by Jennifer W.

Created on: June 14, 2007

ADHD

What is it?

ADHD is a behavior disorder that can manifest itself in inattention, hyperactivity, or both. At one point, there was a distinction between ADD (attention deficit disorder) and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), but today both disorders fall under the same term.

This disorder is both very real, and very over diagnosed. Often parents and teachers will attempt to test a child for ADHD when discipline may be the true root of the unruly behavior.

Symptoms of ADHD inattentive type include:
failing to pay attention to details,
making careless mistakes,
difficulty paying attention for any length of time
seems to not listen when being spoken to
fails to follow instructions (not because of failure to understand or oppositional behavior)
has trouble organizing
avoids and dislikes activities that involve paying attention for a length of time (like schoolwork)
loses things necessary for activities

Symptoms of ADHD hyperactive type include:
fidgets or squirms
often gets out of seat
runs or climbs in inappropriate settings
has trouble playing leisure activities
always moving
talks a lot
has trouble waiting turns
interrupts others or blurts out an answer before listening to the question.

Children with both inattentive and hyperactive type will obviously display symptoms from both lists.

One Example:
I worked with a child with ADD inattentive type for 2 years. He could sit in his chair, was at the front of the room and only had one other child near him at any given point in time. He was unable to focus though, as evidenced by his inability to fill out even the simplest notes. He could not copy from the board because he would get stuck on trying to write his name on the top of the paper. He had a buddy write his homework in his planner for him, and needed constant prompting to do even the simplest tasks. He was a popular kid, but when over stimulated, he would get lost trying to find his book bag at the end of the day.

How is it diagnosed?

In order to be diagnosed as ADHD, 6 or more of either of the above groups of symptoms has to be present for at least 6 months or more, and it has to have resulted in poor adaptability. In other words, these symptoms have to have truly
affected many aspects of this child's life and be hindering the child.

If you or someone who works with your child thinks that ADHD may be affecting his or her ability to learn, you should contact your family physician. Only a psychiatrist can officially diagnose a child with ADHD. The physician

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