Sharing the Language of Attention Deficits: Educational Programs about Attention for Parents, Their Children, and Professionals

Abstract

Most researchers agree that individuals with attention deficits benefit more from multimodal management plans incorporating counseling, pharmacological, and psychoeducational strategies than any of these strategies alone. A significant impediment to the successful implementation of multimodal management plans is a lack of a common language for clinicians, educators, parents/caregivers, and individuals with attention deficits to use when discussing attention deficits. The goal of the Controls of Attention Project is to provide all stakeholders with a shared language that both specifies the nature and severity of the problem beyond a global label of AD/HD and is explicitly linked to management strategies.