If you are the parent of a child with ADHD it is almost impossible to find the time and energy to learn about everything you can to help your child succeed at home and school. By their very nature, children with ADHD need more supervision, guidance, and one-on-one time with their parents. They often need extra help with their homework; additional services such as counseling and psychological assessments; and involvement in activities where they can express themselves physically, socially, and creatively. They also require more supervision, guidance, and limit setting when it comes to their play and their use of media. So you probably don’t have a lot of time to relax on your couch and read up about children with ADHD. Fortunately, there are other ways to find time for the best books about children with ADHD.
Prior to the Internet, parents obtained child-rearing and mental health advice by reading the books of prominent psychologists and pediatricians. This has become increasingly difficult to do with the demands of two working parents and the needs of a child with ADHD.
However, there are some great books that provide the depth of information and the specificity to help your child that should not be missed. The good news, is that you can now listen to many of these books or take them with you on a mobile device, making it much easier to read at your convenience. Here are a few of my favorites:
The Family ADHD Solution by Mark Bertin, M.D. is available on the iPad and Kindle, so you can download it onto almost any mobile device and read it at your convenience. I like this book because it discusses mindfulness meditation strategies for parents to help them become more effective parents of children with ADHD. Bertin, who studied mediation techniques under Jon Kabat Zinn, helps parents see how staying focused in the present moment is an essential tool for attention training and for the self-control skills required for raising a child with ADHD. He does an excellent job connecting brain science to ADHD interventions. Dr. Bertin also provides specific strategies for improving executive functions in the academic environment.
One of my favorite books on ADHD and executive functions is Smart but Scattered, by Peg Dawson, Ed.D. and Richard Guare, Ph.D. Not only does this book give clear and direct recommendations for improving executive skills, it also helps parents understand how executive functions impact school, problem solving, and social relationships. Busy parents can get it as an audiobook and select the chapters that are most relevant to their own children. The audiobook might be an educational “read” for busy parents while driving to work, running on a treadmill, or chauffeuring their children around town.
Many people have enjoyed Howie Mandel’s Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me. Besides the book being entertaining, some of the funny insights about the impact of ADHD (and in Mandel’s case, OCD) on his life will keep you laughing and also be helpful for your child. This book also comes as an audiobook. Learning about successful celebrities who have been diagnosed with ADHD such as Richard Branson, Michael Phelps, and Ty Pennington could provide the optimism needed for kids to transform some of their ADHD characteristics into strengths and success.
Still, I do like the feel of a book that has a binding and can stack on my bookshelves. If you still like an old-fashioned paperback or hardcover book and can find the time to read, try some of my favorite books for parents of children with ADHD:
- Teenagers with ADD and ADHD: A Guide for Parents and Professionals by Chris Dendy
- Daredevils and Daydreamers by Barbara Ingersoll
- The ADHD Book of Lists: A Practical Guide for Helping Children and Teens with Attention Deficit Disorder by Sandra Rief
- Problem Solver Guide for Students with ADHD by Harvey Parker
