Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder syndrome (commonly known as ADHD). Its core symptom is attention deficit, which is divided into: attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit without hyperactivity disorder; it is one of the most common psychological and behavioral disorders of childhood.
Whether a child has attention deficit and hyperactivity depends first on whether he has the following manifestations.
1. inattention that is incompatible with age and gender, excessive activity regardless of the occasion, and emotional impulsivity.
The child has reached kindergarten or even elementary school age, but still does not know how to comply with discipline, poor ability to participate in events, poor control; attention span in class is short, easily disturbed; girls also like boys temperament, it is difficult to have a quiet time; emotional instability temper, easy to impulsive, behavior more than verbal expression; do things in the beginning but not the end, lost.
2. Normal or near normal intelligence, some children have cognitive impairment and learning difficulties.
Children with this disorder do not have intellectual impairment, but because of inattentiveness and poor eye-brain or ear-brain coordination, what they hear and see is reflected to the brain at a discount, so they have learning difficulties, mostly after the third grade when the homework has a certain degree of difficulty.
The cause of this disorder is not well understood so far. The main cause of this disorder is a deficiency of neurotransmitters (dopamine and norepinephrine) in the prefrontal and cingulate gyrus regions of the pediatric brain, resulting in reduced self-control and hyperactivity and attention deficit. Some parents of affected children also showed hyperactivity as children. In 13 pairs of identical twins, 100% of them had the disorder, while in 16 pairs of dizygotic twins, only 1 pair had the disorder, which shows a genetic factor. Other factors: history of asphyxia, brain injury, poisoning, metabolic diseases; anatomical abnormalities such as retarded frontal lobe development and reduced volume of the upper cerebellar segment; adverse environmental and psychological factors such as family tension, excessive study load; lead, food additives, maternal smoking, cesarean section, and preference for foreign food.
There are three clinical types: attention disorder-based, hyperactive-impulsive-based, and mixed type.
It is important to emphasize that excessive activity on permissible occasions is not hyperactivity; only excessive activity without inattention is not ADHD; conversely, inattention without excessive activity can be diagnosed as “ADHD without hyperactivity”.
The difference between ADHD and naughty children: naughty children usually have a purpose and a plan, while ADHD is purposeless, impulsive, and disorganized; naughty children have self-control in serious and unfamiliar environments, while ADHD is unaware and restless.
The difference between ADHD and Tourette’s Syndrome: Tourette’s Syndrome can also be accompanied by hyperactivity, attention deficit and impulsivity, but Tourette’s Syndrome has a single group or multiple groups of muscle involuntary twitching, heavy during the day, disappearing when sleeping is its characteristic, and the episodes have fluctuations; ADHD symptoms are persistent and will not improve on their own without medication, and the symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome will worsen if they take medication to control hyperactivity.
The difference between ADHD and childhood learning disability: both have more chance of accompanying each other. However, ADHD is a learning disability that affects learning due to inattentiveness and hyperactivity, while learning disability affects learning due to the inability to understand and comprehend the content of the teacher’s lectures. The latter may include selective reading difficulties, drawing difficulties, poor spatial orientation, visual-spatial perception impairment; numeracy difficulties, lack of number concepts; social difficulties, language development disorders, etc.
The negative effects of ADHD are evident.
Some people say that ADHD is not a disease, but a child is naughty, disobedient, due to overindulgence, lack of family care, no treatment, do not use drugs, will grow up to be better. In fact, it is not. As mentioned earlier, ADHD is due to defects in the function of brain areas responsible for inhibition, attention and self-control. The purpose of medication is to enhance the activity of chemicals in these brain areas, improve the brain’s ability to process information, increase the brain’s ability to “brake” behavior and enhance attention, and improve hyperactivity. How long does it take for a child to grow up? School-age children are not only a time to learn and grow in knowledge, but also a critical stage in the gradual formation and development of their personality and psychology. Negative experiences at an early age can cause a lack of self-confidence in children, and when they grow up, they will often have social difficulties, fail in school, and have difficulty in finding employment.
This is why treatment is necessary.
ADHD is a complex psychiatric disorder that causes multiple problems, and any single treatment is often difficult to achieve significant and lasting results. An integrated, multifaceted treatment is needed, including psychotherapy, rational education, cognitive-behavioral therapy, social skills training, and medication and biofeedback therapy as necessary.
Multidirectional treatment requires longer time, more energy and financial resources, and is often difficult for parents to adhere to. Only by recognizing the nature of ADHD and the poor prognosis can they persist despite everything.
Psychotherapy: supportive and encouraging therapy, doctors, parents and teachers cooperate and care for the child together, first give supportive psychotherapy, eliminate all kinds of bad stimuli, avoid discrimination and scolding of the child, encourage the child to correct bad behavior, arrange life and study reasonably, and give special education and training if necessary.
Behavioral therapy: Using the principle of conditioned reflexes, reward the child when appropriate behavior occurs during training in order to maintain and continue to improve, and ignore inappropriate behavior when it occurs, or temporarily deprive some rights as a punishment.
Cognitive training: Training ADHD children to control themselves, self-regulate, think more and improve their problem-solving skills. The goal is to develop the habit of “thinking twice before acting”.
Diversion therapy: Let the child tell his or her dissatisfaction, parents should listen carefully and give analysis, affirm the right ones and correct the wrong ones, so that the child can feel comfortable and get along with adults.
ADHD in children is a chronic neurobiological disease, so the principle of treatment should be a combination of putting away the stick, patience, individualized education, medication and diet. Under the guidance of the doctor, the child’s personal efforts, parents and teachers work together, perseverance, and never impatience, will surely receive better treatment results. The child is the greatest work of the parents’ life, no matter how hard it is to let him sharpen and qualify, to be responsible for the child, to be responsible for society.