Hyperactivity in children – myths and reality

Hyperactivity in children is not uncommon today. A child with emotional disorders experiences difficulties during communication and learning – it is difficult for him to concentrate on one thing, to sit still, to follow the instructions of adults.

Despite the fact that the description of the syndrome of hyperactivity is very clear, often parents replace it with children’s emotionality, mobility, curiosity and restlessness. What should a mother and father be prepared for if specialists diagnose a manifestation of hyperactivity in a child? What myths in this area should not be believed? Answers to these and other questions can be obtained from this article.

A hyperactive child is sick

This diagnosis can only be made to a child by a specialist, based on a physiological and psychological study of his condition. The term “hyperactivity” is firmly in use among educators, teachers, and parents. Adults have taken the habit of calling every child who is active, does not like to perform tasks that require volitional and intellectual costs. This attitude towards children is wrong and leads to the following consequences:

  • parents worry about children’s health and anxious thoughts do not allow them to watch how the child grows, develops, matures;
  • mother and father stop helping the child to learn about the world around him. Instead, they look closely at it, try to limit their activity;
  • parents scold children for being noisy or mobile, and, instead of directing their energy in the right direction, try to attract them to calm but boring and uninteresting activities;
  • the child feels that something is wrong with him, because adults do not accept his nature as it is. As a result of such an attitude, children may develop a negative opinion of themselves, low self-esteem, and a weak level of adaptation to the children’s team.

Hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit disorder occur when the diagnosis is finally made by a specialist neurologist. It is reliable and accurate if:

  • the child’s muscle activity is excessive – he never sits still;
  • he has no interest in any of the cases his parents have ever proposed. Even an overly active child, without a diagnosis of “hyperactivity”, is capable of 5-10 minutes of doing something that really fascinates him. Overactive children are physically unable to hold attention for this amount of time;  
  • he is difficult to learn and has memory problems.

Parents should show their child to several specialists before diagnosing him with this disease. In addition, it is important to study heredity – maybe he is mobile, being similar to one of the parents. Perhaps the adults did not teach him to perform intellectual tasks, and he is simply not interested in them. The world around him fascinates him much more, so he does not want to focus on letters, numbers, solve puzzles and solve puzzles.

You should think about whether the child has hyperactivity if the following factors took place in the history of his birth and early development:

  • hereditary predisposition;
  • oxygen starvation of the fetus;
  • the threat of miscarriage in the mother;
  • experiencing stress by a woman during pregnancy;
  • low weight of the child after childbirth; 
  • difficult, protracted, rapid childbirth; 
  • unfavorable or dangerous living conditions for the baby;
  • experiencing psychological trauma in childhood.

The sooner the parents make sure that the child has hyperactivity, the better they will be able to help him: they will turn to a specialist and select a treatment that allows the child or schoolchild to feel better and be calmer, and receive recommendations on how to communicate with him correctly, how to educate what can and cannot be done in the family.

Children should be calm and obedient

Hyperactivity is life in constant motion and lack of control over oneself. Before diagnosing hyperactivity in children, it should be accepted that a child who develops in accordance with his nature should be active and noisy.

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