I read with interest the recent pieces in the NY Times (Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong? By Paul Tough.)
I am the grateful parent of adult children with ADHD (and other challenges.) I am also an ADHD and executive skills coach, a former special education teacher and learning specialist, and an individual with ADHD.
I spent years watching (and sometimes joining) frantic parents who were seeking productive interventions for their kids’ ADHD challenges. We parents are unstoppable in service to our children.
Trust me, most parents do not decide to medicate their children without painstaking thought. It is worth seeing the difference. If successful, the right amount of the right medication can change a child’s experience.
Part of me was deeply saddened to know that caregivers who are reluctant to try medication for outdated reasons of stigma or shame, would now again delay the possibility of progress for their child because of this rash of articles. It is already hard enough to trust our choices around our children. We owe it to caregivers to support them.
Nobody has to take ADHD medication. This is true. I don’t need to wear my 2.5 strength reading glasses. But the letters are clearer, and I am a better reader with them — and every corner store sells them. Should I instead do eye exercises daily?
My deep respect goes to each caregiver working their way through what can seem like a wilderness of raising a child with any sort of diagnosed challenge. I am also eternally thankful for the scientific advances that have led to the development of (among other things) medications that can ease the lives of so many. It’s a big world. Make your choices and allow all voices.
Respectfully yours,
Sara Prince, M,Ed. PCC, PCAC, ACCG
