5 Online ADHD Resources for Parents

Online Tools for ADHD

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Child Mind Institute
American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Children
Help Guide

5 Resources for Parents of Kids with ADHD

Parents who have a child with special needs often feel overwhelmed. These 5 online resources for parents of children with ADHD may help reduce their stress. Each of these online resources is free. Thich eases the burden of getting help and makes them some of the best ADHD resources for parents.

Parents should spend some time checking out each of these mental health resources. The websites are available 24/7 without any fees or membership requirements.

What is ADHD?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is often called ADHD or attention deficit disorder. It is a condition that makes it difficult for children to focus and learn appropriate behavior.

Many believe that it is a childhood disorder, but, in fact, it often continues into adulthood. A child’s symptoms of ADHD may include inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. The condition is often recognized before the age of seven. The child may:

Be unusually fidgety
Talk at inappropriate times
Act without thinking
Daydream

While these behaviors are all occasionally normal for children, they may be ADHD symptoms if they are the norm rather than the exception.

Are kids with ADHD always hyperactive?

Not always. According to helpguide.org, there are several possibilities for ADHD. Kids with ADHD may:

Have trouble paying attention but not be impulsive or fidgety
Tend to be impulsive and fidgety, but can focus and pay attention
Have trouble with attention, fidgeting, and impulsivity

ADHD manifests differently in girls and boys. Boys often display the kind of hyperactivity people picture when thinking of ADHD. However, girls may struggle more with inattentiveness and daydreaming. This leads to more diagnosis for boys than for girls.

What are some treatment options for ADHD?

Many people choose medication as a way of controlling and treating ADHD. They will need to choose between stimulant and non-stimulant medications. This is the most conventional way to approach treating ADHD.

However, there are other options as well. These include behavior therapy, proper diet, exercise, positive reinforcement, and education. The resources for parents with ADHD child, below, have more options for effective treatment. It may also be helpful to seek the guidance of a mental health professional or medical doctors.

What causes ADHD?

Experts agree that ADHD is mainly caused by genetic factors. However, there are other factors that may worsen the symptoms. These include:

a chaotic home environment
poor diet, such as too much sugar
excessive screen-time
lack of exercise

How does ADHD affect parents?

Parents need to learn as much as possible about ADHD. The condition affects every aspect of their child’s life, and thus it affects the parent’s life as well.

These aspects may include something as basic as difficulty with sleeping. A child with ADHD may have trouble paying attention in school. In fact, this is where the disorder is most often diagnosed.

ADHD children may struggle in their friendships and other relationships, or with social skills in general. They may struggle with obedience and have behavior issues. They may have a short temper and tend to blow up easily. It may be difficult for them to finish what they have started.

These things are not insurmountable obstacles. However, the parent will need to be very involved if they are to overcome these problems. It’s important for the parent to spend a lot of time with their child. In addition, parents need to be very consistent with their expectations and rewards for good behavior. They must especially be consisent with consequences if the child misbehaves.

These things will create a stable environment for the child.

ADHD Websites for Parents:

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Link to Website

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry website offers resources for parents of children with ADHD. The website takes a scientific and medical approach. On the website, parents can access information about ADHD and its diagnosis and treatments. The site includes resources for finding local professionals. This includes psychiatrists, counselors and pediatricians. They have experience in caring for children with ADHD.

Parents can also read about some of the co-morbid mental disorders. These are at a higher prevalence in children with ADHD compared to children without ADHD. These include oppositional defiant disorder, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder.

They also provide information on other issues, such as fighting or bullying. These issues are not certain to show up in children with ADHD, but the likelyhood is higher.

This website provides resources. That way, parents can be aware of these other conditions. The website also provides a free guidebook in e-book form. This book includes chapters with information on:

what ADHD is
how common it is
how to help your child succeed in school
how to navigate the teenage years
how to work together with your child to help them achieve success and happiness

The link for the guidebook can be found here. The website also provides a video with more information on what ADHD is.

ADHD Websites for Parents:

Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)

Link to Website

Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is an advocacy group. Their website offers easy-to-read information about ADHD and how it affects children and the family dynamic. The site offers tips on parenting children with ADHD. It underscores the importance of spending time with your child. It also has a treatment overview page for parents who may feel overwhelmed with the different options.

Other resources on the Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder website include:

preschool and ADHD
teens and ADHD
how to manage ADHD in college
choosing childcare for kids with ADHD

CHADD is a nonprofit advocacy group. That means their website stresses the importance of parents being able to advocate for their children. If your child has ADHD, it is important that you be able to provide others with basic education about the condition. You should also know your child’s educational rights.

You must keep diagnosis and treatment records for your child. You must also be able to communicate with your child’s teachers. This will ensure that your child gets the best care possible. The legal and education side of ADHD can seem complicated and daunting. CHADD offers resources that can help you understand.

ADHD Website for Parents:

Child Mind Institute

Link to Website

Child Mind Institute’s parent guide to children with ADHD helps families understand what ADHD is. It will also help them understand:

how it affects a child
what the diagnosis means
how the condition can be treated and managed

Child Mind Institute ADHD resources include an explanation of ADHD symptoms. The website also describes how ADHD affects kids when they are not in school. This might be at home or in their friendships. The website addresses the question of whether or not a child might grow out of ADHD.

In addition, it describes the distinction between ADD and ADHD. It also goes over the difference between hyperactive and inattentive ADHD. The information on ADHD for parents is also offered in Spanish on this website. This is a helpful feature for parents with kids who have ADHD. The Child Mind Institute offers information for educators as well. This could be a useful resource for parents who wish to educate their children at home.

Resources for Children with ADHD:

American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Children

Link to Website

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Healthy Children website provides a resource guide for parents of children with ADHD. In this guide, there is a questionnaire that parents can self-administer in order to see if their child might have ADHD.

If it seems that the child might have ADHD, the parents could then take the completed questionnaire to their child’s pediatrician for discussion and additional testing in order to get a diagnosis.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Healthy Children website also includes information about who has ADHD and which symptoms parents should be aware of in their children.The articles on this website come in several categories. These include:

Symptom Checker
Ages and Stages
Healthy Living
Family Life
Tips and Tools
Safety Prevention
News

There is plenty of information on ADHD on this website. However, there is also information on other disorders and illnesses. If your child has a co-morbid disorder as well as ADHD, this could be a good resource to look at. This website is from the American Acamedy of Pediatrics and the information comes from pediatricians.

ADHD Online Resources:

Help Guide

Link to Website

Help Guide is a nonprofit organization that helps inform people on mental health and wellness. The website offers a page on ADHD parenting tips. On their page, they offer advice on how to help a child with ADHD. The page explains what executive functioning is and how it differs in a child who has ADHD. The Help Guide website also details how a child with ADHD impacts the rest of the household.

The site offers tips on how to manage expectations and your child’s behavior. The Help Guide goes on to provide a lengthy list of actionable tips that parents can take in order to improve everyday life at home.Subjects covered on their website include:

ADHD in children
ADHD and school
Teaching children with ADHD
ADHD tests and diagnosis
ADHD in adults
Treatment for children with ADHD
Tips for managing adult ADHD
Adult ADHD and relationships
Treatment for adult ADHD

There are several of these resources that could be very helpful for parents as their children begin to grow up. If their ADHD carries into adulthood, they will need to make decisions on treatment for adult ADHD. In addition, the resources on tips for managing adult ADHD could be useful, both to the parent and the young adult. Helpguide.org also has resources on other mental health issues.

Uses for These ADHD Parent Resources

These ADHD websites for parents are primarily geared towards parents of children with ADHD. They guide parents through the time when they first wonder if their child might have ADHD, through diagnosis, treatment and the growing-up years.

They help parents to understand the condition and how best to support their child. They also help them with practical tips that keep everyday life manageable.

Parents of children with ADHD may also want to share some of these resources with the child’s siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers and childcare providers. These resources for parents with ADHD child have information that can help other people understand what ADHD is and learn how to cope with the unusual behaviors and actions that a child with ADHD may exhibit.

Each of these five ADHD online resources offers a different and helpful perspective. These perspectives could be highly valuable for people who are close to someone with ADHD.

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