Does your child have difficulty focusing or paying attention? Are they hyperactive? Do you wonder if they (or maybe you) have ADHD? Maybe a friend or teacher has suggested the diagnosis and now you don’t know what to do.

Today we turn to ADHD expert and author Dr Walter Karniski for answers. He explains where ADHD comes from, why it used to be an advantage to have ADHD but how for many people it is a challenge. He explains how ADHD isn’t really a disease or based in actual pathology but is better perceived as being a maldaptive way of coping in today’s complicated world. He also goes into detail about medications. If you have ever wondered whether you or your child has ADHD, this episode will address common questions.

Walt Karniski, MD is a developmental pediatrician, trained at Boston Children’s Hospital. He was director of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, for fifteen years. He then opened a private practice and for twenty years, evaluated and treated children with ADHD, autism, anxiety, learning disabilities, and other developmental difficulties. During that time, he developed and operated three private schools for children with ADHD, anxiety, and learning disabilities.

Over the forty years he has been practicing, he has evaluated and treated close to ten thousand children, conducted numerous studies of brain activity in children, and has been director of a child abuse program and a program for enhancing development in children born prematurely. Dr. Karniski approaches each child as a unique individual, with distinctive strengths and weaknesses, where the diagnosis does not matter as much as understanding the specific needs of that child. His new book is ADHD Medication: Does It Work and Is It Safe? (Roman & Littlefield, May 15, 2022).