Stands for:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

There are 3 main categories to describe a.d.h.d:

Impulsive behaviour

Difficulty in paying attention

Hyperactivity (Overactive behaviour)

Because children who have a.d.h.d can be overactive and impulsive, they can often find it difficult to fit in at school, they may also have problems getting on with there peers. This continues as they grow up if they do not get the help they need.

Only some children have problems in concentration and attention and 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 in some children 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

Overactive Behaviour may only cause major difficulties when he or she goes to school.

Eg: A child who races around the classroom unable to sit still and interfering with other children’s activities, will probably not be very popular with there peers, this may be seen as naughty or unwilling to learn.

IMPULSIVE BEHAVIOUR

Impulsive means acting without thinking about the Consequences.

A child with ADHD may be impulsive in many ways, like saying or doing the first thing that occurs to them.

They can also be very easily distracted by irrelevant things like a phone ringing or someone simply coughing!!

A child with a.d.h.d can find it very hard to carry out even the simplest of tasks which can simply involve just waiting there turn or waiting for instructions.

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.

ATTENTION PROBLEMS

Children with ADHD have a short attention span.

They find it hard to concentrate and therefore find it difficult to learn new skills, both academic and practical.

Eg: like reading a book if they are not interested in the story they are going to find it even more difficult to take in what the actual story is about.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Children with severe ADHD may be rejected or disliked by there fellow peers or even there own teacher, because they disrupt their play or ruin lessons or even damage school property.

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.

Part of the difficulty is that children with ADHD may not even 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 basics 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.