Falling Through the Ceiling provided me with an in-depth view into a family’s endeavors with ADHD/ADD. As an educator for over 20 years, I often ask what the student’s story or experiences are. The section “From Whence We Came” armed me with information of the impact of a parent who has or has not been diagnosed with ADHD/ADD and its possible impact on the student. I would recommend this book to educators and families who work or know anyone with ADHD/ADD.

Dr. Marcie Beard

Executive Director of Schools

I enjoyed reading Falling Through the Ceiling and gaining the perspective of parents raising three sons with ADD/ADHD. I would recommend this book to parents as a helpful way of approaching parenting children with ADD/ADHD. I would recommend it to my clients raising children with ADD. The perspectives of Dr. Jones regarding his own diagnosis of ADD would be helpful to the many adults who discover late in life that they have been struggling to cope with ADD for many years. The chapter on enabling one’s adult children and ways to help them to become independent and cope with their attention deficits would be helpful for all parents attempting to help their adult children maximize their potential for having a productive and happy life.

Helen L. Evans, Ph. D.

Clinical psychologist

Falling Through the Ceiling: Our ADHD Family Memoir is an unabashed memoir of a family’s experience of red flags and ultimately red lights. It’s about proceeding without heeding the warning signs that suggest help is needed. It’s about identifying behaviors that call out for intervention and possibly psycho-social treatment. The premise of the book is an alert to parents to pay attention to the repetition of critical behaviors as noted in the section, “For Parents, Lessons from Our Lives”.

Mary F. Griffin

Licensed Master’s Social Worker

I have just completed reading Falling Through The Ceiling and I am still breathless. The central theme of the book — sharing lived experience, with honesty and lessons learned– is wonderful. As we all struggle to raise our children and our grands, as we struggle to understand and get better, nothing is more valuable than shared experience from those who traveled the road before you. The additional beauty and value of Falling Through the Ceiling is exquisite storytelling around difficult and clearly painful subjects. Dr. Larry and Audrey Jones are wonderful storytellers, making the book a pleasurable as well as informative read. There are many things in the book that changed my perspective about ADHD. For instance, I had no idea that there was a spectrum along which the disability travels. I learned that hyperactivity can show up in many ways, including disconnection or disjointed reasoning. I was particularly moved by Dr. Jones discovering so late that he too had a form of ADHD, particularly when thinking about what his struggle through college and medical school must have been like. I was wowed by the commitment and teamwork — even in concealing some of the negative effects of the disorder on their family– of Dr. Larry and Audrey Jones. As I understand the science of personality disorder or mental illness I think this book is a very good depiction of the interplay between science and society. I also thoroughly enjoyed the race specific observations and analysis. Refreshing!

Sandra Moore

Parent and Attorney

The authors take the reader through the early childhood years, when ADHD can result in academic frustrations and often dramatic childhood pranks. They then move on through adolescence and young adulthood, when, for youth with ADHD, the launch into independence can be fraught with more than the average obstacles. As the authors tell their family’s story, each of them stops along the way to reflect on the personal impact of the children’s challenges and to share their perspectives on how they might have handled things differently. This book will be an inspiration for the thousands of families who are confronted with ADHD.

Elaine F. Walker, Ph.D.

Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Director Mental Health and Development Program Emory University