Children with attention deficit disorder | Resource books for parents of ADD/ADHD children

Children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

The many faces of Scattered - Click here to get more information on all of Dr. Gabor Mate's books on ADD.

If we don't look at attention deficit disorder as a genetic illness, but as a problem of development which can be rectified, we immediately have a much more optimistic perspective on ADD. From a scientific point of view this is also a much more realistic perspective.

The most important phases of brain development are the very earliest years, but development of brain circuitry occurs throughout childhood, and even in adult life. Much of the advice that parents of the child with ADD receive is "how to control this behavior, how to promote that behavior." The real question is not, however, behaviors: the real question is what do the various difficult behaviors of the child represent? The answer: they all represent belated, incomplete emotional development. Controlling the behaviors by themselves makes no sense: in fact, the more we try to control, the more difficult things inevitably become in the long run. What we need to do is to help the child to develop emotionally: when he (or she) does, the behaviors automatically stop.

The key to promoting development is to fully understand the child, the see beyond the behaviors the real child with his (her) confusions, dysfunctional emotional patterns, and deep need to be loved and accepted. When we learn to understand the child and to provide unconditional acceptance, development automatically occurs. That's simply a law of nature.

Parents of ADD children wishing to see the approach Scattered takes to understanding the child's behaviors may look at and download (at no charge) Chapter 19, entitled Just Looking For Attention, which discusses some commonly held myths about children with attention deficit disorders; they may also be interested in Chapter 20: The Defiant Ones, which explains perhaps the single most difficult trait of many ADD children: oppositionality.

Parents who are wondering if their child fits the ADD pattern can find that information is Chapter 2: Many Roads Not Traveled, also available for downloading.

[TOP]