One of the phrases that grates on me the most is, “if you would only,” when it comes to parenting children with disorders, particularly. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders in the United States, so there are no lack of opinions on how to “fix” it. Healthline’s article, “ADHD by the Numbers: Facts, Statistics, and You,” says that as of September 2014, there were 6.4 million American children, ages 4-17, who have been diagnosed with ADHD.
A lot of people are theorizing why there’s been such a rise in the numbers within the last few decades. While I personally believe the numbers reflect multiple modern diet, exercise, education, and lifestyle trends, I’m not going to get into that today. As an educator, my job isn’t to research the scientific reasons for children’s struggle; my job is to address them here and now. And believe me, that’s enough of a job on its own.
Addressing ADHD is rarely an easy task. ADHD doesn’t mean a child is “bad,” but it does mean his problems will be unique to him. While there are symptoms that flag ADHD, such as the inability to focus on one thing at a time, emotional regulation struggles, sudden outbursts, and problems with executive function, no two children have the exact same version of the disorder. Unlike treating the flu, ADHD is complex because the brain is complex.
WebMD’s article, “Types of ADHD: Making the Diagnosis,” discusses the different kinds of ADHD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the American Psychiatric Association has grouped ADHD types into three main groups:
- Combined – The child struggles with both hyperactivity and inattention
- Predominantly Inattentive – The child struggles most with the inability to focus on one thing at a time (commonly known as ADD: Attention Deficit Disorder)
- Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive – The child struggles most with hyperactivity and impulsiveness, but not as much with the inattentive portion.
The DSM has at least 9 symptoms for the part of the disorder dealing with inattention and 9 more for the part dealing with hyperactivity and impulsiveness. In order for the child to qualify for at that portion of the disorder, she needs to qualify for at least 6 out of the 9 symptoms.
Understandably, this means there are many children who might have 5 out of the 9, which by no means, indicates that they don’t struggle. They just don’t struggle enough for the DSM’s diagnostic requirements. If you do the math, this means there are countless versions of ADHD that can occur. And of course, this is all theoretical because it doesn’t bring into account environmental factors either, such birth complications, a stressful or abusive home environment, food accessibility, or the presence of other comorbid disorders.