What should parents do when their children are hyperactive?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder known for more than 100 years, characterized by a combination of overactive, uncontrolled behavior with marked inattention and lack of persistence in all tasks.

Recognizing children with ADHD

Children with ADHD are often reckless, impulsive, accident-prone, and often break discipline themselves by not respecting rules. Children with ADHD often have a lack of restraint, caution, and reserve in their relationships with adults, are not recognized by other children, and may become isolated. ADHD is characterized by three main characteristics:

- Reduced attention:This is manifested by abandoning activities before they are completed. In addition, they often move quickly from one activity to another, not paying attention to the task at hand because they are attracted by another task.

- Increased activity:manifested by excessive activity, especially in situations requiring quiet. They often run around constantly, or suddenly get up and leave their seats when asked to sit still, talk excessively, make noise and fidget constantly while sitting.

- Lack of restraint:manifested by lack of control in social relationships, foolishness in dangerous situations, as well as disregard for the rules of conduct.

Many studies have shown that not only biological damage, family stress is also one of the factors that make children susceptible to hyperactivity disorder. The increasing divorce rate, parents working all day, parents and teachers less caring can make children more susceptible to the disorder than normal children.

Challenges in Teaching Children with Hyperactivity

According to Dr. Lam Hieu Minh - Department of Psychology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital (HCMC), teaching a normal child to become obedient and good is not simple, but correcting a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a big challenge.

When parents have determined that their child has ADHD, the most important thing is to be consistent in the way they raise their child, both at home, at school, and where the child receives psychological support, because if there is no consistency in the way they raise their child, everything will be in chaos and the child will have little chance of recovering.

For example, when applying strict measures, everything must be consistent, avoiding the situation where the mother is strict but the father is indulgent or the parents are trying to teach their children but the grandparents prevent them... or sometimes teachers do not understand what hyperactivity is, see it as a form of mental illness and try to isolate the child. Many teachers even ignore it because they think the child is sick, letting the child do whatever he wants and go wherever he wants.

Pay attention to signs of hyperactivity in children.

Children with hyperactivity disorder should not be taught by violence but must have discipline. Using violence only makes the child more hyperactive. Once violence is used on children, the child will understand that violence is acceptable, so the child's impulsiveness will be affected. Although not using a whip, it is still possible to apply harsh measures such as punishment to stand in the corner or reduce some benefits so that the child understands that if he does so, he will lose his rights.

Treating a child with ADHD requires a combination of three methods: medication, psychology, and education, in which psychology and education play a key role. If parents are negligent and think that the disease will go away when their child grows up, it is extremely dangerous.

Are children with ADHD smarter than normal children?

Regarding the notion that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are often smarter than normal children, Dr. Hieu Minh said that in fact the IQ of children with ADHD and normal children is not much different.

Children with ADHD often have the habit of wandering around the classroom, but when the teacher asks them a question, they can answer correctly. That means that with just a very short period of attention, a child with ADHD can understand the problem, and that makes many people mistakenly think that children with ADHD are more intelligent than normal children.

However, if this child continues to have ADHD without treatment, it won't be long before his or her learning declines very quickly, because at lower grades, just a little concentration is enough to be effective, but the higher the grade, the more difficult the knowledge becomes. If the child cannot concentrate, he or she will definitely not be able to keep up, and at that point, his or her IQ will be affected.

To successfully treat a child with hyperactivity disorder, it takes on average about 6 - 12 months and the disease can still relapse if it loses control from parents, schools, and therapists.

According to TNO