I am trained as a child psychologist but have worked clinically and conducted research with families and individuals across the lifespan including children, adolescents, and adults. In my clinical roles, I provide assessment and intervention services to individuals with a diagnosis of ADHD. As a research scientist, I lead investigative studies that seek to better understand the academic, cognitive, behavioral, social, and occupational impacts of the symptoms associated with ADHD.
From these experiences, I came away with four big takeaways:
The symptoms associated with ADHD were first described in 1798 by a Scottish physician, Sir Alexander Crichton, then described again in 1902 by British pediatrician Sir George Frederic Still. Medication for treating symptoms of ADHD started in the mid-1930’s with the use of Benzedrine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, research on ADHD did not begin to ramp up until the late 1960s when “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood” was included in the DSM-2. Since that time, ADHD has been one of the most researched and treated neurodevelopmental disorders.
So, the most challenging aspect of creating these books was to take nearly 60 years of research and distill down the key findings in a user-friendly manner for the reader. For example, there has been a proliferation of studies trying to identify the causes of ADHD as well as best practices for treatments. Focus areas include genetic studies and research to determine which environmental factors may play a role in determining who develops ADHD. Treatment studies continue to try to answer one of the most challenging aspects of care planning – what works, for whom, and under what circumstances. These research areas and the associated studies are voluminous, complicated, and sometimes contradictory. For this reason, we used tables, relevant case studies, and marginal notes to help readers make sense of this broad range of research.
The most rewarding aspect of creating these books – in addition to collaborating with excellent co-authors – was to provide caregivers, family members, graduate students, and professionals with a road map for how to translate recommendations in these books into real-world practices. Our overarching goal with these books was for the information to be useful, practical, and impactful. To achieve this, we included suggestions for additional resources and further reading, support groups, and educational organizations that support individuals with ADHD. The co-authors of these books have witnessed the frustration of caregivers of kids with ADHD trying to find understandable and actionable information about ADHD to help inform them regarding treatment decisions. Similarly, we have worked with adults with ADHD who are struggling in their relationships, not being successful at work, and feeling lost about understanding the costs and benefits of different treatment strategies. These books are a response to those frustrations, and I am confident we achieved our goal of providing useful, practical, and impactful information.
For far too long, many professionals who provided the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD have been overly focused on the deficits associated with the disorder. At the same time, non-professionals who encountered those with ADHD too often attributed their academic, behavioral, and social challenges to a lack of willpower. While the problems associated with the various symptoms of ADHD are very real and cause significant impairments, each of these individuals possesses many unique strengths that, when supported, can promote various positive outcomes. Therefore our hope is that one of the big takeaways for graduate students and professionals who read these books is the importance of evaluating and soliciting information about individual strengths and incorporating those strengths into the individualized treatment plans. For non-professionals, we hope that readers understand that ADHD is a brain-based disorder that affects motivation and the ability to focus and is not a willpower issue. There is a myth that individuals with ADHD can never focus. In fact, people with ADHD can intensely focus on things that interest them but struggle to focus on tasks that are boring or repetitive. Therefore, we need to be more creative in putting people with ADHD in positions to succeed by adjusting their environment to better meet their needs and interests.
Most of my time is spent co-parenting 3 amazing children (ages 11,12, and 13) and leading an academic department of faculty, staff, and students. These experiences highlighted for me the overlap between parenting and leadership. For example, raising a child who thrives is both hard work and more complicated than simple. Parenting is a process that requires us to confront the challenge of finding and implementing the right approaches and best strategies to put our children in the optimal position to be resilient and “successful” adults. However, knowing the right approaches and best strategies to use is rarely straightforward. Caregivers struggle to balance the need to instill a sense of accountability in their child against letting them play and make mistakes. Caregivers also may feel conflicted about the desire to have their child learn and practice skills (extra math, piano, sports) but also wanting her/him to be creative and have their own time to explore and use their imagination. Caregivers must deal with the questions of consistency versus flexibility, predictability versus adaptability, and compliance versus defiance. If our goal as caregivers is to raise children who become well-adjusted adults, we need to put in the hard work now so our kids will thrive later.
Related to leadership, motivating employees to reach their full potential and thrive in the workplace is similarly challenging and more complicated than simple. Just like a parent, the role of a leader or manager is to figure out how to select the right approach, implement the best strategies, and push the right buttons to help employees excel. This requires that leaders and managers put in the hard work now to get the most out of people. Although there are many excellent articles and books on leadership, some strategies used in effective parenting practices can be informative and transferrable for leaders and managers – and vice versa. Even though parenting and leadership present a unique set of challenges and are often put in mutually exclusive categories, there is much to be learned and applied from these respective roles. I would like to explore in a book these intersections for expecting/current parents and emerging/established leaders. At the very least, we can all agree these different roles are hard work, frustrating, and also incredibly rewarding.
Brian P. Daly, PhD, is a professor and department head of psychological and brain sciences at Drexel University. Dr. Daly is president of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, past president of the Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association and recipient of grant funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Sixers Youth Foundation, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and Justice Resource Institute. He currently serves on the editorial board of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, as well as on the advisory committees for several nonprofit organizations.