ADHD support for children, adolescents, and young adults
Attention, focus, and organization ask a great deal of a growing brain. Dr. Wald helps families in Coral Gables understand what is getting in the way, then build routines that hold up at home and at school.
Signs of ADHD at different ages
Families often notice more than one thing at once. Attention difficulties sit close to worry and to trouble sleeping, so this work often overlaps with anxiety care and sleep difficulties. See the full list on the services page.
Children
In the early school years, ADHD can look like motion and impulse: out of the seat, answers blurted out, ten minutes of homework that turns into an hour of resistance. It can also look quiet. A child who drifts off mid-instruction and hands in half-finished work is showing the inattentive side, which is easy to miss, especially in calm, agreeable girls.
Adolescents
In middle and high school the restlessness often fades while the demands multiply: several teachers, long-term projects, and a phone all at once. Many teens know exactly what to do yet cannot start, then write the paper the night before. What parents see is irritability, missed deadlines, and a private belief that they are simply lazy.
Young adults
Structure thins out in college and a first job, and a long-standing pattern finally becomes plain. Deadlines, laundry, bills, and appointments compete for the same attention, and time turns slippery. Many young adults arrive less disorganized than exhausted, sure that everyone else got an instruction manual they never received.
Is this ADHD or just being a kid?
Every child loses a folder and every teenager puts things off. What separates ordinary childhood from ADHD is a pattern: one that persists, shows up in more than one setting, and costs a young person things they care about. That is a question for a careful evaluation, not a late-night checklist.
Dr. Wald treats attention as a set of skills that develops unevenly, not a character flaw. Naming the pattern accurately changes the conversation at home, replacing an argument about effort with a plan about structure.
What happens in the first few ADHD sessions
Understanding comes first
Before anything changes, Dr. Wald builds a clear picture: developmental history, how attention behaves in different settings, what teachers report, and what a Tuesday morning looks like at home. Where formal testing is worth pursuing, she explains the process and how to begin.
Build the scaffolding
From there the work turns practical: making time visible, breaking assignments into starts rather than finishes, and steadying the routines around mornings, homework, and bedtime. Strategies are tried at home between sessions and adjusted from what actually happened.
Bring school and family into the plan
Progress holds when the world around a young person supports it. Dr. Wald coaches parents on the strategies that carry between sessions and coordinates with teachers and counselors when useful, from Pinecrest to South Miami. When a family already works with a pediatrician or psychiatrist, she keeps everyone on the same page.
How Dr. Wald helps with ADHD at home and at school
Every plan is built around one specific young person. Parents who are not sure where to begin can request a free 15 minute consultation.
CBT-informed skills
Cognitive-behavioral work on the thoughts that stall a start and the self-talk that follows a hard week.
Behavioral strategies
Structure, routine, and reinforcement shaped around how one particular child moves through a day.
Parent training
Coaching for parents on homework, mornings, and follow-through, drawn from her parent-training work.
Motivational interviewing
With adolescents and young adults, change that starts from their own reasons for wanting something different.
Family systems
Attention to the patterns around a young person: siblings, school, and the way a household runs.
Start with a conversation about focus
A free 15 minute consultation is an unhurried way to describe what is happening and hear how Dr. Wald would approach it. The Coral Gables office is a short drive for families across Miami, and telehealth is available in Florida, Maryland, and PSYPACT states.