Attention Disorder - 1

The children in the above examples manifest behavior of having attention deficit disorder. In DSM III this syndrome is categorized as a specific

Developmental disorder called “attention deficit disorder”. Extremely active behavior, impulsiveness, poor motor coordination, and low frustration tolerance are associated with this label. Although in the examples, the behaviors were obvious early, many children are identified as having this disorder only when they enter school. Many children who receive this label are not distinguishable from typical children in unstructured free- play situations. However, when hyperkinetic children are in a structured schoolroom, teachers perceive them as creating havoc. The hyperactive behavior is associated with difficulty in learning the academic materials in the schoolroom. Attention deficit children get poor grades, and are often held back to repeat classes. It is one of several learning disabilities seen in some children.
In today’s classrooms, there is an unfortunate tendency to mislabel many active, rambunctious male children as hyperactive and attention deficit. Some teachers may believed that as many as one- third of the children in their classroom are “hyperactive and attention deficit”. In fact, most of these children are simply energetic and slightly unruly. True hyperactivity appears to affect only about 5 – 10 percent of children, mostly males. However, this means that 2.5- 5.0 million children in the United States manifest these behaviors to degree that interferes with their functioning.


A hyperactive child can drive parents to distraction and alienate the most dedicated teacher. The teacher is trying to teach a child who appears extremely distractible: The child cannot read more than a few words or do more than a few math problems before squirming in his seat, tapping feet, whispering, getting out of his seat, throwing spit balls, or stumbling over other children’s feet. The child is constantly moving,... [continues]

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