| ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER: WHAT IS IT | | | | deciding where they want to direct their attention and |
| ANYWAY? As parents, many of us have spent | | | | for how long. For instance, if an ADD sufferer is |
| sleepless nights wondering whether our kid is suffering | | | | crossing the road, in spite of being tutored for like a |
| from Attention Deficit Disorder. And with due cause | | | | few thousand times as to how to do so safely he/she |
| too, most of us know the fundamental effects of the | | | | is most likely to go about it suddenly without any care |
| disease and obviously shrink at the thought of having | | | | in the world as to what the status of the traffic is. All |
| to deal with it. Apart from the fear that the disease | | | | they know, vaguely that too, is that they need to cross |
| can be difficult to deal with there is always this | | | | the road, but after having remembered that they get |
| subconscious guilt in most parents for being | | | | quickly attracted by some other idea or thing and |
| responsible for their kid's problem, most of us blame | | | | quickly to another, such that by the time they reach |
| ourselves for not being strict enough or disciplinarian | | | | the opposite side (which in itself is quite a difficult task |
| enough to have straightened out the disorder. While all | | | | given their reckless behavior) they have probably dealt |
| these apprehensions are quite normal they aren't | | | | with a dozen bits of thoughts already! On the opposite |
| always what we might call rational or well-founded. It | | | | end, ADD also makes individuals focus on some |
| seems there are about 3 broad stages in the normal | | | | specific object or act so completely that they get |
| development of a child. The very first one amongst | | | | wholly consumed in it and are absolutely cut-off from |
| these is observable in infants. During this time babies | | | | everything else. They might therefore watch the same |
| get occupied with a certain object or act and focus on | | | | film again and again or read a specific page repeatedly |
| it completely, thereby ignoring almost everything else. If | | | | with absolute nonchalance. Later this behavior might |
| the child's development stalls at this specific point it | | | | get molded into habits of over-eating or |
| might later show signs of autism. At the second stage, | | | | substance-abuse or compulsive behavior. Another |
| observed in slightly older kids, the child is interested in a | | | | variety of ADD is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity |
| variety of things all at once and is therefore incapable | | | | Disorder, or ADHD, which keeps all its sufferers |
| of concentrating on any one of them for more than a | | | | always on their toes, moving from one place to |
| few minutes. If the child stops at this stage of | | | | another doing something or the other unable to relax, |
| development he might later go on to suffer from what | | | | incapable of settling down. Kids suffering from this can |
| we conventionally know as Attention Deficit Disorder | | | | literally drive their parents insane and keep them up |
| (ADD). The ultimate stage equips the child's potentials | | | | nights, trying to calm their child and put him to sleep. |
| to mature to a point where they can comfortably and | | | | While experience has led most Psychologists to |
| voluntarily point their attention in a certain direction for a | | | | conclude that ADD is not a problem the child will |
| long period of time and can alter their choice of | | | | naturally grow out of (that is its not what can be |
| direction or their actions connected to it as and when | | | | termed self-healing) they have also quite vehemently |
| they want or need. This stage therefore is a crucial | | | | ruled out any chance of the parent's become |
| transition stage which moulds the child for success in | | | | responsible for causing it. So if your child is suffering |
| the classroom and the real world. What most of us do | | | | from ADD quit blaming yourself, instead recognize the |
| not know is that ADD does not just make an individual | | | | problem for what it is and contact a specialist as soon |
| incapable of concentrating on anything for a certain | | | | as possible. For further information on ADHD. |
| period of time; it also makes him/her incapable of | | | | |