Diagnosed by Teachers and Parents identification of various behaviours and discussed with a Physician.

A1)    Six(or more) of the following symptoms of inattention have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:

B)      Some hyperactive-Impulsive or inattentive symptoms that caused impairment were present before 7 years of age.

C.      Some impairment from the symptoms is present in 2 or more settings (eg, at school [or work] or at home).

D.       There must be clear evidence of clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning.

E.      The symptoms do not occur exclusively during the course of a pervasive developmental disorder, schizophrenia, or other psychotic disorder and are not better accounted for by another mental disorder (eg, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, dissociative disorder, or personality disorder).

(AAP,2000)

“The precise causes of ADHD are unknown …”(Barkley, 1997p.29)

In 2000 the US National Institutes of Health released a consensus statement about ADHD “...raises questions concerning the literal existence of the disorder, [and] whether it can be reliably diagnosed” (Halasz & Vance, 2002 p.554)

Some theories of causation include:

*Executive Function Deficits (Barkley, 1997)

*Attachment theories (Barkley, 1997)

*Genetic causes(Hay & Levy, 2001)

Possibly:

Minimal Hearing Loss and/or difficulty hearing against background noise in classrooms with poor signal to noise ratio’s(Harris, 1996, Meyer, 2003)

TREATMENTS include:

*Drugs (Rey et al., 2000)

*Behavioural

  training(Sawyer et al., 2002)

Inattention

1)       Six(or more) of the following symptoms of inattention have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:

a)       Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities

b)       Often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities

c)       Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly

d)       Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behaviour or failure to understand instructions

e)       Often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities

f)        Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework)

g)       Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g. toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools)

h)       Is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli

i)         Is often forgetful in daily activities

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4^th Ed. (DSM-IV), 1994. American Psychiatric Association.  (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000)

Include:

Classroom Acoustics analysed and improved by :

Teachers voice signal to noise ratio enhanced to at least +15 dB (ASHA,1995, Harris, 1996, Meyer, 2003)

Reverberation reduced to no greater than .0.4 s-0.6(Finitzo-Hiever & Tillman, 1978).

Ambient noise level should be no higher than 35 dBA (Smaldino & Crandell, 1995).

Installation of an FM sound-field amplification system to help achieve the above requirements e.g.(Crandell & Smaldino, 1995, Flexer, 1995, Palmer, 1997)

Possibly the use of Neural retraining may help – e.g. FastForWord (Scientific Learning Corporation)

Earobics (Cognitive Concepts, 2002) OR

Sound Therapy (Pittelkow, 2001)

Perhaps the following general “good teaching” strategies may also help:

  gaining attention;  short sentences ; eye contact;  pause between sentences; restate simply ; monitor child and repeat when necessary ; establish hearing, listening and compliance rules (Rowe & Rowe, 2000)

Tips for teaching Boys include:

Highly structured lessons;

Greater emphasis on teacher-directed work in preference to group work...(Rowe & Rowe, 2002 p.18)

Recommendations need to be specific to the particular child’s deficits and needs. 

See www.thedaviscenter.com for further information on various therapies

See also http://add.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa012702a.htm

and www.phonicear.com