CHILDREN
What does an Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), Tourettes, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder OCD), Conduct Disorder
(CD) look like?
We have put these disorders together as they share some behaviours and consequences. However, they are very specific and different disorders, and need careful diagnosis. At Learning Insights we invariably suggest a second opinion if we feel your child’s behaviours look like they fit a pattern consistent with one of the above.
A major and key element to all these disorders is that a child who has one of them seems unable to stop doing certain things. It is rather like they have a motor driving certain behaviours and no matter how much you ask, nag, plead, demand or even punish….they do not seem able to stop. The following may give you an idea of what this might mean:
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD); the child is unable to attend to anything for long, they are like butterflies, moving on to other things but rarely settling to anything. They even find it hard to listen to something important you have to say. They don’t seem to settle to play, to read, to listen, to think or to even talk with people.
Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); These children are very like the ADD child described above, but they are physically restless. They rarely sit still, they rock in their chairs, roll on the floor, rove around until they are upside down, back to front and invariably in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are very fidgety! They also appear to find it hard to listen, to concentrate or to get their work done. They can also be tetchy, over-reactive, find it hard to work alone or get on with others.
Tourettes; the most noticeable feature of these children is the emergence of ‘tics’. These are involuntary movements that can occur any where in the body but are more commonly observed on the upper body and particularly the face (eyes and mouth), neck and shoulders. As they grow up, children with Tourettes show patterns of restlessness and over-activity and may use words uncontrollably and unacceptably They can also show patterns of behaviour rather like the ADHD child.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); children with this condition start to have rituals or sets of behaviours they must complete over and over again. They can become very rigid in the way they do certain things and react strongly if anyone interferes with their routines and patterns of activity. This may show as hand washing (a very common behaviour repeated 20 times a day sometimes) a highly organised routine where certain things must be done a certain way, every night (bathing routines) or morning (bag packing, breakfast eating) before the next activity can be done.
Conduct Disorder; these children probably fit the diagnosis of having behaviour problems the most completely. These children are often very non-compliant, may refuse to do anything they don’t want to do, are rude, moody, argumentative and even abusive and physically hurtful to parents and siblings. They may shout a lot, break things, react very strongly to only minor incidence and can appear reckless, unthinking and selfish. They can also be ritualistic like the child with OCD described above or have ADHD.
These children may also have learning difficulties as a consequence of their other disorder. If you have a child who seems not to respond to behaviour management techniques that you have been suggested to try, it may because the way they learn is preventing them from doing what you ask of (teach) them.
If you would like some help to make more sense of these complex disorders click on Organisations + Individuals, follow this up with a call to Learning Insights or click on CONTACT US.