Between the constant teacher calls about problem behaviors, the meetings with the principal, or the suspensions, the process of supporting your child with ADHD can not only feel overwhelming…it can feel hopeless. To top it off, sitting in meetings with various teachers and school professionals can be really intimidating. Even if you may feel like your child needs something more or something different, you question yourself or struggle to speak up. The truth is, it is intimidating for us too, even with our knowledge of special education laws and ADHD!

If you want to help your child, you have to begin educating yourself about your child's rights at school. And even though it might not feel like it, as a parent of a child with ADHD you have a LOT of rights.

Today, I am going to be sharing with you some key information from a very important letter that will help you feel a little more empowered to support your child with ADHD at school.

The Dear Colleague Letter

In 2016, the U.S. De...

A few years ago, I was at a friend’s house hanging out for a much-needed girl’s night (ahhhh…remember those carefree, pre-COVID days). One of the women there started talking about her son’s test anxiety at school. Her son would panic during tests and could not complete the work. When the mother had a meeting with the school to discuss her son’s test anxiety, she was met with an unexpected response.

One of the school staff stated that children don’t have anxiety!

Wow, I felt for this mom. She had painfully endured hearing her son complain of tummy aches at school, freezing and not being able to write during tests, and trying to hide tears running down his cheeks, so his friends couldn’t see. And now, it was affecting his grades because he was not able to show his knowledge. When she finally met with the team, she was met with misinformation and resistance.

To set the record straight, children DO experience anxiety (and every other emotion that we adults feel!). In fact, the CDC es...

All it takes is one quick google search and you can find a wealth of information (and misinformation) on ADHD. We hear many common myths about ADHD from parents and people in the community. So today, we want to set the record straight by sharing some statistics and research. Let's go ahead and dive into our top 5 myths and facts of ADHD.

1) Myth: ADHD isn't a real disorder; it is the result of poor parenting.

This is a common myth. And if you are a parent of a child with ADHD, more than likely you have heard a lot of advice and criticism about your parenting. Let us set the record straight - there is no research to support that ADHD is caused by bad parenting. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental or brain-based disorder. It is strongly heritable, meaning it is often passed down from parents to their children. Approximately 65-75% of children with ADHD will have the diagnosis because of genes (aka a family member probably had that diagnosis as well). Approximately 25%-35% of cases of AD...

How's your week going? Is everybody in your family getting back into the swing of things after the Thanksgiving holiday?! I know that in my (Katie's) family, it has been hard to find motivation for these last few weeks leading up to the end of 2020! 

If you have been following us for any amount of time, you know that we love to talk with families of children with ADHD, learning differences, language disorders, anxiety... but the truth is, this is actually the topic that almost all of us struggle with from time to time. Some days, the hardest part is just getting started! 

If this is you (or your child), we are here to help. In our coming blog posts, we are going to share a few of our favorite tools and strategies for getting started. Our goal is to break down the science behind ditching procrastination and getting things done. 

1. Lead with movement

It has definitely been said before, but it's worth repeating: Exercise is an incredibly powerful tool that helps increase mental clari...

How’s school going for your child? In Arizona, we just finished up the school year – which is a welcome break for all of us parents who have been homeschooling our kids for the past two months! How did distance learning go in your family? Each of us at The Childhood Collective have had different experiences.

Mallory’s oldest is in preschool, so they didn’t have any specific homework. She has been doing all kinds of creative activities to keep her little ones busy and engaged. Lori and I (Katie) each have daughters in kindergarten, so we got to dive head first into distance learning! My daughter loves reading and is now reading everything in the house… which wasn’t awesome when I left myself a note to remember my tooth fairy responsibilities (oops, had to think fast to get out of that one!). Of course, each day when it was time for my daughter to do math, she would immediately need a snack, find a random bug bite that needed attention, or have an emergency trip to the bathroom. Full di...

Navigating the school system with an exceptional child can be stressful. As a parent, you’re looking to get your child the help they need, while being thrust into a new world of acronyms, policies, and procedures that can feel downright mysterious.

Back when I was still a practicing child psychologist, I lost count of the number of families who, in complete sincerity, asked me where to move in the entire Phoenix-metro area in order to go to the school that would best support their exceptional child. Countless families were prepared to go to the lengths of a significant life event (moving!) in order to make the school process even just a little bit easier!

Understanding Individualized Education Programs (IEP) and 504 Plans, their similarities, and their differences is a great place to start in your advocacy journey. While there is a lot to know about these two documents (seriously, I took a semester-long course in graduate school focused almost solely IEPs and 504 Plans), I’ve narrowe...