ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder, now diagnosed in up to ten percent of school-age children - has vaulted into public awareness and into a succession of self-help books. But this is the first to take the reader, through a mother's eyes, into the day-to-day life of a child with ADD and its dynamics in the home and beyond. Ann Colin's compelling journal recounts her son Willie's first five years of life. Willie is intelligent, creative, affectionate, and amusing. He is.
Also overly excitable and belligerent. We follow Colin and her husband from school to school, doctor to doctor, seeking a correct diagnosis - from an insensitive preschool staff, to the psychologist who pronounces Willie brain-damaged when he walks on tiptoe, to the seesaw of medical opinion on treatment and drugs. It is a marathon that takes them from bewilderment and exhaustion, through coping, to triumph. For a family facing ADD or any other crisis, and for educators.
And therapists, Willie is an inspiration and a lifesaver.
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