In the context of Social Sciences, ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) is an indicative label describing children and adults who exhibit developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
ADHD Symptoms
ADHD is categorised into two groups based on their symptoms:
First being symptoms of inattention and disorganisation. Other description includes; forgetfulness,
distractibility, and inability or total lack of focus.
This group of symptoms appears that individuals with ADHD don’t really care what others are saying or doing. One common scenario where these individuals manifest their inattentiveness; engaging in a conversation involving serious topics wherein they fail to follow the flow of a sequence of events. The same is also observed in people with ADHD when it comes to following directions given by their teachers or bosses.
Second involving hyperactivity, restlessness, and impulsivity
The latter group of behavioural problems can make people with ADHD seem self-centered, reckless, and chaotic. These behaviours related to distraction, awareness-seeking, and excessive movement may actually reflect various means of staving off boredom and compensating for a brain that values immediate gratification rather than a more judicious focus on long-term benefits.
More than other people, children and adults with ADHD often have trouble keeping track of directions and conversations. They procrastinate instead of finishing work that doesn’t interest them and often end up with rushed, disorganised output that hinders them to reflect their true skills and talents.
For elementary school children, the core problems are stereotypically related to overactivity. Their non-cooperation towards their parents, teachers, and school personnel are remarkably witnessed compared with other children their age. Another example of children with ADHD’s social behaviour among youngsters is blowing out the candles at other children’s birthday parties. At school, it could be impulsively declaring the answer even if he/she is not the one being asked to.
By the middle of grade school, children with ADHD often have difficulty listening to teachers and following their increasingly complex directions. Also at this age, peer pressure adds up to their daily conflicts, which will continue when they reach secondary school, wherein students are first obliged to deal with more multiple schedule combination that switches between classes and teachers during school time. This could lead children with ADHD feeling handicapped by their disorganisation.
For those individuals with ADHD who make it to the collegiate level, the intense academic loads can bring about the feeling of being overpowered. They have the tendency to forget where they put their books, shoes, pencils, eyeglasses, or even keys. They may often feel impatient or easily bored. They may often seem to appear offhand and inadvertently rude – instances such as interrupting someone who’s talking. People with ADHD often ignore risks that are obvious to others, and may purposely or unintentionally defy acceptable social norms.
Simply put, ADHD infers disruptions of “normal” mental, social and behavioural development. Physically, children with ADHD develop much like other children; although the overall developmental pace varies because not in all domains of functioning synchronously. Some difficulties diminish over the years; others become apparent only relatively late in the individual’s development. This means that one cannot expect a symptom overview to be the same in most cases of ADHD regardless of the individual’s age. The fact is that ADHD symptoms vary markedly from one age period to another.