An ADHD Care Package

What would you put in a care package for parents of a newly-diagnosed ADHD student?

We get lots of parents visiting our site right after they have had their son or daughter diagnosed with ADHD.  Perhaps you are one of them.  Does this sound like you?

“As soon as I discovered my daughter had ADHD, I scoured the library shelves for books. I talked to experts – doctors, teachers, therapists, other parents. I ran around the web reading as many articles as I could about ADHD.”

You probably discovered there is a ton of information about ADHD to sift through.  Some of it is helpful, some is disputed, some is discouraging and some is downright mean.

We at Edge Foundation have focused our weekly blog on helping high school and college students learn about ADHD. We want to help them to discover coping strategies so they can live their lives to the fullest potential.  Funny thing, it is frequently parents who visit us and are eager to learn more about how to help their child.

Of course you probably have figured out that we believe coaching is one of the best tools for older students. ADHD coaches can teach behaviors that can help compensate for and overcome the symptoms of ADHD. Unfortunately, parents can’t sign up for coaching; that’s the student’s job. What parents can do is provide their child with information, resources and support to find help they need to be successful in school and in life.

We need your help!

With this in mind we are setting out to develop an ADHD Care Package for Parents, and we need your help!

If you are a parent, what information would you like to know about ADHD that you haven’t been able to find elsewhere?  What brought you to our site? What are the challenges you face in convincing your child he or she needs help?  If someone could send you an ADHD Care Package, what would it include?

If you are an ADHD coach, what would you want to be able to hand a parent when you meet with him or her the first time?

To get your creative juices flowing, here are some of the ideas we are developing right now:

1. Tips and tools to make parents more effective at talking about ADHD.
   1. Beyond stenotypes: What you really need to know to understand how ADHD impacts your child
   2. What you need to know about ADHD medication
   3. What is your ADHD parenting style
   4. Why a telephone and a computer can be your student’s most effective tools
   5. What to say to your child to convince him or her to get a coach
   6. The top 3 books to read about ADHD right now
   7. A summary of the research about coaching and college success
   8. Printable handouts for your student
      1. How to know if you have ADHD
      2. Life skills you need to learn before you head off to college
      3. How does coaching work and why can’t you just do it yourself
      4. An ADHD Bill of Rights – how family members can be most supportive and work together to overcome the challenges of ADHD
      5. Links to send to your student, friends and family
         1. ADHD College Survival Guide
         2. An ADHD A to Z Primer
         3. Slideshows and videos your student can look at to quickly grasp the concept of coaching
         4. Important legal issues for ADHD students heading off to college
         5. The best places on the web to get your ADHD questions answered

Speak up. Chime in. Let us know.

You’ll notice that we have already written a number of these articles — and we are in the process of writing more!  So this is your chance to speak up and tell Edge Foundation what you’d like us to provide as a resource kit for the Ultimate ADHD Parent Care Package.

Please leave your ideas in the comments below, post them on our Facebook wall or drop us a line at info@edgefoundation.org. Thank you!