Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential

My 9-year-old daughter, "A," has been struggling with staying on task. I've been struggling to parent her through it! When a friend talked about her daughter's ADHD diagnosis, it just clicked. A hasn't received that diagnosis, but seeing her struggles, we decided to start by learning how to help her in ways that don't involve medication. (There is absolutely a place for ADHD meds, but if we can avoid them, particularly while she's a growing kid, that feels like a positive.) I looked on Amazon and ordered this book. I just finished it today. It's EXCELLENT. It explains what executive skills are (various skills that help one function and "get things done.") I understand both my kids better, as well as understanding my own executive skills strengths and weaknesses. I have a great toolbox of new strategies and ideas to pull from as we get back to "real life" next week. In fact, I'm already using some of the things I've learned. When the kids were packing to return home from our Christmas trip, my nagging wasn't helping A get things done. So I remembered that kids with difficulties in these areas often need to do things in short bursts with frequent rewards. I told A that for every 10 items she packed, she could film one slow-motion video on my phone. It worked like a dream, and the atmosphere in the room totally changed--laughter instead of frustration. The next day when we got home, I used the same strategy for unpacking, challenging her a little more (15 items for each video.) I don't remember A complaining once, and her unpacking was done in a fairly timely fashion. I still had to remind her to get back on task a couple of times, but it didn't feel like a battle. Of course, different strategies work for different kids. The frequent little rewards work for A because while she has weaknesses in the areas of task initiation and working memory, she has a strength in the area of goal-directed persistence. One thing I loved about this book is that it showed me her strengths, which helps devise strategies to help her in the areas where she struggles. We will be creating a new plan to help A with her after-school routine (the biggest at-home struggle currently--supposed to focus on one at a time), and we're already communicating with her teachers about how to help her succeed more at school. Both teachers are so glad we want to work with them in an effort to help A. A note on the length of the book--it looks pretty intimidating, and if you have a weakness in the executive skill of time management, as I've learned I have, that can spell disaster for a long, nonfiction book! I was pleased to find that a lot of parts were "skimmable." A large portion of the book is composed of chapters that address each executive skill individually. I merely skimmed the chapters covering skills that my kids don't struggle with. I also skimmed quite a bit of the beginning of the book, when the authors go into a lot of detail of how executive skills develop, brain development, etc. It's good info, but I was anxious to get on with the practical tips, and I didn't end up needing all the scientific basis to make sense of the rest of the book.

This is another gem of a book. Dawson and Guare, the authors, have quite a few of these books ranging from kids, teens Smart but Scattered Teens: The "Executive Skills" Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential , to adults The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success: How to Use Your Brain's Executive Skills to Keep Up, Stay Calm, and Get Organized at Work and at Home . I love how they not only give you ideas and checklists to fill out for your kids strengths and weaknesses, but they also include a version for parents to assess themselves. This is a great way to begin a nice dialogue and could be very eye-opening. Once you have informally assessed your child's strengths and weaknesses, each chapter focuses on a specific area to target with strategies. I have found this extremely beneficial for my role as a parent but as a teacher I find myself recommending this book more and more. If this sounds interesting to you or like you want to read more on executive skills here are some other products I have found personally helpful and recommend for families, check out: The Sensory Child Gets Organized: Proven Systems for Rigid, Anxious, or Distracted Kids The Out-of-Sync Child ADDitude

Thinking that your child might possibly suffer from ADD? I would definitely recommend reading this book before you take any big steps. It's a well written book that will help your child and yourself understand what is going on. There are charts and diagrams that help you track, to figure out the underlying issue at hand. I believe this book is for younger to young preteen age. It helps cover home life and school. It's a good learning device, if you are interested in learning different skills to help your child. This book will definitely teach you skills to help your child(ren). It will also help the parent understand what is going on. It helps you stay on task no matter what. It helps them to be able to finally achieve what they need to achieve. It helps get your child focused and task oriented. It's definitely a good read. I recommend this book for any parent out there! I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book helps the reader to understand children with attention difficulties. A bit dry, I found it a long read, but I did gather some informative things to help me navigate life with my ADHD child.

Very happy with this book

Haven't waded through it all because there's quite a lot to read. What is extremely useful is that it has questionnaires that elicit both the parent's and the child's cognitive strengths and weaknesses. And then individual chapters telling you how to develop those executive functions. Now I know why my daughter and I argue a lot. Our brains are wired differently, so skills that I could do with my eyes closed, she finds impossible and vice versa. If you suspect that you and/or your child are ADHD/Autistic, this book can help you.

easy to read, great examples

This book is an excellent resource for parents, caregivers, educators, and therapists who are caring for children with executive function difficulties including ADHD and even kids on the autistic spectrum. I found this book simple to read and practically applicable to life. The suggestions were not difficult to implement and were extremely effective in helping the ADHD kids I deal with to complete work more effectively while not focusing on ADHD as a deficit. The mantra of the book is that ADHD is an explanation, not an excuse. The book provides excellent suggestions to help keep kids organized such as replacing toy boxes with clear containers and then putting pictures on each container so that kids can practice their organization skills. It also provides useful tools for educators such as building in choice to the curriculum and how to help kids get on track when they have trouble with task initiation, sustained attention, goal persistence, memory and organization. I would highly recommend this book.

I really loved it