The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids is a step-by-step guide and coaching book for parents raising kids with ADHD, anxiety, and other challenges, written by renowned ADHD educator Elaine Taylor-Klaus.
The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids is an honest guide on how to be an effective parent when raising children with ADHD, anxiety, and other complex conditions-and how to guide them on a path to a healthy, happy, well-adjusted life. A wake-up call, a clear guide for action, and a message of inspiration, this book provides a reality-based recipe for how to do a masterful job of raising complex kids, while not making yourself (or your family) crazy in the process.
Parenting expert Elaine Taylor-Klaus, co-founder and CEO of ImpactADHD.com, will walk you through their proven coach-approach method, which shows all parents, in simple steps, how to identify challenge areas and how to use critical tools to parent simply, clearly, and effectively-for everyone's benefit. It doesn't much matter if your child has ADHD, or anxiety, or learning disabilities, or sensory processing, or ODD, or autism, or depression, or separation disorder-or celiac disease or food allergies, for that matter. All that really matters is this: your child is complex because there is a chronic medical condition (or several) that he, or she, or they need to learn to manage for themselves in order to be successful in life.
A coach approach will help you communicate, collaborate, and guide your kids on their path to independence. Here are some of the challenge areas addressed inside, and the coach-approach messages and strategies for working through them.
• Challenge: Feeling Like You've Tried Everything --> Coach-Approach: Letting Go --> Strategy: Lean into Relationships
• Challenge: Fearing for the Future --> Coach-Approach: Parent from Inspiration, Not Desperation --> Strategy: Shed the Shoulds
• Challenge: An Unhappy Home --> Coach-Approach: No One Gets to Be Wrong-The Benefits of Positivity --> Strategy: Play to their Strengths
• Challenge: Overwhelm Is Keeping You Stuck --> Coach-Approach: Focus on Whats Most Important --> Strategy: Take Aim!
Once you learn to use the Impact Model with a coach-approach, it can be applied to any situation-in fact, the more you use it, the easier it all becomes. Constant battles don't have to be part of your daily life. With The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids, you can (all) learn to thrive.
Industry Reviews
"An invaluable resource for parents (and hopefully for those working with them), this book is certainly now on the top of my "must read" list for all the parents (and teachers and mental health specialists) I work with. I am recommending it every chance I get." - Jerome Schultz, Ph.D. Clinical Neuropsychologist, Harvard Medical School Author: Nowhere to Hide
"Elaine Taylor-Klaus is the parent coach you can trust. Writing from her own life experience as a parent of three complex kids, the work of ImpactADHD.com, and the stories of the parents she has coached, Elaine clearly has the lived-through wisdom and compassion. This book is smart, engaging, and written for busy (and sometimes chaotic) families. It teaches parents to use reflection and self-care to connect with the radical acceptance and the "bring it on" attitude needed to take on the parenting challenges. At it's heart, this is also a call to understand both the children and the parents, grow connection within family, and ultimately celebrate the journey." - Lidia Zylowska MD, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Dept of Psychiatry
"With wit and wisdom that can only come from experience, Elaine Taylor-Klaus reminds fellow parents that they really can make a difference in the lives of their complex kids, and she guides them to do just that." - Susan Stiffelman, MFT, author of Parenting Without Power Struggles and Parenting With Presence
An essential resource for any parent! For parents raising children with ADHD or other learning differences, this book is invaluable. Taylor-Klaus gives you a skill-based road map to manage yourself and be a better resource for your child. - Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees & Wannabes
Deftly written with humor and compassion, this book offers a framework for developing a collaborative approach in working with your child, opportunities for self-reflection, and action-oriented solutions to some of life's most difficult parent-child issues. This book is a life saver for many struggling parents who may feel they are barely holding on. - Mary Anne Richey, M.Ed., co-author of Raising Boys with ADHD
Elaine Taylor-Klaus has been helping parents of "complex" kids for years with her engaging, witty, and blessedly calm advice. Now she has put it all in a wonderfully accessible guide that's like having her wise voice in your ear. - Katherine Ellison, author of Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention
Elaine Taylor-Klaus has given anyone leading kids a new lens to see their struggles as opportunities and new tools to turn their most frustrating situations into moments of connection and growth. - Hal Runkel, New York Times bestselling author of Screamfree Parenting
My favorite parenting book, bar none! Raising complex kids is tough and Taylor-Klaus nails it. A 'must-read' lifeline for parents of struggling kids. This book will transform your life. - Melissa Orlov, author of The ADHD Effect on Marriage
Speaking from years of practical experience Taylor-Klaus dispenses wit, wisdom and effective strategies. - Sam Goldstein Ph.D., co-author of Raising Resilient Children
Taylor-Klaus provides empathetic and sensible guidance to parents and professionals who struggle to provide effective help and support for kids whose lives are complicated by ADHD and related problems. - Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D., author of Outside the Box: Rethinking ADD/ADHD
This book is rich with highly useful ideas and new perspectives that can help you and your child succeed while establishing a more peaceful and loving relationship. - Russell A. Barkley Ph.D., author of Taking Charge of ADHD
This book is smart, engaging, and written for busy (and sometimes chaotic) families. It teaches parents to use reflection and self-care to connect with the radical acceptance and the "bring it on" attitude needed to take on the parenting challenges. - Lidia Zylowska MD, author of The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD
This is truly the book so many parents have been waiting for and is sure to help many families. They will find the compassionate guidance they need to move from surviving to thriving by learning how to make simple but impactful adjustments in the way they care for themselves and their complex kids. - Michelle Frank, Psy.D., co-author of A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD
This smart, practical book will make a difference not only in your child's life, but also in yours. If you're tired of working too hard for too little, let Elaine show you a better path. - Ari Tuckman, author of More Attention, Less Deficit
With wit and wisdom that can only come from experience, Elaine Taylor-Klaus reminds fellow parents that they really can make a difference in the lives of their complex kids. - Susan Stiffelman, MFT, author of Parenting Without Power Struggles
You'll want to read this book cover to cover, and then keep it on your nightstand, for it will surely become your "how to" manual as you shift from "parenting from desperation to parenting from inspiration. - Jerome Schultz, Ph.D., author of Nowhere to Hide
