When Starting Feels Impossible: Task Initiation and Executive Functioning
Task initiation is the executive functioning skill that helps us get started. When this skill is weak, children and adults may look lazy or defiant, but often they are stuck at the starting point.
Parents Keep Asking Me: “What Do I DO to Help My ADHD Child?”
Many parents come looking for the one strategy that will finally make things easier for their ADHD child. But ADHD support is rarely one-size-fits-all. This blog explores executive functioning difficulties, understanding your child’s unique needs, and why curiosity and adaptation matter more than perfection.
What Does It Really Mean When Your Child Has Learning Difficulties?
Many parents hear terms like “learning difficulties” or “SpLD” but are never properly told what they actually mean in real life. This blog explains how learning difficulties are often linked to working memory, executive functioning, processing speed, sensory processing, ADHD, autism, and emotional regulation — not intelligence.
Why Can’t They Just Sit Still?
Why does a child keep leaning back on their chair even after being told to stop? This blog explores inhibitory control, an important executive functioning skill linked to ADHD and autism, and explains why some children struggle to pause, stay still, and stop their body in the moment.
When Your Child Flips — And You Feel Yourself Going Too
When a child “flips,” it’s often seen as behaviour—but what happens when the parent feels it too? This blog explores how overwhelm affects both child and parent, and why understanding—not judgement—is key.
Why Your Child Understands Something One Day and Not the Next
Many children understand something one day, then seem to forget it the next. This blog explains how memory, processing, and executive functioning affect learning, and why inconsistency is often misunderstood.
Why Your Child Struggles With Change
Some children cope well… until something changes. This blog explains flexible thinking, why it breaks down in the moment, and why it’s not about behaviour.
Why Your Child Forgets Instructions — And Why You Might Recognise This in Yourself Too
Ever walked into a room and forgotten why you went there? That’s working memory. This blog explains how it impacts everyday life and why it’s not about trying harder.
What Thinking Skills Do Children Actually Need to Learn?
Children do not just need intelligence to learn. They rely on a range of thinking skills including memory, understanding, flexible thinking, problem solving and executive functioning. When these skills are weaker, learning can feel much harder than it should.
Addiction and the Search for “Normal”
Addiction is often misunderstood as a lack of willpower. This blog explores how dopamine, regulation, and nervous system needs can make addiction risk higher if you’re autistic or ADHD — and why it’s often about escaping a low, not chasing a high.
It’s Not Bad Behaviour — It’s an Undeveloped Skill
Schools are still punishing autistic and ADHD children for behaviours caused by undeveloped skills. This blog explains why that approach is harmful — and how misunderstanding neurodivergence is damaging children’s self-esteem, safety, and education.
Why ‘No Evidence for Neurodevelopmental or ADHD Screening’ Isn’t the Same as ‘What’s Best for Children’
The Government has confirmed it will not support neurodevelopmental or ADHD screening for children, citing a lack of evidence. While early intervention is repeatedly acknowledged as essential, current pathways continue to rely on children reaching crisis before support begins. This blog explores the risks of delayed identification, the difference between screening and diagnosis, and what this decision means in real life for children and families.
The Four-Tier System: When Support Comes Too Late
The four-tier system is being discussed as a form of early intervention in SEND support. But many children don’t struggle early. Some cope through primary school and only begin to struggle later, often in secondary school when demands increase sharply. A system that requires children to move slowly through tiers risks delaying help until real damage has already been done. This blog explores why waiting for repeated failure is not early intervention — and why parents need to understand what may be coming.
Executive Function in Autism & ADHD – Same Skills, Different Weak Spots
Executive functioning skills are the same in autism and ADHD, but the weak spots are often different. This blog explains flexible thinking, working memory, and inhibitory control in a clear, real-life way.
For Nearly 3 Years, SENCOs Can Hold Their Role Without Training – No Wonder ADHD Kids Are Failed
SENCos can hold their role for nearly three years without mandatory training. This article examines how that gap contributes to ADHD children being misunderstood, mislabelled, excluded, and ultimately failed by an education system that hasn’t evolved to meet neurodivergent needs.
From the Classroom to the Courtroom: Why ADHD Support Could Break the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Undiagnosed ADHD is often punished instead of supported — pushing vulnerable young people from school exclusion into the criminal justice system. This cycle is preventable.