Children with mental disorders
Josaphat Uwihanganye
Lisa Millelire
Developmental Psychology
November 2017
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder that causes children to lack concentration and/or to seat still.(Berger & Chuang, 2014, p.277) It is far from being the most threatening or deadliest disorder out there, but it is in fact one of the most common disorders diagnosed in children and adults. It is a lifelong condition. Kids with this condition need special care, assistance and attention because of the difficulty they have to concentrate on given tasks which results in academic failure. Disorders are said to be comorbid with one another when they coexist together, meaning that one person have two or more disorders at the same time. Some illnesses are more likely to be comorbid with one another than others. Multifinality refers to people with different developmental outcomes despite of having very similar upbringings or background stories. On the other hand, equifinality is the concept by which various unrelated early life experiences can lead to the same type of disorder later on in life. (NIMH,ADHD,2016)
ADHD symptoms can appear as early as between the age of 3 to 6 and they might change over time as the person gets older. There are three categories of symptoms of ADHD: inattention, impulsivity and distractibility. (NIMH, ADHD, 2016) Impulsivity is the prime symptom in young children with ADHD. These children are hyperactive, they move constantly from place to place, they have trouble sitting still and performing quiet activities and talk continuously. These symptoms can be overlooked at or mistaken for normal disciplinary problems which causes a delay in diagnosis. In some cases it might be just emotional or disciplinary issues, which is why in order to get a diagnosis of the disorder the child has to show signs for at least six months. (NIMH, ADHD,2016)
Inattention and distractibility become more prominent as the child reaches elementary school. Having trouble learning new things, struggle to get organised, forgetting things, always day dreaming, are some of the signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. About 5% of Canadian children (4-17 year old) have been diagnosed with ADHD according to a survey by Statistics Canada in 2014. Boys are more probable to have e...
