If you grew up like me, weekly chores played was a big role in your childhood. You may not even remember a time when you didn’t have a list. I once lived in a house where we had seven rakes in our garage. Clearly, picking up leaves was on everyone’s list including any neighborhood kids we could recruit. In retrospect,...
The end of summer is on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean your ADHDer should stop benefiting from swimming. There is plentiful research stating swimming can be beneficial beyond being a fun activity and a safety skill. Why Swimming? Think of the various elements of swimming. It can be indoors or outside. Quiet or load. Solitary or social. Relaxing or invigorating. The...
When I began my career as an occupational therapist 25 years ago, ADHD was not as common as it is now. These days, the majority of my patients have ADHD or demonstrate many of the symptoms including requiring executive function motivators. When it comes to typically developing children and adults, understanding importance or that there are consequences to not accomplishing tasks...
You don’t need to be a nutritionist, a psychologist, or a yogi to raise a child who grows into a healthy adult. You just need to show up, pay attention, and make room for imperfection. Guiding kids toward lifelong healthy choices isn’t about micromanaging their food or forcing them to run laps around the block. It’s about embedding tiny, consistent...
Recently I went on a short trip to celebrate the fifth birthday of a family member. Before traveling, I was searching for a toy that he may like that wouldn't be a risk to his younger brother. It also needed to have at least a spark of magic given the family's love of all things Disney. I remembered that I...