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Parenting a Neurodiverse Teen: Real Solutions for ADHD, Autism & Beyond
In this episode, Dr. Cam sits down with Elaine Taylor-Klaus to explore the challenges and strategies for raising neurodiverse teens. Elaine shares her personal journey as a mom of neurodiverse kids and how she became a coach to help other parents. They discuss the shifting perceptions of ADHD and autism, the increasing diagnoses, and why neurodiversity should be seen as an evolutionary adaptation rather than a deficit. The conversation focuses on collaborative problem-solving, trust-building, and fostering teen autonomy, as well as the role of medication in supporting neurodiverse youth.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE
5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR PARENTS OF NEURODIVERSE TEENS
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EPISODE CHAPTERS
CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST: Elaine Taylor-Klaus
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST: Dr. Cam Caswell
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Cam (00:00)
Welcome back to the show. Today we're diving into a topic that's close to my heart, supporting our neurodiverse teens. If you're parent navigating the unique challenges of raising a neurodiverse child, you don't want to miss this episode. Joining us is the incredible Elaine Taylor-Klaus, a master certified coach and a mom of six in an ADHD plus plus family. We're gonna explain what that is.
Elaine is a true thought leader in the field of neurodiversity, co-founding the first global coaching communities for parents of complex kids through Impact ADHD and ImpactParents.com. She's dedicated her career to educating and empowering parents like us, and her insights are invaluable. Elaine is here to help us understand how to nurture our teens so they can thrive. So if you're ready to transform the way you support your neurodiverse teen, stick around.
This episode is going to be packed with essential advice you don't want to miss. Welcome, Elaine.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (00:58)
Thank you. It is great to be here. I love your energy. I'm excited.
Dr. Cam (01:02)
I'm so glad to talk to you about this and I want to first hear about your story. A mom of six neurodiverse kids. Did I get that right?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (01:09)
Not six, actually. I have three neurodiverse kids myself and my business partner Diane has three. And so I think that somehow got lost in the translation. Now that they're young adults and they each have partners, it feels like a mom of six.
Dr. Cam (01:18)
is this what got you into this field or what really inspired you to focus on this?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (01:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. This is what got me in. I was a mom of three complex kids under the age of 10. I didn't even know what that meant. I just knew that I was struggling. My eldest kid was really not an easy kid to raise, had lots of diagnoses, lots of health issues, medically fragile. It was complicated. And I remember going to my child's therapist, psychologist at about eight years old with this long list of like eight diagnoses and I'm crying. I'm like, what do I do? Where do I start? So she sent me to a nutritionist. said, with all this, you start with the metabolic. And so we were kind of getting a handle on that. went gluten free, had a huge impact. And somebody turned me onto coaching. And I was really struggling. There was a lot of support available for my kids and there was really nothing for me except for, you know, that five minutes with my hand on the doors, I'm walking out of the kids therapist office where I'm like, can I ask you one more thing? I like, it's so not fair. There was so little resource for parents at the time. And, and so the long story short, I was trying to go back to graduate school. took the GREs. I was going to go, you know, get a PhD and I discovered coaching and I fell in love. I I called my husband the first afternoon in tears and like, yeah, there were a lot of tears in those years. I found it. Like this is it. It was an empowering way to be. was, I had like used a midwife. I was all about wellness and health and, and, and I found that coaching gave me a framework for how I really wanted to be as a parent. I wanted to see them as whole and healthy and capable and not broken and needing to be fixed. And coaching was just, it was the answer for me. And so it really transformed me. which really transformed my family. Ultimately, my husband also became a coach. And when I asked him years later, like, what happened? He said, I just couldn't deny anymore that what you were doing was working. So I ended up kind of creating this, this new modality, blending coaching with neurodiversity awareness. And when Diane and I met, we had this similar experience, only I did have ADHD and learning issues that were diagnosed in my forties and she did not. And it worked for both of us. So we kind of knew we were onto something and it wasn't rocket science. We could teach it to other parents. So I started coaching and training parents of complex kids. And, you know, that was, that was a long time ago now.
Dr. Cam (03:54)
The rest is history. Do you see a change in what parents are coming to you about? Or do you feel like it's consistent? .
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (04:19)
Yes and no. Yes and no. mean, the world's changed a lot, you know, but by the time I started, we were already post 9-11, which is when I, and technology was already starting to become a part of the world. So I think that for me, part of what's changed is our understanding and awareness, the research, the clarity about ADHD, about executive function, about neurodiversity, mental health, that's shifted a lot in the last 20 years. So there is a little less stigma and a lot more awareness to the importance of really addressing these issues. I say a little less stigma, not as much as a little Well, there's less. But part of it is because the autism movement came in and autism kind of came in and said, we're not taking your stigma, forget that. And I really think it shifted people's frame of reference around difference and shifted because the autism movement really did say, I'm not coming to you, you got to come to me. And it changed. I think now that it's so interesting. One of the big things that's changed is in the early days, like when my kids were diagnosed and those days, the providers had to choose between an ADHD diagnosis or an autism diagnosis. You could have one or the other, but not both till about 2013.
And so everybody wanted, you didn't want an autism diagnosis. That was like a death sentence in those days. Now a provider, first of all, a provider doesn't have to make the choice. Both can be diagnosed and are very frequently. The correlation is very high. But now a parent can get better services with an autism diagnosis than an ADHD diagnosis and better support and compassion from their peers and friends and family. So now you've got people seeking a diagnosis that they used that 20 years ago they were avoiding. And I was one of them, right?
Dr. Cam (06:17)
the avoider. What do you think is a stigma with autism? are people kind of feeling opposed to now?.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (06:24)
think there's less stigma with autism than ADHD now. mean, you know, nobody wants a diagnosis, but I think with autism, there's beginning to be an understanding that they can learn skills and tools and approaches and modalities, that they can learn how to adapt and modify and improve their capacity.because it's coming from a different part of the brain and it's a different, it's not as much about, if they don't have the overlapping ADHD, it's not as much about executive function. It's more about sensory and social. And you can actually, I think with people with autism, especially if you catch it early, you can really help them learn how to kind of integrate themselves into the world. With ADHD, there's still a lot, I think there's more stigma than anything in the ADHD space.
Dr. Cam (07:17)
I have some questions about that too, because one thing I've noticed is the diagnosis for ADHD seems to be going up and up and up and up. Why do you think this is? Please, I've got one too and I'm curious to hear what yours is since you're an expert in it.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (07:29)
Okay, here's my take on that. Okay, there a reasons. There are few reasons. One is that there is a lot more research. We understand it way better than we did. Like 30 years ago, ADHD only was hyperactivity in little boys. That is so not the case. Now there are all these adults who are not diagnosed and under diagnosed. So we understand what we're looking for better. The second is we are living in an interruption driven world where there's so much more distraction and so much more volume coming at us that ADHD is kind of on a spectrum, your capacity to handle what's coming at you. If there's more coming at you, like my ADHD wasn't diagnosed as a kid, it was diagnosed as an adult when I had three kids and I couldn't handle it anymore. So it only is diagnosed if it impairs with your capacity to fulfill what you're trying to fulfill. All right, so if you've got a world of people that are getting assaulted with information all the time, it's harder to navigate all the expectations. You're gonna see a higher problem with people coping.
Dr. Cam (08:38)
I'm going to, have a question about that because this is where I struggle a little bit to be honest.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (08:41)
Okay. Can I pin that and can we pin it? There's one more thing that I think is really important. So you've got a complex condition that's way more complex than we understood. That's a process of elimination diagnosis. So there's no test for it. Although there's now beginning to be like QB Tech and some of these other assessments that can assist the assessment.
And there's some online, I mean, it's way better. It's going to be easier 20 years from now to diagnose it than it is now. But there was a major smear campaign that was launched against ADHD in the late 90s and early 2000s. was multimillion dollars done by the same people who actually took on the tobacco industry. They went after teachers, they went after doctors, they went after school systems they demonized medication. And I'm not gonna go into the all of who was behind it because I don't need that lawsuit neither do you. But there is a podcast episode on my podcast on parenting with impact with Kelly Pickens talking about the smear campaign. So I think part of what we're still dealing with was that in the late 90s and early aughts, a lot of people were avoiding a diagnosis, providers were avoiding the diagnosis, parents didn't wanna get it or didn't want to use medication or try medication. So we all these adults now who were never identified and treated. And so that's kind of coming out of the woodwork. So that's kind of the context for what I think is going on. Now, what's the question?
Dr. Cam (10:10)
Well, and this is coming from a mom with a daughter with ADHD who has been medicated for many, many years. And I think the thing that I've always struggled with is, is there really a deep issue with my daughter or is the world becoming far more distra, there's far more distractions and pace and challenges that the human brain just is not as capable because it does not evolve as fast as technology and the world is evolving that the human brain just isn't doesn't have the capacity to handle it anymore. And so we're medicating them to be able to so this is this is where I go back and forth. clear this up for me.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (11:03)
I you. feel you. Okay. All right. I'm so with you. I totally get it. Here's what I, here's how I see it. Okay. First of all, I do think that ADHD, the ADHD brain is an evolutionary adaptation. So I think we're actually more capable of handling what's going on in this world, not less. I like to call it, nobody can, what do you call it? Double task. multitask, but we can rapid sequential monotask like nobody's business, right? So I think that it's actually an evolutionary adaptation. That's just my, you know, and it's not that we can't cope with the world. It's that we can't always fulfill the expectations of the world. And so we need support to be able to do what the world expects of us to do.
Dr. Cam (11:39)
Right, that does sound evolutionary. Love that approach.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (12:02)
But if you look at the greatest innovators, the greatest Nobel Prize winners, and like the greatest minds throughout history, most of them are probably neurodiverse. And so that capacity to think creatively, think outside the box, see things that other people don't see, make linkages and connections, that's extraordinary, right? And you still like think the absent mind of the professor at some point you still have to do the dishes and do the laundry and that's the stuff that's hard to do when your brain is thinking of quantum physics. So that's why I think it's so hard to adapt and why the more interesting and fascinating the world gets in some ways the harder it is for those of us who are engaged in that to deal with the mundane things of life.
Dr. Cam (12:38)
I wanna go down this path, I'm just excited to ask questions.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (12:57)
I struggle with the term medicated my child and I used to use it too. Because I don't think it's medicating them. I think we are giving them medication that supports their brain to help them achieve what they want to achieve. And that goes back to that smear campaign, right? I had this conversation with one of my coaching groups, parents of group of teens, and we were talking about helping kids become their own medical managers. And we want them to make their choices and to enroll. And I've never met a teenager who doesn't at some point stop taking their meds before they come back to their meds, right? Because they want to be in control. And what I said to this group, and was really quite like I became emotional when I was saying it, I started taking medication almost 15 years ago. I take a very small dose, but it helps reduce my overwhelm. So I know what to focus on. And for about 10 years, every morning I would look at that pill and I go, is this a crutch? Do I really need this? Should I be taking this? And I was shaming myself because the world wants me to feel shame for needing this medication. And what I realized is I don't need it. but my life is so much better when I take it. I can be more of myself. I can be more present in my life. So do I need it? Could I function without it? Yeah. Would I be as effective and compassionate and present? Actually, no. So thank you for letting me. That's kind of my soapbox on it, but I just feel like, yeah. So go ahead.
Dr. Cam (14:35)
It such an important soapbox and I'm glad you got there because I think that is something that we've always talked about too with my daughter. It's like we met it, she uses medication for school because school is not an environment that her brain succeeds at as well without it. However, in other realms of her life,
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (15:05)
It doesn't set her up for success. .
Dr. Cam (15:10)
She does not use medication because her brain is far more effective the way it is. So here's the path that you were going down that I really want to go down. Is this evolutionary thought of the brain, the neurodiversity that we look at often and society looks at often as a weakness, is actually them more evolved than a lot of us and is the strength but because the world hasn't caught up to them, they need medication to help them adapt and almost like lower down to our level to be able to cope with how the world has not caught up with them. I wanna go that route because that route makes, gives me chills when I think of my daughter. Like, look at her go.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (15:46)
So my theory is that, and I'm talking about all nerd versus kids, because ADHD travels with lots of cousins and it's almost never alone, right? Like the kids with ADHD and dyslexia, they're the brilliant superpowers who can do anything because they understand that structure supports them and they're willing to use structure. They're not going to fight it. And they are amazing, right? What I think is that a lot of us are specialists in a generalist's world. That we have brains, whether it's autism or ADHD or anxiety, there's something about the way that we're wired, that when we find our gift, our specialty, or when we tap into that, I that's what my world has been when I discovered, when I created Impact. Like who I am as a coach and a parent and professional educator, like this is my sweet spot. This is where I'm supposed to be in the
And when I'm here, I'm like bulletproof, I'm awesome. can be present and I can be engaged and I can go all day long. If I have to try to make dinner, I become like this really ridiculously weak, incapable adult. So I'm a specialist in this world. And when I can lean into my specialty, I can soar. But when I'm asked to perform as a generalist, when I'm expected to do well in science when I'm a language arts person. And then you only want me to focus on the science and the math because that's where my weakness is. So I should really work on that. And then you take me out of the art class that I'm really soaring in. Like it's counterintuitive, right? And so I do think, I think what, one of the things I've learned in the last few years, we've done a lot of work around neurodiversity education. I do training for corporate, do training for coaching groups on neurodiversity coaching, neurodiversity inclusion, and all that kind of stuff. And what I'm really clear at is that when you look at the full range of neurodiversity, it is probably about almost half the population. When you look at anxiety, ADHD, autism, depression, trauma, right? Let's just go to trauma for a minute and how many people in PTSD and how many people have had various trauma experiences in their lives. It rewires your brain. It may be circumstantial or situational. It may last, but everyone has some experience of being neurodivergent at some time. That's what neurodiversity is about. It's about all of our brains are wired different and some are not better than others.
Dr. Cam (18:34)
We're all neurodivergent. just on a different, we all are. We are, I like that. We are all neurodiverse. Absolutely. I love NeuroSpicy. That's awesome.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (18:51)
We are all neurodiverse. Okay. You're all neurodiverse. I like to call us neuro spicy. You know, just a little. But we are all, everybody's got, everybody's brain is different. I mean, there are lots of similarities, but everybody's brain is different. And if we can tap into what makes each person's brain tick, there's this concept called universal design.
And it's kind of the all boats will rise philosophy, right? The notion is if you, you, what we do for people with neurodiversity, the education we provide, if we adapt a classroom for kids with neurodiversity or for kids with neurodivergence, it's going to serve all of the kids in the classroom, right? Everybody's going to do better if we create basic accommodations.
that give kids a sense of agency and autonomy and a voice, right? Everybody's gonna do better if we don't give them a ton of busy work and we help them learn what they need to learn without wasting their time. And so if we begin to see that, and this is the same in the workplace, everybody's gonna do better if we're onboarding somebody in a work environment and we find out, would you be better to communicate with this in text or video or like,
If we ask people how they process information and how they motivate themselves, and then we play to that, it's going to benefit everyone. So that's where I think we're going, but I think we've got a few decades before we actually get there. Yeah, well, you know, it takes some time.
Dr. Cam (20:34)
Yeah, it's a slow moving boat, isn't it? It takes some time to tend to things. So in the meantime, we've got a teenager who has been diagnosed with ADHD or autism or one of the many, right? But the expectation is for them to go to school, sit in school and do well in school and their brain does better elsewhere.
And that is not where their brain functions at its best. How do we as parents support our kids going through there without them feeling like they're broken, which happens quite a lot. And they're treated that way often in school. That's been a big issue for my daughter and I. How do we help them maintain that sense of self-esteem and that belief in themselves and help them find their strengths?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (21:30)
Great question. and as you can imagine, I could talk all day about it, right? So everything I do is about that. my, my short answer is you take a coach approach, a neurodiversity informed coach approach. When, when I learned how to use coaching skills to communicate differently with my kid and with their teachers and with everybody else around them, it shifted everything. If I were to point to what's fundamental to that, it's about.
It's about cultivating a sense of agency, fostering their ownership and helping them see their why, what's in it for them. And, you know, collaborative problem solving, but not just what are the lacking skills, which is great, but still deficit based, right? But to say, okay, so I was, was working with a client this morning, her kids are younger. So maybe, maybe I can extrapolate this to a teenage example. Okay.
Because we do a lot of work with parents of teens and young adults. We have groups for parents of teens and groups for parents of young adults. You got a kid who's trying to get out the door to go to school, who wants to go to school, who is having a really hard time waking up in the morning. And maybe they don't want to go to school, and that's a different conversation. But let's assume you've gotten the relationship. So you lean into the relationship and you build some trust and you're communicating better. And you've gotten to the point where you're collaborating and they want to be able to get to school, but it's a struggle.
Okay, we all know the scenario. It happens a lot. Okay, so in our model, we talk about taking aim. So understand that what I've just said is the assumption that you've done a lot of work already. You've really leaned into the relationship. You've built trust because what happens with teens is we fall out of trust with them and they fall out of trust with us and they fall out of trust with themselves. So done that work and we're communicating better. So now we can begin to really collaborate.
So you start by taking aim, and instead of taking aim on mornings, you say, okay, what's the one thing that if we change that, it's gonna start having a cascading effect? What's the one tweak? And it might be getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. Okay, so they've set the alarm, the alarm's going off, you're walking by, you're trying not to yell and scream because they're not getting out of bed, and then you say, you gotta get out of bed, and then they get mad at you because you're already aggravated, right? We don't know the scenario at all, I'm sure.
So collaborative problem solving would be going to the kid and saying, I really get that you're trying to get out to go to school in the morning on time and that it's hard and that you're setting your alarm. How do you want me to handle it when I do hear the alarm going off and you haven't gotten out of bed? What would you like me to do? So now that you're not saying you need to, you're assuming that by this point you've been collaborating and now they've taken ownership. They've got the agency. They just need some help. How can I support you?
What would be useful for you? And this is a really true story. When we took this approach with my eldest at the time, who was maybe a little young, maybe 15, 14, 15. And after trying every alarm and the bed shaking alarm and the alarm that ran across the room, and we tried everything, Nothing was working. They said, don't you come in with a spray bottle? Now, a water bottle.
Kids don't try this at home. I am not suggesting to any of your parents that you go get a spray bottle and tell your kid you're going to. But this came from my kid, this idea, because they like to play and they're very playful with their father. And so we were like, OK, you sure? Yeah, I'm sure. Whatever. Right. So we get in there and I'm down in the kitchen one morning and I hear this really loud noise and it's like really loud and I go running upstairs and my husband and my child are hysterically laughing.
My child has got the corner of the bed by the hands on the ground and their dad's got their ankle and is pulling them across the floor and they're pulling the bed across the floor. Okay. And it's loud and they're cackling with laughter and they may have been late to school because we were having so much fun. Right. But, the notion here was that we were supporting them in their agenda of trying to get out of bed instead of making it our agenda.
So we need to want for them more than we want from them. And if we want for them to support them in their agenda, then we can do all kinds of crazy things because it's their agenda. And we're just experimenting with them and helping them try different things. But if it's our agenda and we're like, well, you need to set the alarm and put it across the room and you should be like, if our hands are on our hips, we're probably not collaborating, right?
Dr. Cam (26:24)
We're not, are, I love that for them, not what you expect from them is beautiful. And once again, this is good for every child, not just neurodiverse. Like this is foundational.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (26:28)
Yes, for them, not from them. Because so much.
Everybody, right? That's right.
Well, it has to do with whose expectations is it, right? Because we have this tendency to assume that if we expect something or the world expects something of us and our kids, that that's the right thing. And the truth is, I mean, the big shift in my family happened when I stopped trying to listen to the world's expectations and I started meeting my kids where they were and figuring out what was an appropriate expectation to set for this kid at this time in this moment. Like that's the shift. It's meet them where they are and raise the bar from there. Instead of setting the bar up here because everybody should because they're 12 or 15 or 22, you know, like that just doesn't work.
Dr. Cam (27:12)
It doesn't work. That was your alarm that you have to go, wasn't it? Yeah, so yeah, I think this is so key because it is, it's giving them ownership. And also if our kids are neurodiverse, and as we just said, we all are, it doesn't mean our solution is going to work for them because we have a different brain than they do. So when we keep trying to push our solution,
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (27:24)
It's okay. We'll wrap up. They'll be there in a minute.
Dr. Cam (27:50)
onto them and they get mad at them for not using our solution wisely, we're the ones at fault.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (27:57)
That's right. I just went upstairs after talking to this client and told my husband, I'm like, do you remember being the weatherman? He's like, what are you talking about? We wanted to change warnings and we worked with our kids and I sat down with him. like, what will work? And our kids are the ones who said to me, one, we need to wake up earlier. I was letting them wait till the last couple of minutes because I wanted them to get to sleep. They're like, we're not getting enough time and you're rushing us. And two, we don't want to rush. And three, we don't want you to tell us we're running late.
So they came up with the idea that at a certain agreed upon time, instead of coming out and saying, you need to be downstairs in 10 minutes, dad would come out and give them the weather report. And when he gave the weather report, they knew what time it was. It gave them an idea of what to wear and they could manage their time around that. And I can't say it was a perfect fix immediately, but I can say that it worked and we used it for years because it was their idea was their agency, it worked for them. I wouldn't have come up with it, it was brilliant. Right?
Dr. Cam (28:58)
Yeah. Yep. I love that. And when you think about it, the more important skill is not getting up. It's figuring out how you get up. That's the skill. So if we take that away from them, then we're taking away their ability to learn to problem solve, which is a complex skill that you have to practice over over over again.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (29:08)
Yes. Our job as parents, I think, is to be in the process of problem solving with our kids again and again and again and again and And letting them lead, collaborate, support, collaborate. We have a model where there are four phases of parents. And so the middle two that we need to be in most of all is collaborate with them until, share the agenda till it's their agenda and then support them in their agenda. Share the agenda.
Dr. Cam (29:31)
and letting them lead.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (29:50)
until it's their agenda and then move in to support them in their agenda. And we just wanna keep doing that again and again as often as we can.
Dr. Cam (29:57)
Yeah, I love that. So what is one takeaway that you want to make sure parents step away with from this episode?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (30:06)
my gosh, what I really want to do is say to the parents listening, what's one insight you've gotten from this conversation? What's one thing you want to take away from this conversation that you want to apply in your life? Because that, I could tell them, right? And I would say that probably if I were to give you one, it would be, God, there's so many is to lean into the relationship, right? Build the trust, because that's where it all comes from. And I also want them to think about what they take away from this, because it's really, that's what's most important.
Dr. Cam (30:40)
I love that. you just modeled. Well, that's what I was just pointing out is you just modeled how to coach. You're not telling them the answer. You are basically just setting it up for them to figure out the answer. So that was a beautiful example of exactly what we want parents to be doing. I love that. Aline, how do, how do people find you?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (30:50)
Yeah. Thank you. This was great.
Well, we have a podcast too. And if you're listening, you're probably a podcaster. So the Parenting with Impact podcast, wherever you podcast, where sometimes I interview experts, sometimes it's Diane and me, know, spitballing about what's been going on. Sometimes we have clients on and do success stories. So it's fun. we're coming up next year. We'll hit our 200th episode. So good podcast, great blog, great website, impactparents.com.
Lots of free gifts and downloads and you know come check us out if you are a parent of a complex kid of any age 4 to 44 There's lots of stuff to help you learn how to take a coach approach. That's neurodiversity informed And you know whether it's taking our sanity school class or joining coaching groups or listen to the podcast Come play with us
Dr. Cam (31:57)
That's fantastic. What a great resource. Thank you for doing that.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (32:01)
Thank you. Thanks for asking. Thanks for having me. I hope I know we've had to cut this a little short, so maybe I can come back and we can play again. I'm inviting myself back because you're great.
Dr. Cam (32:07)
We can have there's so much to do. Invite yourself. There's so much I can come on your show. We can talk about it there too. Yeah, this we can talk for this about hours. Talk about this for hours. All right. Thank you so much. All right.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (32:14)
That would be great. We're going to do it. We'll do it here. Absolutely. Thanks for having me again.
ABOUT THE SHOW
The Parenting Teens with Dr. Cam Podcast is your go-to resource for navigating the challenges of raising teenagers. Hosted by Dr. Cam Caswell, an adolescent psychologist and certified parenting coach, this podcast offers practical parenting strategies, expert advice, and real-world insights to help you build a stronger relationship with your teen and support their emotional growth. Whether you’re struggling with teenage behavior or looking to improve communication, each episode provides actionable tips to make parenting teens easier and more rewarding.
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In this episode, Dr. Cam sits down with Elaine Taylor-Klaus to explore the challenges and strategies for raising neurodiverse teens. Elaine shares her personal journey as a mom of neurodiverse kids and how she became a coach to help other parents. They discuss the shifting perceptions of ADHD and autism, the increasing diagnoses, and why neurodiversity should be seen as an evolutionary adaptation rather than a deficit. The conversation focuses on collaborative problem-solving, trust-building, and fostering teen autonomy, as well as the role of medication in supporting neurodiverse youth.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE
5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR PARENTS OF NEURODIVERSE TEENS
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EPISODE CHAPTERS
CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST: Elaine Taylor-Klaus
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST: Dr. Cam Caswell
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Cam (00:00)
Welcome back to the show. Today we're diving into a topic that's close to my heart, supporting our neurodiverse teens. If you're parent navigating the unique challenges of raising a neurodiverse child, you don't want to miss this episode. Joining us is the incredible Elaine Taylor-Klaus, a master certified coach and a mom of six in an ADHD plus plus family. We're gonna explain what that is.
Elaine is a true thought leader in the field of neurodiversity, co-founding the first global coaching communities for parents of complex kids through Impact ADHD and ImpactParents.com. She's dedicated her career to educating and empowering parents like us, and her insights are invaluable. Elaine is here to help us understand how to nurture our teens so they can thrive. So if you're ready to transform the way you support your neurodiverse teen, stick around.
This episode is going to be packed with essential advice you don't want to miss. Welcome, Elaine.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (00:58)
Thank you. It is great to be here. I love your energy. I'm excited.
Dr. Cam (01:02)
I'm so glad to talk to you about this and I want to first hear about your story. A mom of six neurodiverse kids. Did I get that right?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (01:09)
Not six, actually. I have three neurodiverse kids myself and my business partner Diane has three. And so I think that somehow got lost in the translation. Now that they're young adults and they each have partners, it feels like a mom of six.
Dr. Cam (01:18)
is this what got you into this field or what really inspired you to focus on this?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (01:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. This is what got me in. I was a mom of three complex kids under the age of 10. I didn't even know what that meant. I just knew that I was struggling. My eldest kid was really not an easy kid to raise, had lots of diagnoses, lots of health issues, medically fragile. It was complicated. And I remember going to my child's therapist, psychologist at about eight years old with this long list of like eight diagnoses and I'm crying. I'm like, what do I do? Where do I start? So she sent me to a nutritionist. said, with all this, you start with the metabolic. And so we were kind of getting a handle on that. went gluten free, had a huge impact. And somebody turned me onto coaching. And I was really struggling. There was a lot of support available for my kids and there was really nothing for me except for, you know, that five minutes with my hand on the doors, I'm walking out of the kids therapist office where I'm like, can I ask you one more thing? I like, it's so not fair. There was so little resource for parents at the time. And, and so the long story short, I was trying to go back to graduate school. took the GREs. I was going to go, you know, get a PhD and I discovered coaching and I fell in love. I I called my husband the first afternoon in tears and like, yeah, there were a lot of tears in those years. I found it. Like this is it. It was an empowering way to be. was, I had like used a midwife. I was all about wellness and health and, and, and I found that coaching gave me a framework for how I really wanted to be as a parent. I wanted to see them as whole and healthy and capable and not broken and needing to be fixed. And coaching was just, it was the answer for me. And so it really transformed me. which really transformed my family. Ultimately, my husband also became a coach. And when I asked him years later, like, what happened? He said, I just couldn't deny anymore that what you were doing was working. So I ended up kind of creating this, this new modality, blending coaching with neurodiversity awareness. And when Diane and I met, we had this similar experience, only I did have ADHD and learning issues that were diagnosed in my forties and she did not. And it worked for both of us. So we kind of knew we were onto something and it wasn't rocket science. We could teach it to other parents. So I started coaching and training parents of complex kids. And, you know, that was, that was a long time ago now.
Dr. Cam (03:54)
The rest is history. Do you see a change in what parents are coming to you about? Or do you feel like it's consistent? .
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (04:19)
Yes and no. Yes and no. mean, the world's changed a lot, you know, but by the time I started, we were already post 9-11, which is when I, and technology was already starting to become a part of the world. So I think that for me, part of what's changed is our understanding and awareness, the research, the clarity about ADHD, about executive function, about neurodiversity, mental health, that's shifted a lot in the last 20 years. So there is a little less stigma and a lot more awareness to the importance of really addressing these issues. I say a little less stigma, not as much as a little Well, there's less. But part of it is because the autism movement came in and autism kind of came in and said, we're not taking your stigma, forget that. And I really think it shifted people's frame of reference around difference and shifted because the autism movement really did say, I'm not coming to you, you got to come to me. And it changed. I think now that it's so interesting. One of the big things that's changed is in the early days, like when my kids were diagnosed and those days, the providers had to choose between an ADHD diagnosis or an autism diagnosis. You could have one or the other, but not both till about 2013.
And so everybody wanted, you didn't want an autism diagnosis. That was like a death sentence in those days. Now a provider, first of all, a provider doesn't have to make the choice. Both can be diagnosed and are very frequently. The correlation is very high. But now a parent can get better services with an autism diagnosis than an ADHD diagnosis and better support and compassion from their peers and friends and family. So now you've got people seeking a diagnosis that they used that 20 years ago they were avoiding. And I was one of them, right?
Dr. Cam (06:17)
the avoider. What do you think is a stigma with autism? are people kind of feeling opposed to now?.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (06:24)
think there's less stigma with autism than ADHD now. mean, you know, nobody wants a diagnosis, but I think with autism, there's beginning to be an understanding that they can learn skills and tools and approaches and modalities, that they can learn how to adapt and modify and improve their capacity.because it's coming from a different part of the brain and it's a different, it's not as much about, if they don't have the overlapping ADHD, it's not as much about executive function. It's more about sensory and social. And you can actually, I think with people with autism, especially if you catch it early, you can really help them learn how to kind of integrate themselves into the world. With ADHD, there's still a lot, I think there's more stigma than anything in the ADHD space.
Dr. Cam (07:17)
I have some questions about that too, because one thing I've noticed is the diagnosis for ADHD seems to be going up and up and up and up. Why do you think this is? Please, I've got one too and I'm curious to hear what yours is since you're an expert in it.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (07:29)
Okay, here's my take on that. Okay, there a reasons. There are few reasons. One is that there is a lot more research. We understand it way better than we did. Like 30 years ago, ADHD only was hyperactivity in little boys. That is so not the case. Now there are all these adults who are not diagnosed and under diagnosed. So we understand what we're looking for better. The second is we are living in an interruption driven world where there's so much more distraction and so much more volume coming at us that ADHD is kind of on a spectrum, your capacity to handle what's coming at you. If there's more coming at you, like my ADHD wasn't diagnosed as a kid, it was diagnosed as an adult when I had three kids and I couldn't handle it anymore. So it only is diagnosed if it impairs with your capacity to fulfill what you're trying to fulfill. All right, so if you've got a world of people that are getting assaulted with information all the time, it's harder to navigate all the expectations. You're gonna see a higher problem with people coping.
Dr. Cam (08:38)
I'm going to, have a question about that because this is where I struggle a little bit to be honest.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (08:41)
Okay. Can I pin that and can we pin it? There's one more thing that I think is really important. So you've got a complex condition that's way more complex than we understood. That's a process of elimination diagnosis. So there's no test for it. Although there's now beginning to be like QB Tech and some of these other assessments that can assist the assessment.
And there's some online, I mean, it's way better. It's going to be easier 20 years from now to diagnose it than it is now. But there was a major smear campaign that was launched against ADHD in the late 90s and early 2000s. was multimillion dollars done by the same people who actually took on the tobacco industry. They went after teachers, they went after doctors, they went after school systems they demonized medication. And I'm not gonna go into the all of who was behind it because I don't need that lawsuit neither do you. But there is a podcast episode on my podcast on parenting with impact with Kelly Pickens talking about the smear campaign. So I think part of what we're still dealing with was that in the late 90s and early aughts, a lot of people were avoiding a diagnosis, providers were avoiding the diagnosis, parents didn't wanna get it or didn't want to use medication or try medication. So we all these adults now who were never identified and treated. And so that's kind of coming out of the woodwork. So that's kind of the context for what I think is going on. Now, what's the question?
Dr. Cam (10:10)
Well, and this is coming from a mom with a daughter with ADHD who has been medicated for many, many years. And I think the thing that I've always struggled with is, is there really a deep issue with my daughter or is the world becoming far more distra, there's far more distractions and pace and challenges that the human brain just is not as capable because it does not evolve as fast as technology and the world is evolving that the human brain just isn't doesn't have the capacity to handle it anymore. And so we're medicating them to be able to so this is this is where I go back and forth. clear this up for me.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (11:03)
I you. feel you. Okay. All right. I'm so with you. I totally get it. Here's what I, here's how I see it. Okay. First of all, I do think that ADHD, the ADHD brain is an evolutionary adaptation. So I think we're actually more capable of handling what's going on in this world, not less. I like to call it, nobody can, what do you call it? Double task. multitask, but we can rapid sequential monotask like nobody's business, right? So I think that it's actually an evolutionary adaptation. That's just my, you know, and it's not that we can't cope with the world. It's that we can't always fulfill the expectations of the world. And so we need support to be able to do what the world expects of us to do.
Dr. Cam (11:39)
Right, that does sound evolutionary. Love that approach.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (12:02)
But if you look at the greatest innovators, the greatest Nobel Prize winners, and like the greatest minds throughout history, most of them are probably neurodiverse. And so that capacity to think creatively, think outside the box, see things that other people don't see, make linkages and connections, that's extraordinary, right? And you still like think the absent mind of the professor at some point you still have to do the dishes and do the laundry and that's the stuff that's hard to do when your brain is thinking of quantum physics. So that's why I think it's so hard to adapt and why the more interesting and fascinating the world gets in some ways the harder it is for those of us who are engaged in that to deal with the mundane things of life.
Dr. Cam (12:38)
I wanna go down this path, I'm just excited to ask questions.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (12:57)
I struggle with the term medicated my child and I used to use it too. Because I don't think it's medicating them. I think we are giving them medication that supports their brain to help them achieve what they want to achieve. And that goes back to that smear campaign, right? I had this conversation with one of my coaching groups, parents of group of teens, and we were talking about helping kids become their own medical managers. And we want them to make their choices and to enroll. And I've never met a teenager who doesn't at some point stop taking their meds before they come back to their meds, right? Because they want to be in control. And what I said to this group, and was really quite like I became emotional when I was saying it, I started taking medication almost 15 years ago. I take a very small dose, but it helps reduce my overwhelm. So I know what to focus on. And for about 10 years, every morning I would look at that pill and I go, is this a crutch? Do I really need this? Should I be taking this? And I was shaming myself because the world wants me to feel shame for needing this medication. And what I realized is I don't need it. but my life is so much better when I take it. I can be more of myself. I can be more present in my life. So do I need it? Could I function without it? Yeah. Would I be as effective and compassionate and present? Actually, no. So thank you for letting me. That's kind of my soapbox on it, but I just feel like, yeah. So go ahead.
Dr. Cam (14:35)
It such an important soapbox and I'm glad you got there because I think that is something that we've always talked about too with my daughter. It's like we met it, she uses medication for school because school is not an environment that her brain succeeds at as well without it. However, in other realms of her life,
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (15:05)
It doesn't set her up for success. .
Dr. Cam (15:10)
She does not use medication because her brain is far more effective the way it is. So here's the path that you were going down that I really want to go down. Is this evolutionary thought of the brain, the neurodiversity that we look at often and society looks at often as a weakness, is actually them more evolved than a lot of us and is the strength but because the world hasn't caught up to them, they need medication to help them adapt and almost like lower down to our level to be able to cope with how the world has not caught up with them. I wanna go that route because that route makes, gives me chills when I think of my daughter. Like, look at her go.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (15:46)
So my theory is that, and I'm talking about all nerd versus kids, because ADHD travels with lots of cousins and it's almost never alone, right? Like the kids with ADHD and dyslexia, they're the brilliant superpowers who can do anything because they understand that structure supports them and they're willing to use structure. They're not going to fight it. And they are amazing, right? What I think is that a lot of us are specialists in a generalist's world. That we have brains, whether it's autism or ADHD or anxiety, there's something about the way that we're wired, that when we find our gift, our specialty, or when we tap into that, I that's what my world has been when I discovered, when I created Impact. Like who I am as a coach and a parent and professional educator, like this is my sweet spot. This is where I'm supposed to be in the
And when I'm here, I'm like bulletproof, I'm awesome. can be present and I can be engaged and I can go all day long. If I have to try to make dinner, I become like this really ridiculously weak, incapable adult. So I'm a specialist in this world. And when I can lean into my specialty, I can soar. But when I'm asked to perform as a generalist, when I'm expected to do well in science when I'm a language arts person. And then you only want me to focus on the science and the math because that's where my weakness is. So I should really work on that. And then you take me out of the art class that I'm really soaring in. Like it's counterintuitive, right? And so I do think, I think what, one of the things I've learned in the last few years, we've done a lot of work around neurodiversity education. I do training for corporate, do training for coaching groups on neurodiversity coaching, neurodiversity inclusion, and all that kind of stuff. And what I'm really clear at is that when you look at the full range of neurodiversity, it is probably about almost half the population. When you look at anxiety, ADHD, autism, depression, trauma, right? Let's just go to trauma for a minute and how many people in PTSD and how many people have had various trauma experiences in their lives. It rewires your brain. It may be circumstantial or situational. It may last, but everyone has some experience of being neurodivergent at some time. That's what neurodiversity is about. It's about all of our brains are wired different and some are not better than others.
Dr. Cam (18:34)
We're all neurodivergent. just on a different, we all are. We are, I like that. We are all neurodiverse. Absolutely. I love NeuroSpicy. That's awesome.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (18:51)
We are all neurodiverse. Okay. You're all neurodiverse. I like to call us neuro spicy. You know, just a little. But we are all, everybody's got, everybody's brain is different. I mean, there are lots of similarities, but everybody's brain is different. And if we can tap into what makes each person's brain tick, there's this concept called universal design.
And it's kind of the all boats will rise philosophy, right? The notion is if you, you, what we do for people with neurodiversity, the education we provide, if we adapt a classroom for kids with neurodiversity or for kids with neurodivergence, it's going to serve all of the kids in the classroom, right? Everybody's going to do better if we create basic accommodations.
that give kids a sense of agency and autonomy and a voice, right? Everybody's gonna do better if we don't give them a ton of busy work and we help them learn what they need to learn without wasting their time. And so if we begin to see that, and this is the same in the workplace, everybody's gonna do better if we're onboarding somebody in a work environment and we find out, would you be better to communicate with this in text or video or like,
If we ask people how they process information and how they motivate themselves, and then we play to that, it's going to benefit everyone. So that's where I think we're going, but I think we've got a few decades before we actually get there. Yeah, well, you know, it takes some time.
Dr. Cam (20:34)
Yeah, it's a slow moving boat, isn't it? It takes some time to tend to things. So in the meantime, we've got a teenager who has been diagnosed with ADHD or autism or one of the many, right? But the expectation is for them to go to school, sit in school and do well in school and their brain does better elsewhere.
And that is not where their brain functions at its best. How do we as parents support our kids going through there without them feeling like they're broken, which happens quite a lot. And they're treated that way often in school. That's been a big issue for my daughter and I. How do we help them maintain that sense of self-esteem and that belief in themselves and help them find their strengths?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (21:30)
Great question. and as you can imagine, I could talk all day about it, right? So everything I do is about that. my, my short answer is you take a coach approach, a neurodiversity informed coach approach. When, when I learned how to use coaching skills to communicate differently with my kid and with their teachers and with everybody else around them, it shifted everything. If I were to point to what's fundamental to that, it's about.
It's about cultivating a sense of agency, fostering their ownership and helping them see their why, what's in it for them. And, you know, collaborative problem solving, but not just what are the lacking skills, which is great, but still deficit based, right? But to say, okay, so I was, was working with a client this morning, her kids are younger. So maybe, maybe I can extrapolate this to a teenage example. Okay.
Because we do a lot of work with parents of teens and young adults. We have groups for parents of teens and groups for parents of young adults. You got a kid who's trying to get out the door to go to school, who wants to go to school, who is having a really hard time waking up in the morning. And maybe they don't want to go to school, and that's a different conversation. But let's assume you've gotten the relationship. So you lean into the relationship and you build some trust and you're communicating better. And you've gotten to the point where you're collaborating and they want to be able to get to school, but it's a struggle.
Okay, we all know the scenario. It happens a lot. Okay, so in our model, we talk about taking aim. So understand that what I've just said is the assumption that you've done a lot of work already. You've really leaned into the relationship. You've built trust because what happens with teens is we fall out of trust with them and they fall out of trust with us and they fall out of trust with themselves. So done that work and we're communicating better. So now we can begin to really collaborate.
So you start by taking aim, and instead of taking aim on mornings, you say, okay, what's the one thing that if we change that, it's gonna start having a cascading effect? What's the one tweak? And it might be getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. Okay, so they've set the alarm, the alarm's going off, you're walking by, you're trying not to yell and scream because they're not getting out of bed, and then you say, you gotta get out of bed, and then they get mad at you because you're already aggravated, right? We don't know the scenario at all, I'm sure.
So collaborative problem solving would be going to the kid and saying, I really get that you're trying to get out to go to school in the morning on time and that it's hard and that you're setting your alarm. How do you want me to handle it when I do hear the alarm going off and you haven't gotten out of bed? What would you like me to do? So now that you're not saying you need to, you're assuming that by this point you've been collaborating and now they've taken ownership. They've got the agency. They just need some help. How can I support you?
What would be useful for you? And this is a really true story. When we took this approach with my eldest at the time, who was maybe a little young, maybe 15, 14, 15. And after trying every alarm and the bed shaking alarm and the alarm that ran across the room, and we tried everything, Nothing was working. They said, don't you come in with a spray bottle? Now, a water bottle.
Kids don't try this at home. I am not suggesting to any of your parents that you go get a spray bottle and tell your kid you're going to. But this came from my kid, this idea, because they like to play and they're very playful with their father. And so we were like, OK, you sure? Yeah, I'm sure. Whatever. Right. So we get in there and I'm down in the kitchen one morning and I hear this really loud noise and it's like really loud and I go running upstairs and my husband and my child are hysterically laughing.
My child has got the corner of the bed by the hands on the ground and their dad's got their ankle and is pulling them across the floor and they're pulling the bed across the floor. Okay. And it's loud and they're cackling with laughter and they may have been late to school because we were having so much fun. Right. But, the notion here was that we were supporting them in their agenda of trying to get out of bed instead of making it our agenda.
So we need to want for them more than we want from them. And if we want for them to support them in their agenda, then we can do all kinds of crazy things because it's their agenda. And we're just experimenting with them and helping them try different things. But if it's our agenda and we're like, well, you need to set the alarm and put it across the room and you should be like, if our hands are on our hips, we're probably not collaborating, right?
Dr. Cam (26:24)
We're not, are, I love that for them, not what you expect from them is beautiful. And once again, this is good for every child, not just neurodiverse. Like this is foundational.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (26:28)
Yes, for them, not from them. Because so much.
Everybody, right? That's right.
Well, it has to do with whose expectations is it, right? Because we have this tendency to assume that if we expect something or the world expects something of us and our kids, that that's the right thing. And the truth is, I mean, the big shift in my family happened when I stopped trying to listen to the world's expectations and I started meeting my kids where they were and figuring out what was an appropriate expectation to set for this kid at this time in this moment. Like that's the shift. It's meet them where they are and raise the bar from there. Instead of setting the bar up here because everybody should because they're 12 or 15 or 22, you know, like that just doesn't work.
Dr. Cam (27:12)
It doesn't work. That was your alarm that you have to go, wasn't it? Yeah, so yeah, I think this is so key because it is, it's giving them ownership. And also if our kids are neurodiverse, and as we just said, we all are, it doesn't mean our solution is going to work for them because we have a different brain than they do. So when we keep trying to push our solution,
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (27:24)
It's okay. We'll wrap up. They'll be there in a minute.
Dr. Cam (27:50)
onto them and they get mad at them for not using our solution wisely, we're the ones at fault.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (27:57)
That's right. I just went upstairs after talking to this client and told my husband, I'm like, do you remember being the weatherman? He's like, what are you talking about? We wanted to change warnings and we worked with our kids and I sat down with him. like, what will work? And our kids are the ones who said to me, one, we need to wake up earlier. I was letting them wait till the last couple of minutes because I wanted them to get to sleep. They're like, we're not getting enough time and you're rushing us. And two, we don't want to rush. And three, we don't want you to tell us we're running late.
So they came up with the idea that at a certain agreed upon time, instead of coming out and saying, you need to be downstairs in 10 minutes, dad would come out and give them the weather report. And when he gave the weather report, they knew what time it was. It gave them an idea of what to wear and they could manage their time around that. And I can't say it was a perfect fix immediately, but I can say that it worked and we used it for years because it was their idea was their agency, it worked for them. I wouldn't have come up with it, it was brilliant. Right?
Dr. Cam (28:58)
Yeah. Yep. I love that. And when you think about it, the more important skill is not getting up. It's figuring out how you get up. That's the skill. So if we take that away from them, then we're taking away their ability to learn to problem solve, which is a complex skill that you have to practice over over over again.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (29:08)
Yes. Our job as parents, I think, is to be in the process of problem solving with our kids again and again and again and again and And letting them lead, collaborate, support, collaborate. We have a model where there are four phases of parents. And so the middle two that we need to be in most of all is collaborate with them until, share the agenda till it's their agenda and then support them in their agenda. Share the agenda.
Dr. Cam (29:31)
and letting them lead.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (29:50)
until it's their agenda and then move in to support them in their agenda. And we just wanna keep doing that again and again as often as we can.
Dr. Cam (29:57)
Yeah, I love that. So what is one takeaway that you want to make sure parents step away with from this episode?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (30:06)
my gosh, what I really want to do is say to the parents listening, what's one insight you've gotten from this conversation? What's one thing you want to take away from this conversation that you want to apply in your life? Because that, I could tell them, right? And I would say that probably if I were to give you one, it would be, God, there's so many is to lean into the relationship, right? Build the trust, because that's where it all comes from. And I also want them to think about what they take away from this, because it's really, that's what's most important.
Dr. Cam (30:40)
I love that. you just modeled. Well, that's what I was just pointing out is you just modeled how to coach. You're not telling them the answer. You are basically just setting it up for them to figure out the answer. So that was a beautiful example of exactly what we want parents to be doing. I love that. Aline, how do, how do people find you?
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (30:50)
Yeah. Thank you. This was great.
Well, we have a podcast too. And if you're listening, you're probably a podcaster. So the Parenting with Impact podcast, wherever you podcast, where sometimes I interview experts, sometimes it's Diane and me, know, spitballing about what's been going on. Sometimes we have clients on and do success stories. So it's fun. we're coming up next year. We'll hit our 200th episode. So good podcast, great blog, great website, impactparents.com.
Lots of free gifts and downloads and you know come check us out if you are a parent of a complex kid of any age 4 to 44 There's lots of stuff to help you learn how to take a coach approach. That's neurodiversity informed And you know whether it's taking our sanity school class or joining coaching groups or listen to the podcast Come play with us
Dr. Cam (31:57)
That's fantastic. What a great resource. Thank you for doing that.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (32:01)
Thank you. Thanks for asking. Thanks for having me. I hope I know we've had to cut this a little short, so maybe I can come back and we can play again. I'm inviting myself back because you're great.
Dr. Cam (32:07)
We can have there's so much to do. Invite yourself. There's so much I can come on your show. We can talk about it there too. Yeah, this we can talk for this about hours. Talk about this for hours. All right. Thank you so much. All right.
Elaine Taylor-Klaus (she/her) (32:14)
That would be great. We're going to do it. We'll do it here. Absolutely. Thanks for having me again.
ABOUT THE SHOW
The Parenting Teens with Dr. Cam Podcast is your go-to resource for navigating the challenges of raising teenagers. Hosted by Dr. Cam Caswell, an adolescent psychologist and certified parenting coach, this podcast offers practical parenting strategies, expert advice, and real-world insights to help you build a stronger relationship with your teen and support their emotional growth. Whether you’re struggling with teenage behavior or looking to improve communication, each episode provides actionable tips to make parenting teens easier and more rewarding.
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