Chaos & Caffeine - ADHD Parenting Podcast

If you’re raising a child with ADHD, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve accidentally become their executive function.
You’re checking the homework. Remembering the deadlines. Finding the missing assignments. Packing the backpack. Watching the grades. Reminding them about the thing you already reminded them about twelve times.
But how do we help ADHD kids succeed in school without managing every single thing for them?
This week on Chaos & Caffeine, Danielle Kelly talks with Diane Dempster, co-founder of ImpactParents and professional coach, about helping neurodivergent kids build executive functioning skills, independence, and confidence at school and at home.
We’re getting into the messy stuff: when helping becomes rescuing, how to shift from managing to coaching, when to let kids experience natural consequences, how to hand responsibilities back without setting them up to fail, and why ADHD parents so often end up completely burned out during the school year.
Because the goal isn’t to raise a kid who never forgets an assignment, loses something, or struggles.
It’s to raise a kid who eventually knows what to do when they do.
Connect with Diane 👉 Impact Parents
This Month's Sponsors:
🌎 bina school
A small, global online school built for kids who need learning to be more flexible, personalized, and human.
🔬 Kodo Kids
Open-ended, sensory-rich play materials that let neurodivergent kids explore, experiment, and learn in the ways that work for their brains.
🧱 Cubles
Recyclable building sets that transform flat pieces into 3D creations—keeping busy hands building and brilliant brains creating.
 🩵 Parker & Talia
Sensory-friendly clothing and socks made for kids who can’t just “ignore” the tag, seam, texture, or waistband. 
🎓 Inclusive Expectations
 Special education advocacy and personalized support helping parents navigate IEPs, school meetings, and accommodations with more confidence.
🌱 MaryRuth Organics
If you’ve got a kid who treats vegetables like a personal enemy, MaryRuth Organics might become your new best friend. 
Join Our Patreon and Find All of Our Faves! 
📧 Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Email us at chaosandcaffeinepodcast@gmail.com.
Support the show
Danielle is the host of Chaos & Caffeine, a fast-growing ADHD parenting podcast where she interviews leading psychologists, clinicians, researchers, and neurodivergent advocates about what actually helps ADHD kids thrive in the real world. Through science-backed conversations and very real mom-in-the-trenches storytelling, the show helps parents navigate executive function challenges, emotional regulation struggles, learning differences, and the everyday chaos of raising neurodivergent kids.
Each week, Danielle translates complex ADHD research into practical tools parents can actually use — from building routines that support developing brains to helping kids strengthen focus, flexibility, and self-regulation skills.
Listen to the podcast and explore expert interviews at:
https://linktr.ee/chaosandcaffeinepodcast
Danielle frequently speaks and writes about ADHD parenting strategies, executive function development, emotional regulation, screen use and attention, learning challenges like dyslexia, and building resilient neurodivergent families.

Your kid can understand something ridiculously complicated… but can't remember their homework, find their shoes, start a five-minute assignment, or handle a tiny change in plans without completely falling apart.
How the hell can both things be true?
This week on Chaos & Caffeine: ADHD Parenting Podcast, Danielle Kelly sits down with Mark Talaga, M.A., LPC, director and owner of the Center for Identity Potential and host of the Hopelessly Gifted Podcast, to talk about the complicated reality of raising gifted, ADHD, neurodivergent, and twice-exceptional (2e) kids.
We're digging into the gap between intelligence and executive functioning—and why being incredibly capable in one area doesn't mean a child should automatically be capable everywhere else.
Mark breaks down asynchronous development, executive dysfunction, emotional regulation, giftedness, ADHD, anxiety, perfectionism, identity, and why some incredibly bright kids struggle with things adults assume should be “easy.”
We also talk about what happens when adults mistake executive-function struggles for laziness, defiance, lack of motivation, or wasted potential—and how constantly hearing “You're so smart, why can't you just…” can affect a neurodivergent child's identity and confidence.
Connect with Mark 👉 Center for Identity Potential
This Month's Sponsors:
🌎 bina school
A small, global online school built for kids who need learning to be more flexible, personalized, and human.
🔬 Kodo Kids
Open-ended, sensory-rich play materials that let neurodivergent kids explore, experiment, and learn in the ways that work for their brains.
🧱 Cubles
Recyclable building sets that transform flat pieces into 3D creations—keeping busy hands building and brilliant brains creating.
 🩵 Parker & Talia
Sensory-friendly clothing and socks made for kids who can’t just “ignore” the tag, seam, texture, or waistband. 
🎓 Inclusive Expectations
 Special education advocacy and personalized support helping parents navigate IEPs, school meetings, and accommodations with more confidence.
🌱 MaryRuth Organics
If you’ve got a kid who treats vegetables like a personal enemy, MaryRuth Organics might become your new best friend. 
Join Our Patreon and Find All of Our Faves! 
📧 Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Email us at chaosandcaffeinepodcast@gmail.com.
Support the show
Danielle is the host of Chaos & Caffeine, a fast-growing ADHD parenting podcast where she interviews leading psychologists, clinicians, researchers, and neurodivergent advocates about what actually helps ADHD kids thrive in the real world. Through science-backed conversations and very real mom-in-the-trenches storytelling, the show helps parents navigate executive function challenges, emotional regulation struggles, learning differences, and the everyday chaos of raising neurodivergent kids.
Each week, Danielle translates complex ADHD research into practical tools parents can actually use — from building routines that support developing brains to helping kids strengthen focus, flexibility, and self-regulation skills.
Listen to the podcast and explore expert interviews at:
https://linktr.ee/chaosandcaffeinepodcast
Danielle frequently speaks and writes about ADHD parenting strategies, executive function development, emotional regulation, screen use and attention, learning challenges like dyslexia, and building resilient neurodivergent families.

Why can an incredibly smart child with ADHD know EXACTLY what they're supposed to do at school…and still forget the assignment, lose the worksheet, miss the directions, struggle to get started, or completely fall apart when expectations increase?
If your ADHD child is struggling in school, this episode is for you.
This week on Chaos & Caffeine: ADHD Parenting Podcast, Danielle Kelly sits down with Dr. Stephen Faraone, one of the world's leading ADHD researchers, to talk about what decades of research actually tell us about ADHD kids, executive functioning, academic performance, and the ADHD brain at school.
Dr. Faraone is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He has authored more than 1,000 journal articles, editorials, chapters, and books, and has spent decades studying ADHD, genetics, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.
And we're taking that science straight into the classroom.
In this episode, we talk about:
• Why ADHD can make school so difficult—even for very bright kids
• ADHD and executive function struggles at school
• Why knowing what to do isn't the same as being able to consistently DO it
• Attention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and self-regulation in the classroom
• ADHD and academic performance
• Why grades don't always tell the whole story
• What parents and teachers may misunderstand about ADHD
• How increasing independence and school demands can expose ADHD struggles
• ADHD diagnosis and what parents should understand about symptoms and impairment
• ADHD medication, treatment, and what the evidence actually shows
• Separating evidence-based ADHD information from myths and misinformation
• What decades of ADHD research can teach us about helping our kids succeed
Research involving Dr. Faraone has found that children with ADHD who also have executive-function deficits can be at particularly high risk for academic difficulties—including lower academic achievement and grade retention.
So when your child knows the material but can't find the homework…
When the teacher says, “But they CAN focus when they want to…”
When your kid is capable as hell but their school performance doesn't seem to reflect what you KNOW they're capable of…
There may be a whole lot more happening underneath the behavior.
Because our goal isn't to make ADHD kids better at pretending they don't have ADHD.
It's to understand their brains well enough to give them a real shot at succeeding with the one they have.
This Month's Sponsors:
🌎 bina school
A small, global online school built for kids who need learning to be more flexible, personalized, and human.
 🦘 Ted Kangaroo
Sensory tools that help kids wiggle, focus, and regulate—without another battle. Use code: CHAOS20 to save 20%. 
 🩵 Parker & Talia
Sensory-friendly clothing and socks made for kids who can’t just “ignore” the tag, seam, texture, or waistband. 
📚 Reading.com
Helping struggling readers build confidence and parents keep their sanity one lesson at a time.
🎲 DSS Games
Helping families put down the screens, laugh together, and actually enjoy spending time with each other again.
🎓 Inclusive Expectations
 Special education advocacy and personalized support helping parents navigate IEPs, school meetings, and accommodations with more confidence.
🌱 MaryRuth Organics
If you’ve got a kid who treats vegetables like a personal enemy, MaryRuth Organics might become your new best friend. 
Join Our Patreon and Find All of Our Faves! 
📧 Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Email us at chaosandcaffeinepodcast@gmail.com.
Support the show
Danielle is the host of Chaos & Caffeine, a fast-growing ADHD parenting podcast where she interviews leading psychologists, clinicians, researchers, and neurodivergent advocates about what actually helps ADHD kids thrive in the real world. Through science-backed conversations and very real mom-in-the-trenches storytelling, the show helps parents navigate executive function challenges, emotional regulation struggles, learning differences, and the everyday chaos of raising neurodivergent kids.
Each week, Danielle translates complex ADHD research into practical tools parents can actually use — from building routines that support developing brains to helping kids strengthen focus, flexibility, and self-regulation skills.
Listen to the podcast and explore expert interviews at:
https://linktr.ee/chaosandcaffeinepodcast
Danielle frequently speaks and writes about ADHD parenting strategies, executive function development, emotional regulation, screen use and attention, learning challenges like dyslexia, and building resilient neurodivergent families.

Getting your ADHD kid into college is one thing.
But are they actually ready to manage college without you?
In this episode of Chaos & Caffeine: ADHD Parenting Podcast, Danielle Kelly sits down with Gerene Keesler, founder of Admissions Untangled and a college admissions expert with more than 30 years of experience, to talk about what parents of ADHD and neurodivergent teens need to know BEFORE college move-in day.
Because college readiness isn't just GPA, SAT scores, applications and acceptance letters.
For an ADHD student, it can also mean managing executive functioning, deadlines, organization, medication, accommodations, professors, laundry, sleep, money, appointments—and knowing when and how to ask for help.
Gerene brings both professional and personal experience to this conversation. After spending decades working in college admissions and higher education, she now specializes in helping neurodivergent students navigate the college admissions process, identify schools that fit their actual needs, develop self-advocacy skills, and prepare for greater independence.
We're talking about:
How to know if your ADHD teen is actually ready for college
Executive functioning skills students need before leaving home
How ADHD accommodations change from high school to college
What happens to an IEP or 504 Plan after high school
Teaching ADHD teens to advocate for themselves
How parents can gradually step back without removing support completely
What to look for when choosing a college for an ADHD or neurodivergent student
Why the "best" college isn't necessarily the most prestigious one
College admissions and application strategies for neurodivergent students
When a traditional four-year college may NOT be the best next step
Preparing ADHD teens for deadlines, organization and independence
How parents can stop being their teenager's external frontal lobe before move-in day 😂
Gerene's message is one every ADHD parent needs to hear:
The goal isn't simply finding a college that will accept your child. It's finding a place where your child can actually thrive.
And preparing them doesn't mean making sure they never struggle.
It means helping them build the skills to recognize when they're struggling, advocate for what they need, access support—and recover when things inevitably go sideways.
If you're raising an ADHD middle schooler or high schooler and college feels simultaneously exciting and absolutely freaking terrifying, start here.
Connect with Gerene 👉 Admissions Untangled
This Month's Sponsors:
🌎 bina school
A small, global online school built for kids who need learning to be more flexible, personalized, and human.
 🦘 Ted Kangaroo
Sensory tools that help kids wiggle, focus, and regulate—without another battle. Use code: CHAOS20 to save 20%. 
 🩵 Parker & Talia
Sensory-friendly clothing and socks made for kids who can’t just “ignore” the tag, seam, texture, or waistband. 
📚 Reading.com
Helping struggling readers build confidence and parents keep their sanity one lesson at a time.
🎲 DSS Games
Helping families put down the screens, laugh together, and actually enjoy spending time with each other again.
🎓 Inclusive Expectations
 Special education advocacy and personalized support helping parents navigate IEPs, school meetings, and accommodations with more confidence.
🌱 MaryRuth Organics
If you’ve got a kid who treats vegetables like a personal enemy, MaryRuth Organics might become your new best friend. 
Join Our Patreon and Find All of Our Faves! 
📧 Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Email us at chaosandcaffeinepodcast@gmail.com.
Support the show
Danielle is the host of Chaos & Caffeine, a fast-growing ADHD parenting podcast where she interviews leading psychologists, clinicians, researchers, and neurodivergent advocates about what actually helps ADHD kids thrive in the real world. Through science-backed conversations and very real mom-in-the-trenches storytelling, the show helps parents navigate executive function challenges, emotional regulation struggles, learning differences, and the everyday chaos of raising neurodivergent kids.
Each week, Danielle translates complex ADHD research into practical tools parents can actually use — from building routines that support developing brains to helping kids strengthen focus, flexibility, and self-regulation skills.
Listen to the podcast and explore expert interviews at:
https://linktr.ee/chaosandcaffeinepodcast
Danielle frequently speaks and writes about ADHD parenting strategies, executive function development, emotional regulation, screen use and attention, learning challenges like dyslexia, and building resilient neurodivergent families.

Is your child bright but still struggling to read?
Do they guess at words, avoid reading altogether, melt down during homework, or insist they're "bad at reading"? If you're raising a child with ADHD, it can be incredibly difficult to know whether these challenges are caused by attention, dyslexia, or something else entirely.
This week on Chaos & Caffeine: An ADHD Parenting Podcast, Danielle Kelly sits down with reading specialist, Certified Academic Language Therapist, and Home Reading Coach founder Faye Bankler Casell to break down what every ADHD parent needs to know about reading difficulties.
Together, they discuss:
• The difference between ADHD and dyslexia
• Why so many bright kids struggle with reading
• Early warning signs parents shouldn't ignore
• What the Science of Reading actually means (without the educational jargon)
• Why traditional reading practice often isn't enough
• Practical, research-backed strategies parents can use at home
• How to protect your child's confidence while building stronger reading skills
Whether your child has ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences, or simply isn't making the reading progress you'd expect, this episode will help you understand what's really happening—and what you can do next.
Because struggling to read doesn't mean a child isn't smart. It means they deserve instruction that works for the way their brain learns.
🎧 Subscribe to Chaos & Caffeine for weekly conversations with leading ADHD experts, psychologists, educators, researchers, physicians, and parents who are changing the way we support neurodivergent kids.
Connect with Faye 👉 Home Reading Coach
This Month's Sponsors:
🌎 bina school
A small, global online school built for kids who need learning to be more flexible, personalized, and human.
 🦘 Ted Kangaroo
Sensory tools that help kids wiggle, focus, and regulate—without another battle. Use code: CHAOS20 to save 20%. 
 🩵 Parker & Talia
 Sensory-friendly clothing and socks made for kids who can’t just “ignore” the tag, seam, texture, or waistband. 
📚 Reading.com
Helping struggling readers build confidence and parents keep their sanity one lesson at a time.
🎲 DSS Games
Helping families put down the screens, laugh together, and actually enjoy spending time with each other again.
🎓 Inclusive Expectations
 Special education advocacy and personalized support helping parents navigate IEPs, school meetings, and accommodations with more confidence.
🌱 MaryRuth Organics
If you’ve got a kid who treats vegetables like a personal enemy, MaryRuth Organics might become your new best friend. 
Join Our Patreon and Find All of Our Faves! 
📧 Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Email us at chaosandcaffeinepodcast@gmail.com.
Support the show
Danielle is the host of Chaos & Caffeine, a fast-growing ADHD parenting podcast where she interviews leading psychologists, clinicians, researchers, and neurodivergent advocates about what actually helps ADHD kids thrive in the real world. Through science-backed conversations and very real mom-in-the-trenches storytelling, the show helps parents navigate executive function challenges, emotional regulation struggles, learning differences, and the everyday chaos of raising neurodivergent kids.
Each week, Danielle translates complex ADHD research into practical tools parents can actually use — from building routines that support developing brains to helping kids strengthen focus, flexibility, and self-regulation skills.
Listen to the podcast and explore expert interviews at:
https://linktr.ee/chaosandcaffeinepodcast
Danielle frequently speaks and writes about ADHD parenting strategies, executive function development, emotional regulation, screen use and attention, learning challenges like dyslexia, and building resilient neurodivergent families.