The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast

What if your child is struggling in school because there's more going on than ADHD?

ADHD often doesn't show up alone. Dyslexia, dysgraphia, anxiety, and executive functioning challenges can overlap, making learning and everyday life harder than parents and teachers may realize.

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, host Kate Brownfield welcomes Lisa Mackey, Ph.D., an educational therapist with more than 25 years of experience supporting children who learn differently.

Together, they explore how to recognize when a child needs more support, why educational therapy goes beyond traditional tutoring, and how repeated struggles in school can lead to what Lisa calls "educational wounding", the gradual loss of confidence that can happen when children feel misunderstood or unsupported.

Lisa also shares insights from her research on childhood adversity and resilience, reminding us that helping children thrive means looking beyond grades and diagnoses to understand the whole child.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How ADHD, learning differences, and anxiety can overlap

Signs your child may need additional learning support

What educational therapists do and when to consider one

Why early identification and intervention matter

How school experiences can affect a child's confidence and emotional well-being

What helps children build resilience as they grow into adulthood

Connect with Lisa Mackey, Ph.D.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mackey-02b6a926/

Email: l.mackey@comcast.net

About the Host

Kate Brownfield, ACC, is a certified ADHD and executive function parent coach, author, and host of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast. She helps parents understand their children, navigate challenges at home and school, and build practical plans to support their children's growth.

Learn more about ADHD parent coaching and resources at https://adhdkidscanthrive.com.

When a child with ADHD struggles with emotional outbursts, anxiety, or everyday demands, how do we know what's ADHD, what's stress, and when overwhelm may be playing a larger role?

Kate Brownfield talks with Dr. Aimie Apigian, double board-certified physician and author of The Biology of Trauma, about the connection between ADHD, chronic stress, trauma, and emotional dysregulation in children and parents. They explore why some children shut down or become easily overwhelmed, how disorganization can reflect deeper struggles, and why understanding what's beneath a child's behavior can help parents respond with more compassion and connection.

Dr. Aimie also shares how parents can recognize their child's limits, reduce overwhelm patterns, and build a greater sense of safety and resilience at home.

Learn more about Dr. Aimie Apigian and her work:
https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/

ADHD parent coaching and resources with Kate Brownfield:
https://adhdkidscanthrive.com

What should parents know about ADHD from a pediatrician’s point of view? Board-certified pediatrician Dr. Phil Boucher joins Kate Brownfield to talk about ADHD in children, what parents should understand, and the questions worth asking when a child is struggling at home or at school.

Dr. Boucher, a pediatrician in Lincoln, Nebraska, and father of six, brings both a medical perspective and years of experience working with children and families. This conversation helps parents better understand ADHD, think more clearly about their child’s needs, and work more effectively with the professionals supporting their child.

Learn more about Dr. Phil Boucher at DrPhilBoucher.com.

For ADHD parent coaching, resources, and more episodes of the ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, visit ADHDKidsCanThrive.com.

What if anxiety isn’t always something we need to get rid of?

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield talks with Dr. Tracy Foose, a board-certified psychiatrist, Associate Professor at the UCSF School of Medicine, and former Director of the UCSF Anxiety Disorders Program.

Dr. Foose helps parents understand fear and anxiety differently: as uncomfortable but protective emotions that can carry important information. Kate and Dr. Foose explore how parents can better understand anxiety in kids and teens, respond without becoming consumed by the anxiety themselves, and help children build a healthier relationship with fear rather than simply trying to make it disappear.

Dr. Foose has spent more than 15 years studying and treating anxiety and continues to teach about fear and anxiety at UCSF School of Medicine.

Learn more about Dr. Tracy Foose:
https://www.drfoose.com

ADHD parent coaching with Kate Brownfield:
https://adhdkidscanthrive.com

Free ADHD Parent Reset:
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/IUVgRZz

What if the goal of homework isn’t just getting tonight’s assignment turned in?

When homework becomes a nightly cycle of reminders, frustration, missing assignments, and “Did you check Google Classroom?”, parents can easily end up carrying more and more of the responsibility. In this solo episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield, ACC, ADHD Parent Coach, explores how to tell the difference between supporting your child’s executive-function skills and becoming the skill for them.

Kate shares her experience helping her son manage school organization, why ADHD homework struggles are often about more than academics, and how parents can identify where the process is actually breaking down. She discusses task initiation, emotional resistance, after-school decompression, body doubling, practical scaffolding, and why the right support should match the child in front of you.

Most importantly, this episode zooms out to the bigger goal: helping children with ADHD get through school in a way that builds capability, self-understanding, self-advocacy, and less shame while protecting the parent-child relationship from becoming consumed by homework management.

In this episode:

Why repeated reminders often don’t solve ADHD homework struggles

How to ask, “Where is the process breaking down?”

When your child needs more support versus a different kind of support

Why starting homework can be harder than doing the actual work

How parent support can gradually change as children develop

Why “support moves” as kids become more independent

How to help your child understand what they need and learn to advocate for themselves

Free ADHD Parent Reset:
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/IUVgRZz

ADHD parent coaching and resources:
https://adhdkidscanthrive.com