Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD for short, is a common word in most households these days. Learning more about the entire disorder may help parents to decipher when a busy child may actually have a problem.
ADHD is a neurological condition that causes problems for both adults and children. When diagnosed with this disorder the symptoms are those that have caused the person problems for at least six months straight.
Some signs that parents can watch for in a child include:
Inability to stop moving
For this to be a symptom the constant movement needs to occur in both the school and in the home.
The child is unorganized
Most small children are inevitably unorganized so this may be a hard thing to decipher from simple normal behavior.
The child does not appear to listen even when another person is speaking right to them
Again, small children often have this problem as they are exploring a new environment, but if more than one person tries to speak to the child and they still do not listen then it might be something to take note of.
The child is easily distracted
This means if the child is coloring a picture and they look up and see playing blocks they will instantly go to the blocks. For small children this is another normal problem.
Young children have many signs of the disorder known as ADHD as they are simply just trying to learn about the world around them. Most children do not display real signs of the disorder until they are in elementary school.
If a school aged child has problems listening to parents and teachers; problems with remaining seated when they know this is the expectation, loses things that they need all the time, and they seem to fidget or move around constantly then this is when the symptoms need to be talked about with a family physician.