Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is a neuro-cognitive condition that affects children starting a young age. Up to 10% of children in North America may be experiencing ADHD. Many of them are still undiagnosed, which as result, prevents them from getting the appropriate care to help them better manage their condition.
ADHD is a condition that results from neuro-chemical imbalances. It is a condition inherited from a parent. 60% of children who have ADHD have a parent who, to varying degrees, experiences the same condition. In 40% of the cases, it will skip a generation.
ADHD interferes with a child’s life in general and particularly at school. It can also affect a child’s social life and activities. There are specific ADHD symptoms that can point to the fact that a child may be experiencing ADHD .
There are three types of ADHD include:
- The Inattentive type, which is characterized by the inability to pay attention and getting easily distracted.
- The Hyperactive type, which is characterized by behavioural difficulties which included squirming, fidgeting, restlessness and impulsivity.
- The combined type – combines ADHD symptoms from the other two types.
Girls are more prone to display ADHD symptoms that are of the inattentive types (the traditional ADD), whereas boys tend to display ADHD symptoms that are the hyperactive or the combined type.
Typical ADHD symptoms related to attention (the old ADD definition) include the following difficulties:
Paying attention
Getting easily distracted
Completing tasks
Disorganization
Slow processing speed
Procrastination
Day dreaming
Making careless mistakes
Low motivation
Forgetfulness especially of daily routines and to-do tasks
Processing information
Typical ADHD symptoms related to hyperactivity include the following difficulties
Restlessness
Squirming and fidgeting
Inability to sit still
Impulsivity
Excessive talking
Getting easily bored
Impatience
Being disruptive
Poor self-regulation
Children who display ADHD symptoms related only to inattention (type 1) are more difficult to identify. Children with type 2 or type 3 ADHD who display the hyperactive signs draw attention because of their behaviour. Unfortunately, children with type 1 ADHD don’t display any disruptive behaviour, therefore they may go unnoticed.
If you feel that your child is exhibiting ADHD symptoms such as hyperactivity and impulsivity, is disruptive in class, forgets to bring notes, homework or personal items from school and finds it difficult to sit still and do his homework, gets easily distracted and can only focus on things that he (or she) is interested in, you will need to seek professional help and guidance.
Testing to identify the real issues associated with your child’s difficulties that contribute to the behaviour as well as the academics and social challenges is very important.
Is your child exhibiting ADHD symptoms? You can use our ADHD quiz to find out how severe these ADHD symptoms are: https://aceclinics.com/symptoms-quiz/
We offer one of the best assessments related to ADHD of all types of Learning Disabilities and other conditions. The purpose of the assessment is not to diagnose, but more importantly to identify the actual neuro-cognitive problems related to the condition, by going to the very core of the problem. Identifying these core neuro-cognitive problems is the key in being able to resolve them permanently.
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