One of the purposes of HealthCentral's ADHD Community is to provide practical information, from the perspective of those who have "been there, done that." The experts here often use life experience to give you, our members, insight into what has worked for us, either as patients or as parents. I took some time to go through all of the posts from 2011 and chose those with information on how to help you improve some aspect of ADHD or move forward with a plan. The following are the top posts for the year:

Action Plan for Adults with ADHD Recently Diagnosed and ADHD Action Plan for Parents - Okay, this is really two posts but I am counting them as one because both relate  to the same topic, they just are geared to different people. Both of these posts offer specific steps to guide you through the process of learning about ADHD and creating a plan of action for tackling your most bothersome symptoms. Both are filled with links to additional information to help you better understand each step.

Apps for Parents of Special Needs Children - Our expert Merely Me looks at seven different apps for education and behavior management. If you are looking for ways to record information about your child's behavior and keep track of what rewards/consequences are working best, she explains a few apps that can help. You might also like some of the apps for helping organize homework assignments.

How to Deal with Aggressive Behavior (Part One) and 8 Ways to Decrease Your Child's Aggressive Behavior - Many parents write to us asking about specific strategies to help cope with aggressive behavior. While this behavior isn't a typical ADHD symptom, for children with multiple diagnosis, such as ADHD and ODD, conduct disorder or autism, aggressive behavior may be part of your daily battles. Expert Merely Me explains where aggressive behavior might come from and gives some ways to help parents cope.

Can Martial Arts Help Children with ADHD Focus? - Exercise has been shown to have a positive impact on children with ADHD and also helps to decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety, conditions that are often associated with ADHD. Martial arts provides physical exercise in a disciplined, structured environment and many children with ADHD find they excel in this type of sport.

Accepting an ADHD Diagnosis and How to Move Forward - When diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, you can sometimes be angry, wondering what your life would have been like if you had been diagnosed earlier in life. In this post we talk about letting go of those feelings and finding a way forward, to help improve the rest of your life.

Managing ADHD Symptoms - Five Tips for Time Management for Children and Teens - Any parent of a child or teen with ADHD will tell you that time management and organization are major trouble areas. In this post, we provide some tips to help parents and teens better manage time and control the distractions that so often get children off-track.