Adhd Diagnosis
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) is much more prevalent in today's society
compared to previous generations. More and more people are being diagnosed at an alarming
rate. To our surprise, I learned this disorder does not only affect children. There are many adults
who suffer from it also. ADHD characteristics are neuro-biologically based, and they often
change as the individual gets older. One does not out-grow ADHD even though the behaviors, or
symptoms may not be exhibited in the same manner or with the same intensity. After learning
this fact, I thought it would be very interesting to see how this disorder affects both children and
college students. Therefore, I choose one journal article which relates ADHD to children, and the
other which deals with the effects of ADHD on college students.
The first journal article I researched, "An Intervention Approach for Children with
Teacher and Parent Identified Attentional Difficulties," explained that inattention, impulsivity,
distractibility, and restlessness are all signs of a child with an attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder. "There are three subtypes of ADHD which have been defined by the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as: predominantly inattentive, predominately hyperactive
impulsive, and combined" (Semrud-Clekeman, Nielsen, Clinton, Sylvester, Parle, and Connor,
1999). Usually children who exhibit these subtypes have difficulty completing assignments,
displaying high qualities of work, and maintaining good behaviors. Children with the
hyperactivity-impulsivity subtype do not display significant attentional problems, though they are
identified as young as pre-schoolers. However, symptoms of inattention don't typically emerge
until the later ages, which must be why the predominately inattentive and combined subtypes of
ADHD have been found in older school-age children.
These children who have been identified as having ADHD, show an inability to
use effective...
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