Books for Adults with ADHD

Here are some great books for Adults with ADHD. Ask for them on your Christmas list!

ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life - A good response to the needs of adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It deals directly and exclusively with the greatest challenge that adults with ADHD face: the problem of disorganization.

Moms with ADD: A Self-Help Manual - Chapters on juggling, dealing with school, work, and holidays. Some really good ideas are presented, but even with all the strategies included, I found this book hard to read. It seems to try a bit to hard.

Out of the Fog: Treatment Options and Coping Strategies for Adult Attention Deficit Disorders - This is an informative first read for adults who have - or suspect they have - ADHD.

Survival Tips for Women with AD/HD: Beyond Piles, Palms, & Post-its - Just the title of this book is an enticement to read. The author touts her book by saying, "Many AD/HD adults have lived for years in shame, depressed that they can't do what for others seem to be such simple things. This book fills the void by offering concrete solutions to daily problems, submitted by AD/HD women for AD/HD women." Amen. A wonderful book with hundreds of ways to help. Like, leave the door open to your microwave when you're not using it so you'll remember to take what is in it out. (Who's been there?!) I also love all the Beatles references in the book...

Chapter samples:
Strawberry Fields: Meals and Entertaining
We Can Work it Out: Relationships and Social Skills
Come Together: Parenting and Family
Taxman: Managing Finances
I’ve Just Seen a Face (But I Can’t for the Life of Me Remember the Name): Memory Tips
Revolution: Technology

Organizing Homework - For Kids Who Lack The Gift of Organization

Keeping homework organized for school is such a major challenge for kids with ADHD. They lose it, mix it up, remember things that don't exist, ruin it, and are sure they put it "right there"...We've discovered a few top ideas that help even the worst ADHD offenders.

Color Code - At the beginning of the year, each subject gets a color, and the notebook and folder for that subject stay the same throughout. Actually in our house, every year, math is green (for money), science is black (for dead things!), social studies is blue (for the world), and English is red (for frustration?). If you're behind, use your Christmas break and get ahead for 2009. Were we really organized, we would also:

• Write homework in the planner with the appropriately colored marker
  


• Cover books with the subject color
  


• After homework is finished, make a bold colored line to mark notebook paper at the top of the page. This helps with organizing all those papers shoved in the bottom of the bookbag, and might help your child find the right paper to turn in.
  

NOTE: I bought some paper on Clearance that had a colored line already printed at the top. (I can't find it anymore - online or off - it wasn't exactly best-selling.) My non-ADHD child, who has the gift of organization, loves it. He says it has trained him to label his pages uniformly. I've tried this to the other boys to no avail, but it might work with your kid!

Staple - Keep a stapler out at all times, and staple all papers together. I've even stapled papers to the planner, so my son would only have to rip them off when it was time to turn them in the next day.

Back Pack Drawer - We put a huge filing cabinet beside our back door. In it goes everything for the next day - the homework in the homework folder, but also clothes, stockings, back packs, lunch, notes, sports equipment, gym clothes, hats and jackets.

Label things. Put your child's name in BIG letters on homework. This also goes for front and back of notebooks and folders, on the side pages of textbooks (do it in pencil even if you have to pay a fine!), and everything else your child takes out of the house. A silver Sharpie is brilliant for labeling dark items like calculators, water bottles, flash drives and cell phones. Buy one of those Sharpies with a clip on it, and permanently attach it to your keychain or purse so it will always be handy. Don't let your kids out of the car without labeling!

Note that there are great Christmas stocking ideas stuffed into this post: Sharpies, staplers, flash drives go along with the old standby's toothbrushes and razors. These are all great little gifts for all those on your list. Check out more Christmas ideas at E300-Scooter.com for Christmas And don't forget to label that Scooter! : )

Organizing an ADHD Child

I just created a Squidoo Lens with ten tips on how to keep your ADHD child organized. It could also be titled: "How I Kept My Sanity in the Chaos of Three ADHD Boys". Check it out here: http://www.squidoo.com/organizeADHD.

Make sure you take a look at three of my favorite books on Organizing an ADHD Child.