Although Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common mental problem in children, little is known about it. There are many mistakes or omissions among what is known. That's why today I want to write briefly what we know about ADHD.
Lack of attention does not mean not being able to pay attention to anything.
The name of the disease sometimes causes misunderstandings. What is meant by attention deficit is the inability to manage attention correctly. The child or young person pays excessive attention to fun, stimulating activities (tablet, TV) and can spend hours on it, but cannot pay attention to homework or task areas for a long time and gets bored quickly. Families often describe this as 'He is very careful when it suits him, and careless when it doesn't suit him.' Attention deficit does not mean that attention is always bad.
Hyperactivity does not occur in every child.
As we said, this situation also causes problems with hyperactivity. Only 15% of children with ADHD have behavioral problems that can be described as hyperactivity. Hyperactivity is a symptom that is common in early childhood but gradually decreases. Therefore, the main symptoms considered when diagnosing ADHD are problems with attention and impulse control. Even the group diagnosed with ADHD is hypoactive. In other words, they are sluggish, slow-moving children who simply have attention problems. For this reason, hyperactivity is not the definitive finding to make a diagnosis.
They have good intelligence.
ADHD is a disease independent of intelligence. There is a belief that especially hyperactive children behave this way because of their high intelligence. A child diagnosed with ADHD may be gifted or have learning problems. Attention and executive skills can be defined as a separate skill, and intelligence can be defined as a separate skill. You can think of one as height and the other as weight. Not every tall child has to be overweight.
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