A.D.H.

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate April 2001

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

A.D.H.D.

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder also known as A.D.H.D. is thought to be a disease. There are no clinical tests such as imaging or lab work to diagnose this condition. If a child is very active, not able to sit still or listen and follow directions, or maybe daydreams this is a potential for A.D.H.D. There is a lot of controversy surrounding this issue. One is the labeling of a child for life, the other is the mind altering drugs a child has to be put on.

A.D.H.D. is said to be a psychological disease, however, there are reputable physicians who worry these behavior tendencies will increase the improper diagnosis of other wise normal behaviors in children. When the doctor is going to make a diagnosis on a child, he/she is looking for misbehavior such as inatentiveness, distractibility, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, aggressiveness, or inability to persist on a task. The doctor then needs to monitor the child both at home and at school for 6 months or more if preferred, however, any doctor can make the diagnosis with only one visit, and begin a child on Ritilin or another psycostimulant drug.

As adults we can probably all remember the character Dennis the Menace, or more recently the child in the Home Alone movie. Under our current standards for diagnosis, would they also be candidates for Ritilin.

Careful consideration should be taken before diagnosing a child with A.D.H.D. The doctor should look at the child's homelife to see if the child is in an abusive home of an alcohol or drug addicted parent or if the parents are divorced.

There was a parent in one of my Head Start classrooms who had 2 children in our program. One of her children was diagnosed with A.D.H.D.

and on Ritilin. The mother requested that...