14 Must-Read Books on ADHD for Parents: Understanding Your Child

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Whether you are a parent of a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or an adult with ADHD, there are many books out there to support you through this journey. You know that the experience of parenting can sometimes be quite overwhelming and daunting.

More than helping your child, you need to first understand them and then try to help them understand their condition. Even if your child is diagnosed with ADHD, there are ways, tips, and tricks to help them overcome their challenges and direct them toward a healthy and happy childhood.

In this comprehensive guide, we will list books for parents who have children diagnosed with ADHD or attention deficit disorder that will provide the parents with the right information, knowledge, and insights to bring up their child. We will also provide a list of the best books for children who have ADHD and adults with ADHD.

These books will not just be a rich learning experience for people with ADHD but also, will act as effective tools in understanding ADHD and attention deficit disorder.

Books for Parents who have Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Here are our top recommendations when it comes to ADHD and attention deficit disorder books for parents.

1. Super-parenting for ADD

This is a classic book that is written by Dr. Edward Hallowell who has decades of experience in dealing with children who are diagnosed with ADHD. This book brings a new approach to the parents in the manner they look at the condition.

Filled with research information and personal experiences, this book offers a solid game plan on how ADHD should actually be viewed. This is the premier book that talks about unconditional love, the cycle of excellence, mindfulness prescription, and viewing the mirror traits when it comes to parenting a child with ADHD or attention deficit disorder.

The book goes on to talk about reframing traits of the condition in a positive light.

2. Raising Boys With ADHD

Written by Mary Anne Richey, a school psychologist, this is a simple empowering book that is directed towards parents in helping them help their children succeed in school and in their lives. It talks about tips and strategies throughout the school years, from preschool all the way to high school and college.

This book provides a strengths-based approach in looking at raising boys with ADHD and also techniques to encourage these young boys.

3. Mindful Parenting for ADHD

This book is written by a pediatrician who offers simple tips and tricks to help parents who have children with ADHD stay calm, focused, and in control. It also provides actionable strategies that can be incorporated into the family’s daily life.

In the end, the book is filled with mindfulness techniques and a mindfulness prescription, which offers the parents a broader view of how they can tackle the challenges of everyday life yet stay calm and strong from within.  

4. Easy to Love but Hard to Raise

This informative book covers the personal experiences of parents who have children with ADHD, attention deficit disorder, autism, sensory processing disorder, and other conditions. This is an anthological book that covers honest experiences, feelings, extraordinary endeavors, and the practical solutions that parents implemented on their children to help them cope with their condition.

Some of the areas that this book covers nicely are how their children came to be diagnosed, the experience of the treatment, the social interactions of the children, and the parent’s level of emotional and physical stress.

This book is a must-read for parents who want to better understand the challenges their children with ADHD face on a daily basis.

Books for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

5. Mrs. Gorski, I Think I Have the Wiggle Fidgets

This is a delightful book that helps children nurture their true creativity. Through various events and coping strategies, the book encourages children to think out of the box and invent unique solutions that help them cope with the behavioral patterns that usually can be frustrating for adults, especially if they do not understand the reasoning behind the child’s action.

David is the protagonist of the book who has a number of interesting ideas and a vivid imagination that keeps him occupied in his daydreaming and exciting scientific endeavors. Ultimately David’s inventive imagination helped him to find strategies to heal the wiggle fidgets.

The book also has a very strong message for parents that they need to encourage and support their children’s creativity instead of crushing it.

This Morning Sam Went to Mars: A Book About Paying Attention

This is a fantastic book with colorful illustrations. In this book, there is a boy named Sam who is fascinated with daydreaming and therefore, finds it extremely difficult to complete his work and assignments in school.

The wonderful story revolves around how Sam’s doctor told his parents that their child has an exceptional brain and will surely do some great things in life. Ultimately Sam leads a normal life where nobody needs to tell him or encourage him to be organized and more focused.  

This book is a must-read for parents who want their children to better understand the concepts of focus, attention, and awareness training. It erases the stigma around an ADHD brain.

Last to Finish: A Story About the Smartest Boy in Math Class

This book covers the story of Max who dawdles in mathematics class but that does not imply that Max is not smart like the other kids. The story takes a wonderful turn as readers find out that Max has excellent capabilities in math but the third-grade assignments do not intrigue him much as they do not pose the necessary challenges.

This book is highly reassuring and encouraging. It shows that sometimes children are way smarter than we actually imagine. They simply decide to stay inattentive for the classroom curriculum does not challenge them considerably.

The book also reassures parents that their children are not always what they appear to be.

Good Morning Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Wake Up Story and Good Night Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Bedtime Story

This book is an excellent guiding tool for children who want to become calmer, attentive, and focused through physical exercises and movements. The best part of this beautifully illustrated book is that it can make yoga fun, easy, and extremely accessible to the children.

The book is covered with a number of simple yoga poses, illustrations of nature, breathing exercises, and physiological movements. The morning poses have been carefully selected to represent activity while the bedtime poses have been chosen as gentle. If as parents you are interested in yoga, then you must buy your kid this wonderful educational book on ADHD.

A Walk in the Rain with a Brain

This is a charming book filled with funny and wacky illustrations. The whimsical story of the book teaches children the importance of learning along with playing as both are crucial to finding one’s strength and potential.

The simple message that this book delivers is that each ADHD brain has its own color and its own special way to help a child in their growth and development.

This book is extremely helpful for parents who wish to better understand how their children think, feel, and react to different things in life.

Books for Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Driven to Distraction

This is one of the classics when it comes to the best books on adults with ADHD. Being first published in 1994, this book has touched millions of lives and is continuing to impact a huge number of readers for nearly three decades now. Since then, it has been revised and updated with current information.

This book takes a broader approach and highlights everything related to ADHD and attention deficit disorder. From tips to deal with ADHD to treatment options and what to do if your loved one has ADHD – this book tells you everything in great detail.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone who is looking to understand and cope with ADHD.

A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD

A step-by-step workbook perfect for women with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. If you are a woman who has been diagnosed with ADHD, this book is for you. The author of this book has comprehensively put a lot of information, real-life stories, and challenges that are unique to chronically overwhelmed women who are living with ADHD.

The sole objective of this book is to provide the necessary tools to chronically overwhelmed women and instill confidence in them so that they do not need to worry about breaking barriers even if they are diagnosed with ADHD.

Thriving with Adult ADHD

This book’s primary area of focus is ‘Executive Functioning’ which is one of the critical components of managing ADHD. The fundamental objective of this book is to explore the area of executive functioning skills so that it can help adults with ADHD in the department of organization, focus, and stress management.

Although this book is ideal for people who have been recently diagnosed, it is also resourceful to all adults living with ADHD for a long time but still struggling to grasp the essential executive functioning skills for day-to-day life. This book also contains information on common ADHD symptoms, ADHD medication, emotional control, brain science, and practical tips on how to deal with this condition.

Order from Chaos

This book focuses on the practical day-to-day problems that adults with ADHD face. These problems range from keeping their dwelling place highly disorganized or forgetting to pay the bills for the month on time.

The book highlights the author’s own experiences in dealing with the challenges of ADHD and offers practical advice and tools to manage the everyday stress that comes hand in hand with ADHD.  

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD

Organizing is one of the critical areas of life that gets seriously impacted by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This is the book that is ideal for helping people stay organized by offering organizing solutions– be it at home, or at work.

The book is filled with practical strategies and actionable guidance on how you can cut the clutter and work on projects more efficiently than you used to do. The best part of this book is that it has been segregated into rooms and types of organization so that as readers you can get the exact information that you are looking for. 

Conclusion

These are some of the best ADHD books that we could find which will help you immensely in the journey of your life. Although it is not an exhaustive list, it does highlight some of the most popular and essential reads when it comes to children and adults diagnosed with ADHD.

This list of ADHD books has been compiled after going through the readers’ reviews and considering the medical field research. We hope information from these books are helpful for those who are going through their ADHD journey, whether you are currently looking for practical answers, simple and effective strategies, or reading some personal stories.

These books are an excellent source of knowledge on how to manage and cope with ADHD symptoms, as well as the rules around taking ADHD medications, just as many women living with adult ADHD do.

It provides practical strategies and actionable guidance on how to stay organized, manage stress and emotions, and gain insight into the brain science behind this condition.

References

Lauron, S. (2022, January 14). These 10 books can help you cope with ADHD. Healthline. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/adhd-books 

Wedge, M. (2021, October 5). 7 inspiring books for ADHD kids and their parents. Brightly. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from https://www.readbrightly.com/inspiring-books-for-adhd-kids-and-parents/ 

Occupational Therapy Helping Children. (2021, September 30). Top 10 best books for parents of children with ADHD. Occupational Therapy Helping Children. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from https://occupationaltherapy.com.au/top-10-best-books-for-parents-of-children-with-adhd/ 

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