Willie: Raising and Loving a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder

by Ann Colin

ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder, now diagnosed in up to ten percent of school-age children - has vaulted into public awareness and into a succession of self-help books. But this is the first to take the reader, through a mother's eyes, into the day-to-day life of a child with ADD and its dynamics in the home and beyond.
Ann Colin's compelling journal recounts her son Willie's first five years of life. Willie is intelligent, creative, affectionate, and amusing. He is also overly excitable and belligerent. We follow Colin and her husband from school to school, doctor to doctor, seeking a correct diagnosis - from an insensitive preschool staff, to the psychologist who pronounces Willie brain-damaged when he walks on tiptoe, to the seesaw of medical opinion on treatment and drugs.
It is a marathon that takes them from bewilderment and exhaustion, through coping, to triumph. For a family facing ADD or any other crisis, and for educators and therapists, Willie is an inspiration and a lifesaver.

Genres: Adhd

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1997

Reviews

[Linda]

Ann Colin and her husband Peter are writers/editors who live in New York City. This book concerns their struggles with their older son, Willie, who is finally diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Their account runs from Willie's birth in March, 1989 to December 1994 when he is released from treatment by his psychiatrist and becomes part of a kindergarten class where he can be a successful and ordinary five year old boy. We suffer through three year old nursery school with Willie, his parents, and his teachers, who would all agree that it was a disastrous year. We become angry with the doctors and teachers who don't seem to care, and the treatment some of them give Willie's parents. Ann and Peter are well educated and fairly well off financially, and able to pursue the best for their child, but I can't help wondering when I read something like this, how many other children "out there" have problems and don't have anyone to stick up for them and help the problems get solved.

[Danielle]

I very much enjoyed this book and could really relate to much of the experiences with my own child who was diagnosed with ADD last year. The family is wealthy and parents ste successful. However, also working in the field of childcare, I can see the flip side of working with children in an environment where the resources aren't available to provide the best care. The therapy sessions discussed are also very interesting. Some can certainly be applied to daily life situations and within your own experiences. Overall, decent book if you overlook America and it's consumer culture.

[Aspen]

This was an amazing book about helping a child with ADD. Meds were tried, but did not work. Therapy helped, as did finding a school with teachers who understood ADD and how to help a child who had it. Willie is a unique child, and it was inspiring to read about how his parents held on to that uniqueness, even while struggling to help him function with his peers.

[Mary]

I believe this book was a handful within itself. The twists and turns of emotions throughout it made it extremely relatable and easy to understand a situation most people face but are ashamed to admit or share. I applaud Ann Colin for being so persistent in getting her son Willie the best she could, even through the difficulties. This book proves that disabilities can become abilities.

[Jen]

Couldn't get into this book.

[Gerry Durisin]

Journal format, mom’s recollections of the first five years of her son’s life