According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, statistics show that nationwide, about 7.8 percent of school-age youth are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder (ADHD), and most studies put the number of diagnosed ADHD students somewhere between 5 and 9 percent.
“We all have, in our classrooms, all of us have at least a few kids who have ADHD and a Learning Disability (LD). It doesn’t matter what you teach or what level of content that you’re teaching, we all have these kids. These are hidden disabilities,” ADHD and LD expert Sandra Rief, M.A, said.
In part one of her three-part ADHD training series What Every Teacher Should Know About ADHD & LD Rief reviewed the definition and different types of ADHD, myths about the condition, problems associated with ADHD and how it affects different people.
Rief said there are several different types of ADHD and each type has a different symptom. The first type is students who has the characteristics of being inattentive, easily distracted, off-task and have a lack of focus.
People with the second type of ADHD are predominately hyperactive and impulsive. Those are the types of students who are diagnosed mostly in early childhood.
“When you’re a little kid, it’s not significant, because all little kids are inattentive,” Rief said.
The third type is a combined type of ADHD and has symptoms in all three areas: inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. ADD hyperactivity is very common among school aged children.
“That’s the most common type in childhood adolescence and adulthood,” Rief said.
ADHD adolescent children aren’t diagnosed because they are hyperactive. To be diagnosed in elementary school, the hyperactivity needs to be a proven impairment.
“It’s not that you just have the symptoms, but that they’re causing the student to have real trouble functioning, impairing their functioning, pervasively, in multiple environments,” Rief said.
Rief said ADHD is a neurobiological, brain-based disorder with under-activity in certain brain regions. ADHD is also an executive function disorder.
“Executive functions are the management functions of the brain. It’s like the CEO of your brain functioning, the overseers of your brain,” Rief said.
With every piece of research and every scientific study on ADHD and LD, there are also misconceptions and myths. Rief reviewed some of the major myths and explained the truth behind them.
“One myth is that ADHD is not even a real disorder. That is absolutely false. The facts are that ADHD has been recognized as a very significant, very impairing disorder by all of the major medical psychiatric, psychological and educational associations, not just in the United States, but worldwide,” Rief said.
“Another myth is that ADHD and LD is just a U.S. thing. We’re diagnosing all these kids right and left in the United States, but you don’t see this in other countries, which, again, is a falsehood. You see it everywhere,” Rief said.
Another myth is that ADHD adolescents will eventually outgrow the condition. Adult ADHD Diagnoses is quite common.
“Well, some do [outgrow ADHD]. But in most cases, in fact, about 80 percent of children who were diagnosed with ADHD, will still receive the diagnosis when they’re teens. About 67 percent of adults who had it as kids will have it as adults,” Rief said.
Rief said not all common beliefs about ADHD are false. She said there are very real problems that accompany the condition. ADHD and LD diagnosed students can have troubles academically, behavior issues, setting long-term goals and social problems.
“They tend to have some academic weaknesses besides not turning in their work. Written language is the most common academic area that’s problematic for so many kids with ADHD,” Rief said. “Kids with ADHD, it’s not that they don’t know the rules, but the nature of impulsivity, they often don’t follow the rules. They’re acting before they think and don’t follow the rules.”
Rief said that many ADHD and LD students have interpersonal difficulties.
“Certainly not all – many kids with ADHD are the most popular kids and have a ton of friends – any of these behaviors that I’m talking about today, nobody has all of them. Every student is going to be different,” Rief said.
Rief said problems associated with ADHD can also impact girls differently than boys.
“Many of the girls have what we refer to as internalizing symptoms, some of those stress-related symptoms that you might see or anxiety-related symptoms, such as biting their fingernails, chewing on their cuticles or tugging on their eyebrows or just wanting to vanish and melt into the back of the room,” Rief said. “But they aren’t bothering anybody. They never received any kind of treatment or support. “[When they get older] it’s not just ADHD, but they have ADHD plus anxiety disorder, or ADHD plus depression.”
“With girls, you’ll see more of the somatic complaints. They have to go to the nurse’s office [with] stomach aches and headaches. Girls often overcompensate. But girls, typically, experience very significant self-esteem issues if they’ve had this disorder all these years and it was never picked up,” Rief said.
Despite the mental and physical set-backs, Rief said that ADHD and LD students can be very successful academically and personally. Many children are ADHD gifted. ADHD training can help students succeed.
“I want you to be aware that there are a lot of gifted kids who have learning disabilities or ADHD or both, and they refer to kids who are gifted, plus have a disability of some type, as being twice as exceptional. With those students, it’s quite a challenge because their disability may mask the giftedness,” Rief said. “But it’s your belief in the kids. Those of you who really believe in the student’s success and see their strengths, and will try to nurture their strengths, it goes a long way.”
