Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!

What if one of the simplest ways to support your child’s emotional well-being took only a few minutes a day? In this episode, Jenny explores the science and everyday practice of gratitude. Gratitude isn’t just saying “thank you.” It involves noticing something positive, recognizing how it affected you, and expressing appreciation for it. That might mean feeling grateful for something significant—o...

October is ADHD Awareness Month, but awareness is only the beginning. Truly understanding ADHD—and how it impacts your child's brain, behavior, emotions, and executive functioning—can completely change the way you support them. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, Jenny Drennan, founder of WeThrive Learning, explores why ADHD is not caused by poor parenting, a lack of discip...

Does homework seem to become a battle before your child even gets started? For students with ADHD, boredom can be a major barrier to starting and completing homework. Tasks that feel repetitive, unclear, overwhelming, or uninteresting can be especially difficult for an ADHD brain to engage with. And what looks like a lack of motivation may actually be something more complicated. Your child may not...

Life gets busy. Between school, homework, work schedules, activities, appointments, transportation, social media, and everything else competing for our attention, families can spend a lot of time together without actually having many opportunities to connect. And during the preteen and teen years, parents may feel that connection changing even more as friends and independence become increasingly i...

As parents, we have a powerful influence on how our children experience school and learning—even as they get older and become more independent. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, Jenny talks about why parent involvement still matters for children with ADHD and other neurodivergent learners, and how to stay connected without taking over. Parent involvement isn’t about monit...

Navigating an IEP can feel overwhelming—especially when you’re not sure whether your child is actually getting the support they need. When should you bring in a special education advocate? When might you need an attorney? And does bringing outside support into an IEP meeting automatically make things adversarial? In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, Jenny talks with Richard...

Does your teen with ADHD seem like they simply don’t care about school? Maybe they’re missing assignments, settling for lower grades than they’re capable of, procrastinating until the last minute, or shrugging and saying, “Whatever.” It’s easy to interpret that behavior as laziness or a lack of motivation. But there may be much more happening underneath. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child w...

Does your child seem years ahead in one area and years behind in another? Maybe they can explain incredibly advanced ideas but forget assignments. Perhaps they can talk endlessly about history, coding, science, or another passion—but struggle socially, emotionally, or academically in ways that don't seem to match their intelligence. Your child may have what is known as a twice-exceptional, or 2e,...

School pressure. Social pressure. Activities. Friendships. College planning. Family expectations. For many kids and teens, it can feel like there's always something they should be doing—and for students with ADHD, managing all of those demands can become especially overwhelming. In this episode, Jenny Drennan breaks down what stress can actually look like in children and teens and shares four prac...

You may hear “parent involvement” and immediately picture volunteering in an elementary classroom or attending every school event. But involvement can look very different—especially as your child gets older. In this episode, Jenny talks about the powerful role parents play in shaping their child’s relationship with school and learning. Your child may not always show it, particularly during the tee...

Sometimes the things we do because we love our children—checking, reminding, rescuing, fixing, planning, and protecting—can unintentionally make it harder for them to develop confidence and independence. For parents who already experience anxiety, raising a child with ADHD can amplify those instincts even more. In this episode, Jenny discusses how parental anxiety can influence the emotional clima...

Why can a child with ADHD make friends but have a much harder time keeping them? Friendships require far more executive function than we sometimes realize. Reading social cues, taking turns in conversations, remembering to respond to texts, making plans, handling changes, managing disappointment, and understanding someone else’s perspective can all be challenging for children and teens with ADHD....

Does your child become defensive, angry, tearful, or overwhelmed whenever you offer feedback even when you are trying to be gentle? Children with ADHD often experience more correction, redirection, and reminders than their peers. Over time, they may begin expecting criticism, which can make even small comments feel like rejection or personal failure. In this episode, Jenny explains why criticism c...

The transition back to school can feel exciting, overwhelming, and unpredictable—sometimes all at once. For children and teens with ADHD, a new school year may bring changes in routines, teachers, expectations, friendships, transportation, homework, and extracurricular activities. These changes can increase anxiety and make it harder for students to manage time, emotions, and responsibilities. In...

Your child understands the assignment. They know the answer. They may even be one of the strongest thinkers in the room—but they still need significantly more time to respond or finish their work. That is the reality for many children with slow processing speed. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, Jenny explains: ✨ What slow processing speed actually means ✨ Why it has no...

Why does my child keep lying—even when I already know the truth? For many parents, lying can feel personal. It can leave you frustrated, worried, and questioning whether you can trust your child. But what if the lie is only part of the story? In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, Jenny Drennan explores the reasons children and teens lie and why understanding what is happening...

Is your child constantly comparing themselves to other kids, feeling discouraged by school, or questioning their own abilities? For many children with ADHD, executive function challenges, and learning differences, everyday struggles can slowly impact how they see themselves. When learning feels harder, organization feels overwhelming, or mistakes seem bigger than they are, self-esteem can take a h...

Helping your ADHD child keep their room clean can feel like a never-ending battle. Clothes end up on the floor, trash collects on the desk, school papers disappear, and even when you help organize everything, the room may look messy again a week later. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, Jenny shares a compassionate, practical way to help your child build organization skill...

In this episode, we sit down with Cassy Espinosa, Director of Admissions at Fusion Academy Newport Beach and Anaheim Hills, to talk about what personalized one-to-one education can look like for middle and high school students. Cassy shares how Fusion’s flexible model supports students who may be struggling with school anxiety, executive functioning, learning differences, social-emotional challeng...

Are you constantly reminding your child to start homework, pack their backpack, email their teacher, or stay on top of responsibilities? Many parents of ADHD kids feel like everything will fall through the cracks if they are not managing every detail. But while micromanaging often comes from love and worry, it can unintentionally keep kids from building the independence, confidence, and executive...

Does your child know they matter to you beyond their grades, behavior, achievements, or performance? As parents, we love our children deeply. But sometimes, without meaning to, we can send subtle messages that make kids feel like their worth is tied to how well they perform, how much they accomplish, or whether they meet our expectations. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!,...

Chores can be a powerful way for kids with ADHD to build responsibility, confidence, independence, and executive function skills—but getting them to follow through can feel frustrating for parents. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, we’re talking about why chores can feel so overwhelming for ADHD brains and how parents can make daily responsibilities feel more doable. You’...

Teacher report card comments can sometimes feel vague, confusing, or even discouraging — especially when you see phrases like “struggles to stay focused,” “makes careless mistakes,” or “isn’t working to full potential.” In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, we’re helping parents decode common teacher comments that may point to underlying ADHD, executive function challenges, o...

The teen years can feel like an emotional rollercoaster, especially when you are parenting a child with ADHD, executive function challenges, or learning differences. Your teen may seem like they do not want your help, advice, or connection, but the truth is: your relationship still matters deeply. In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, we’re talking about why the teenage years...

Summer can be a much-needed reset for kids, especially children with ADHD, learning differences, or executive function challenges. But how do parents balance rest, structure, social connection, and learning without creating an overscheduled, stressful summer? In this episode of Parent Your ADHD Child with Confidence!, we’re sharing three practical ways to make the most of the summer months while h...