Parenting the ADD child - David Pentecost

Children with ADD or ADHD can be a parenting nightmare. They can be disruptive and destructive and do not respond to guidance like other children. Medication may reduce symptoms, but disruptive behaviour often persists. Is there anything that the parent can do?

Parenting the ADD Child brings together for the first time a variety of tried and tested methods in a unique, comprehensive and accessible format that will not be found elsewhere. It goes beyond the identification of the symptoms to tackle the changes parents can make, ensuring that behaviour problems associated with ADD and ADHD are managed and reduced.

David Pentecost is a family therapist and founder of the ADHD development project in BHB NHS Trust in East London. He lectures and advises to parents, teachers, psychiatrists, GPs and other specialists on the emotional and behavioural management of ADD and ADHD in children. He is lecturer and tutor at the Institute of Family Therapy and visiting lecturer at South Bank University, London.

an accessible, practical text with plenty of charts and activities for both children and parents. And although the strategies are not new (they will be very familiar to anyone involved in the management of difficult behaviour), this, in a way, is a strength: at least they are tried and tested. A useful addition to your resource base, especially for lending to parents.
TES Special Needs

easy to follow, jargon-free, and very parent friendly. In each of the twelve steps there is: an introduction on the aim of the technique involved in that step; what the parent/child will learn; tasks/exercises for parents to complete; how to implement the technique; tips for success; answers to frequently asked questions from parents in relation to that technique. There is no timescale to complete the whole ADDapt programme as it is realistic in acknowledging each family is different and need to go at their own pace.

The most appealing factor about this book is that it has clearly been written by someone who has worked extensively with parents of children with ADD, who is fully aware and understanding of the of the problems they experience. The first eight chapters of the book provide parents with invaluable information and advice on issues which need to be looked at before beginning the ADDapt programme. If you read the whole book from start to finish, the amount of information to take in can seem overwhelming. However, it is written in such a way that parents are repeatedly reassured, guided and motivated.

Although the book is primarily aimed at parents of children with ADD, I recommend it to be an invaluable source of reference for all professionals involved with such children and their families.

Michelle Griffin

the one to buy. It is a practical self help strategy for parents and essential reading for teachers and other professionals involved in the identification and therapy of ADHD children if they are to understand just how difficult the parenting task is. David Pentecost is a family therapist who has really listened and learnt what ADHD parenting is all about, and thankfully written this excellent book which gives a background to the parenting scheme he has called ADDapt - ADD Alternative Parenting Techniques - and then goes on to describe in practical terms the twelve stages of the ADDapt programme. Parents will be pleased to hear a professional acknowledge that good parenting skills are not enough. ADHD requires different skills where the normal rules of good parenting sometimes don't work.
Special Children

A helpful and practical book for harassed parents. The appendices provide names and addresses of support groups, a useful reading list, websites and a programme of "special time" for older children.
ACE Bulletin

In this book there are good strategies for any parent in the way we speak to our children, and he emphasises how seldom we are crystal-clear about what we really want from them. He also urges every parent to spell out that there will be a comeback for bad behaviour, which you must follow through. Pentecost points out that when it is matter of bad behaviour in ADD children, there is a great deal that boils down to bad habits. And that they find it harder to learn the rules for getting along with people. So help your child to pick up new ways of doing things, which will mean you have to learn new ways too.

If you are a parent of an ADD or ADHD child and you are flagging, read this book. You will get a lot of additional help from the list of resources.

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