Attention Deficit Disorder

Overview
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is often thought of as a mental condition marked by hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsiveness. Although the connotations of these descriptive words may be similar, each characteristic has its own definition and is considered a separate symptom of the disorder.

The statistics vary with each study, but approximately three to five percent of America’s youth are affected by ADHD. That is about two million in the U.S. alone that were once merely considered “active“ children. The number can’t be know exactly, even with modern science, because many mild forms go unidentified. Projected into a classroom setting, chances are that in a typical class of 25-30 students one child will have the disorder, making it more popular than one may think, and certainly popular enough to receive great attention from parents, students, and the community (Strock, 2003).

Hyperactivity, or a child considered to be “hyper” is when a child is observed being restless, and is constantly found in motion. Impulsivity occurs when the child’s actions are a result of almost involuntary tics that are done over and over again. Inattention is more of a result of the previous two symptoms, and occurs when the child is easily distracted, and has difficulty completing particular activities (Strock, 2003).

The causes of ADHD are uncertain, although most psychologists agree that it is at least partly environmentally attributed. There are some indications that drugs, and alcohol and some foods play a part in its development. Brain trauma is another factor. However, the largest influence of ADHD is the contribution of genetics. It has been found that 25 percent of affected ADHD patients, especially children, have a history of hyperactivity in their family (Margaret, 2003).

The part of the brain scientists have found to be the home base of ADHD behavior is in the frontal lobes of the cerebrum. Our planning and problem solving section of the brain is the root of this hyperactive behavior is thinner in children than in adults, which might be the reason children develop a propensity to “grow out” of these behavior patterns during adolescence. Since it is a disorder commonly found at an early age among infants and children, the ADHD studies that yielded these results tested 152 boys and girls and found that the ADHD children showed 3-4 percent smaller volumes in four regions of the brain—the frontal lobes, temporal gray matter, caudate nucleus, and cerebellum. The NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch researchers attributed this decrease in brain size to one of the paramount causes of the disorder (Strock, 2006).

Accompanied by ADHD are usually at least one of several disorders - learning disabilities, tourette syndrome, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, anxiety depression, and bipolar disorder. Each has its own distinct characteristics.

Specific learning disabilities can result in a misunderstanding of certain sounds or words or difficulty in expressing oneself in writing. Oftentimes reading comprehension and arithmetic difficulties may be present. Specific learning disabilities affect approximately 20-30 percent of ADHD children.

Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder that has more serious social ramifications, but only affects a small percentage of ADHD patients. This disorder is marked by various nervous tics and repetitive mannerisms like blinking, making noises, and swearing.
Many, if not most, children with ADHD are oppositionally defiant, meaning they have tendencies to be complaining, stubborn children and are prone to outbursts of temper, often opposing adult instruction or instruction of their superiors. Closely related is conduct disorder, which may take a more aggressive form and is indicated with fighting and other violence, sometimes criminal in nature.

Unfortunately, many ADHD victims suffers anxiety and depression, sometimes taking the form of bipolar disorder, making it increasingly difficult to overcome the problematic, aforementioned characteristics that accompany ADHD.

ADHD in Children
Children with ADHD often have problems that make it difficult to overcome in teaching them, on the part of the teacher. These problems need to be dealt with realizing that they might reappear again as part of the learning disability, and need adapted curriculum and instruction specific to each child’s needs. Students often exhibit off-task behavior, disorganization, inaccuracy, inconsistency, time-management problems. Most of these problems surface in the childhood years and continue throughout the middle school and high school years. Accompanied by other complex problems in the maturing of a student into adulthood, these problem tendencies and behaviors, as well as inabilities, can become more extreme. They can cause the student to fail miserably if not monitored and dealt with appropriately by a team effort between the parents and teachers. Therefore a proper education program must be instilled by the team in including accommodations, modifications, and other services that make up an IEP (Fowler, 2004, p. 15).
For children with ADHD, there can be a number of combinations utilized to make a successful student. The author suggests a few. I will explore each of them in turn.

Good students are the result of good teaching. And good teaching is the result of supportive teachers. Selecting a teacher who is positive, patient, praising, and a good problem-solver can be of utmost importance to the quality of a student’s education (Fowler, 2004, p. 17).

Adapted curriculum and instruction is important too. One-on-one attention and guided instruction ensure individualization in an IEP. Actively designed instruction can work well, while lecturing can be burdensome and too repetitious. The teacher also needs to find the right combination of challenge, making sure not to make the workload overwhelming so that the student gives up (Fowler, 2004, p. 18).

Providing supports to promote on-task behavior is a third effort. “Study buddies” and peer-tutoring ensures that students will learn from each other, instead of constantly having to have instruction from an adult. This may also help social skills, a very important facet of a disabled child’s educational agenda.

Frequent breaks and changes in the daily activities make the class less monotonous and help kids focus and keep on task. Perhaps a timer can help control the disparity in those breaks and changes. This tactic can be especially useful in an elementary setting, where time management needs to be synchronized with explanation of specific tasks and their step-by-step direction.
Maintaining constant communication with parents is important in maintenance and getting the education process to spill over into the after school hours. Care needs to be taken, however, that not only the negative be communicated. Praise of students helps motivate the student as well as the parent.

Teachers should enforce abilities to help children take care of themselves. Support planning keeps consistency in the student’s daily habits, and increases organization. Improvements in follow-through and self-control are very important as well, and might be taught via a rules display, behavior prompts, or late work acceptance.

Another important function in learning is memory, and memory boosters can be extremely helpful to assist with working memory (i.e. writing all work down on paper) and memory retrieval (i.e. summarizing key information).

Especially in elementary school, attention getters and attention keepers can work for problems beginning tasks and problems sticking with tasks at hand. Repeating directions and shortening tasks are two examples that have proven true.

ADHD in the Gifted
ADHD is not only stricken to children with under average intelligence. In fact a great deal of students are gifted mentally. Studies have found that identified, gifted ADHD children are more impaired than other ADHD children (Neihart, 2003). Many cases show these children with behavior disorders. It is unfortunate to see the injustice of potential greatness among children at high levels because teachers may focus on the disruptive behaviors of gifted ADHD students without recognizing the gift of supreme mental ability. What’s more, those students that are gifted but not identified as such, or only identified as ADHD with learning disabilities are the victims of developing learned helplessness, a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy gained through incessant underachievement, or perceived underachievement on the part of their instructors.

According to Neihart (2003), ADHD comes in three subtypes: predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive/impulsive, and a combination of the two. These classifications could be shown to have a distinct impact on the way giftedness is handled.

ADHD and Higher Education
When the ADHD students, either identified or not, have made it as far as high school graduation, many may try taking the next step and consider college. According to Lynda L. West, the students need to understand their own abilities and “guide their own transition planning by looking at various postsecondary options” (West and Taymans, 2001). Like finding the right mate in life, finding the right college can be an important step that needs an abundance of consideration of weighing pros and cons before an educated decision can be made on the various options offered.

The planning begins, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), once the student enters high school. A separate section of the child’s IEP deals specifically with the child’s future education plans, and may change often through the secondary years.

There are various types of colleges to consider: public community colleges, two-year colleges, four-year universities, private junior colleges, graduate and professional schools, and various programs within each entity. The key idea for the student is to surround themselves where they will be most happy and have the most success. Many of these decisions can be made through common sense without thought of particular colleges, but once these more general decisions are made students can look to specific attributes of their chosen institution for higher education. Orientation programs, meeting professors, internet research, and class audits can all help the student made the most prudent decision.

The grades expressing the child's ability are almost a non-factor when considering college, as anyone with a disability may pursue a college career despite struggling academically in high school (West and Taymans, 2001).

Some strategies West discusses can be useful to both disabled and non-disabled students. Learning the campus can help a disabled student get off on the right foot and not get disgruntled before they have a chance to prove themselves. Just as important as assertiveness in successful coursework is assertiveness in getting the right combination of accommodations. They might also take courses purely to strengthen their social skills, study skills, learning strategies, and communication skills. The main point is to recognize the strengths, needs, and support areas offered to ensure the best quality education and the most chance of success.

An understanding of the student’s legal rights is also a factor. They must realize that they are not entitled to the same rights granted by the government while in public schools (West and Taymans, 2001). However, some consistencies in law remain through college. The American with Disabilities Act ensures no discrimination of disabled students when applying for college, for instance.

ADHD in Adulthood
Although it is commonly a childhood disorder, ADHD often resorts to hiding in adulthood, and data from studies show that one to two thirds of ADHD children retain symptoms throughout adult life. Hyperactivity declines with age, but attention-retaining problems remain constant, and executive functioning problems develop further over time.

There are two kinds of ADHD adults: the hidden, or those who were never diagnosed, or identified, and those diagnosed as children but never able to fully overcome symptoms. As an adult the learning disabilities become more apparent and more pronounced (Wolf et.al, 2001). Also, there is often a fear of shame or burden of denial among adults with understood social norms that can interfere with getting help.

Because of the quick-evolving nature of our understanding of the disorder, many adults have grown old with the condition thinking it is classified as one thing and then learning later on it is another. This fickle certainty of their diagnosis makes it difficult to cope and deal with. New terms and changes in the denotations used to classify the disorder constantly shift focus of the affected (West et al, 2001). From MBD to hyperactivity, to ADD to ADHD, to LD, someone diagnosed in the late 60s or early 70s, for example, will be lost in the translation.

There are several problems conducive of adults with ADHD but not generally considered to be all inclusive of ADHD adults. That is, one doesn’t need to suffer these problems to have ADHD, nor does everyone with ADHD have these problems. There include, but are not limited to, substance abuse and antisocial (sometimes criminal) behavior. Independent adaptive functioning is a popular complaint of therapy-receiving adults. Sometimes parents, teachers, and society in general cannot fulfill the same role as adults that they set for their children.

Concluding Thoughts
This paper has taken us through the gauntlet of the spectrum of difficulties, causes, and solutions of an ADHD victim, from when the disorder is typically found - in childhood - to adulthood. Although the causes are uncertain, they usually stem from some combination of environmental influence and genetic dispositions.

As students, ADHD students suffer from an inability to express their true colors without the burden of having to practice well-tested and measurable tactics to overcome their disability. At the discovery of a disorder, the layman may simply ask “what can we do to fix it?” In contemporary America, the common layman would conclude that drugs would answer the question, and given the scientific proof of their assessment, they would be right. However, it would be sinful to mass prescribe a quick-fix method to a problem that isn’t naturally quickly fixed. It would further be shameful to stifle the potential greatness of gifted people with who are not given the chance to use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses. A learning disability is not a disease, and a mental disorder is not a broken record; both are fixable and neither are hopeless.

If we would attribute a name to this paper, a name of an actual ADHD individual at a certain level of disability with, and focused on that individual, following him or her throughout life, we would have a colorful picture of a specific case, as opposed to a broad feeling, a template, of how the disorder works and it dealt with. Taken further, a host of different names would present different papers altogether, but all cases would instill in the reader a consistent, overarching feeling: having a disorder like ADHD is an unfortunate characteristic, and it takes a community to help an individual overcome it.


Works Cited
Fowler, Mary. “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Briefing Paper” (2004). National Dissemination Center for Children With Disabilities. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from
http://www.cec.sped.org/AM

Neihart, Maureen. “Gifted Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)” (2003). Retrieved May 20, 2006 from
http://www.cec.sped.org/AM

Strock, Margaret. “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (2003). National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from
http://www.nimh.nih.gov

West, Lynda and Juliana Taymans “Selecting A College for Students with Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)” (2001). Retrieved May 20, 2006 from
http://www.cec.sped.org/AM

Wolf, Lorraine, Jeanette Wasserstein, and Alder Wasserstein. “Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)” (2001). Retrieved May 20, 2006 from
http://www.cec.sped.org/AM