The A.D.D. Book. New Understandings, New Approaches to Parenting Your Child

Customer Reviews

A Balanced & Comprehensive Book

2002-03-14
This is an outstanding well written book. Instead of only focusing on recommending medication, the authors are extremely broad in their recommendations, both for various treatments and for parents in managing ADD/ADHD children. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent book for Parents of ADDers

2000-11-13
The A.D.D. Book offers hope and solid practical advice, while at the same time, not describing A.D.D. Children as diseased. This book offers a view of ADD kids that gives them hope to be happy, successful adults. The interventions go way beyond the simplistic drug approach of some "experts" on ADD, including neurofeedback, a non-drug approach which can work better than drugs.

This is one of several books with a more positive slant on ADD/ADHD, with others by Thom Hartmann and Lynn Weiss also viewing ADD without the pathologization you see in writings of folks like Russell Barkley.

A Wonderful Resource 2000-08-24
This is a fantastic book. I came to this book after a speech therapist recommended that my four year old daughter be tested for ADD. After reading magazine articles and visiting web sites I was thoroughly confused. All the signs of ADD described there could describe about 95% of the young children I know. I knew there must be more to it than that and this book provided me with that something more. Sears discusses a number of signs which helped me realize the truth about my child. Sears also provides a very positive view of ADD. While discussing the negatives, he gives you ways (many, many ways) to address them and also discusses the positives, the strengths that many children with ADD have. He suggests many ways to harness these strengths. This book is such a positive read. I am so glad I found it. I think any parent in my position will find it immensely helpful.

Excellent place to begin for parents dealing with A.D.D. 2000-05-03
This very readable book is a thorough overview of how to recognize and treat attention problems. Sears of course is a prolific comentator on caring for children. Linda Thompson is respected for her work treating attention disorders, and runs the largest ADD center in Canada. Particularly useful is the Chapter describing Neurofeedback. Many families searching for help with unmanagable problems are finding this approach yealds amazing benifits. The chapter is intelligent, thorough, yet easily understood. As a provider of Neurofeedback services, I recommend this book highly to clinicians who want their patients to understand A.D.D. and Neurofeedback, and to the parents, spouses, and friends who want to help.

I was not "attached" to this book 2000-03-16
The Baby Book by Dr. Sears is still one of my favorite parenting books. So I was well-disposed toward this book. But it contains several blunders.

1. Dr. Sears claims he had ADD symptoms as a child, but he is vague about how they have affected his life, and he does not explain how he became a "hyperproductive adult, authoring 23 books and parenting 8 children." As a parent, I can see how this would be reassuring. As an adult with ADD, I am skeptical.

2. Likewise the parenting advice does not take into account that one or both of the parents may have ADD. He is very judgemental about poor parenting decisions, and does not really explain how to change a parenting style.

3. I would have liked far more information about distinguishing ADD in preschool children -- clearly a hot issue this year (Mar 2000). After all, Sears did write the Baby Book. But there is very little concrete information.

4. Almost all of the examples are about children with ADHD, although Sears pays lip service to ADD without hyperactivity.

5. Neurofeedback Techniques? Clearly Lynda Thompson is a proponent. She does not objectively discuss the pros/cons of this treatment.

6. Most of the other information is found in other ADD books. Frankly I'd recommend _You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy! _ by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramun as well as _Scattered : How A.D.D. Originates and What You Can Do About I_ by Gabor Mate for parenting advice, and _Driven to Distraction_ by Hallowell for diagnostic information.

That said, there are interesting tidbits. Handwriting of people with ADD (almost always in print); Tendancy for ADD'rs to skim instead of read. But Sears could have done a far better job. I am quite disappointed.

Excellent Resource! 2008-01-11
I love Dr. Sears and this book made me love him more! We were not certain that our 4-year-old was ADD until we read this book. I was scared to give her that "label". But Dr. Sears taught me why she does things and how to deal with them! I know more about my child because of this book, it was like he was writing about her! I have learned the positive things that will come because she is able to "hyper focus". He talks about the different treatment options, including biofeedback which is very fascinating. The different discipline techniques have been very helpful and they work! Open your mind and give this book a try!

Best one out there! 2006-03-08
After reading almost all the ADD books out there, I turned to this one. I admit that many times I find Dr Sears to be a bit too permissible and touchy-feely. I was very surpised and pleased with this book! His approach to ADD as being more of an issue of trying to fit children into "one-size-fits-all" places in the classroom makes sense. After reading this book I felt that my children are just less mature and developed in some areas of their development. I felt that I could address their problems, and he offers many different approaches. Read this book!

Excellent book for the newest ADHD approaches 2005-10-18
Of the many, many books I have read on ADD, this is by far my favorite. If you want to be educated on the topic for your child's best interest, this is the best place to start. There is no pressure to feel you should be giving your child Ritalin. There are so many positive alternatives and approaches that work. For example it really explains neurofeedback, which does work, I have been using this approach for my daughter with excellent results, no drugs!! It has become my significant bedtime reading.

Neurotherapy works 2003-10-30
I didn't find this book until my son was a junior in high school. He was not a behavior problem and his IQ was above average but he just had trouble with listening and focusing. He was nearly failing all his classes at the time and was very upset because he truly wanted to do well. I reviewed the neurotherapy section of the book and decided to give it a try. He did the sessions over the summer and it made all the difference in school. He had good grades his senior year and now has a full academic scholarship in college. He is happy and proud of himself. This book helped me understand him better and gave me options. This book helped me help him. I highly recommend it.

The A.D.D Book--AWESOME!! 2002-09-22
This book is the best book I have read about ADD/ADHD. I have purchased several books, and checked many out from the library. Each book seems to be "missing something". Well, this book covers it ALL! It contains information on what ADD is and what it isn't, strategies for improving behavior, how to deal with certain situations ie: telling lies, breaking things, etc. Also, there's information on "setting up for school success", neurofeedback, medication, diet and "understanding ADD laws". This book has information on these subjects, plus everything in-between! It's a very well written book that's easy to understand and is hard to put down! This book is interesting from page 1 through page 293! I recommend this book to anyone who has/knows a child with ADD/ADHD!!