ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVE DISORDER AND DYSPRAXIA

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD)¹ is a brain disorder that affects how people pay attention, sit still and control their behaviour. It affects children and teens and can continue into adulthood.
ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder in children. Boys are more likely to have it than girls. It is usually discovered during the early school years, when a child begins to have problems paying attention. ²
ADHD cannot be prevented or cured, but a good treatment and education plan can help to manage the symptoms.

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WARM UP

Do you thlnk that hyperactive students can be successful at school?

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DO

¹ Watch a video summaryof ADHD - ADHD in Children posted by healthery

² Do you ever have problems paying attention in
class? Which situations make it harder for you to concentrate?

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ADHD symptoms in children

The symptoms can be grouped into three categories:

• lack of attention such as being easily distracted, not following directions or finishing tasks, not paying attention and making careless mistakes, having difficulty organising daily tasks, often losing things, daydreaming, not sitting still;
• hyperactivity and impulsiveness such as not staying seated, playing noisily, talking excessively, not waiting one’s turn, interrupting others;
• a combination of the two previous categories.

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Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia, or developmental coordination disorder (DCD), is a neurological disorder that impacts an individual’s ability to plan and process motor tasks.
Individuals with dyspraxia often have language problems, and sometimes a degree of difficulty with thought and perception. Dyspraxia, however, does not affect the person’s intelligence, although it can cause learning problems in children.
It is an immaturity of the organisation of movement. The brain does not process information in a way that allows a full transmission of neural messages.

Main symptoms of dyspraxia

The main symptoms of dyspraxia are: poor balance and posture, fatigue, clumsiness, perception problems and poor hand-eye coordination.¹
Children never go through the crawling stage and take longer to walk and to be potty trained. They find it hard to make sounds or repeat sequences of words, have a limited vocabulary and use fewer words with more pauses.

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MORE

¹ Some examples of hand-eye coordinati on include: grasping objects, catching and throwing a bali, piaying an instrument while reading music, reading and writing, or playing a video game.

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