Children And Stress
ADHD: A Quick Overview
ADHD is attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder. It is a condition that generally affects children in their
preschool or early school years. More than 2 million children in America
are affected by this behavioral disorder. Children showing symptoms of
ADHD exhibit impulsiveness, inattention and hyperactivity. Thus these
children find it difficult to control their behavior or actions.
Let’s have a quick overview on ADHD.
There are three
subcategories or types of this disorder:
1) Predominately
Hyperactive Type
2) Predominately Inattentive Type
3) Combined Type
Each
type has its own characteristics and peculiar symptoms.
The
Predominately Hyperactive Type: Impulsive behaviors and hyperactivity
are the predominant characteristics of this type of attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder. The child is unable to sit still. It wriggles
the hands or feet to reflect unwillingness. The child may just get up
and run. Sort of impatience is evident amongst such children. Such
behavior may disrupt the proceedings and teaching in the class. The
child is unable to sit comfortably and peacefully. It is unable to grasp
properly the home work assigned.
The Predominately Inattentive
Type: This type of child has no proper control over itself. It pays lots
of attention to insignificant things. It has no control over the
disciplined and obligatory activities such as, homework assigned. The
child continues to lose and forget things that are essential for school
activities. Its power of reception stands hampered, it is unable to
grasp the import of the instructions issued to it by teachers and
parents. Otherwise the child is very intelligent but that is for its own
cause. You can not channelize that intelligence as per your directions
to the child.
The Combined Type, as the name indicates is the
combination of both. This is the most common type of ADHD in
children.
Due to the peculiar
nature of the ADHD, the diagnosis is not very easy. Stress in the
children may cause similar types of symptoms, but actually it is not
ADHD. Unsteady behavior of the child is again not ADHD.
When you take your child to the doctor, naturally the doctor will
ask you questions to make a correct diagnosis. Therefore, it is
preferable for you to keep the recordings of the unusual pattern of the
child's disposition to things. Many of the serious problems that affect
the parents indirectly affect the children also.
So, ADHD is not
an ordinary type of stress. You can not fix a definite time frame for
the stress to subside. As, it is the type of stress, related to
deformity in the child, lots of patience is required with those assigned
with the task of teaching or general looking after the child. The child
may not feel that it has stress. At that level, it is normal behavior
from its point of view. The real stress is in looking after it to
achieve some sort of semblance of a normal child.