ADD / ADHD

The ADD Coach Academy, www.addca.com is happy to provide this page, About ADD/ ADHD for your educational growth.

We know education is the first , essential step in the process of learning how to manage the individual challenges of ADHD. We also know that ADD coaching builds hope by educating clients about their own AD/HD.

It is the ADD Coach Academy's belief that a thorough and comprehensive understanding of both the gifts and challenges of AD/HD is essential to coaching individuals with AD/HD. Well trained coaches at the Academy are instrumental in partnering with individuals to develop systems & strategies that consistently work with their unique brain wiring. Coaches facilitate a disciplined process of awareness & responsibility that encourages each person with ADHD to look for realistic options that frequently lead to progress and success.

To find a coach by specialty areas click here.

About ADHD: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children?

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition that becomes apparent in some children in the preschool and early school years. It is hard for these children to control their behavior and/or pay attention. It is estimated that between 3 and 5 percent of children have ADHD, or approximately 2 million children in the United States. This means that in a classroom of 25 to 30 children, it is likely that at least one will have ADHD.

ADHD was first described by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman in 1845. A physician who wrote books on medicine and psychiatry, Dr. Hoffman was also a poet who became interested in writing for children when he couldn't find suitable materials to read to his 3-year-old son. The result was a book of poems, complete with illustrations, about children and their characteristics. "The Story of Fidgety Philip" was an accurate description of a little boy who had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Yet it was not until 1902 that Sir George F. Still published a series of lectures to the Royal College of Physicians in England in which he described a group of impulsive children with significant behavioral problems, caused by a genetic dysfunction and not by poor child rearing—children who today would be easily recognized as having ADHD.1 Since then, several thousand scientific papers on the disorder have been published, providing information on its nature, course, causes, impairments, and treatments.

A child with ADHD faces a difficult but not insurmountable task ahead. In order to achieve his or her full potential, he or she should receive help, guidance, and understanding from parents, guidance counselors, and the public education system. This document offers information on ADHD and its management, including research on medications and behavioral interventions, as well as helpful resources on educational options.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a highly publicized childhood disorder that affects approximately 3 percent to 5 percent of all children. What is much less well known is the probability that, of children who have ADHD, many will still have it as adults. Several studies done in recent years estimate that between 30 percent and 70 percent of children with ADHD continue to exhibit symptoms in the adult years.2

The first studies on adults who were never diagnosed as children as having ADHD, but showed symptoms as adults, were done in the late 1970s by Drs. Paul Wender, Frederick Reimherr, and David Wood. These symptomatic adults were retrospectively diagnosed with ADHD after the researchers' interviews with their parents. The researchers developed clinical criteria for the diagnosis of adult ADHD (the Utah Criteria), which combined past history of ADHD with current evidence of ADHD behaviors.3 Other diagnostic assessments are now available; among them are the widely used Conners Rating Scale and the Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale.

Typically, adults with ADHD are unaware that they have this disorder—they often just feel that it's impossible to get organized, to stick to a job, to keep an appointment. The everyday tasks of getting up, getting dressed and ready for the day's work, getting to work on time, and being productive on the job can be major challenges for the ADHD adult.

National Institute of Mental Health
1 Still GF. Some abnormal psychical conditions in children: the Goulstonian lectures. Lancet, 1902;1:1008-1012.
2 Silver LB. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in adult life. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 2000:9:3: 411-523.
3 Wender PH. Pharmacotherapy of attention-deficit/hyperactivity in adults. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 1998; 59 (supplement 7):76-79.