ADD

9 Pages 2315 Words

hich psychiatrists have been looking into since the 1940's. Serious studies were not started until the 1980's and then "within the past several years, medical researchers have begun to clarify its symptoms and causes and have found that it may have a genetic underpinning. Today's view of the basis of the condition is strikingly different from that of just a few years ago. We are finding that ADHD and ADD is not a disorder of
attention, as had long been assumed, rather it arises as a developmental failure in the brain circuitry that underlies inhibition and self-control. This loss of self-control in turn impairs other important brain functions crucial for maintaining attention, including the ability to defer immediate rewards for later, greater gain." (Barkley).Young children are most often diagnosed with ADHD in there early years of development. Russell A. Barkley is a doctor who diagnosed his young patient Keith with ADHD. Here is how Keith was acting before Russell Barkley saw him. "As I watched five-year-old Keith in the waiting room of my office, I could see why his parents said he was having such a tough time in kindergarten. He hopped from chair to chair, swinging his arms and legs restlessly, and then began to fiddle with the light switches, turning the lights on and off again to everyone's annoyance-all the while talking nonstop. When his mother encouraged him to join a group of other children busy in the playroom, Keith butted into a game that was already in progress and took over, causing the other children to complain
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of his bossiness and drift away to other activities. Even when Keith had the toys to himself, he fidgeted aimlessly with them and seemed unable to entertain himself quietly.
Once I examined him more fully, my initial suspicions were confirmed: Keith had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)." There are no known cures for ADHD. There are ways to help control it to ...