Nick HutchisonFounder and CEO, BookThinkers

Everything I Knew About ADHD Was Wrong #adhdtips #adhdkids #parentingbooks #nonfiction

9 Mar 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:33

In this YouTube video, Nick Hutchison speaks directly to parents about ADHD, recounting his own past misconceptions and how his perspective has changed. He explains that ADHD is not merely a matter of excess energy or lack of motivation, but a developmental delay of the prefrontal cortex—up to 45% behind same‑age peers—resulting in impaired executive functions such as self‑awareness, self‑motivation, interpersonal communication, and delayed gratification. Hutchison highlights the serious long‑term correlations of untreated ADHD, including higher divorce rates, early mortality, and increased risk of alcoholism. He recommends Michael McLeod’s The Executive Function Playbook and its accompanying workbook In Action as practical tools for parents to understand and support their children. He urges viewers to take an ADHD diagnosis seriously, to learn what is happening behind the scenes, and invites comments and discussion.

Chapters

Everything I knew about ADHD was wrong. The Executive Function Playbook by Michael McLeod and the workbook In Action are resources that parents like me and parents like you can use to better understand your children with ADHD. You could have caught me on a podcast 6 months ago saying something ignorant like, no wonder everybody's getting diagnosed. You force a kid with an abundance of energy into a tiny little seat full You force them to learn from a teacher who is unenthused about a subject they don't care about, and then you call that a disorder? But I was wrong. And by the way, Einstein says that intelligence is your ability to change your mind, and I have changed my mind. So I hope that makes me a little smarter than I was before. Because ADHD is actually the delay of the development of your prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for executive functions like self-awareness, self-motivation, interpersonal communication, delaying gratification. And so when a kid has a developmental delay of up to 45% compared to their same-age peers, you have a 10-year-old who's operating like a 5 or 6-year-old. ADHD is not a gift. It's correlated to things like higher rates of divorce, early death, an increased risk for alcoholism, and so many other disadvantages in life. My recommendation is to take this diagnosis more seriously and actually understand what's happening behind the scenes, and these books will do that for you. Comment your thoughts down below.