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ADHD stands for “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” and it is a behavioral condition. Some signals that you might have it are restlessness, impulsiveness and an inability to focus. ADHD delays brain development by up to 3 years so parts of the brain will be smaller than average. 1 in 20 children are diagnosed with ADHD in America with a tendency toward boys making it the most diagnosed child psychiatric disorder in America. No cause has been discovered but scientists studying brain structure, development, and genetics are coming closer.

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ADD/ADHD | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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ADD/ADHD | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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ADHD/ADD was originally thought to be just behavioral problems, but now we realize it is more than that. Tom Brown explains that some people with ADHD have no behavioral problems at all. ADHD also has nothing to do with how smart you are, and it encompasses many characteristics. Everybody experiences symptoms of ADHD, but people who actually have this illness suffer from the symptoms all the time. It is often linked to difficulty with focusing and distractions. Sometimes a person will be able to focus intently on one thing, like art or sports, but be completely unable to focus on something else. This is not because they don’t want to focus, like a normal person might not want to, but because the ability to concentrate is not under their control. Something people with ADHD sometimes struggle with is falling asleep at a reasonable time because their brains just do not want to shut off. Managing emotions can be difficult as well, which can cause fits of anger or sadness during situations that wouldn’t trigger such emotions in people without ADHD. Memory can be affected because ADHD hurts short term memory, for instance when you forget what you were about to say. Brown also goes into the neurons of the brain and what happens with ADHD. Tom Brown is an expert in the field and this 28 minute video gives a great overview of every aspect of ADHD.

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ADD/ADHD | What Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

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This video interviews two children (separately) and asks them each the same questions. Both kids are in first grade but one of them has ADHD and one does not. The kids answer questions related to school, friends, and homework/tests. The girl who had ADHD said she sometimes had a hard time with homework and she didn’t have many friends and wasn’t invited to many parties. This girl was lonely and sometimes got bullied, she had a lower self-esteem than the boy without ADHD. This video offered real life experiences comparing life with and without ADHD. It shows how children with this disease are more prone to a low self-esteem, poor social skills, are victims of bullying and exclusion, and other mental illnesses like depression. These kids often times do not fit in and the video makes us aware of that.

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ADHD is so common that in schools, at least one student in each class is likely to have it. This mental illness can affect a student's learning style and behavior in the classroom (like sitting and listening to the teacher). Teachers can often be helpful in telling when a student has ADHD, in which case they can talk to the kid’s parents and help them get help. Different kinds of help include a change of environment, a change of teaching style, and learning new skills that may be challenging for them. A child with ADHD has the same characteristics as kids without, these characteristics are just more extreme making certain situations difficult to handle.

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Christina Bellanti, PhD, clinical director of Bradley Schools, discusses how ADHD can affect learning and how to spot signs that a child may need assistance. http://www.bradleyschool.org

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The cause of ADHD is still unknown, but it is thought to be related to genetics. It has a trend of carrying through the family. This video refers to ADHD as a “neurological glitch”, because it has to do with various parts of the brain malfunctioning. Kids with ADHD will have trouble focusing because their frontal lobe is not working the same way as the frontal lobe of a brain without ADHD. As an adult, ADHD is less easily detectable because the brain is fully developed.

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Watch more How to Understand Child Psychology videos: http://www.howcast.com/videos/507714-What-Causes-ADHD-Child-Psychology So while we don't completely know what causes ADHD, what we do know is that it has a strong genetic component. Typically when a child is diagnosed with ADHD, there's someone in the immediate or extended family who also has similar signs or symptoms. ADHD really is a neurological glitch related to frontal lobe process or the executive function.

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Coming into this project, I did not know very much about ADHD. I thought that the only symptom was an inability to concentrate. I did not realize that ADHD in children could affect their ability to make friends, their grades, or emotions. I thought having ADHD was just like having a cold or something that could easily be cured. I now know that medication for ADHD is not a cure and that unfortunately this disease will stay with you. Dealing with ADHD is alot harder than most people know because it is not a disease that is talked about very much in our school. People sometimes joke about having ADHD or use it as an excuse for not paying attention, but they do not realize how negatively it can affect a person’s life. The videos I watched during this project showed me how ADHD prevented kids from making friends and caused them to have low self-esteem. Luckily behavioral therapies and medications can help with this disease.

I have a friend of suffers from ADHD. I noticed a few years ago how she could never pay attention and was very easily distracted in the middle of conversations. She also got very emotional very easily which became frustrating after a while. I never really understood what she was going through in seventh grade but I realize now that it could not have been easy for her. She told me that going through behavioral therapy significantly helped her problems and that for the most part her ADHD does not affect her everyday life.

I found it interesting how ADHD is more than just an inability to focus. I did not know that it can affect your sleep patterns and when you fall asleep. A person with ADHD might know that they should go to sleep but they won’t want to until they are completely exhausted. This is because they feel as if when they close their eyes, their brains will not stop thinking. This lack of control extends to every other aspect of the disease. An inability to concentrate, regulate emotions, and remember things. Overall, I am glad to know more about ADHD because I now realize how difficult it is to manage this disease.

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Childhood ADHD: What are the signs and symptoms?

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Childhood ADHD: What are the signs and symptoms?

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Adrian is a little boy who cannot complete his homework or stay still in class because he has ADHD. Pediatrician Blanca Fresno helps Adrian and explains that a kid with ADHD is unable to control his/her behavior. The three big symptoms of this disease are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Testing for this illness includes vision, hearing, and a questionnaires for parents and teachers to fill out. A family history is important because ADHD has been linked to genetics. Possible treatments are through school (tutoring, extended test time, electronic devices), counseling, and medication. The medications have helped to control the three big symptoms of ADHD.

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Childhood ADHD: What are the signs and symptoms?

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Dr. Blanca Fresno of Children's Physicians Medical Group (CPMG) explains the signs, symptoms and treatment for the different types of childhood ADHD.

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Failing at Normal: An ADHD Success Story | Jessica McCabe | TEDxBratislava

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Failing at Normal: An ADHD Success Story | Jessica McCabe | TEDxBratislava

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Jessica grew up as a smart kid with lots of potential, but she did not have many friends and had trouble concentrating in class. She started to struggle in middleschool with spacing out and forgetting to do homework and was soon diagnosed with ADHD. She took medication which worked really well, she made friends, her grades went up, and she realized she wanted to be a journalist. In later years,even though she was still on medication her ADHD started to affect her life again. She forgot to do important things, never made it to college, and lost sight of her dream in life. So she started a YouTube channel about ADHD. What really changed her perspective on ADHD was learning about her brain, connecting with others who have ADHD, finding a job that worked for her, and learning strategies to face challenges. Her job is now to reach out to people and make sure they know that they are not failures for having ADHD.

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Failing at Normal: An ADHD Success Story | Jessica McCabe | TEDxBratislava

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This video is a collection of confessions from people who have struggled with ADHD. Someone said that others accuse him of using ADHD as an excuse for not paying attention. One person said everything is a distraction while another said he feels as if his mind is “running in 10 different directions”. ADHD holds some people back from doing what they want in life, like succeeding in college or joining the military. It affects how others act around you, including friends and family. People also might think lowly of you because of having ADHD. These anonymous confessions really show how much of a negative impact ADHD can have on your life.

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A Promising New Approach to Treating Children With ADHD | NBC Nightly News

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A Promising New Approach to Treating Children With ADHD | NBC Nightly News

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This newsreport talks about a new method of ADHD treatment which involves utilizing behavioral therapy before medication. A kid named Christian was expelled from kindergarten because of misbehaving and was diagnosed with ADHD. Instead of going right on medication, he went through behavioral therapy first, which included praise for doing good rather than punishment for doing bad. This method seems to have worked extremely well on many children and the relationship between the parent and child additionally strengthens. He’s made lots of progress in school and socially.

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A Promising New Approach to Treating Children With ADHD | NBC Nightly News

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Living with ADHD means you have to work harder than everyone else to maintain the same level of success that a person without ADHD might have. An unfortunate consequence of ADHD is that a kid will be told they are not working hard enough even if they worked as hard as they could. This is why support is very important in treating ADHD, so a child can start thinking positively. One type of treatment is behavioral strategies, this involves identifying at specific behavioral problems and teaching and encouraging better methods of dealing with these problems. Another effective treatment is medication, however this is in no way a cure. Medication does not work for everyone and it must be fine-tuned to each child’s needs.

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What Are the Available Options for ADHD Treatment for Children?