by OnYx

Created on: April 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

I have an eight year old son that was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of six. It is very difficult for a child with ADHD to focus and stay on task. It is also difficult for a child to sit still in school and pay attention. From my experience with my son, studying at home and explaining homework is essential to a child with this disorder.

A child with ADHD is most likely going to want to put anything on his/her homework in a hurry; just to be able to play outside, or simply because the child can't focus, and becomes frustrated. Therefore there must be rules at homework time, and the rules have to be understood. There should be a specific place and time without any distractions, so the child can fully concentrate on his/homework.

There are many symptoms of ADHD. One of the biggest symptoms my son has is that he plays very loud and aggressive. Trying to make him understand how to play in a civilized manner almost seems impossible at times. He doesn't throw a fit. But it is more likely that he becomes very distracted when I am trying to explain something to him. In a lot of instances or situations a child with ADHD also there are some behavioral problems that need to be worked on. For example, my son finds it humorous if he can make me mad. In the past it caused me to be frustrated and the problems to escalate.

What I have learned is parents need to be emotionally neutral when giving instructions or consequences to the disruptive child. This is a skill that the parent has to work on and it will take so time to master it over time. If parents don't learn to control their own emotions when disciplining a child with ADHD, the result is often violence and an escalation of the disorder. Another thing is having a firm discipline ground but showing a lot of love at the same time, because you do not want him/her developing anxiety to the point that the child wants to avoid the parent.

ADHD is very common among children and adults it does not affect many kids until later in their adulthood it runs rapidly from within 4% to 12% of kids, who still attend school. My son is one of the few that it affects as a child. It takes a worse affect on people who show the symptoms later in adulthood. The reason for this is because the symptoms can be treated earlier as a child rather than later in adulthood. The cause of this disease is a lack of chemicals in the thought processing area of the brain. Smoking and other substance abuse has been linked to ADHD, but hasn't necessarily been proven to be the exact of it.

One thing that has been proven is it is better to treat ADHD as soon as possible. There is no specific way to treat it, and a parent should consider all possible options. These days, there are so many resources for help with ADHD on the internet, and even many school counselors are trained in this area. Help is out there and readily available, and determined parents can fully help their child with this disorder, even to the point that it can be unnoticed by others.

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