Deal with parent guilt and frustrations. In general, among children with ADD preschool children with mild symptoms and adolescents with good compensatory skills have the greatest chance of success without medication. Studies suggest that regardless of the therapists training and experience, behavioral approaches are better that nonbehavioral treatments for both boys and girls, at most ages, and regardless whether the problem is seen as externalizing of internalizing. Individual treatment is better than group treatment. Girls do better than boys.
Effect sizes are twice as large when the treatment is targeted to specific behaviors.
No one knows what is happening in general practice. Very little is known about the effects of treatment in typical mental health clinics, HMOs, or private practice settings. What data do exist is not encouraging. The medications used to treat ADHD have important side effects and require medical monitoring. Autism is a brain disorder.