Posts

What is the Difference Between ADD and ADHD?

/in /by

What is the Difference Between ADD and ADHD?

By Megan Weiss, Ed.S.

You may have wondered questions like ‘What is ADD? Is it different from ADHD?” or “How do I know if my child has ADD or ADHD?” ADD was an older term for Attention Deficit Disorder, which is the classification for symptoms like inattention, distractibility, forgetfulness, and making careless mistakes. While people still use the term ADD to classify these symptoms, it is no longer the technical term used in the medical and psychology community to diagnose these types of symptoms. In the late 1980’s the medical community shifted to the term ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In the early 1990’s ADHD was classified into three different types, or presentations, that we use today. The three types are: Inattentive Presentation, Hyperactive Presentation, and Combined Presentation.

So, if you’re seeing inattentive symptoms in your child and they were to be diagnosed, the official diagnosis would be ADHD, Predominately Inattentive Presentation. Likewise, if your child struggled with hyperactivity and impulsivity the diagnosis would be ADHD, Predominately Hyperactive Presentation and if your child had both symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, they would be diagnosed with ADHD, Combined Presentation. What this shift in terminology did was combine both inattentive and hyperactive impulsive symptoms into one disorder with specific presentation types so everything could be categorized the same way.

How Do I Know if my Child has ADHD?

Children can be evaluated for ADHD with several instruments that assess their functioning in different areas and look at the severity of their symptoms. The testing we provide in our office targets the specific areas of concern related to ADHD and allows us to diagnose and provide specific recommendations to support your child at home and at school. Our evaluations are comprehensive and offer a “whole child” approach so we will be able to assess their cognitive processing, like attention, memory, and processing speed, as well as their social-emotional and behavioral functioning. Our testing will provide you with the answers to know if your child really has ADHD or if they are struggling in some other area that is contributing to their ADHD-like symptoms. You will leave this process with targeted and specific recommendations tailored to your child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Dr. Forgan wrote the book on recognizing strengths and empowering students with ADHD.  We test people ages five through young adult for ADHD.  Call (561) 625 4125 to discuss your child or yourself.

Not All Kids With Attention Problems Have ADD/ADHD

/in /by

Not all kids with attention problems have ADHD. We test kids of all ages because parents are concerned about their child’s lack of attention or high activity level. ADHD occurs from mild to severe and it can be diagnosed in children as young as five.  The most common age range for testing is 6 to 16.

Problems that Look Like ADHD

ADHD has imposters. Testing provides answers so you have understanding to know if your child’s attention difficulty is due to behavior or a weak processing system. Attention is highly related to memory, processing speed, and language processing.  Your child’s attention struggle could be a weak memory system. Think about yourself.  If you place your car keys in a different spot each time you return home, you frequently might be searching for them.  That’s a memory weakness and not an ADD moment.  Thus, if your child has difficulty remembering verbal directions you might think he is not paying attention when the root cause is not remembering what you said.

Other kids have slower cognitive processing speed so they hear but it takes extra time to register and process.  In our fast-paced society people have limited patience for dawdling so kids that process slower are frequently being told to hurry up.  Some kids have underlying language processing weakness so they hear your verbal directions but, despite their best effort, the words don’t always make sense.  These weaknesses can mimic attention problems.

Solutions

We can match the correct support when we test and identify your child’s root problem. If your child’s memory is weak you can strengthen it through activities or strategies. If attention is the cause then you can consider nutrition, supplements, or discussing medications with your medical doctor. If it’s language processing then it could be helpful to work with a speech therapist.

We help parents help children and offer ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, learning disability, anxiety, and IQ testing.  Call to discuss your child (561) 625 4125.