Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that affects childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Up to age 16, ADHD is considered childhood ADHD. The prevalence of ADHD among U.S children who are in age 4-16 is about 9% out of 5 million of children (National Resource Center on ADHD). That also means one out of 11 children have been diagnosed with ADHD. The number showed children with ADHD is prevalence in the U.S population. In the survey also showed 12.1% of boys and 5.5% of girls have been diagnosed with ADHD (National Resource Center on ADHD). The number of the boys are twice more likely than girls who with ADHD. ADHD is more common in boys than girls.
The symptoms of ADHD are inattention, struggle to focus, difficulty to control behavior, impulsivity and hyperactivity. (Mash) ADHD affect children’s school performance. Children with ADHD who have low self-esteem and emotional immaturity, it may negative effect their school performance. (Health Central) Children with ADHD struggle to focus more than normal children. They will miss details from the teacher when they are in class. The reason is that children with ADHD tend to pay attention to everything that is going on around them rather than focusing on one task. At the Kevine time, sitting still is a big difficulty for them. Children with ADHD are hyperactive; they tend to move around and are not interested in sitting still. The other difficulty is focus. Struggle with focus is one of the symptoms appearing in the children who have ADHD.
I met a child with ADHD in a learning center, which is my work place. Kevin was one of my students in the summer course and after school program. He is 7 years old and a 1st grade student. At the beginning of the summer course, I noticed that he was different from the other children in the Kevin’s class. The difference was he could not sit still and focus on his tasks. The other teacher who was working with me always told me that “Kevin is the trouble maker in the class; he was not following any instructions.” I agreed with her because he was the only active child in the class, but we could not label any children who were special in the class. So, I decided to talk to his father, and he told me that Kevin is a child with ADHD. I was not surprise with his answer, because Kevin’s behaviors were similar to the other child with ADHD who I observed in a Kindergarten at last semester. In addition, I still wanted to know more about Kevin’s pervious behaviors. Then his father began to tell me more about Kevin. When Kevin was attending in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes, both teachers realized that Kevin was an active child and not easy to control with his behaviors. At that time, Kevin’s father noticed that Kevin was different from other children in class or at home. When his father compared Kevin’s and his sister’s behavior, Kevin behaved inappropriate obviously.
We should not label the children with ADHD, they are as normal as the other children. After I realized that Kevin is a child with ADHD, I provided a separated table for him. While he was sitting on the separated table, he behaved more appropriately than he was sitting in a group with other children. I could tell he was more focus on his tasks while no one was around him. The myth: “ADHD is simply a label for behavior problems; children with ADHD just refuse to sit still and are unwilling to listen to teachers or parents.” (Brown) That is not true; the fact is there are many children with ADHD who have few behavior problems. Children with ADHD are not refusing to sitting still; they are only having problem to sit still. They are not unwilling to listen to the teacher and parents; they are only struggling to focus.
When we make the diagnosis of an ADHD child, it should have six or more symptoms. The criteria of symptoms for a diagnosis of ADHD divided into three main categories:
