Attention Disorder

The basic symptoms of ADHD include attention disorder, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Apart from these basic manifestations of ADHD syndrome, there are often also associated disorders, closely linked with the syndrome. The disorder is characterized by an early onset and its symptoms appear in multiple environments (at home, at school) and are chronic.

The typical signs of a child with ADHD is an inability to concentrate and absent-mindedness. Children with ADHD most commonly have the greatest problem concentrating or making a voluntary effort to carry out activities requiring increased concentration and patience, or taking a long time. They are either unable to even attempt such an activity, or complete it. They quickly lose interest in such activities, get bored quickly, frequently react to failure with anger or aggression. The situation becomes worse if the activity has a time limit.

For children such as these we can observe excessive fluctuations in attention, which occur without any apparent cause. The child will concentrate for a short while, and then their attention will drop, or even stop entirely and then a moment later the child will be once more fully concentrated on the task. Targeted focusing of attention is a highly challenging task for children with ADHD. Their attention span is also negatively affected by their increased fatigue levels. Attention span is much narrower for these children compared to the general population. They are only capable of receiving a limited amount of information at once, which has a negative effect on their ability to learn.

At a preschool age, attention deficit disorder may for instance manifest in a child’s inability to play with a single toy for any extended period, often leaving a game unfinished, easily being interrupted and jumping from one activity to another, constantly requiring new stimuli.