Taking Charge of ADHD Insights

The must-read analysis of the key insights from "Taking Charge of ADHD" by Russell A. Barkley — presented by Athena.

A pioneering researcher and professor of psychology offers several guiding principles and workable tactics for parenting children with ADHD.

Parenting a child with ADHD can be a full-time job — and one with unconventional compensation. Dr. Russell Barkley quotes what one parent was told by a teacher: “the children who need love the most will always ask for it in the most unloving ways.” He offers specific strategies for parents to take on that burden, in ways that will ease their own lives and benefit their children.

Barkley is an internationally renowned researcher and clinician who, as of this book’s third edition, in 2013, had worked with children with ADHD for 35 years. He’s a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and has published hundreds of papers and several books on the disorder.

The book — aimed at a general audience and focused on ADHD with hyperactivity — offers both a high-level, research-backed pep talk and a swath of detailed tactics for managing a household roiled by ADHD, complete with worksheets for parents and teachers. Topics include diagnosis, genetics and neuroscience, overlapping disorders, behavioral modification, choosing and talking to schools, peer problems, parenting teenagers, navigating medications and parental self-care. He dispels several myths along the way. With frankness, Barkley says significant behavioral change is typically needed not only for children with ADHD, but for their parents too.