Customer Reviews

Treating Huckleberry Finn: A New Narrative Approach to Working with Kids Diagnosed ADD/ADHD

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

David Nylund's book "Treating Huckleyberry Finn" is written in a simple and straightforward style which helps the reader in understanding an extremely complex issue.

As a new therapist I found the book extremely helpful in providing tips for assisting clients labeled ADHD; with great insights for both parents and teachers of these clients. Mr. Nylund's SMART approach to treating this issue is extremely helpful. The case examples presented help demonstrate both the philosophy and various techniques of the SMART therapy approach.

I found the book easy to read and very thought provoking. ADHD is a multi-facated issue and Mr. Nylund does a great job of asking challenging questions regarding the issue. I highly recommend this book to anyone whose life is challenged and blessed by having high energy children and adolescents in their life.

As a graduate student in a counseling program, I found this book to be a great read. Nylund does a great job of explaining his SMART approach to working with children labeled ADHD. While I do agree that ADHD is a real problem for some children, I do feel that too many children are diagnosed with this disorder, resulting in the overdiagnosis and labeling of children at very young ages. With this overdiagnosis comes over-medication of children as well. I think that Nylund's approach offers an alternative for those children and their families who may wish to to tackle ADHD from a different perspective by focusing on the strengths of the child and family instead of treating the ADHD from the deficit model. Great book! I plan to utilize this approach in my work as a counselor.

I have just read Treating Huckleberry Finn and want to share with other parents that David Nylund has provided help in clarifying the issues regarding the diagnosis and pressures to medicate. Parents have too few resources to help them make these often times life changing decisions.

David provides clear, creative as well as practical suggestions for helping children use their strengths to tackle the problems of ADHD--

This book respects the various perspectives on the ADD/Ritalin debate. It critiques the biological reductionism of the traditional ADHD paradigm and views the problem from a more wholistic and contextual perspective. While astutely criticizing some of the taken for granted assumptions of the ADHD/Ritalin model, it respectfully acknowledges that many people experience the ADHD diagnosis as helpful and find taking Ritalin beneficial. The meat of the book gives very creative, hopeful and practical suggestions for working with problems such as hyperactivity, inattention, problems with behavior, etc. The chapter for teachers is very valuable. Highly recommended for parents, counselors, therapists and teachers! The analogy of Huck Finn being alive today and on Ritalin makes it a fun read also!

Leave it to David Nylund to reinvent Huckleberry Finn for a recreation of story, growth, strength, and decisiveness. The author engages his readers by giving permission to imagine success until they learn that even the label of ADD or ADHD can be a unique way to realize self-worth. Nylund's approach is imaginative, provocative, and truly therapeutic.

As a therapist and a father, I have found this book remarkably insightful. I have met many children (including my own!) who fit the ADHD description. People who pay attention to this book and listen to what David Nylund is saying will be more likely to find answers to the ADHD question.

ADD is a real condition. How do I know? Because I have it. And while I do not take Ritalin, (There are so many other medications out there to treat my condition it's sad he only mentions one of them) I know all to well what life is like when I miss a day of my medication. NOTHING gets done. My parents (I'm 17) grow frustrated when they find me spaced out and staring at the walls instead of folding the towels, which they had watched me start some three hours ago.
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that ADD is not just some made up "disease" created to alleviate guilt of parents for not being able to "control" their children. It is all to real.

Why Nylund would choose to classify Huck Finn as ADD/ADHD is odd. Did he take other factors into account, such as Huck's physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father, who is a criminal and often absent? Or the fact that he comes from a single-parent, broken home (having lost his mother at a very young age)?

Still, may be helpful to thopse dealing with ADD/ADHD (parents or therapists).