Symptoms and Myths About Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and How to Spot Them in Children

Children generally tend to be fairly over active and have lesser attention spans. However, when this tends to get into their performance at school and in general with getting along with other children it may be a sign of ADD or attention deficit disorder. Let's look at some of the common symptoms of this disorder.

Symptoms of ADD:

1. Problems in staying focused: One of the very basic symptom is that children will often be very inattentive even during classes and will be easily distracted by small things.
2. Problems in trying to remember things or difficulty in following instructions: Children with attention deficit disorder tend to have issues with remembering things and if given tasks, being unable to complete as they can't remember instructions properly.
3. Issues with organizing, planning and trying to finish tasks: Due to the lack of attention, kids have problems retaining information and cannot plan or finish tasks given to them on a daily basis.
4. Easily bored or loses interest: Even if a child with ADD starts with something they like, interest may wane off quickly. Thus it is difficult to make them stick to a specific work schedule which may require regular practice.
5. Lack of attention to details and making careless mistakes: This is another trait of children with attention deficit disorder. They may be able to complete a task, but it will be fraught with mistakes as they wouldn't have much attention to detail.
6. Has a tendency to not listen when someone is speaking to them: This is also very common and is usually tied to being easily distracted and thus will drift off or not listen to when someone is speaking to them.

Some Myths about ADD:

• All kids with ADD are hyperactive
• They will eventually grow out of it
• Medication is the only option to treat ADD
• ADD is not really a disorder and kids need to be trained better

Most of these are half truths and the extent of the problems varies from child to child. Only proper counseling will be able to diagnose the extent of the problem and what needs to be done.

How to spot ADD in Children:

ADD can be spotted in children aged below 7 years via certain symptoms. Apart from the ones mentioned above, children generally tend be abrasive towards others and can make embarrassing comments quite often. They also change tasks very quickly without completing any of them. Any distraction would force them to change their track. It is best to go to a child specialist to get your child checked out for possible symptoms.