can channel
these feelings toward the cultures intolerance of your childs gift.
You yourself can be transformed into a social activist as you become
aware of how your child has been underserved by the current medical
model and a failing educational system.
COPING WITH THE REST OF

THE WORLD
As you come to appreciate your childs gifts, you may find yourself
continually frustrated by how little your new perspective is shared
in the real world. There are three strategies for coping with others
attitudes toward your child. One is to transform your own negative
emotional responses toward others rejecting attitudes. Another is to
become an advocate for your child in mental health and educational
settings. Another is to find alternative treatments and educational
settings that respect your childs difference as a gift.
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The Gift of ADHD
All of these strategies include your

These findings also remaining active in your efforts to cope
indicate a powerful with your childs diagnosis of ADHD.
truth about your childs The worst thing you can do is to give
symptoms: your own up and give in to feeling hopeless and
level of functioning helpless, which can lead to depression
dramatically affects and lessen your childs likelihood of
your childs symptoms. improvement. And recent research
has found that children diagnosed
with ADHD have a poorer response
to medication when their primary care provider reports depressive
symptoms: Our findings suggest that consideration of parental psy-
chological adjustment may be key when treating children with medi-
cation. Initial screening of parents for depressive symptoms, followed
by treatment for those who are at least mildly depressed, might result
in more children with ADHD showing excellent response to treat-
ments that are medication based (Owens et al. 2003, 549).
These findings suggest that when you feel hopeless it is impor-
tant for you and for your childs recovery that you seek treatment
for yourself. These findings also indicate a powerful truth about your
childs symptoms: your own level of functioning dramatically affects
your childs symptoms. However, by remaining active in your coping
efforts, you have the power to prevent depression.
Transform Your Feelings

While it is predictable that at times you will feel hopeless, help-
less, angry, frustrated, and filled with despair, it is also important
that you find effective strategies for coping with these feelings. As
you do with your child, validate and honor these feelings but learn
not to become overwhelmed by them. You can try the exercise in
chapter 9 called Stay with the Emotion with your own feelings
about your childs behavior and diagnosis. For example, if you have
to face yet another teacher making complaints about your childs
behavior in class, you may feel a sense of despair clouding your mind.
182
But you dont want to repress the feeling and pretend everything is
okay. Neither do you want to just give in to it, go to bed, and pull
the covers over your head. You, too, can surf it out. You will find
that when you allow yourself to feel the despair and let it peak in
intensity, it will subside.
When you feel despair or hopelessness to its full power, you may
find that the experience not only lessens the emotion but transforms
into a radically different experience. Psychologist Alvin Mahrer calls
this transformation of fully experienced emotion the deeper poten-
tial of experiencing (2004). The activity below will help you trans-
form negative feelings.
EXERCISE: From Despairing to Empowered
This exercise is inspired by The Complete Guide to Experiential

Psychotherapy (Mahrer 2004).
Identify a time when you are feeling hopeless or helpless. Typically,
you may respond to this feeling by trying to distract yourself from
it or push it away. Instead, try to amplify the feeling by making it
stronger and more intense. For example, you can allow the feeling of
helplessness to turn into a feeling of complete paralysis or allow the
hopelessness to turn into a feeling of complete doom and gloom.
As the feeling becomes more intense, try to find a specific
memory or image that triggered it. For example, maybe you got
another complaining call from the teacher, and you found yourself
dwelling on the image of the teacher possibly sneering at you on the
other end of the phone line and thinking you are the worst parent
in the world.
Now imagine that you are the teacher. Try to feel the teachers
power and superior attitude toward you. Amplify your feeling that
the teacher has the authority to pass judgments. Make the teachers
feelings stronger. Imagine that the teacher is all powerful, the one
who knows, the one who has the right to tell you how to understand
your child. Follow your imagination in elaborating on this role.
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The Gift of ADHD
Take this new feeling of being menacing, threatening, or empow-

ered, and own it for yourself. Practice feeling like you are the judge.
Now, turn it around and tell the teacher that she is failing your
child. Imagine telling the teacher that she does not understand your
child. Practice owning this feeling of power and authority. You will
want to use your judgment in how you will apply this new feeling in
taking action in the real world, but you can use this technique to
transform your feelings of powerlessness and despair.
Active Approaches to
Transforming Helplessness
As noted above, you may be able to prevent depression by
becoming an advocate for your child and trying to create change in
her existing environments. Throughout this book, and specifically
in chapter 4, we discussed strategies for becoming an advocate and
not an apologist for your child. In chapter 9, it was suggested that
you might even need to become a social activist in advocating for
educational reform to meet your childs needs. If this approach is not
your style, consider another approach for getting your childs needs
met: finding alternative environments.
MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT OPTIONS

Because some people might consider behavioral health interventions
themselves to be alternative health options, this section will clarify a
continuum of alternatives to medication for ADHD symptoms.
Review of the Standard Treatment Approach

According to 1990s research on ADHD, the best approach to
alleviating symptoms, including poor academic performance and
184
family relations, is to combine medication and intensive behavior

therapy (MTA Cooperative Group 1999). While research shows that
in the short term this approach has benefits, the follow-up of this
same gold standard research program discovered that in the long
termafter eight yearsthere are no differences between students
who initially received medication and those who did not (MTA
Study Group 2009). The standard treatment for ADHD is none-
theless medication prescribed by a pediatrician or child psychiatrist,
who monitors its dosage and effects on a regular basis.
As described in chapter 1, treating ADHD with medication has
costs and benefits. The benefit is that research has shown that it
is the most effective treatment for quickly reducing symptoms of
ADHD in children in the short term. Among the many drawbacks
of medications, besides the possible lack of long-term effectiveness,
mentioned above, is the concern that there is no research on their
long-term effects on children. Additionally, recent research on the
effects of these stimulants on the brain (in animal studies) suggests
the risk that long-term use of stimulants can lead to depression,
anxiety, and cognitive deficits (Higgens 2009).
Alternative treatments for ADHD are increasingly available.
These resources offer a great deal of hope to parents and can be used
in addition to or in place of medication, if appropriate. These avail-
able resources may also make your job more difficult, as you have to
consider the time, money, and energy they require. Unfortunately,
the research on alternative ADHD treatments is not strong enough
to offer clear recommendations based only on the empirical evi-
dence. Given that the research is not extensive on even the standard
medical treatment, its not surprising that there is even less research
on alternative treatments. Consequently, it can be difficult to decide
which treatments to try.
Additional Treatments
Parent coaching may be essential to support your childs level
of functioning. You can connect with a therapist who will help you
185
The Gift of ADHD
address specific strategies for working with your child. This may entail
helping you foster emotional intelligence in your child, improve com-
munications skills, and manage your childs challenges.
Another treatment choice is family therapy. By working with the
whole family, a therapist can help manage stressors, address con-
flicts, and solve problems. As these problems are resolved and as the
family gains more skills for finding specific solutions, the childs level
of functioning is likely to improve.
Individual play therapy for younger children, or counseling for
older children, can lead to improvements. Because of the emotional
sensitivity of ADHD children, having a safe place to release and heal
emotions can decrease symptoms. Children may gain from building
emotional intelligence and learning stress management and other
coping techniques. Cognitive therapy, used to overcome negative
attitudes, can increase motivation and confidence, thereby improv-
ing the childs level of functioning.
CONFIRM THE DIAGNOSIS
Before launching into a full-scale effort at using every treatment

available, however, a first step would be to make sure you have at
least a second opinion to confirm the diagnosis of ADHD. Research
has shown that the first suggestion of ADHD more often comes from
teachers than from parents, physicians, or others (Sax and Kautz
2003). Teachers perceptions may be influenced by their own heavy
workload, classes that are too large, and access to too few resources.
Sometimes pediatricians and psychiatrists rely on the referral of
parents and teachers without conducting a thorough assessment
themselves. Because the symptoms of ADHD overlap extensively
with normal developmental behaviors and other clinical disorders,
it is important that a thorough assessment be conducted before a
diagnosis of ADHD is made. The diagnosis of ADHD requires a
full range of symptoms present in more than one setting and usually
entails checklists being filled out by both teachers and parents. For
example, a child can be disruptive in class and not meet the full
criteria for ADHD. In this case, she should not be treated using
186
medication. Before expending time and energy treating ADHD,

take the preliminary steps of confirming the diagnosis through a
psychiatrist or psychologist who is trained in thorough assessment
of this particular disorder. An ideal evaluator would be a pediatric
neuropsychologist.
OTHER CAUSES OF ADHD-LIKE SYMPTOMS
Children can show ADHD-like symptoms for many reasons

other than having the actual disorder. For example, children may
be disruptive because they are under too much stress. There may
be family problems that they are acting out at school. A child who
has suffered a recent loss (the illness or death of a parent, a grand-
parent, or a sibling) can be expected to show disturbance in her
behavior. These disruptions will pass if the child is given a chance to
talk about and receive support for her concerns. A child may show
ADHD-like symptoms because one parent is depressed or because
there is serious marital conflict between her parents.
If your child does not have a long-standing history of hyperactiv-
ity and attention problems but developed symptoms suddenly, then
you should suspect some reaction to life events. Ask yourself whether
any major, life-changing events recently occurred in your family prior
to the appearance of ADHD-like symptoms:
Did a parent lose a job?
Has your child had health problems?
Have there been health problems in family members?
Have there been any deaths in the family?
Have there been serious marital conflicts?
Have any older siblings left the home?
Has there been any physical, emotional, or sexual

abuse?
187
The Gift of ADHD
Is either parent depressed or anxious?
Are there legal problems in the family?
Are there serious financial problems in the family?
Does either parent use or abuse alcohol or drugs?
Children are dramatically affected by these kinds of events, and

it is predictable that their behavior will change to act out their fears,
losses, anger, and stress. If you answered yes to any of the preceding
questions, and your childs behavioral problems seemed to develop
suddenly rather than being present for a long time, you might want
to consider that your child does not have ADHD at all. In that
case, the appropriate approach would be a form of supportive treat-
ment. This would give her an opportunity to fully talk through her
concerns and get support, and her behavior problems would very
likely subside.
Because the diagnosis of ADHD is unreliable and because the
symptoms overlap with so many other diagnoses (such as depression,
anxiety, and Aspergers disorder), I now recommend that a child
receive twelve sessions of therapy before getting an assessment of
ADHD. In this way, the clinician and family can work to reduce the
symptoms of stress and be able to determine what is really a brain
difference and what is really the behavior of a young child coping
with stressors or other clinical problems. This can prevent the assign-
ment of a label of ADHD, which can follow a child into adulthood
and throughout his life. It is also important to keep in mind that
ADHD is not an either/or condition like pregnancy (either you are
pregnant or you are not). Many clinicians agree that ADHD exists
on a continuum and many people have some of the ADHD symp-
toms some of the time.
As a parent you should understand that most psychologists are
trained to think in terms of normal versus disorder, diagnosis or no
diagnosis. The problem with this worldview is that, as mentioned
above, many people have traits and temperaments that look like
ADHD but do not add up to clinical disorders. Many children are
188
highly active and seek stimulation by trait and temperament. This

is a normal personality expression, not a clinical disorder. Some kids
learn through touch and movement rather than by passively taking in
abstract knowledge. This is not a clinical disorder but rather one of
many different learning styles. If your child has a temperament that
looks like ADHD, it is important for you to remember that the diag-
nosis of ADHD is a bona fide mental illness. Although the word gets
used in some circles like a new fad, dont be flip about the possible
stigma attached to the label. If you think your child has a tempera-
ment that looks like ADHD but is not a disorder, consider reading two
excellent books, When the Labels Dont Fit (2008) by Barbara Probst
and Please Dont Label My Child (2007) by Dr. Scott Shannon.
If the problems your child is reacting to are deep-seated family
conflicts, then you should seek family therapy for the whole family
or couples therapy for you and your partner. If one parent is suffer-
ing from depression or another mental health disorder, including the
abuse of drugs or alcohol, then that parent should seek individual
treatment for the problem.
As we have stressed throughout this book, the most effective
way of handling reality-based distress of your child, whether you use
supportive therapy or not, is to stay connected to her and offer to
talk with her about her concerns. The more you can hear her feel-
ings, accept them, offer her honest feedback, and reassure her, the
more she will be able to tolerate life stressors.
If the root problems, including reactions to life-changing events
and family conflict, are not addressed and your child is given medi-
cation to control her symptoms without getting necessary therapeutic
support, she may be at risk for developing long-standing behavioral
problems. One reason for this is that she may never learn how to
tolerate and work through the existential complications of life. As
concluded by one scholar, Suppressing these symptoms by subdu-
ing the child with medication hides from all the source of the childs
troubles, precludes his being able to obtain mastery of his troubles
through understanding, and subjects him to a false label of brain
pathology (Furman 2002, 141).
189
The Gift of ADHD
If you recognize that any of the stressors listed above is present,

you dont need to feel guilty or that youre to blame. Family problems
are a perennial fact of life. You are not bad if you are depressed or
have a serious conflict with your spouse. Marital conflict, depression,
anxiety, and professional setbacks can be expected to occur in any
human life. Your child needs to be exposed to these difficulties and
needs to receive support in dealing with them. You can think of this
process as being similar to the way your child developed her immune
system. Every child needs to be exposed to illness, get sick, and fight
it off in order to develop a strong immune system. Similarly, you
cannot protect your child from all of lifes trials and tribulations. The
more she can work through her feelings and learn how to cope with
difficult life events, the more she will be prepared to cope with her
own challenges as she grows more independent. A child may have
both ADHD and several stressors, so a thorough evaluation is neces-
sary in order to sort out a correct diagnosis for your child.
MEDITATION
More stress equals less attention. Consequently, if you reduce

your childs stress you will increase his attention. One of the most
important things you can do to build your childs attention is to
teach him to manage his own stress. Below are some quick tips.
The fastest way to reduce stress is to practice deep, relax-

ing breaths. Teaching your child simply to pay attention
to his breath can begin the process of relaxation.
A simple practice of meditation in which your child

focuses his attention on a relaxing phrase or word for
ten minutes a day can serve the dual purpose of helping
him to relax and actually building your childs capacity
to pay attention. Just like your child can build muscles
by lifting weights, so can he build his attention, by daily
practice.
190
You can help your child practice physical relaxation by

tensing and releasing his muscles. It can be as simple as
reminding him to raise his shoulders to his ears for five
seconds and then release. Next, he can tense his hands
into fists and then release. Move through each of the
major muscles one at a time. This will help him begin
to learn to control his level of physical stress.
ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS

In addition to exploring alternative mental health treatment options,
consider investigating educational alternatives that may help in trans-
forming your child. The reasons for doing so are many. Statistically,
children with ADHD will have many failure experiences in educa-
tional settings, including a 33 percent chance of being held back one
year in school, with up to 35 percent of children diagnosed failing to
complete high school (Barkley 2000). While there is little conclusive
and consistent research on how the environment in school settings
affects outcome, Russell Barkley (2000), a leading researcher, out-
lines certain features of an educational setting that are likely to lead
to positive outcomes for your child. His summarized conclusions are
below:
Positive outcomes are more likely if you increase novelty

and stimulation, including color, shape, and texture, to
enhance attention and increase performance.
Tasks should be of high interest to the child and active

rather than passive. Tasks requiring an active as
opposed to a passive response may also allow children
with ADHD to better channel their disruptive behav-
iors into constructive responses (236).
Brief lessons with the child as an active participant will

increase persistence.
191
The Gift of ADHD
Tasks and lessons should include physical exercise to

increase attention span.
Positive outcomes are more likely if you include hands-

on, direct-instruction materials, like computers with
software that promotes content learning.
If you can advocate for these changes in your childs current edu-
cational system, you will be helping your child. As noted in chapter
9, these changes are similar to those advocated by educational schol-
ars who argue that the current educational system is outdated and
does not meet the needs of children of the digital age.
There are alternative, private educational settings that emphasize
these forms of teaching and are most consonant with the needs of a
child diagnosed with ADHD. But not all expensive private schools
will be the best match for your child. For example, many private
college-preparatory schools will emphasize discipline, achievement,
and a form of education least suited to the needs of a child with
ADHD. In contrast, some independent private schools and even a
few public magnet or charter schools accommodate different styles of
learning and emphasize the independence of the child. Regardless of
whether you are looking at private or public schools, you will want
to find one whose philosophy is consistent with the key principles
listed above, such as individualized attention to your child, high
levels of activity, and relative emphasis on your childs independent
learning.
The Montessori Method

In addition to researching the philosophies of individual schools,
you can look into schools with certain widely used instructional
methods. One example of a teaching method that seems ideally
suited to children with ADHD is the Montessori method (Montessori
1967; 1966). All of the elements of an ideal educational setting listed
by Barkley are fundamental to the Montessori method.
192
INDIVIDUALIZED LESSONS
The Montessori method uses individualized teaching methods

rather than teaching a single lesson to a larger group. Maria Montessori
writes that in an ideal teaching method the teacher should refrain
from letting the child know that he has made a mistake or has not
understood, since this might arrest for a long time the impulse to
act, which constitutes the whole basis for progress (1967, 107). As
this quotation illustrates, the Montessori method is very different
from standardized educational approaches. The methods are most
suited to a child who needs individualized attention and easily gets
lost in group lessons that require focused concentration on abstract
concepts. In the Montessori method, the child chooses independent
learning tasks based on her own needs and special interests.
MEETING THE NEED FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Central to the Montessori method is the understanding that,

for children, learning requires physical movement. A childs mind is
not yet fully rational and abstracted from her body, and she learns
through action and moving in the world. As Maria Montessori
writes about physical activity, Everybody admits that a child must
be constantly on the move. This need for movement, which is irre-
sistible in childhood, apparently diminishes with the development of
inhibiting forces at the time when these, by entering into a harmony
with the motor impulses, create the means for subjecting them to
the will (79). This emphasis on allowing movement and offering
sensory-based tasks as methods for learning is ideally suited to the
child diagnosed with ADHD.
Also implicit in the Montessori method is that individualized
instruction that involves lots of movement may prevent the symp-
toms of ADHD from plaguing a child throughout her life. Maria
Montessori seems to imply in this quotation and in other writings
that if a child is allowed to learn through individualized attention and
movement, she will internalize and develop the inhibiting forces
that are the basis of discipline and concentration. Many authors
193
The Gift of ADHD
have characterized ADHD as a failure to inhibit oneself. This line

of reasoning leads to the radical and troubling possibility that the
high rates of ADHD symptoms could be caused in part by educa-
tional methods that do not allow the full expression of the need for
physical activity. If children are prohibited from meeting their need
for movement, they may not enter into harmony with the motor
impulseswhich Montessori argues is the very means for subject-
ing them to the will and learning how to inhibit themselves.
FOCUS ON SENSORY LEARNING
One of the fundamental principles of the Montessori method is

an emphasis on the childs engagement with the concrete, sensory
world. There is little to no emphasis on grasping abstract knowledge.
Rather, children in Montessori schools play and learn with concrete
sensory objects of many different shapes and textures, not through
standardized group lessons. For example, children play with movable
letters of the alphabet, each with a different texture, to learn the
fundamentals of reading. They can see the letters while also feeling
their shapes and textures. At higher levels, children play with blocks
to learn the fundamentals of mathematic manipulations. They handle
and move the blocks in conjunction with learning about numbers,
adding, and subtracting.
As emphasized throughout this book, a child with ADHD needs
to learn through active engagement of her senses. As you can see,
the Montessori method may be an appropriate match to this need.
Again, there is also the suggestion that the lack of sensory educa-
tion in standardized educational systems may play a role in creating
ADHD-like symptoms. Maria Montessori writes, [w]hen a fugitive
mind fails to find something upon which it may work, it becomes
absorbed with images and symbols. Children who are afflicted with
this disorder move restlessly about. They are lively, irrepressible,
but without purpose. They start something only to leave it unfin-
ished, since their energies are directed toward many different objects
without being able to settle upon any of them (1966, 155).
194
The implication is that if a childs inherent need to engage the

sensory world is denied through emphasis on abstract learning, then
symptoms of hyperactivity and difficulty in concentrating may result.
Maria Montessori writes that if these symptoms have already devel-
oped, an education focused on direct sensory engagement with the
environment and physical activity will lead to dramatic changes in
the childs capacity for discipline and concentration.
As you can see, the method of education your child receives can
have a direct impact on her symptoms of ADHD. Maria Montessoris
method suggests that the best education for any child is one that
allows for individualized rather than group lessons, encourages physi-
cal activity, and focuses on sensory engagement with concrete objects
rather than learning abstracted knowledge and facts. Her writing
hints at the idea that if a child is denied these fundamental needs,
symptoms that look like ADHD may develop.
APPLYING THE METHOD
If you do not have access to a Montessori school, you can

become an advocate for incorporating these elements of learning
into your childs current educational experience. You can also incor-
porate your understanding of the inherent needs of children into
your parenting style.
One simple adjustment you can make is to reframe your childs
constant activity as representing an inherent need rather than dis-
obedience. Maria Montessori suggests that children learn to inhibit
behavior by connecting their mind and their body through active
physical engagement with the environment. Thus, you may want to
encourage and validate your childs need for constant movement. Its
easy to get frustrated with your childs need to touch everything in
the environment and see this behavior as a distraction from focused
activity. But the more you can allow your child to engage with the
environment in accord with her own interests, the more she will
harmoniously connect her body and mind. The more words and
abstract teaching she is subjected to, the more she may experience a
195
The Gift of ADHD
disconnect between her mind and body. In some way, this takes a lot
of pressure off of you as a parent. Rather than feeling that you have
to provide knowledge to your child, you can shift your emphasis to
permitting and allowing her exploration of her sensory environment.
A child may benefit more from playing with pegs and a board with
holes of different sizes and shapes than from listening to you explain
the difference between a circle and a square.
SUMMARY
This chapter talked about how to approach the educational and
mental health professionals who work with your child, and how to
make sure she receives the right kind of education and therapeutic
support. We discussed how your perception of your child can make
all the difference in how she functions in school and at home. By
staying connected with her all the time, you will help her trans-
form her ADHD symptoms into strengths. This chapter also offered
strategies for coping with the real world, in which the percep-
tions of your child will not be informed by the new vision you have
gained. Specific strategies were provided for interacting with the
mental health systems and educational systems in which your child
participates.
196
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201
Lara Honos-Webb, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist licensed
in California. She is also author of Listening to Depression: How
Understanding Your Pain Can Heal Your Life, which was selected
by Health magazine as one of the best therapy books of 2006; The
Gift of ADHD Activity Book: 101 Ways to Transform Problems into
Strengths; and The Gift of Adult ADD. Her work has been featured in
newspapers, on websites, and on radio and television stations across
the country, including Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago
Tribune, Publishers Weekly, ivillage.com, msn.com, and abcnews.com.
More than one hundred and twenty-five thousand copies of her
books are in print. The American Psychiatric Association included
The Gift of ADHD (2005) as recommended reading in the ADHD
Parents Medication Guide.
She specializes in the treatment of ADHD and depression and
the psychology of pregnancy and motherhood; she speaks regularly on
her areas of expertise. She hosts a popular podcast show, The Sweet
Spot. She completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at
University of California, San Francisco, and has been an assistant
professor teaching graduate students. She has published more than
twenty-five scholarly articles. Visit her website at www.visionarysoul
.com.

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You are the parent.

If you can change and do what this wonderful

Honos-Webb grabbed my scattered attention quickly and held it

Honos-Webbs book is a healing gift to children with ADHD and

LARA HONOS-WEBB, PH.D.

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2010 by Lara Honos-Webb

All Rights Reserved

Acquired by Tesilya Hanauer; Cover design by Amy Shoup;

PDF ISBN: 9781572248502

Library of Congress has cataloged the print editions as:

views on ADHD and in my work. I am also grateful for the thorough

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common

was remarkable: there was NO evidence of brain abnormality in

Each young person must be seen as a vibrant and adaptable

The research on the attention-boosting benefits of spending time in

likely to be diagnosed in boys than in girls (Barkley 2000). Estimates

WHOM THIS BOOK IS FOR, AND HOW

ADHD is different from other children in predictable ways, and this

ADHD AS A GIFT: A PARADIGM SHIFT

The Frustration of Being Misunderstood

been given the diagnosis of ADHD. Although it is true that the

CHANGING PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIORS

hand, it seems like youre telling me how to change my child. And

review strategies for navigating both educational and mental health

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental

discipline, impaired relationships (due to an inability to listen to

ONE OF THESE KIDS IS NOT LIKE

A DISORDER OF THE BRAIN?

This activation can strengthen the synaptic linkages in those areas

fact, be significant brain differences, but these do not have to indi-

Loss of Self-Esteem Due to Diagnosis

He is a victim of a disease and therefore is not in

The self is fundamentally untrustworthy because it is

All of these messages can lead to low self-esteem. In fact, this

THE LEGACY OF A DIAGNOSIS

Mike was a twenty-one-year-old student at a midwestern univer-

Mike believed that, because he was destined to fail, he could keep

The force of diagnostic stories cannot be exaggerated. Once

So, as Hillman points out, the diagnosis itself began to lower

THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

The Problems with the Medical Model

Another significant problem with the medical model is that it

UNDERMINING TREATMENT POSSIBILITIES

The medical model for understanding ADHD presents a lot of

THE PROBLEM WITH PSYCHOLOGISTS

Psychologists and psychiatrists are trained in the categorization

on asking the question Which diagnosis fits? rather than Is there

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

experience, individual teachers and

THE MEDICATION DEBATE

Medication as the Answer

Why Medications May Not Be the Answer

and, in sharp contrast to their short-term effects, lead to cognitive

To Medicate or Not to Medicate

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD

client is one of the most powerful factors in helping that person

Accept Who Your Child Is, but Set Limits