Does My Child Have ADHD – and How Can I Help If They Do?

Being able to tell the dif­fer­ence between ADHD and typ­i­cal child­hood behav­ior can be chal­leng­ing for par­ents and care­givers. Duly providers can help edu­cate par­ents about ADHD and guide them through test­ing to under­stand how their child’s brain learns and functions. 

We often rec­om­mend eval­u­a­tion when we see one or more of these signs:

1. Your child keeps get­ting in trou­ble at school for hav­ing too much ener­gy, dis­turb­ing oth­ers, blurt­ing out answers, being the class clown or oth­er signs of high energy.
2. Your child is being impul­sive (e.g., react­ing with­out think­ing) with their actions and get­ting in trou­ble at school or home.
3. Your child is said to be day­dream­ing, ​“get­ting bored” in class, doo­dling dur­ing class, hav­ing a hard time focus­ing on get­ting tasks done, hav­ing a hard time lis­ten­ing and fol­low­ing direc­tions, hav­ing to work hard­er than peers to learn and make good grades, or not hav­ing good grades, although they are smart and hardworking.

What is ADHD?

The inabil­i­ty to pay atten­tion, the impul­sive choic­es, the hyper­ac­tive behav­ior – these are some of the hall­mark symp­toms of atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD). 

ADHD is a con­di­tion where the brain works in a unique way that, when prop­er­ly sup­port­ed, can become a tremen­dous asset for both the child and their com­mu­ni­ty. ADHD can be diag­nosed at any age, as symp­toms usu­al­ly begin in ear­ly child­hood (e.g. kinder­garten age).

Many symp­toms of ADHD in chil­dren hap­pen in a school or recre­ation­al set­ting, so you might not notice them right away. If a teacher, day care provider, or coach reports that your child is hav­ing one or more of the chal­lenges list­ed above, it could be a clue that your child has ADHD.

Whether you’re con­stant­ly ask­ing, ​“Does my child have ADHD?” or they’ve already been diag­nosed, it’s impor­tant to under­stand the basics of ADHD and how to help them.

There Is More Than One Type of ADHD.

There are three types of ADHD, and the type your child may have depends on their symptoms.

Com­bined ADHD is the most com­mon type and is what peo­ple often pic­ture when they think about ADHD. 

Some of the main symp­toms of ADHD include:

Inat­ten­tive Symptoms:

• Dif­fi­cul­ty pay­ing atten­tion and being eas­i­ly dis­tract­ed dur­ing school or play
• Fre­quent daydreaming
• Mak­ing care­less mis­takes on school­work and not car­ing about details
• Being dis­or­ga­nized, like with toys or school supplies
• Con­stant­ly los­ing or for­get­ting things
• For­get­ting to do tasks, like chores
• Avoid­ing doing things that require focus­ing for a long peri­od of time, like homework 
• Seem­ing dis­tract­ed when some­one is talk­ing to them

Hyper­ac­tive-Impul­sive Symptoms:

• Seem­ing like they’re always on the go or dri­ven by a motor 
• Squirm­ing and fidgeting 
• Inabil­i­ty to stay seated 
• Dif­fi­cul­ty wait­ing their turn 
• Being extreme­ly talk­a­tive (more than you would expect) 
• Fre­quent­ly climb­ing, jump­ing, or run­ning when it’s against the rules 
• Hav­ing trou­ble play­ing quietly 
• Blurt­ing out answers or speak­ing out of turn
• Inter­rupt­ing people’s con­ver­sa­tions, activ­i­ties, or games 
• Act­ing and speak­ing with­out thinking

Not All Chil­dren With ADHD Symp­toms Have ADHD

If your child has these symp­toms every once in a while, that doesn’t mean they have ADHD. It’s nor­mal for chil­dren to have short atten­tion spans, be full of ener­gy, or some­times avoid doing their home­work. That’s why ADHD is only diag­nosed when a child has had symp­toms for at least six months, has symp­toms in more than one set­ting (like both at home and at school), and their symp­toms get in the way of dai­ly life.

In addi­tion, your child’s provider will need to rule out oth­er pos­si­ble caus­es of these symp­toms, like sleep dis­or­ders (not get­ting the ade­quate amount of sleep for your child’s age, and/​or not hav­ing good qual­i­ty of sleep e.g. rest­less, wak­ing up, sleep talk­ing, sleep walk­ing, snor­ing etc.), nutri­tion­al defi­cien­cies (e.g. vit­a­min or iron defi­cien­cies), learn­ing dis­or­ders, anx­i­ety, depres­sion, or dif­fi­cul­ty see­ing or hearing. 

A Word From Our Doctor

“I do not view ADHD as a ​“dis­or­der”, but a unique gift that allows for a lot of the inven­tions and cre­ations that are enjoyed by the human race (e.g. Ein­stein, Edi­son, writ­ers, artists, etc.)”

- Pratip Nag, MD, PhD, Pedi­a­tri­cian with Duly Health and Care

Your child’s unique mind is their great­est gift. If you’re see­ing signs of ADHD, our Duly pedi­a­tri­cians can help you under­stand and nur­ture their unique poten­tial, with same-day pri­ma­ry care appoint­ments avail­able when you need them.

Find Pri­ma­ry Care near you >

There Are Many Ways to Treat ADHD

First, it is impor­tant for us to under­stand why we need to help chil­dren who have ADHD. To under­stand the need for a thought­ful and car­ing treat­ment plan for chil­dren with ADHD, it is impor­tant for us to appre­ci­ate that ADHD is a gift that is preva­lent in around 11% of chil­dren in the US. Jus­ti­fi­ably, the major­i­ty of edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions (e.g., schools, col­leges, etc.) and the ways we edu­cate chil­dren are devel­oped to accom­mo­date the chil­dren and ado­les­cents who do not have ADHD. 

It can be very stress­ful for a child who has the gift of ADHD to func­tion in an envi­ron­ment that is not geared to the way they learn best. Hav­ing ADHD can be social­ly stress­ful (e.g. peer rela­tions, fam­i­ly rela­tions) for the child. They need thought­ful sup­port to har­ness their unique strengths, reach their full poten­tial, and thrive in envi­ron­ments that cel­e­brate their creativity.

A thought­ful and com­pre­hen­sive plan for chil­dren who have ADHD includes the following:

• Coun­sel­ing for par­ents (and the child) to help them suc­cess­ful­ly accom­plish all their dai­ly tasks at home and school. 
  • This helps the child feel good about achiev­ing what they expect from them­selves and what oth­ers (e.g. par­ents, teach­ers) expect from them.
• Par­ents (and the child) must work with the school/​college to set up a 504 plan or Indi­vid­u­al­ized Edu­ca­tion­al Plan (IEP) that pro­vides the accom­mo­da­tions that the child needs to suc­ceed in school and activities. 
  • The 504/IEP plan needs to be reassessed every year and adapt­ed to the child’s needs.
• Med­ical eval­u­a­tion and interventions:
  • Thor­ough eval­u­a­tion of sleep quan­ti­ty and qual­i­ty, which may require assess­ment of iron stores, e.g., Fer­ritin, Vit­a­min D, snor­ing, aller­gies, or a sleep study.
  • Eval­u­a­tion for ane­mia, iron defi­cien­cy, vit­a­min defi­cien­cies, thy­roid dis­or­ders, and oth­er med­ical conditions.
  • Eval­u­a­tion and opti­miza­tion of diet, gut health, con­sti­pa­tion, etc.
  • Med­ica­tion man­age­ment for ADHD.
  • Eval­u­a­tion and man­age­ment of co-occur­ring men­tal health con­di­tions, e.g., anx­i­ety, depres­sion, bipo­lar dis­or­der, etc.

It’s nor­mal to be hes­i­tant to start your child on med­ica­tion, espe­cial­ly if they’re young. Med­ica­tions are the most effec­tive way to help chil­dren who have ADHD. Med­ica­tions have been shown to help around 80% of chil­dren with ADHD have few­er symptoms.

Mul­ti­ple stud­ies have shown that chil­dren who had the ben­e­fit of med­ica­tions for their ADHD achieved a high­er qual­i­ty of life, high­er socio-eco­nom­ic sta­tus, and had much low­er rates of sub­stance use dis­or­der com­pared to chil­dren who were not pro­vid­ed the help of a med­ica­tion dur­ing their school years.

Make Sure Your Child Is Get­ting the Right Sup­port at School.

Work­ing direct­ly with your child’s school is a great way to set them up for suc­cess. For example:

• Talk to their teach­ers about your con­cerns and devel­op solu­tions togeth­er. Let them know how ADHD has affect­ed your child at school in the past and what tends to work or not work for them. 
• Learn about accom­mo­da­tions. ADHD is con­sid­ered a devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ty, which means your child has legal rights to an indi­vid­u­al­ized edu­ca­tion pro­gram (IEP) or a 504 plan for edu­ca­tion­al support. 
  • Learn more. 
• Put togeth­er a team. When you have meet­ings at the school with the teacher and spe­cial edu­ca­tor, you can request that your child’s physi­cian, the school psy­chol­o­gist, the nurse, or the guid­ance coun­selor pro­vide input.

Also read: The Back-to-School Checklist

And at Home.

There are also things you can do at home to sup­port your child (and make life a bit eas­i­er for your­self, too). Some ways to do this include:

• Keep­ing a reg­u­lar sched­ule, since chil­dren with ADHD often have trou­ble adjust­ing to change.
• Help­ing your child stay orga­nized (like with toys or school supplies).
• Cre­ate a dai­ly visu­al check­list that lets them earn time for favorite activ­i­ties (e.g., electronics).
• Com­pli­ment­ing them when they make good choic­es, rather than just focus­ing on behav­ior that doesn’t align with oth­ers’ expectations.
• Learn­ing the style of dis­ci­pline that works best for your child’s unique needs.
  • Prac­tice giv­ing the child options for com­mon things that are day-to-day. These are choic­es that the par­ent is okay with (e.g. do you want to eat x or y, wear a, or b, go to the park or the pool etc.).
• Encour­ag­ing them to do activ­i­ties that they’re inter­est­ed in (such as sports or clubs) to build self-esteem.
• Demon­strat­ing and using sim­ple words when giv­ing instruc­tions with good eye con­tact. Prac­tice, ask­ing them to tell you what they under­stood of your instruction.
• Hav­ing them eat a healthy diet, be active every day, and get enough sleep, since these habits will help them man­age symptoms

The Ear­li­er You Can Help Your Child, the Better.

Don’t hes­i­tate to seek answers if you sus­pect ADHD or if your child needs treat­ment. Ear­ly diag­no­sis and treat­ment are key for help­ing your child suc­ceed, rein in prob­lem­at­ic or impul­sive behav­ior (so they are not devel­op­ing a neg­a­tive self-image), and be suc­cess­ful in school, social sit­u­a­tions, and achieve their fullest poten­tial of their cre­ative minds. 

Also, your child may have addi­tion­al health or devel­op­men­tal con­cerns. It’s not unusu­al for chil­dren with ADHD to also have con­di­tions such as anx­i­ety dis­or­ders, autism, obses­sive-com­pul­sive dis­or­der (OCD), or men­tal health dis­or­ders like depres­sion or bipo­lar dis­or­der. These con­di­tions are also impor­tant to diag­nose and treat ear­ly on.

Reach out to your child’s pedi­a­tri­cian to get started. 

Also read: 4 Tips On How to Talk to Your Child About Build­ing Healthy Habits

You Are Not to Blame. 

The exact cause of ADHD isn’t clear, but we know it’s not due to par­ent­ing deci­sions. It can run in fam­i­lies, but that’s often due to genes (which can’t be con­trolled). You should nev­er feel guilty or blame your­self for your child hav­ing ADHD.

Your child’s unique mind deserves sup­port that helps them thrive. Whether you sus­pect ADHD or need help with an exist­ing diag­no­sis, sched­ule with a Duly pedi­a­tri­cian today.

Find a Pedi­a­tri­cian near you >