Based on your own experience and observation, from seeing children in church or at a mall or in a classroom, how common do you feel attention deficits/ADHD - ADD really is? What do you (vs what the general news media might tend to say) observe?
The statistics regarding ADHD can vary enormously - the highest one I have seen is from a chiropractor in the midwest selling audio tapes who says that 33% of Americans are ADHD - the lowest figure I’ve seen is that the actual number of those with classic ADHD is quite small, that is, 2% or less of all Americans.
What do you think? Between the above two figures, 33% or 2%, personally, I lean towards the lower figure (2%) as being more accurate and less likely to cause children to be mislabeled and mismedicated for what they do not have. What do you feel/think?
Re: How common is real ADHD - ADD?
So you’re saying that based on your experience, ADHD (inattentive, hyperactive, impulsive) is less common than other types of ADHD such as ADHD - Inattentive type ~ only or ADHD ~ Impulsive type ~ only?
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Re: How common is real ADHD - ADD?
According to the APA the incidence of ADD/ADHD is between 3% and 5%. This is still a lot of kids, from 1.3 million to 2.25 million. The DMS IV was designed to tighten up what constituted a child with ADD/ADHD. The IDEA act itseld does not recognize ADD/ADHD as a disability, but it can be placed in the OHI category and is quite frequently.
Organizations such as C.H.A.D.D. and CEC try to make the public and medical field aware of parent’s concerns about diagnosis and medication of the ADD/ADHD child. A good book to read if a parent suspects their child of ADD/ADHD is The ADD Hyperactivity Handbook for Schools. The author is Dr. Parker. and it is published by Specialty Press, Inc. 1-800-233-9273.
Re: How common is real ADHD - ADD?
We’ve had classes where of up to 18 second graders, up to 6 have been ADD / ADHD (and 2/6 were also ODD, with one of those also with IED). Only one of the 1 was a girl.
It seems to get higher every year and that makes it hard to teach the other 12 and very difficult to meet the needs of the 6.
Does anyone have any other stats?
This is a country / becoming suburban setting w/ about 1/2 at home mothers, little crime, about 1/2 of parents have gone to college, middle-class to prosperous community. Small school (1 or 2 classes per grade, usually one.) There is some parental resistance to having children labeled as less than gifted (Lake Woebegon — all kids are above average). Maybe 1/2 of the LD kids are formally evaluated by 2nd grade, most will likely be evaluated by end of our school (6th grade) but teachers seem to be very with-it and concerned about all of their students.
Re: How common is real ADHD - ADD?
I work within an early intervention setting, and the amount of children within the class is 10 children. About half of this group has ADHD and others with autism and other learning disabilities. Having seen most types of the ADHD I am finding that it is more and more common although there is the possibility of misdiagnosis’. All these children are boys, not one girl. I am doing a research project on how does ADHD effect the social skills development within young children - preschool aged 4-5 years. Evidence is present from other research materials but I would appreciate any of your views.
Re: How common is real ADHD - ADD?
I teach a class with 11 emotionally disturbed 8-11 year olds and ALL of them are boys. This is undoubtably just because boys get more attention than girls.
Re: How common is real ADHD - ADD?
I think the whole idea of trying to put a number on ADD by asking people visiting a forum on the topic what their casual observations are isn’t likely to produce particularly accurate results.
Try reexamining your other information critically. Does the author have an interest in reporting that some extreme number of people have this? Is the research or survey done well and are the results well replicated?
I’m not so sure. There are at least several kinds of attentional issues but if you’re talking about ADHD, pure ADHD, I do see less of that at least where I teach than the can’t stay focused ADD or issues with implusive behavior ADD.