Executive Dysfunction, Explained!

Executive dysfunction is a brain-based impairment that impacts a person’s ability to analyze, organize, decide, and execute things on time. It causes assignments to be lost, deadlines to be missed, and projects to overwhelm. Learn how to recognize the signs of executive dysfunction, and how to differentiate them from ADHD and/or learning disabilities.

ADHD Clinicians Must Consider Racial Bias in Evaluation and Treatment of Black Children

The best evidence suggests little or no difference in the true incidence of ADHD in different racial or cultural groups in the United States. Treatment rates, however, do vary significantly. And the diagnostic process is complicated by race and stereotype effects, and by a history of discrimination experienced and/or observed by many Black or BIPOC individuals. A clinician must be sensitive to all of this in order to deliver an accurate and effective evaluation.

6 Social Learning Activities for a Socially-Distanced Summer

“A huge chunk of your child’s social-emotional learning takes place in adolescence, when time with peers begins to surpass time with family. COVID has disrupted this critical developmental time, already extra important for kids like mine, who has ADHD and auditory processing disorder. Here’s how we’re salvaging social learning in quarantine this summer.”

Setting Up Your Child’s COVID-19 Summer

Summertime, summertime, summertime!

It’s summertime, but at the same time (in NJ), many of our camps have shut down. Many of our vacation plans are tentative or have been canceled. We are all looking at long days that seem to have no schedule, no routine, and no plan. For many of us parents, we are still working; some of us are even returning to our office buildings to resume in-person work. The question that sits before me as I look adoringly over my three children is: “What are they going to do for so many weeks?”

“My Kids Fight Nonstop!” How to Squash ADHD Sibling Rivalry in a Lockdown

Sibling rivalry — particularly in ADHD households — grows more worrisome, frequent, and loud in lock down. What’s more, neurotypical siblings are more likely to stifle their own emotions and needs when household stress is high. Here, learn how to facilitate healthier family bonds in a quarantine.

5 COVID-19 Survival Tips for Teens and Young Adults with ADHD

Is the continuing COVID-19 shelter-in-place getting you down? Do you feel like you are losing your independent identity and morphing back into a younger self? You are not alone. Many older teens and young adults with ADHD feel increasingly frustrated, lost, worried, or depressed. Unsure of the future and unhappy with the present, it’s hard to know what to do or where to go. Here are some comments I’ve been hearing lately. Do any of these sound familiar?

Making Sense of Sensory Overload in Autism and ADHD

Both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are neuropsychiatric conditions involving differences in brain structure and chemistry. There are some similarities and some differences between the two. One feature they share is they may both involve “sensory overload,” although in different ways.

“My Life as a Standard Deviation From the Norm”

All of my life, I’ve existed at the edges of society’s Bell Curve — one full standard deviation from the norm. At times, my unique position on the x-axis has afforded me amazing opportunities and connection. At other times, that obvious distance from the center has caused lasting trauma. The key, I’ve found, is talking about it.

7 Things to Consider When Co-parenting For a Special Needs Child

My client, Mr. Cooper, sat on the sofa in my office wondering if I’d be able to help his nine year old-son with ADHD. The ex-Mrs. Cooper sat in the chair across from him, unable to look him in the eye. They both loved Jacob, it was clear, and their reasons for seeking my help as a psychotherapist who specializes in ADHD was based in that love. Jacob was struggling in school with behavior that at best got him sent to the principal’s office, and at worst, resulted in thrown chairs and injured students. Jacob hated school and Jacob was angry.