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PARENT SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS FOR CHILDREN WITH ADHD

CHADD

Maybe the best-known national parent support group for ADHD is CHADD, which got its name from “Children with ADD.”  The website is https://chadd.org/  The organization has local groups, a magazine, informational pages.  But, a word of caution: As best I have been able to tell, CHADD gets a lot of financial support from big pharmaceutical companies that make money from sales of ADHD medications.  I tried to find a page of financial disclosures on the CHADD website, but that page wasn’t active.  The support from pharmaceutical companies for CHADD doesn’t necessarily mean that the information from the organization is bad or tainted; but it’s not entirely free of possible conflict of interest. Be warned, and use your judgment. (Links between CHADD and drug companies are sometimes used to discredit the idea of ADHD itself; but ADHD isn’t just a ploy of the drug companies; it exists.)

LD ONLINE

LDonline, at http://www.ldonline.org/, doesn’t have support groups. But it does have a lot of good information, both on learning disabilities and on ADHD, and a parent forum where parents share ideas.  The main support for the site is a public TV station, and foundations (not pharmaceutical companies), and one of the main experts is Larry Silver, MD, whose book The Misunderstood Child, I really like.

Understood

This website, at https://www.understood.org/en, is produced by a nonprofit which doesn’t take pharmaceutical company money. It has lots and lots of information about both LD and ADHD, and there is an online community.  I haven’t looked at much of the site, but what I’ve seen seems reasonable and helpful.

Search the Web

Search for ADHD Support groups in your own community.  I’ve tried entering “ADHD Support Groups” with several different city names, and the search usually finds quite a few, although many are for-profit, or linked to particular clinics that are promoting their own business.  You have to be cautious and use your own best judgment, or seek recommendations from friends.

[This page was last updated by Robert Needlman, on 11-25-2018]