Since my books present a new theory of what ADHD is and how to treat it, it is important to read ADHD: Drug-free and Doin' Fine or ADHD: A Path to Success  before you fill out this application. If you have not read my book, you have no idea what type of treatment you are applying for or if you would be interested in it if you are accepted.

Also, I will invest a lot of time reviewing your application. Please do not take my time if you have not first read one of my books. They are available from the shopping cart on this website.

Dr. Weathers is an ADHD kid made good. He earned a Ph.D. in child clinical psychology from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1974. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Psychotherapy. Before moving to Spokane in 1978, he was Director of the Adolescent Unit at Central state Psychiatric Hospital in Nashville TN, Director of the Family and Children’s Achievement Center in Miami FL, Director of the Adolescent Unit at the Florida Mental Health Institute, and later Full Professor and Director of Research and Evaluation at the Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.

This FREE ADHD and ODD assessment provides a tentative diagnosis and an automated narrative report for ADHD and behavior problems (ODD-oppositional defiant disorder). This test has strong research underpinnings. It is based on the DSM IV-TR and  large, well-standardized, nationally representative norms. This is a professional grade assessment and automated narrative report that provides results comparable to other ADHD and ODD assessments commonly administered by psychologists and psychiatrists that might cost several hundred dollars. 

I never treat a child alone because their behavior cannot be changed without changing family interactions. The family is an integrated and interactive system. As I often say to families, "I don't know anything about ADHD kids. I only know about ADHD families. Out of the family and school context, ADHD children make no sense. In the family and school context, ADHD children make perfect sense."

Educational games are one of the greatest innovations in education. They are fun, cheap, self-paced and have built-in assessment. However, their potential is seldom realized because they are usually misused. Typically a child is told to go to his room and play his educational game for a certain length of time. That is, "go play Reader Rabbit for half an hour" per day. The child hears this as go to the rock pile with a sledgehammer and break big rocks into little ones. This is not very motivational or inspiring to a child.

Many learning behavioral and physical problems are a result of excessive emotional arousal triggered by environmental cues. WebCAER is an effective technology to extinguish these counterproductive responses to these cues. When these triggers are extinguished, the problem behaviors and feelings do not reoccur.

The results of the follow-up study strongly support my clinical impression that CAER makes dramatic improvements in all aspects of the constellation of symptoms comprising ADHD/ADD, without the use of medications.

Every program function is explained in three ways, 1) tool tip popups 2) inline Text Hints and 3) a help file (this document). For context sensitive help, if you do not know what a particular element does, put your cursor over it and a line of text will be displayed which describes that feature.

How to turn problems into opportunities to grow emotionally

Within the WebCAER model of therapy, every bad feeling or inappropriate behavior is an opportunity to grow. It gives you a starting point into a thread of feelings to work on. Directions that I give to users of WebCAER are: "Whenever something bad happens, think of the feeling that went just before it. Go immediately to WebCAER and concentrate on that feeling. Be an emotional blood hound and try to follow the feeling back across your life to all the other times you felt a similar feeling." in fact, when someone gets upset, a standard mantra in every family should be to say to the upset person, "that is something you can work up with on WebCAER, now." This cues them to turn the troubling emotions that are at the surface into an opportunity to grow.

Intensive Treatment sets families on the right track by eliminating problems and providing knowledge of how to go forward, but the path of growth and health must be lived everyday.

There are five components to treatment follow-up. Long-term email follow-up, WebCAER, Homework Messenger, the Goals Program and educational emails for parents and teachers. My view of treatment goes far beyond just simply resolving the identified problems of the ADHD, LD or HFA child. Resolving his problem is only the first step. The real objective is to help families become high functioning vs. just coping by getting rid of problems. The follow-up technologies provide additional tools to achieve more than just problem resolution.