Chesterfield mum uses experience of her daughter’s diagnosis to break stigma around ADHD and support parents

Claire Baggaley is a life coach and mum from Mastin Moor. She said that, when her daughter was diagnosed with ADHD in 2022, the minimal support for parents was something that hit her immediately.

“My daughter got diagnosed with ADHD last year and there was a real lack of support for parents. When we went to the doctors, we knew medication was an option, but it wasn’t something we wanted to do.

“The diagnosis is a long process, and that year of waiting is worse than the actual diagnosis. You sort of know in the back of your mind, but you can’t put anything in place at school until you get that diagnosis – it’s an absolute nightmare.”

After facing the issues surrounding the condition with her daughter, Claire said that she is now using her experience to help other parents of kids with ADHD.

“For us, it was more about behaviour management, but there’s nowhere you can go to learn how to parent an ADHD child. You never know if you’re doing the right thing or not.

“What I found is that when I go out with my daughter, we get the ‘you can’t control your child’ stares. I very much act silly when I take her out now – that makes her more comfortable.

“Now, because of my coaching, I’m encouraging parents not to look for a cure or fix, but to look at acceptance. ADHD has such a negative stigma – as soon as you say it, people just think ‘naughty child.’ In actual fact, their brains are wired differently to ours and it’s not something that can be helped.”

Claire said she was inspired by her own daughter’s love of dance, and wants to help parents embrace the unique qualities that ADHD brings, rather than focusing on any problems.

“My daughter is a dancer and she’s outstanding. The confidence she has is amazing and I only wish that I had that. She’s the funniest little girl you’ll ever meet. Rather than being embarrassed by that behaviour, I embrace it.

“There’s nothing worse than a child feeling like they’re not accepted in general, and then to constantly be told you’re different by your parents – we want to think about ADHD in a positive way.

“It’s very rare to see a website that covers the positive sides of ADHD. We need to learn to accept these kids – they’ve got so many positive, amazing qualities.”

Claire has coached parents for two months and has built up a network of international clients, working with families in Australia, America, Spain and Portugal. She said that parents of children with ADHD often struggle to cope – but the response to her work had been overwhelmingly positive.

“Parents often get stressed when their kids with ADHD do as well, and there are different ways we can deal with that.

“A lot of the parents I work with find that one call a week so helpful. A lot of coaches are quite expensive, but I work within everyone’s budget. I’ve never said no to anyone who’s asked for help and I help as many people as I possibly can.

“As parents, it can be really hard to cope. If somebody can come in and change the way they think, or some of those little habits, it can make things more positive – and that’s an amazing thing.

“It’s little things like, when my daughter goes shopping, we give her a shopping list and she looks for her own food. She’s then focused on doing something else. Sometimes we use different techniques, but it’s about having somebody on the other end of the phone or a zoom call to suggest these things.”

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Claire is also in the process of launching her podcast, called ‘The Life of an ADHD Mummy.’ She intends to release monthly episodes covering a range of issues that parents of children with ADHD might face.

She said that many families encounter significant issues around schooling – and will focus one episode on how to make sure your child gets any additional support they need.

Claire said: “One of the podcast episodes will be around schooling and fighting for your child – that’s what you have to do.

“I was on the phone all the time. My daughter has other difficulties so I had to push for different things to help with that. Sometimes, I wish I had someone on the other side of the phone pushing me, telling me what I was doing was right and what I needed to do next.”

Claire added that, as far as she knew, there was no one else offering these services in north Derbyshire – and that even a local change in attitudes towards ADHD would be a great achievement.

“There isn’t a coach that I know of in north Derbyshire that specialises in ADHD coaching.

“With my daughter, I encourage that she’s herself - I never want her to try and blend in. I’ve ingrained that into her.

“I’m just one girl from Chesterfield, but if I can even just change the way that people think about it in our area, that could make a huge difference.”

More information can be found on Claire’s Facebook page. Claire’s podcast is available on both Spotify and Amazon.