1. What does ADHD stand for?
2. Are all ADHD children the same?
3. How common is ADHD?
4. Is ADHD a terrible disorder?
5. What are the common complaints of parents about their child's behaviors and learning?
6. What are the common complaints of teachers about the child?
7. What are the common comments of peers?
8. How does the child look at himself/ herself?
9. What keeps parents from taking the child to be assessed?
10. Where to take the child to be assessed?
11. How is ADHD diagnosed?
12. How is ADHD treated?
13. What are the common changes after taking medication?
14. How to make continuous improvement?
1. What does ADHD stand for?
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder.
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2. Are all ADHD children the same?
There are three main types of ADHD:
I. Primarily Inattentive Type (30%)
II. Primarily Hyperactive/Impulsive Type (10%)
III. Combined Type: Inattentive & Hyperactive/Impulsive (50-60%)
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3. How common is ADHD?
3-7% of school age children.
Adults can also have ADHD – about 4-5% of them.
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4. Is ADHD a terrible disorder?
ADHD affects many areas of function, but it can also be a blessing. However, if it is not recognized early enough, the impact of untreated ADHD can be great.
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5. What are the common complaints of parents about their child's behaviors and learning?
Parents tend to say that their children are smart, but “lazy”, “disobedient”, “day dreaming”, “lying”, “not paying attention to instructions”, “irresponsible”, “fun seeking only”.
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6. What are the common complaints of teachers about the child?
The teachers' comments are usually “day dreaming”, “disruptive”, “forget to bring books, homework”, “too talkative in class”, “disturbing others in class”, “impulsive behaviors”, “bullying”, “more room for improvement”.
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7. What are the common comments of peers?
The peers would either prefer to stay away or the child may be too sociable. Comments from his peers can either be “stupid”, “too noisy”, “lazy”, “annoying”, “he does not belong to our group”, “too bossy”, or “too whimsy”.
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8. How does the child look at himself/ herself?
...stupid, lazy, good for nothing, unhappy, forgetful.
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9. What keeps parents from taking the child to be assessed?
The parents do not believe that the child has a psychiatric disorder; they feel that ADHD is a terrible label; they are worried about the side effects of the medicine; they are worried about how long the child has to take the medicine; that the medicine may affect the child's growth and development and personality.
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10. Where to take the child to be assessed?
The child can be assessed by a child psychiatrist, an educational psychologist, a pediatrician or a doctor who is experienced in ADHD. He / she may also be referred by the school.
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11. How is ADHD diagnosed?
ADHD is a clinical diagnosis made by interviewing parents and teachers. Rating scales of signs and symptoms help the interview to be more structured. The diagnostic process should preferably include IQ tests, etc.
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12. How is ADHD treated?
ADHD is treated by medication and behavioral modification.
The effectiveness of alternative treatments such as elimination diet, mega-vitamins, is not proven in any clinical trial. There are only anecdotal successfully treated cases, however, a great risk is the loss of the child's precious learning time when too much time is spent on trying out different forms of alternative treatment and then they turn out to be ineffective.
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13. What are the common changes after taking medication?
Generally after one to two weeks, improvement in both attentiveness and behaviour can be observed (e.g. more awareness to what happen around them, being more receptive to verbal communication, more ease in or just simply starting to doing homework, less tantrums, etc).
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14. How to make continuous improvement?
This requires (tailor made) behavioral modification treatment and acquiring skills in learning and organization. Medication would have helped the child’s capability to think and do things and this is the best time to (re)learn how to act and behave. On one hand, the child has to accept the limits placed by his / her attention span and understand one’s blind spots (e.g. lack of comprehensives in thinking, planning and organization); on the other hand he / she has to acquire methods of self-improvement in these areas.
In the long run, someone assuming the role of a mentor to assist the child to continuously improve and to handle all the different everyday challenges in life would be very helpful.
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