What is ADHD?

Many parents believe that their children do things especially to annoy them. That may be the case most of the times, but sometimes, the child actually has Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is one of the most common behavioral problems that young children can face. The disorder’s symptoms are divided into three parts, inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Children might make careless mistakes in their homework, they might not listen to instructions, and they might lose or forget things. Their hyperactivity would show through their constant fidgeting, or through the way they keep running and climbing in places they shouldn’t be. As for the impulsive symptoms, they mostly interrupt others and are unable to wait for their turn. Children with ADHD could also show symptoms of aggressiveness and invincibility. These behaviors impede the child’s ability to learn and keep up with peers of his age. He, or she, may be pushed to feeling unintelligent simply because of their shorter attention span. Labeling the children may also cause them discomfort because it does not give them the hope for change.

Boy with ADHD. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from:
            http://adhdadd.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/adhd-18223.jpg

Is ADHD hereditary?

Adoption studies have found that a child’s hyperactivity resembles that of his biological parents and not that of his adoptive parents. Other studies found that ADHD runs in families (Biederman, 1990). A twin study conducted in Australia got results that gave an 82 percent concordance rate for identical twins and 38 percent concordance rate for non-identical twins (Levy, 1997). The expression of the symptoms of ADHD is different at different stages in a person’s life. A lot of children exhibit hyperactive and impulsive behavior during the infancy and preschool period. There is a fine line between overactive infants and children with ADHD, which is why clinicians do not diagnose infants with ADHD until the behavior becomes age-inappropriate. Many children with ADHD will be diagnosed with the disorder by the time they are 9 or 10 years old, i.e. in middle childhood. Around 60 percent of these children might develop oppositional disorder because of the academic difficulties and social rejection by peers, teachers, and parents.

ADHD cartoon. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from:

http://www.alexionescu.ro/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/adhd_cartoon1.jpg

Biederman, J., Faraone, S. V., Keenan, K., Knee, E., et al. (1990). Family-genetic and psychosocial risk factors in DSM-III attention deficit disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 526-533.

Levy, F., Hay, D.A., McStephen, M., Wood, C., & Waldman, I. (1997). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a category or a continuum? Genetic analysis of a large-scale twin study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 737-744.

How does ADHD persist with time?

Although symptoms of attention problems, hyperactivity, and impulsivity decline with age (Barkley, 2006), the disorder persists into adolescence in around 80 percent of the cases (Barkley, Fischer, Edelbrock, & Smallish, 1990). The problems that come with academic demands increases and adolescents with ADHD are found to have more disruptive and non-disruptive problems like anxiety, depression, oppositional disorder, and school failure. ADHD could also persist into adulthood, as previously mentioned; however, in some cases it disappears completely, in others it still show signs of inattentiveness and hyperactivity, while in others it results in some serious psychiatric and anti-social problems (Goldstein, 2002). They do best, however, in jobs that are upbeat and that involve risk-taking because this style coincides with most of their personality characteristics (Barkley, 2010, Adult Outcome section).

Barkley, R. A. (2006). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford.

Barkley, R. (2010). Fact Sheet: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) topics. Retrieved May 10, 2010, from http://www.russellbarkley.org/adhd-facts.htm

Barkley, R. A., Fischer, M., Edelbrock, C. S., & Smallish, L. (1990). The adolescent outcome of hyperactive children diagnosed by research criteria: I. An 8-year prospective follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 546–557.

Goldstein, S. (2002). Understanding, diagnosing, and treating ADHD through the lifespan. Florida: Specialty Press, Inc.

ADHD chart of comorbidity. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from:

            http://www.adhd-for-school-teachers.com/Portals/4/images/comorbidity%20adhd.JPG

What difficulties do children with ADHD face?

Children with ADHD face challenges in deficits in planning and working memory which could be the basis as to why they are unable to make adequate connections among events. Children with ADHD may also fall short of exerting the required effort on complex tasks, such as story comprehension for instance (Barkley, 1997). This shows that ADHD does not render the child completely incapable of performing cognitive tasks, but rather it makes it very difficult for the child to carry out selective attention which affects the way the child understands causal relations in different situations. This cognitive process is very important in all aspects of life, both academic and social. Having the ability to infer possible events and consequences is an essential part of a social setting. Human beings are social animals and the whole idea of social intelligence lies in the ability to link events to each other and predict the way another person or organism will react to certain events.

Barkley, R. A. (1997). ADHD and the nature of self-control. New York: Guilford.

Child in classroom. Retrieved from October 29, 2010, from: http://yogainmyschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/adhd_0324.jpg

What Should be Done?

The development of the ability to form causal relations makes up a great part of a person’s intelligence, it does not, however, define it. Many children with ADHD can grow up to become successful men and women. The only reason they sometimes do not is because society does not understand their situation. Most schools, teachers, and parents all alike want obedient children who never move away from the institutionalized education planned out for them. Children with ADHD show hyperactivity, impulsivity, and problems with attention, all of which are beyond their control. These characteristics go against what society wants, and they end up being disapproved of. Medication can solve many problems that children with ADHD suffer from, but the effect is still not 100 percent. In addition to the medication, training must be provided for the parents and the teachers. With these improvements people with ADHD could be given the chance to show themselves and improve their strengths without dwelling on their “weaknesses.”

ADHD medicine advertisement. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from: http://www.miwatch.org/documents/adhd_large_0.jpg