Caroline Maguire

How To Help Your Socially Awkward Kid When They Don’t Socialize Well With Others

Social Skills Development /
How to help a socially awkward kid.

As a parent, watching your kids navigate socializing with others can be hard. Especially if your kid appears socially awkward in some way. It’s not a simple formula here. As kids mature, their social skills change. Habit, practice, environment and their internal body chemistry all play a role. Neurodiverse kids, meaning kids with ADHD, autism, […]

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How To Help A Child With Anxiety Make New Friends

Making Friends /
Kids together in an article on how to help a child with anxiety make friends.

Making friends is an essential part of growing up. It gives kids the opportunity to develop social skills, empathy, and a sense of community. Friendships also contribute significantly to a child’s emotional well-being and their self confidence. However, for children struggling with anxiety, the process of forming new friendships can be fraught with challenges.  This

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If You’re Inclined To Do Something Without Thinking, Here’s How Impulsivity Can Affect Your Relationship

ADHD /
Woman with her hand on her head in an article about when you do something without thinking by Caroline Maguire.

As a person with ADHD, you have likely been called out in your life for being “impulsive.” I know I have.  And it is such a common challenge that it is worth unpacking to explore how it affects relationships which are, in many cases, where it can have the biggest impact. For people like me

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Is Your Fear Of Not Having Friends Causing You To Be More Of A People Pleaser?

ADHD, Making Friends /
Kids in a selfie in an article on people pleasing and ADHD by Caroline Maguire.

Does loneliness and fear of rejection cause adults and teenagers with ADHD to fall into people pleasing? Sadly, often the answer is yes. For many of us with ADHD, years of rejection, friendship struggles and generally feeling lonely or misunderstood often impacts how we approach making new friends.  We worry about things like: Should I

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Help Your Kid Reframe Their Love-Hate Relationship with Being Social

Making Friends, Uncategorized /
Picture of mom and teen in an article on love-hate relationship with being social and making friends.

Alex*, a high school junior, has given up on making friends. “School is stressful enough”, she says. Instead of participating in after-school clubs and activities, she spends the evenings with her headphones on, listening to music while gaming or doing homework.  This love-hate relationship with being social started early. In the past, when she’d make

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How Your “Inner Voice” Shapes Your Ability To Be Resilient When You Feel Left Out Socially

Adults /
Woman smelling flowers in an article on inner-voice and resilience.

The only thing harder than getting my family to church on Sunday morning is knowing what to do with myself when the service is over. As the congregation drifts into the social hall for coffee and donuts, my children go one way and my spouse goes another. I’m left alone, looking from group to group

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ADHD & Friendships… Why It’s So Hard For Some Kids To Make Life-Long Friends

Making Friends /
5 kids outside in an article on adhd and friendship.

As a parent, watching your ADHD kid from the sidelines, you know all-too-well how often your child is rejected, socially awkward and challenging with their friends. ADHD and friendships have a dicey relationship at best and if your kid is the one on the playground who is turned away from, or not invited over to

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