ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity

This booklet has been written with three groups of people in mind. You may be a parent or carer of a child who has been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). You may be wondering whether your child has ADHD, because of difficulties they are experiencing in settling down, paying attention or controlling their behaviour. Or you may be someone with a general interest in ADHD - a relative or friend, a teacher, GP, or health visitor. Whatever the reason for your interest in ADHD, this booklet will give you answers to some of the most common questions about ADHD. It also points you in the direction of more detailed publications, and gives you details of organisations that can help. Throughout the booklet we have included comments and statements from parents of children diagnosed as having ADHD. Some of these parents wrote about their experiences as part of the Mental Health Foundation's Inquiry into the mental health of children and young people. They have helped us all to understand more about the impact of ADHD on children and their families. This booklet concentrates mainly on young children with ADHD. If you are concerned with older children, teenagers or adults with ADHD you will find some relevant books listed at the end of this booklet. Finally, this is a booklet with an optimistic message. Children with ADHD and their families have faced many difficulties in the past, but we now know much more about how to help and support them - at home, at school, and in their future lives. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- 1. What is ADHD? ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It is normally used to describe children who have three main kinds of problems: overactive behaviour ( hyperactivity) impulsive behaviour difficulty in paying attention Because they are overactive and impulsive, children with ADHD often find it difficult to fit in at school. They may also have problems getting on with other children. These difficulties can continue as they grow up, particularly if children and families do not get the help they need. Leading Psychiatrists are calling Arthur a 'walking miracle'-After 15 years in mental institutions, absorbing inhumane shock treatments, abusing alcohol, he's now being called worldwide' The Zig Ziglar of Mental Illness 'Read about his amazing comeback and what #1 best-selling author Mike Litman has called The Most Inspirational Book of 2002' Out of Darkness - One Man's Journey From The Depths Of Mental Illness to Pure Joy They are calling Arthur Buchanan's methods of recovering from mental illness REVOLUTIONARY! (MEDICAL COLLEGE OF MICHIGAN) 'Arthur Buchanan has given us a revolutionary blue print for recovery in these uncertain times, when Mental Illness at a all time high in the United States of America, yet if you follow this young mans methods, we assure you of positive results and I QUOTE 'If these methods are followed precisely, their is no way you can't see positive results with whatever illness you have' Dr. Herbert Palos Detroit, Michigan' Listen to Arthur Buchanan on the Mike Litman Show! http://freesuccessaudios.com/Artlive.mp3 THIS LINK WORKS, LISTEN TODAY! With Much Love, Arthur Buchanan President/CEO Out of Darkness & Into the Light 43 Oakwood Ave. Suite 1012 Huron Ohio, 44839 www.out-of-darkness.com 567-219-0994 (cell) Some children have significant problems in concentration and attention, but are not necessarily overactive or impulsive. These children are sometimes described as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) rather than ADHD. ADD can easily be missed because the child is quiet and dreamy rather than disruptive. ADHD is not related to intelligence. Children with all levels of ability can have ADHD. Overactive behaviour One mother described the first years of her son's life as follows: 'The day always began from the moment he was awake with his exhausting and insatiable demands. No one was prepared to babysit because he was so exhausting and a liability. It was impossible to enjoy him and no fun to take him anywhere. His energy levels were incredible. As parents we wondered where we were going wrong.' (Alison Douglas, Young Minds 39) If you have a child with less severe problems, overactive behaviour may only cause major difficulties when she or he goes to school. For example, a child who races around the classroom, unable to sit still, interfering with other children's activities, will probably not be very popular with other children, and may be seen as naughty or unwilling to learn. Impulsive behaviour Being impulsive means acting without thinking about the consequences. Children with ADHD may be impulsive in many ways, such as saying or doing the first thing that occurs to them. They are also easily distracted by irrelevant things. These children find it very hard to carry out tasks which involve waiting, since they have great difficulty stopping themselves from responding straightaway. They will find it hard to do any activity which involves waiting to give an answer, or in which they have to take turns. Sometimes impulsive children find it easier to wait if they are given a reward for waiting, or some other kind of motivation. This does not mean that they have been deliberately impulsive. It just means that they find this kind of task particularly hard to handle and need extra encouragement to succeed. Difficulty in paying attention Children with ADHD have a short attention span. They find it hard to concentrate and therefore hard to learn new skills, both academic and practical. Research from the USA suggests that 90% children with ADHD underachieve at school and 20% have reading difficulties. For example, a mother of a child with ADHD described how 'Every parents' evening told stories of poor compliance, shoddy and incomplete work, class clowning, no homework, incessant talking and easy distraction both to himself and others.' This explains why it is important to identify attention problems as soon as possible, preferably before children go to school, so that they can be given help. Children with ADHD may themselves be quite distressed, because they do not mean to behave badly in class but do not know how to change. Social problems Children with severe ADHD may be rejected or disliked by other children, because they disrupt their play or damage their possessions. It is easy for a child with ADHD to become labelled as troublesome, or for parents to think it is their fault for not controlling their child. One mother noted that her six year old son '... gets picked on by children and adults because he is always being told off by people - other children blame him for things he didn't do.' Another parent commented: 'T has only recently been diagnosed. Until then people thought all his problems were due to his upbringing. So no help or care was offered until we kicked up and demanded help.' Part of the difficulty is that children with ADHD may not realise how their behaviour affects other people. They may want to make friends, but have no idea how to go about it, having never picked up the basic rules of social behaviour which most children learn naturally. Because the children are impulsive, it is also easy for other children to 'set them up' to behave badly. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- 2. When is a diagnosis of ADHD appropriate? We know that young children have lots of energy and like to be active. Young children also tend to have a short attention span - they soon get tired of an activity and want to move on to something new. So how can you tell whether your child has ADHD or is simply restless or bored? To a certain extent it may be a matter of degree - children with ADHD are not just very active but have a wide range of problem behaviours which can make them very difficult to care for and control. For example, one parent described her eight-year-old son's behaviour as follows: '(he)... fidgets with hands and feet continually... great difficulty remaining seated... very easily distracted... difficulty following instructions... very poor short-term memory... difficulty sustaining attention on activities for more than twenty minutes... shifts from one uncompleted task to another... doesn't seem to listen to what is said... loses things necessary for a task... engages in some physically dangerous activities - he acts before he thinks... poor social skills...' It is important to remember that no label or diagnosis will give a perfect description of an individual child. Children are all different, and will express their problems in different ways. Diagnosis Diagnosis of ADHD can be quite difficult because: There is no test for ADHD; we cannot take a blood sample or an X-ray to make a firm diagnosis. All children have some problems with self-control and it can be hard to decide where to draw the line and give a diagnosis of ADHD Other problems can result in behaviour similar to ADHD, for example language or hearing difficulties, dyslexia, major disruptions in a child's life. Over half of the children with ADHD will have other areas of difficulty, such as these, in addition to ADHD. Symptoms The kinds of symptoms professionals look for in diagnosing ADHD include difficulty following instructions or completing tasks difficulty 'sticking to' an activity easily distracted and forgetful often doesn't listen when spoken to fidgets, is restless, can't sit still in class can't stop talking, interrupts others runs about when it is not appropriate blurts out answers without waiting for the question to finish difficulty in waiting or taking turns In order to be diagnosed with ADHD some of these problems would have been apparent before the age of six or seven years. These behaviours must normally occur in more than one setting (for example at home as well as at school) for ADHD to be diagnosed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- 3. How common is ADHD? It is difficult to say exactly how many children worldwide have ADHD because different countries have used different ways of diagnosing it. In the UK, diagnosis is based on quite a narrow set of symptoms, and about 0.5-1% of children are thought to have attention or hyperactivity problems. In comparison, until recently, professionals in the USA used a much broader definition of the term ADHD. As a result, up to 10% of children in the USA were described as having ADHD. Current estimates suggest that ADHD is present throughout the world in about 1-5% of the population. About five times more boys than girls are diagnosed with ADHD. This may be partly because of the particular ways they express their difficulties. Boys and girls both have attention problems, but boys are more likely to be overactive and difficult to manage.