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

• How to shift your mindset around ADHD and autism


• The benefits of coaching for parents of neurodiverse teens


• Why collaborative problem-solving builds stronger parent-teen relationships


• The role of medication in supporting neurodiverse individuals


• How to empower your teen by meeting them where they are

 
5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR PARENTS OF NEURODIVERSE TEENS

• Coaching empowers parents and transforms family dynamics.


• ADHD can be an advantage when understood and managed properly.


• Medication is a tool, not a solution—its role varies for each child.


• Building trust leads to better communication and cooperation.


• Understanding neurodiversity benefits all kids, not just those diagnosed.

 
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EPISODE CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Introduction to Neurodiversity and Parenting Challenges


• 10:03 Understanding ADHD in Today's World


• 21:01 Supporting Neurodiverse Teens: A Coaching Approach


• 29:57 Key Takeaways for Parents of Neurodiverse Children

 
CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST: Elaine Taylor-Klaus

• Website: ImpactParents.com


• Instagram: @ImpactParents


• Facebook: @ImpactParents


• Twitter: @ElaineTKlaus


• LinkedIn: Elaine Taylor-Klaus


• Podcast: Parenting with Impact

 
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST: Dr. Cam Caswell

• Website: AskDrCam.com


• Instagram: @DrCamCaswell


• TikTok: @the.teen.translator


• YouTube: Parenting Teens with Dr. Cam


• Facebook: @DrCamCaswell

 

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