Parents and teachers typically describe hyperactive children with the following sentences.
“Very active, cannot sit in one place for long periods of time. He is too interested in his surroundings in the classroom, does not listen to the lesson, frequently gets up from his seat, and speaks without permission. He acts without thinking
, gets upset after doing it and apologizes.” This definition only describes
the tip of the iceberg. In reality, there are many things that accompany these symptoms.
This definition changes when viewed from a broader perspective. “We are at the point of
exhaustion. We experience a problem every day, every minute. We leave the house fighting
. It's a problem for him to do his homework when he gets home; he can't complete it without our guidance and help. While he is helping, an argument breaks out. Nothing we implemented, rewards or punishments, worked. He never thinks about the consequences of his actions.
His relations with his environment are not good. When he doesn't get what he wants, he gets very angry and reacts immediately. So I started yelling and even hitting him frequently. Our relationship is gradually deteriorating."
A mother, a successful musician, described her son, who had serious problems at school, as follows: "His brain is like an orchestra full of
talented artists but without a conductor. Different musicians play their own melodies without paying attention to the result. There is no harmony, no melody can turn into a live piece of music. My son has no trouble coming up with bright
ideas, but there is nothing he can complete. Especially
school related matters.” This mother's analogy is very apt. The different
systems in the brain are like parts of an orchestra. A talented orchestra conductor is required for these pieces to work in harmony
. This task is attention, which is also defined as executive functions
in the human brain. It is the task of the system.
A child whose attention system works well can pay attention to what is taught in the classroom. He impulsively
tries to solve the math problem instead of doing what comes to his mind.
There is no problem in his learning, productivity and behavior. If this system does not work adequately, it causes serious problems both in the learning process and in daily life. is that it cannot be prevented. Thus, he/she abandons the task on which he/she is currently concentrating
and turns to something else, which is considered as a distraction
from the outside. What is usually left unfinished is a task that does not interest the person and is boring
. In fact, everyone who is dealing with a boring task feels the desire to leave it unfinished and move on to something more interesting
. While people with sufficient behavioral control can prevent these desires, individuals with attention deficit cannot. On the contrary,
that is, when they are dealing with something that interests them very much, they can maintain their attention for a very long time
because they do not feel the desire to do anything else at that time. 10 minutes. ”
People with attention deficit lose their interest much faster
than normal individuals, they get bored quickly and immediately look for something more interesting.
While they are talking to you, they are pulling your hair. , they examine you or your room.
In this way, they can quickly notice small details that do not attract the attention of others.
This causes these individuals to be mistakenly described as “too careful”
. However, dealing with many things at the same time is a single task. It is something that makes it difficult to
concentrate on something. While they are examining those above you, they miss a part of your conversation.
“In class, I constantly catch myself looking around, either at his friend who is sharpening a pencil or at the pictures on the wall.”
An important function of attention is stimuli. To choose between is to be able to separate what is important and necessary
from what is unimportant. In order to concentrate on the subject taught in the lesson, it is necessary to eliminate unnecessary
stimuli such as the quiet buzz of the fluorescent lamp and the teacher's lilac pantyhose. > This is partly because they have difficulty falling and staying asleep at night.
This is called sleep-arousal imbalance. But it is more interpreted as "being bored in class". For these children, doing something new or moving awakens them.
Inconsistency is one of the most important symptoms of attention deficit. They can get the highest score in the exam of the same course one day and give a blank paper the other day. This
inconsistency in their performance causes both surprise and unfair accusations. Parents or
teachers “We know you can do it, you can do it if you put your mind to it.” They start saying
For these children, doing something well is evidence that can be used against them forever. When they cannot do well, they are accused of not making enough effort or being lazy.
Hyperactivity manifests itself with symptoms such as not being able to sit still for a long time, fidgeting while sitting, being on the move most of the time, and talking too much. In studies examining hyperactive children, movements such as hand-arm waving, leg swinging, fidgeting, and wandering around the room were found to be normal. It has been found that they show 2-8 times more
than children. There is a lot of activity even during sleep. Talking too much is also
a common symptom of hyperactivity. Their speaking style is generally disorganized, jumping from topic to topic, or constantly asking questions. Mostly
they do not listen to the answer to the question they ask.
The main reason for impulsivity is that the system that provides the time required to think
before doing something does not work well. That means they don't have brakes. For this reason, they immediately do whatever comes to their mind
only after doing it can they see whether it is suitable or not. They have difficulty in regulating and
directing their behavior according to the environment and its consequences. Because there is a problem with their
centers that tell them to "stop" in order to do all this.
“He does the first thing that comes to his mind, and this thing is usually not right. That's why he often gets into trouble. They know the rules, they can explain them appropriately if you ask, but they may break that rule again because they act without thinking. This situation makes both parents and teachers even more angry. These behaviors are described as behaviors that are done on purpose or because the rules are ignored, and they are handled with more ruthless methods. Disorganization is one of the most common symptoms. The main reason for disorganization is not paying enough attention to that task or thinking about other things while doing something
. For example, when the child goes to the kitchen, he/she has a pencil in his/her hand, leaves the pencil in the kitchen, takes the glass
and leaves it in the room. While doing all this, he doesn't remember anything else until
he thinks about other things. female Another reason is not being regular. Since these people cannot be planned and organized, this disorganization is reflected in all areas of life. He either does not remember something that needs to be taken to school or an assignment that needs to be done, or he says it at the last minute.
Writing is a very difficult task for children with
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In order to properly put thoughts on paper, it is necessary to slow down, make a plan, organize the thoughts and meanwhile pay attention to many details such as punctuation, spelling and grammar rules. Writing is one of the largest orchestras a child's brain can
conduct, and without a well-functioning conductor
success cannot be achieved.
Although children with ADHD are very sensitive and long to be accepted
by others. They experience difficulties in social relationships. Problems arise in interpersonal
relationships because they misinterpret
social cues, do things without thinking about the consequences of what they will do, and say what they say without thinking about how it will affect the other person.
School failures, family and friends. These children lose their self-respect and self-confidence over time due to reasons such as poor relationships, constant stimulation and criticism. They assume the identity of "naughty, unsuccessful, unwanted person" and consider themselves as bad people. Then, they may begin to show behaviors
consistent with this identity. Complaints that indicate low self-confidence, such as giving up quickly in the face of failures and not trying, begin. They think they are unloved because they frequently receive criticism and negative feedback from those around them. They are very sensitive to criticism and do not react at the slightest They may respond to the big person with extreme anger.
What is the Main Problem in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
If you step on a snake, it will bite you. The snake does not think before doing this. That is,
thoughts such as "Should I sting this person or not, what did I do when someone stepped on me before, what was the result, what will be the result if I sting this person?"
never crosses his mind. There is no control. However, there is a system in the human brain that allows you to stop and think before doing anything. This system allows
to plan behaviors by using past experiences, foreseeing the future, and thus being able to stop the response for a while. The ability to stop and think
before reacting to any event is one of the most important features that distinguish humans from other species.
Before doing something that comes to our mind, we can decide whether it is appropriate or not. First we need to pause our response for a certain period of time. This
process can sometimes take a few seconds and sometimes days, and it is an active process, not a passive one. The good functioning of this
system is possible when more than one center operates
harmoniously. Individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have problems
in this system. The system that allows them to pause for as long as it takes to think
before doing something does not work well. So it has no brakes. For this reason,
they immediately do whatever comes to their mind, only after they do it can they see whether it is appropriate
or not.
How do we control our behavior?
The first step in controlling behavior is to stop before doing that action
/> that is, pressing the brakes. We make decisions by going through certain stages
during the time we press the brakes. These stages and the stages of these stages in individuals with ADHD How it works
will be explained below:
Self-talk: We talk to ourselves while doing something and reviewing whether it is appropriate
or not. We do this automatically and internally,
we don't even realize we are doing it. This feature is again only found in humans.
While other species use their languages only to communicate with others, humans also use their languages to communicate with themselves. person's
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