Throughout the United States Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, has become a
common diagnosis among children and adolescents. Any hyper, out of control child in the classroom
may be perceived as having ADHD and many more are being medicated for this disorder each day.
Some people even wonder if ADHD has been created by society to preserve a natural order and
compliance. Aside from parents, teachers are good resources for observing ADHD traits in children that
they teach on a daily basis. Kids go through bouts of hyperactivity and disobedience in school, but at a
certain point this behavior may distract other students away from learning. Teachers should be
counseled on how to interact with and teach an ADHD child in order to give that child an ultimate
learning experience.
At some point in their lives, approximately 4.6 million children in the United States aged 5-17 years
are diagnosed with some form of ADHD. More than half of these children are put on medications to
control the disorder. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the consumption of Ritalin, the main drug used to treat
ADHD, in the United States is “6 times greater than that of Australia, eight times greater than that of
Spain, and 18 times greater than that of Chile”(Parens). Even preschoolers are treated with stimulants
for hyperactivity disorders. Teachers usually are the first to notice that a child has a problem, although
“more than one third of them believe that sugar is a cause of ADHD” (Ghanizadeh and Zarej). After a
teacher brings up the possibility of a learning disorder in a child, the parents will usually bring their child
to a physician for further evaluation. However, school psychologists will ofte...
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...yperresponsiveness to Social Rewards in Children and Adolescents with
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Martin, Grant. The Hyperactive Child. Colorado Springs: SP Publications, Inc., 1992. Print.
Parens, Erik and Josephine Johnston. “Facts, Values, and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD): an Update on the Controversies.” Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
and Mental Health. 2.1 (2009): 1. Directory of Open Access Journals. Web. 4 May 2010.
Quinn, Patricia O. Attention Deficit Disorder: Diagnosis and Treatment from Infancy to
Adulthood. Bristol, PA: Brunner/Mazel, Inc., 1997. Print.
Weiss, Gabrielle and Lily Trokenberg Hechtman. Hyperactive Children Grown Up: ADHD in
Children, Adolescents, and Adults. New York: The Guilford Press, 1986. Print.