How to properly understand ADHD in children
With the continuous development of medicine and the emphasis on the education and physical and mental health development of children, ADHD in children is attracting more and more attention. ADHD in children is also known as “attention deficit disorder”, which was formerly known as “mild brain dysfunction”. Most children with ADHD start before the age of seven, with hyperactivity as the external manifestation, centered on inattention and difficulty in maintaining attention, accompanied by mood changes and learning disabilities. The Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria for Mental Disorders stipulate the following criteria for ADHD.
I. Attention disorders exist in at least four of the following.
(1) Easily distracted when studying, hearing any external sound to visit;
(2) in class is very inattentive, often look around or dazed;
(3) Procrastinate in doing homework, playing while doing it, dirty and messy, often under-doing or making mistakes;
(4) Inattentive to details and often makes careless mistakes in homework or other activities;
(5) Loses or is particularly careless about things (e.g., often makes a mess of clothes, books, etc.);
(6) Difficulty following instructions and completing homework or chores at all times;
(7) He has difficulty in keeping up with his work, and often goes on to do something else before he finishes it;
(8) He is often distracted when talking to him, and seems to be listening;
(9) The person loses things in daily activities;
II. At least four of the following are present in hyperactivity disorder.
(1) Difficulty sitting still or twisting around in the seat in situations that require sitting still;
(2) often make small movements in class, or play with things, or whisper with classmates;
(3) Talking a lot, interrupting, and answering questions before they are finished;
(4) Is very noisy and cannot play quietly;
(5) Difficulty in observing order and discipline in group activities, such as jumping on the field during games and not waiting;
(6) Interferes with the activities of others;
(7) They like to tease with children, easily get into disputes with classmates, and are not welcomed by peers;
(8) Tends to be excited and impulsive, and has some excessive behavior;
(9) Running in inappropriate situations or climbing ladders, being adventurous and prone to accidents; one or two of the above items must be present at the same time, and the illness must be more than six months old.
Even if the symptomatology criteria are met, it is not ADHD in children. To exclude the following disorders.
(1) Childhood mental retardation: Those with mental retardation have poor comprehension of things, are unable to understand what they are learning, and are also prone to hyperactivity, inattention and emotional reactions, and have prominent poor academic performance.
(2) Childhood autism: In addition to hyperactivity, there are severe social and interpersonal interactions with intellectual impairment and language impairment.
(3) Childhood mood disorders: These children may also have excitement and hyperactivity and attention deficits, and their emotional reactions are strong and fluctuating, often unpleasant, frustrated, and easily stressed or agitated. They tend to be episodic and non-continuous.
(4) Conduct disorder: In addition to hyperactivity and attention deficits, the main feature is recurrent and persistent antisocial, aggressive or oppositional conduct, characterized by disruption, lying, truancy, etc.
(5) Children’s oppositional behavior: often against parents, against school, violating school rules, etc. Most of them are due to educational or methodological problems. Children with ADHD generally do not have severe oppositional and antisocial behaviors, and subjectively do not want to have disruptive behaviors and mannerisms, but only due to poor self-control.
(6) Long-term broken family: Children who live in such broken family environment for a long time will have some problems in behavior, personality development and education, and will also have hyperactivity and other manifestations. If this is secondary to the bad habits of adults, it is not appropriate to diagnose ADHD in children if they have this family background. As we can see, the correct understanding and diagnosis of ADHD in children is not a simple matter, but requires comprehensive consideration and analysis in order to reach the correct conclusion.
At present, there are many misconceptions about the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in children that should be taken into account.
(1) Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and capriciousness are both hyperactivity;
(2) Not being able to complete homework well is also ADHD;
(3) Not listening in class, many times by the school, teachers to parents, fear is ADHD;
(4) Misled by irregular advertising, right. Some advertisements are not standardized, such as; “Introduce 2-3 symptoms, which makes parents misunderstand;
(5) one-sided emphasis on the therapeutic effect of medication, especially Chinese medicine, believing that it can be cured with medication, ignoring its important role of education and psychological guidance. In fact, mild ADHD can mostly be controlled with appropriate training and a good educational environment;
(6) to avoid responsibility and reduce pressure; some parents always suspect that their children are ADHD, or even hope that it is ADHD, so that they can reduce the pressure and responsibility in education, training, correction. Because my son (or daughter) has a disease, some poor academic performance, some other problems, are affected by ADHD ;
(7) Believe in advertising, unwilling to go to a regular specialist hospital for clear diagnosis and treatment, or worried about “Western drug addiction, damage to the brain”, so that the diagnosis of ADHD expanded, wasting a lot of money and energy of parents, but also to increase the psychological burden of children. In fact, many children with so-called ADHD tendencies can be significantly improved with proper education and training.