There are some complaints that many teachers regularly make about certain children at parent meetings in schools.
“This child has no discipline and no obedience, not paying attention in classrooms, and is terribly lazy and will never do a single homework”.
Are you a parent who constantly hears these kinds of complaints about your children?
The people who criticize children in this way do not think that it can sometimes be a disability or psychiatric disorders. What we mean here is a most discussed chronic condition called Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that affects millions of children.
Then you think, aren’t these all the problems that happen to most children?
Should all this be considered a disease?
Children with ADHD have to experience ten times more sufferings and struggles than normal children. Their struggles are more intense and more frequent. To distinguish ADHD one must first know what ADHD is.
Now let’s get into that
What is ADHD?
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood disorder that affects the development of the brain and the functioning of the brain generally shown signs like Hyperactivity, Inattentiveness, and Impulsiveness. Most people mistakenly think that this is childish mischief and labelled them as troublemakers, or criticized for being lazy and undisciplined.
Therefore, it is necessary to find ADHD at the right time and give it adequate treatment. Because of the mental stress that such children have to experience from society and family is so horrible. This can lead to severe depression and mental stress in them, and also causes loss of control.
It is a chronic mental illness that starts in childhood and lasts from adolescence to adulthood.
This will vary from person to person depending on the degree of the disorder, such as mild,” “moderate” or “severe.
There is no cure for it unless the symptoms can be controlled with a timely medical diagnosis. Through this article, we intend to make those who see ADHD as a mere child’s play aware of its orthodoxy and help them with proper treatment as soon as possible, and to save their future.
Is ADHD just a typical childish behaviour?
What sets ADHD apart from other mental problems is the difficulty of distinguishing it from childhood. Symptoms begin to appear in children at a very young age, i.e. before the age of seven. That is the complexity of it. This is because the symptoms of the disease are so similar to the general childhood behaviours of children.
Most healthy children are generally found to be extremely active and careless. Some children have higher levels of energy. It would be unbearable for them to stay constantly in one place and pay attention to one thing. They will continue to use their energy and mischief, no matter how tired the family and teachers are, by trying to control them. Thus it is not so easy to distinguish ADHD from mere childish mischief.
Moreover, its symptoms may vary depending on the severity of the disorder and the patient’s gender. For example, ADHD boys are generally found to be very active, while girls are generally silent and inattentive. In terms of deficit hyperactivity disorder severity, there are a lot of fluctuations in the symptoms in the moderate and severe ones. All of this makes it difficult to diagnose and treat the disorder at an early stage.
Only a qualified psychiatrist can diagnose if your child has sufficient levels of distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity to declare them as a sufferer of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. For that, you need to carefully monitor the behaviour of your children. Teachers and families can easily figure this out. To help with that we are here to share with you 11 various kinds of ADHD symptoms. If your little one’s symptoms persist, you should consult your nearest psychiatrist.
What are the leading symptoms of ADHD?
We have already explained that ADHD is one of the foremost diseases that show the most suspicious symptoms. Here, Some may show Inattentiveness but do not show hyperactivity or impulsiveness, which are other important symptoms. There are others, they may be Hyperactive and impulsive but they may be attentive in contrast to the previous one. For some, it may be better to pay close attention to what they find interesting and interesting.
All of this is common in young children, but by the age of five, children will have a rough idea of paying attention to what others are saying, how to be quiet, and how to talk and behave. But those who are suffering from ADHD continue to do all this, and we cannot expect a change from them. They show mainly three symptoms of ADHD, such as hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and inattention. Here, we’re gonna explore the major symptoms that come under these three categories.
Here we will see how to distinguish them. So let’s get acquainted with the most discussing 11 symptoms that will help you to identify whether your child has ADHD or not.
Problems of inattentiveness or carelessness
A common symptom in children with ADHD is the inability to listen carefully and follow instructions.No matter how clearly explaining things, these children are unable to understand and follow it.
This is commonly referred to as the child’s discipline issue. There’s a chance to easily get distracted from the tasks and more reminders and explanations are needed about them.
Disorganized behaviour
Hereby we can see that the child is not able to organize or manage his daily routine directly in academic and extracurricular activities. Even with someone’s help and precise instructions, they can not handle or complete any such tasks.
Unable to plan and execute things in advance, the child is unable to do homework, projects and other extracurricular activities without interruption.
Forgetfulness or short term memory issues
Children with ADHD are not able to remember things properly because they cannot pay attention to things properly. Even the easy things that were said then are hard for them to remember if asked the next moment. Having short-term causes loss of track of things and forget things easily. They can’t follow instructions because they can’t remember things so a lot of mistakes can happen. Such forgetfulness includes everything from daily activities to academic and extracurricular activities.
Mistakes caused by negligence or carelessness
Another symptom that ADHD children used to frequently keep showing is that they show mistakes with carelessness even in small things. This is because they have a relatively low ability to listen to suggestions, focus on a particular subject, or listen to suggestions and perform specific tasks or activities.
Their attention is easily diverted by external stimuli and they make mistakes by not being able to grasp precise instructions. Due to the lack of concentration of the mind, they have to experience difficulties in both study and daily life.
Reluctance to do tasks that require mental effort
They are not able to shine like other children in terms of learning and other games.
Because of the attention deficit disorder, they cannot concentrate on one thing and that forces them to stay away from the tasks that require extensive mental effort. The best examples of this are their laziness in doing their homework and always staying away from games and puzzles that require mental effort.
Impatience to wait for their turn
They act without thinking, both in terms of conversation and in extracurricular activities. These self-centred children are impatient to wait for their chance and frequently intruding or interrupting and causing quarrels and beatings. Not only that, but they also used to take the property of others without their permission and get themselves into dangerous situations. The main problem is that they do not even realize that what they are doing is a nuisance to others.
Continuously interrupt or intrude others.
Unnecessarily intrudes and interrupts other people’s conversations or activities.
If you try to ask such a child about something, he will interrupt the conversation before it’s finished and make people irritated. These kids will never understand that they are intruding or troubling others via this. They always say the wrong things at the wrong times and cause trouble. This includes impulsiveness, which is a major sign of ADHD and can lead to problems with loss of self-control.
Constantly Fidgets
Children with ADHD cannot spend a long time in one place or Can’t sit still. whether it is the classroom or the house, they get up and walk here and there as per their wish. Or if they are forced to sit somewhere, they used to fidget or squirm in their chair. It is an unconscious act in which the child constantly seems to be fidgeting. It is used to be said that, Children with ADHD focus better when they are fidgeting.
Emotional outbursts
There is no particular change in emotions in children with ADHD and normal children. As like everyone else they will have grief, anger, discouragement, hurt and so on. But what sets them apart from other children is that these emotions appear to be regular, long-lasting and also uncontrollable too. These people have emotional turmoil that affects their daily lives and make it difficult to live a normal life.
Talkativeness
One of the major problems they face is the difficulty of sitting and playing quietly. Unable to play quietly or quietly like other children and engage in other leisure activists.
It is also a habit of them to talk in the middle of what others are saying without waiting for their turn. They keep talking without letting others talk, even in classrooms or family occasions. This is becoming an everlasting headache for teachers and families, but they will never realize that their behaviour is a nuisance to others.
Daydreaming or distraction
We can consider it as a symptom in children with ADHD that adversely affects their daily life and even their academic excellence. Not all daydreaming kids are ADHD sufferers, but we need to beware of those who forget the environment altogether and do so again and again. They lose the concentration of the mind and are unable to concentrate on what they are doing.
Diagnostic possibilities
As a first step, it is necessary to diagnose ADHD. Parents and teachers play an important role in this, as they are the ones who are closest to the child and spend the most time. Complicating matters is the fact that there is no single test available for diagnosing ADHD. The psychiatrist concludes after discussing with the child, family and teachers. For this, we need to carefully monitor the child’s symptoms.
If the child shows six or more of the above symptoms of inattentiveness or shows six or more of the symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsiveness, it can be assumed that it is ADHD. It covers the areas from the time or period the symptoms are starting to see to the place where the symptoms appear. Then certain tests are being conducted to assess the child’s brain health and neurological status. However, the proper diagnosis of ADHD is still a matter of controversy.
Some major diagnostic tools include,
ADHD rating scales
Rating scales are an ADHD diagnostic tool that has been used for years. By completing the rating scales by the patient and those close to him/her (teachers, parents, friends) the therapist gets a complete picture of the medical and social history of the child and the family. This is an asset to the diagnostic process but we cannot call it an objective or sufficient one.
Psychological Testing
Here a child is examined by a mental health professional for further diagnosis.
An experienced and competent physician can quickly confirm whether a child has ADHD or not. Its conventional testing methods can easily test a child’s inattention and impulsivity attitude and come to a definite conclusion. It can also be used to diagnose cognitive impairments by performing IQ tests.
Physical exam and neurological assessment
It mainly involves examining the physical condition of the child and the efficiency of various sensory organs. Assess their effectiveness through the child’s vision, hearing and tests.
Thus it is examined whether hyperactivity is caused by a problem of the sense organs.
Computerized Tests of Attention
This is one of the most popular computer tests to measure a child’s alertness and sustained attention. With this sophisticated method, we can evaluate ADHD symptoms and conclude as soon as possible.
Neuropsychiatric EEG
This scanning process is based on the Assessment Aid System, which examines the brain, brain waves and beta waves and makes certain assessments. Children with ADHD can be diagnosed very effectively by checking at variations in its proportions.
Continuous Performance Test (CPT)
This will make it easier for us to diagnose ADHD by analyzing the child’s alertness and constant attention. It’s enough to measure mental health status, from epilepsy patients to brain accidents. Lack of attention is considered a major factor in ADHD. Hereby, in CPT we can detect the level of attention deficit in children and effectively execute the diagnosing process.
Computerized Neurocognitive Batteries
This can lead to a slightly more in-depth mental health review and ADHD diagnosis than CPT. In this, the patient’s complex attention, visual and/or verbal memory, psychomotor speed and information processing speed, psychomotor speed, reaction time and executive control are very effectively measured.
One drawback here is that we can’t make a proper ADHD diagnosis by performing any of these tests alone. The fact is that there is still no effective diagnostic tool specifically for this attention disorder. Most tests and equipment are commonly used to diagnose other mental illnesses.
Help your kid to overcome ADHD.
If you read the symptoms of ADHD given in the previous section, you will understand the seriousness of this mental disorder from it. You can imagine the problems and humiliations a child would have to suffer by living with such symptoms. Our society, which does not even know what an ADHD is, may label that child as a perpetual troublemaker and undisciplined, and the child may be considered a dull intellect by all because he is lagging in his studies and extracurricular activities.
Everyone blames them without properly understanding their actual condition. Growing up with such guilt and humiliation will have a lot of repercussions on their character. But as a parent, you can protect your child from such a situation. Through early diagnosis and effective treatment, you can be able to get the symptoms of ADHD under control and save your child’s future.
There are several treatments available for ADHD, Finding the right treatment for your child is a very crucial task among this. The most common and effective treatment is the combination of medication and psychological and behavioural.
Now let’s see some of the possible ADHD treatments,
Medications
Medications can have a huge impact on the normal functioning of your child’s disordered daily life. Controlling these symptoms that keep them away from family and community makes their life more effortless and enjoyable. In this way, like other children, they can easily interact with family and friends and teachers. We can categorize Medications into two main categories: Stimulants and Non-Stimulants.
Stimulants
Stimulants are one of the most popular and fast-acting drugs in the field of ADHD treatment. This can effectively reduce the hyperactivity and maintain a low concentration, which can quickly and effectively treat ADHD symptoms. In this case, the vast majority of children who use it can work on the symptoms very quickly and make positive changes. Although there is a controversy over their overuse, no one disputes its effectiveness.
Some of these new types of medications are very easy for children to use. The ones that should be used only once in a week and the ones in the form of a skin patch are easily available in the market. The main stimulants are dextroamphetamine, amphetamine salt combo, lisdexamfetamine and methylphenidate.
Non-stimulants
Non-stimulants are one of the longest-acting medications which last up to 24 hours. This drug, which has many side effects and other problems, was approved in 2003. Although Non-stimulants may not work as quickly in patients, their effects can last up to 24 hours. The major non-stimulant drugs contain, clonidine, Atomoxetine (Strattera) and clonidine (Catapres and Kapvay).
Behaviour therapy
Behavioural therapy is one of the most appropriate psychological therapies to enable children to change their behaviour. Children with ADHD suffer the most from problems such as anger and resentment. Through this therapy, all these are effectively controlled and the child can interact with the family and the society like other children. In this way, the child is filled with positivity and can lead a normal life as a social being by getting rid of the bad and negative behaviour.To complete this, the cooperation of a large number of people close to the child, including parents, teachers and friends, is essential.
Treatment options vary according to the age of the child. Treating children under the age of 6 is not the same as treating children above that. When it comes to behavioural therapy, it mainly includes Parent training, Behavior therapy with children, and Behavioral interventions in the classroom. The main purpose of this is to enable the parents to handle the child with ADHD in a highly convenient way and make certain changes in his or her behaviour.
Music Therapy
Music is an excellent remedy for many psychological problems or disorders. It can stimulate and coordinate the different functions of your brain. It also has the power to control the mind and reduce stress. In this way, music can achieve a sense of calmness and serenity in the character. But more research is needed on how this affects ADHD symptoms.
But as per the scientists, the students who study music are more likely to excel at the tests of executive function than those who do not. It also helps to increase the child’s attention and concentration. As you enjoy music, your brain produces a chemical called dopamine, which helps increase your focus. Thus the changes that music makes in the brain are associated with various symptoms in children with ADHD.
Things parents need to pay attention to..!
The main issues a child with ADHD has to face is blame and neglect from the family and society. But what they need most is the effective support and love of those around them. Trying to treat them like a normal child only makes things worse. They need twice as much support, love and care than a normal child. You need to keep an eye on everything from their diet to exercise. We’re sharing some tips with you to help you with this.
Make a structure and plan the days
Plan their day by setting a daily schedule to correct their erratic routines. Make and hang a timetable that includes the timings of daily routines, food time, study time, playtime and bedtime. So you can calm them down and teach them good habits.
Give the child praise and encouragement as needed.
If the child shows good behaviour or obeys, do not hesitate to praise them. Because in this situation they need your support and encouragement. By being praised in this way, they can distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. In this way, they try to change many bad behaviours and show good behaviour just to get your praise.
Add exercise and playtime in their daily routine.
Never immerse your child in studying and screen time all the time. This is because engaging in good exercise and sports burns off excess energy. It is something related to the smoothing of sleeping to brain activities. It also helps to prevent anxiety and depression in the child and improves the child’s intelligence and concentration. Provide the child with play equipment and try to take the child on regular excursions.
Divide the tasks for the convenience of the child.
Our ultimate goal is to make life less stressful for the child. For that, you should try to divide everything from their routine to study for convenience and create the most comfortable environment for them. When large tasks are divided in this way, they tend to do it without hesitation.
Decrease options to avoid clutter
Children with ADHD are generally confused about everything. It is very difficult for them to choose one from a large number of options. With that in mind, you should prepare their things and give them only a few numbers of choices to make their choice easier. This will reduce their anxiety and confusion to prevent them from panicking. They will be confused even if it is small things. For example, a lot of them find it difficult to choose a dress or a toy from plenty of options.
Reduce distractions
Since they are prone to sudden distractions, all stimuli should be avoided. Television, mobile phones, and video games, which are important in distracting a child, should be given their own time and allowed to play outside as much as possible. By reducing the screen time in this way their impulsive behaviour can be reduced to a certain extent and calmness can be achieved.
Develop a proper sleep pattern.
Just as sleep deprivation can trigger a variety of mental disorders, it can also have a devastating effect on children with ADHD. Good sleep can help you avoid stress and inattention and save the energy you need. For this, it is necessary to make significant changes in the child’s diet and screen time and also ensure that there are no distractions in the bedroom.
Make tasks enjoyable so as not to divert attention
Parents need to make sure that the given tasks are enjoyable and challenging, otherwise, there is a possibility of distraction and the child may not be able to focus on the work he is doing.
Advice them to verbalize the thought process.
Children with ADHD are generally uncontrollable and aggressive. So we can help them to some extent if they make their thoughts verbal. They do what they feel is right. They do not think that it’s right or wrong or that it will hurt them or anyone else. But if they can make out-loud thinking as a habit, then we can help them or prevent them from what they are going to do.
Treat the child politely.
Such children are generally more mischievous and disobedient than others. Therefore, it is common for them to be considered the child as a problematic kid and used to talk angrily to them. The truth is that all of this has the opposite effect on them. Without the love and care of those around them, they are more likely to become a big nuisance for both family and society.
Bottom line
By this article, we mean mainly two things. One is to share ADHD symptoms with parents and help in finding the symptoms or signs of ADHD, and the second one is to make our society aware of such a mental disability. That way they understand the actual condition of children with ADHD and thereby encourage people to support them and their families. Because they not only need the support of the family but also the whole world to fight with this complex neurodevelopmental disorder.
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