Throughout human history, mischievous children, irresponsible, disobedient children and youth have always been on the agenda. They are compared to good children. Various nations tried to find a solution in their own way; These children were tried to be corrected, sometimes with violence, sometimes with moving tasks and with advice. This subject has been dealt with a lot in literature.
Over time, it was noticed that these children had some problems when they grew up. Such as boredom, laziness, not being able to take responsibility… This problem in children started to enter school life after the enlightenment process of humanity and with the increasing importance of education. While before, when not everyone was going to school, hyperactive children only created problems at home in their own village, it became a school problem with the formation of schools that needed long-term attention. For this reason, in the last century, the scientific community decided that there was a disorder and started researches to solve the problem.
What are the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in general: In our country, our people’s interest in education has increased. Parents spend all their strength, material and moral, to educate their children and become good and self-sufficient individuals. In such an environment, education has become very important. Of course, information pollution followed it. Because of this situation, it has been very important to distinguish children with mobility or attention problems, because there are other diseases that cause attention deficit. For example; such as depression, daily life problems, school incompatibility, shyness, lack of self-confidence, learning disorders, intelligence problems, trauma, autism…
Hyperactive children are very active since infancy, even before they start school, and even if their mother calls, they pay attention to their mother. they do not answer. They cannot stand still. In general, these children can not deal with anything for a long time, even while playing, they jump from game to game. They can’t start and end the game with their friends and they break the game.
Quick tightening is its biggest feature. They can hit their friends and get angry quickly. They don’t like and can’t follow the rules. They are rebellious against their parents’ rules. These problems can sometimes be caused by the parents being too flexible about the rules. Especially when the only child is the only grandchild in the family, these children may be unruly by making excessive compromises. The difference from hyperactivity is that these children are generally problematic at home. He can follow the school rules after a while. Because they know that the teacher will not be displeased.
The most troublesome period begins in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when they reach school age. Because up to this age, the child can be managed with the tolerance of the family. In school, which is now a regular environment at school age, he has to obey the rules and he will have responsibilities and lessons, which are the subjects that hyperactive children have the most trouble.
Today, especially in big cities, these problems start to be noticed early in children who go to kindergarten after the age of three.
In the first three years of primary school, in cases who usually come to the clinics, they are children who cannot be seated in the classroom, constantly fidgeting, dropping things on the floor, constantly getting up and picking up their pencils, poking their friends when they are bored, talking during the lesson, and telling irrelevant things in the lesson. Naturally, they also lag behind in literacy. Writes letters wrong, makes up the endings of words while reading. Even a short course of study is difficult. It is seen that families try to persuade the child for hours for five to ten minutes of homework. It is a very difficult process for parents, children and teachers. They hardly sit at the table even while eating.
It is also very difficult for teachers to tell the parents of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder about their children’s problems. This problem is expected to be solved within the school, especially because of the high expectations of families in children studying in private schools. Teachers are also in a difficult situation because this problem cannot be solved without medical treatment.
It is a disorder of the attention-related regions of the brain and medical treatment is essential. The earlier it is treated, the higher the efficacy of treatment.
In general, when teachers tell the family about this situation, parents tend to blame the teacher and the education system. They don’t like hearing it from other people, even if they’ve noticed the problem themselves. Therefore, it is of great benefit to explain the situation to families with scientific facts. We should state that this is not a mischief, it is a situation out of the child’s control. We should also say that these children do not have intelligence problems, it is only related to attention.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is four times more common in boys. If there are people with attention problems in the same family, the risk increases in the child. In general, girls with attention deficits are often overlooked because their mobility is somewhat low and they do not disrupt the classroom order too much. That’s why teachers don’t notice it right away. Girls usually have extracurricular activities such as fidgeting and being busy with other things, drawing something in their notebook, and painting. In addition, distractions in the lesson can be daydreaming. Again, there may be careless mistakes while reading.
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are the most bored children in the classroom. When the bell rings, they run out of the classroom first. From time to time, you can hear them say “oh damn” in class. They also want their friends to talk to them in class. They get very bored while others are writing something in class. Sometimes it’s like a reward for teachers to leave the classroom as a punishment. Already bored, the boy was able to get out. Sometimes, the child who realizes this may misbehave so that the teacher will throw himself out of the lesson.
The lack of eye contact seen in these children is due to their inability to pay attention to you. It is not like eye contact caused by illness, as in diseases such as autism. The child does not want to listen to you because he is bored. But he can listen to you by making eye contact on a subject that interests him. Since he is constantly thinking about other things, he cannot listen to the other person, he tries to concentrate on the thought in his head.
In treatment, it is absolutely necessary to take a doctor. Apart from the doctor, the school, family and treatment team should work together. First, the doctor has a duty to inform the family, the teacher and the school. It should teach what kind of disease it is. Thus, they will be able to understand the behavior of the child out of his control. Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are all different personalities. All of them have different features from each other. Individual problem behaviors should be identified in each child and personalized treatment should be planned.
We said that the first stage of treatment is to inform the family and the teacher.
In the second stage, behavioral treatments are started by raising awareness about the disease according to the age of the child. It is also a therapeutic process. After raising awareness, behavior correction begins. With the feedback received from the child, it is ensured that he makes progress in controlling his behavior. Relationships with friends, following lessons, and problematic behaviors on the street should be studied one by one. These children often do not understand what they are being criticized for and why, which causes them to become depressed. All these treatments and education must proceed slowly. In the meantime, various therapy methods, which we call attention treatments, can be used.
Since this disease has chemical causes originating from the brain, the medication the child needs should be started gradually. This will speed up the treatment. In addition, it will prevent new diseases that we call complications arising from this disease in the future.
These problems can range from failure in school to behavioral problems that occur in adolescence, substance use, laziness, the desire not to do anything, problems with friendships, social problems and committing crimes.
Individuals with this disease are individuals who are unsuccessful in their business and social lives in the future. Their marriage and business life can be problematic.
As it can be understood, early diagnosis is very important in Attention Deficit Buddha. Therefore, it is important to inform the public about this issue. Suspected children should be subjected to a psychological examination and the problem, if any, should be treated. This will both improve the quality of life of the child and reduce the problems of the parents with the child.
