Your child has been throwing tantrums without reason. He has been behaving so erratically you have difficulty keeping up with him. On top of this, you have been receiving incessant complaints from his teachers, classmates, and playmates. So, you cannot help but wonder whether or not your child has ADHD. We will discuss in this article the attention deficit disorder symptoms to help you assess whether or not your child is not just being a brat but in fact in need of professional help.
Since a test for physiological manifestation of ADHD is yet to be discovered, ADHD diagnosis is often relied on behavioral symptoms. Physicians dealing with this behavioral disorder usually utilize a checklist of ADHD symptoms in their diagnosis. Of the many symptoms of ADD, the American Psychiatric Association based in Washington D.C, listed down 14 attention deficit disorder symptoms. A child to be officially diagnosed with ADHD must exhibit at least eight of those symptoms.
Symptoms of ADHD
- Often not paying attention to instructions
- Often having difficulty abiding by the instructions
- Often having a hard time following through a task or activities to its completion
- Often jumping from one task to another without finishing anything
- Often engaged in endless chatter
- Often having trouble playing quietly
- Often having difficulty keeping still for his turn in group activities
- Often calling others' attention by interruption or intrusion
- Often preempting questions by blurting out answers no matter how far fetched
- Often distracted by irrelevant to the activity at hand
- Often forgetting required materials for assigned activities
- Often engaging in impulsive and risky physical activities without thinking of dangerous outcome
- Often restless and fidgety with his hands or feet
- Often having difficulty in remaining seated and still
The symptoms exhibited by a child with ADHD can be used to categorize the type of ADHD prominent in his behavior. ADHD is sometimes broken down into these three categories: Inattentive Type, Hyperactive/Impulsive Type, and Combined Type.
Children with Inattentive Type ADHD exhibit attention deficit disorder symptoms that are mostly characterized by lack of concentration, extremely short span of attention, and difficulty to stick to a task and finish the same. Hyperactive/Impulsive Type on the other hand is highly characterized by the child's impulse to always stay in motion. The child is always engage in a flurry of physical activities and outbursts of excessive energy. Finally, the Combined Type as the name suggests is a combination of both types.
If your child exhibits most of the attention deficit disorder symptoms discussed above, a conference with a physician dealing with ADHD is highly recommended. Self-diagnosis will not help your child. It must be insured that the ADHD-like symptoms evident in your child's behavior is not caused by any other condition such as bad diet, allergic reaction, or similar other medical conditions.
Moreover, resort to prescription drugs is highly discouraged. Prescription drugs have proven side effects which may jeopardize your child's well being. Natural remedies such as healthy food choices, good diet, exercise and homeopathic treatments are more beneficial to your child in the holistic sense.
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