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Psychoactive Disorder (ADHD)

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How is ADHD Diagnosed?
Background
When ADHD was first discovered, the language used to describe the symptoms of one with ADHD was somewhat judgmental. George Still was one of these people to describe ADHD in a potentially offensive way. According to (Chandler, 2010):
“George Still described 43 children who had a ‘moral defect in control.’ He continued with a rich description of over-activity, aggression, little inhibitory volition (impulsivity), and passion, but also resistance to punishment—a familiar set of behaviors to those who look after a youngster with ADHD” (p. 34).
Still’s identification of ADHD descriptions was only the beginning of understanding ADHD in the medical community. Further research discovered that the brain was the …show more content…
Successful people will sometimes tell about how their excessive energy is a large source of their work ethic. When used for the right purposes, high energy becomes one of the strengths of ADHD. The strength of focus is typically paired with a passion in specific things. If a child has a high interest in the task they are doing, they will give their undivided attention to the specific task. Being able to lose oneself in a task is important for the discipline of solving problems, being creative and accomplishing work. Another positive characteristic of ADHD is multitasking. Being able to focus on several activities at once can often lead to people with ADHD holding leadership positions (Reynolds, Vannest, & Harrison, …show more content…
These three categories each have negative effects on the behaviors of a child with ADHD. A child’s day-to-day lifestyle can also be negatively influenced by ADHD (Reynolds, Vannest, & Harrison, 2012). Inattention.
Inattention causes a child to have a hard time focusing because they can be easily distracted (Reynolds, Vannest, & Harrison, 2012). If an infant were to hear a sound, it would turn toward the sound, which is the initiation of attention. Reynolds, Vannest and Harrison (2012) state: “The concept of attention has three components in addition to initiation: sustaining attention, inhibiting responses to distractions and shifting attention” (p. 32). A child can have difficulties with any of these four categories of attention (Reynolds, Vannest, & Harrison, 2012).
Sustaining attention is when one can focus on a particular task for an extensive amount of time (Reynolds, Vannest, & Harrison, 2012). Attention bias occurs when one has a preference to pay attention to certain tasks and activities. This can become a problem because one can become distracted with another activity aside from the important task at hand (Reynolds, Vannest, & Harrison,

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