App Review: Managing the Gift - ADD/ADHD App

**Access to App was received in exchange for a honest review**

Ground-Breaking APP Reveals Individualized ‘Gifts’ and Advantages of Children Living with ADD/HD

New ‘Managing the Gift’ APP helps adolescent caregivers uncover and capitalize on distinct strengths, abilities and opportunities specific to each given child living with ADHD, ADD or HD

PHOENIX, AZ, September 2013 – Internationally renowned child and adult ADD/HD expert, author and speaker Dr. Kevin Ross Emery (“Dr. Kevin”) today announced the release of a first-of-its-kind “Managing the Gift” App, which reveals the true potential of each given child living with ADD/HD. This App provides conscientious parents, educators and other caregivers with a more comprehensive and unbiased understanding of ADD/HD at large that negates common unfavorable labels and restrictive predispositions.

Unlike other ADHD Apps currently on the market that are merely self-diagnostic or generalized surface-level advice in nature, the pioneering Managing the Gift App goes well beyond with highly detailed, custom-tailored reports that help caregivers understand precisely how to best parent, guide, support, feed and educate each specific child living with ADHD, ADD or HD.  To facilitate this, among other features, the App uniquely offers a proprietary, personalized “Paint Your Child’s Portrait” interactive tool that reveals and defines a child’s distinct “ADD/HD personality” and, based on the individualized results, provides an expansive custom report that provides caregivers with valuable behavioral insights to recognize, utilize and maximize what Dr. Kevin calls the child’s “ADD/HD greatness.” The information gleaned from the custom-tailored reports also helps caregivers make critical decisions about diet, guidance and other common areas of concern and confusion, while also providing tools and techniques to help ensure the child flourishes amid the unique capabilities and aptitudes identified through the App. 

In addition to the unique “Paint Your Child’s Portrait” and related reporting tool, the Managing the Gift App also offers direct access to informative instructional videos, books, and other highly vetted caregiver resources as well as relevant news and information feeds about ADHD.  App users will also be the first to gain access to Dr Kevin's peer support community when it is launched later this year, which will include streamlined access to Dr. Kevin.

The content and tools in this new application is the manifestation of Dr. Kevin’s more than 15 years of front-line ADD/HD counseling experience coupled with extensive field research for his books, “Managing the Gift of your ADD/HD Child” and “Managing the Gift: Alternative Approaches to Attention Deficit Disorder.” “The first step in understanding ADHD and ADD is knowing that they are simply labels, which are not meant to define or limit a child in any way,” urges Dr. Kevin. “Rather, the Managing the Gift App will give caregivers the knowledge and tools needed to truly comprehend the gifts–not the label–given to a child living with this diagnosis.”

“However well intended, society’s collective attempts to medically treat and otherwise manage ADD/HD individuals often negatively impacts their self-worth and self-esteem and significantly hinders their ability to reach their full potential,” Dr. Kevin continues. “Indeed, the stakes are high when it comes to finding a successful treatment plan, particularly for children.  Those who face criticism from parents, teachers and others for perceived laziness and bad behavior may face a lifetime of emotional problems. In addition, the loss of this population’s insights, brilliance and creativity–their greatness–is all too often sacrificed in order to help them ‘fit in’ to society. We as a culture need to celebrate and nurture those living with ADD/HD as they are so that they can, in turn, love and respect themselves and realize their full capabilities…to the benefit of us all.”

The Managing the Gift App is compatible with any iPhone®, iPad®, or iPod® Touch with iOS 5.1 or greater and is available for free in the iTunes Store. The optional "Paint Your Child's Portrait" feature reports are offered through the App for an additional nominal fee.

As with any medical issue, those concerned about the diagnosis, treatment and/or management of ADHD, ADD or HD are encouraged to speak to their physician.

About the Expert
Dr. Kevin Ross Emery’s books, “Managing the Gift of your ADD/HD Child” and “Managing the Gift: Alternative Approaches to Attention Deficit Disorder” are built upon more than 15 years of experience working with individuals of all ages living with Attention Deficit Disorder – and a lifetime of personal experience dealing with it himself. For more than two decades, Dr. Kevin has offered an approach to ADD/HD that reveals it as a gift that, when properly managed, contains the potential for formidable multitasking skills, creativity and more. Also an international speaker on the topic, Dr. Kevin was among the very first to publicly acknowledge ADD/HD as a step in the evolution of humanity that will eventually allow it to reach new levels of achievement – a view often at odds with a culture that can be quick to resort to medicating children who show signs of ADD/HD or who in some cases, don’t even meet that standard.  The titles of his books sum up Dr. Kevin’s intent – to assist parents in managing the gifts of their ADD/HD children – to not see it from the perspective of ADD/HD being a disease or disability, or from a perspective of drugs being the sole solution. Dr. Kevin has worked with ADD/HD individuals of all ages – from young children to business owners seeking to balance their innovation with organization.  Learn more online at www.MyDrKevin.com. 

Our Thoughts

Being the parents of a child with ADHD is hard. It's hard because you want to do the right things. You want to make the right decisions on wether to medicate or not, what to feed to help with the situation, what to give your child for activities that are productive. 

This App helps take some of the guessing and trials out of the life of a parent of an ADHD child. I love that the questions on the App are simple but complex enough to help with learning pathways. For my oldest -who is the only one that is ADHD in this household- the assessment pegged him to a T. I am actually sending on the assessment to his teachers because we have his IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting coming up and I really think that this will help them with getting him working well within the classroom. I think that this App would be great for those parents that need/want to know how their kids learn and what foods/care they need to hopefully elevate some of the stress that comes with the ADHD/ADD diagnosis. 

***Please note that I received no form of monetary compensation for this post. The opinions expressed in the review are my own and were not influenced in any way.***