A: The answer is important, but highly confusing! ADD/HD is the term used by the American Psychiatric Association and it stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. There is a slash between the letters because some children suffer only from problems with attention while others suffer mainly from hyperactivity/impulsiveness - although the majority experience a combination of both problems.You will see ADD/HD referred to in other ways (e.g. ADD+H, ADD-H, ADD+H, ADD) but these terms are not current. To make matters even more confusing, British Professionals have traditionally used the World Health Organisationterm: "HyperkineticDisorder".

How do ADD/HD children behave?

A: Most healthy children are very active and often impulsive. They also find it more difficult to sustain their attention than adults. When these behaviours are extreme, persistent, exist in most situations and are not attributable to another factor, it is time to consider whether on not s/he may have ADD/HD. The core behaviours are as follows:

• Poor concentration/Inattentive: We all find it easy to attend to tasks that are easy or interesting, and difficult to concentrate on hard or boring topics. Children with ADD/HD suffer from an exaggerated version of this trait. The ADD/HD child has problems settling down to work, inhibiting distractions and staying on-task for a reasonable length of time, i.e. in controlling his or her attention. Some children also have difficulty changing from one task to another, or in attending to more than one task, or aspect of a task. Their minds jump from one thing to another.
• Hyperactive: Young children with ADD/HD are sometimes described as "bouncing of walls", and as the children become older they usually remain restless and fidgety. Remember, it is not the level of activity, which makes a child ADD/HD, but his/her apparent inability to control their level of activity when necessary.
• Impulsiveness: "Didn't you think that would happen if you did that?" is a phrase children with ADD/HD hear every day of their life. They tend to shout out and jump the queue, and they can't wait for rewards. ADD/HD children have problems inhibiting or controlling their immediate response.

N.B. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT ADD/HD CHILDREN HAVE DISTINCTLY GOOD AND BAD DAYS: variable behaviour and performance are a hallmark of this condition. It is also important to note that the word CONTROL appears in each of the descriptions of the core behaviours. ADD/HD can be seen as a dysfunction of the management, or control, processes of the brain.

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