Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) for children

What is attention deficit disorder in children?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a disease associated with impaired development of a child's nervous system. Most often, the disease manifests itself at the age of seven or with the beginning of regular education (at school or a preparatory group). ADHD is characterized by inattentiveness and high distractibility of the child in almost any class, excessive motor activity, impulsive behavior, problems in social communication.

ADHD is one of the most common chronic diseases in children. There are forms with a predominance of hyperactivity, with a predominance of inattention and impulsivity, or combined.

ADHD is a medical diagnosis that can be made by a neurologist or psychiatrist after a detailed examination of the child, a questionnaire and parental consultation. The syndrome has been studied by scientists for more than twenty years and, according to research, from 4 to 12% of school-age children suffer from ADHD. The disease is the most common cause of school failure and communication difficulties. And if by adulthood a person still learns to restrain his excessive activity, then absent-mindedness, impulsivity and difficulty concentrating without timely therapy remain with the patient forever and can significantly affect his vital activity.

Causes of ADHD in children

Patients with ADHD are often accused of a lack of discipline, although the reasons for this behavior are not character traits, but a violation of the development of the nervous system. Studying the development of a child's brain makes it possible to associate the appearance of such disorders with relatively mild and difficult-to-localize abnormalities in the development of the central nervous system at the earliest stages of development.

According to modern data, the causes of impaired attention and control of their behavior in children who are faced with problems of inattention and hyperactivity disorder are lagging or distortion in the development of the governing functions of the brain. It is known that heredity plays a large, but not the only role in the occurrence of ADHD. A combination of factors such as brain damage, an unfavorable environment, and an inadequate parenting style can also lead to the development of the syndrome. It has been proven that changing social and living conditions changes a child's behavior.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Symptoms of this disease include difficulty concentrating, restlessness, impulsivity, excessive motor activity, difficulties organizing and controlling behavior. This leads to problems in studying, in communicating with peers and parents. In the absence of timely treatment, even in adulthood, marked socio-psychological maladaptation is observed.

Ways to treat ADHD in children at the EMC clinic

Treatment of ADHD always requires a comprehensive approach. At EMC clinics in Moscow, experienced doctors diagnose and treat attention deficit disorder in children using the most effective set of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques:

• Neuropsychological rehabilitation is classes with a neuropsychologist, during which a child performs a special set of motor and mental exercises aimed at correcting and training individual mental operations and abilities, and developing self-control skills.
• Psychotherapeutic assistance to a child and his family, including consultations with a psychotherapist, trainings for effective child-parent communication, and the development of social interaction skills.
Pharmacotherapy is an individually selected course of treatment with modern drugs with proven effectiveness.
• Biofeedback (BOS) is the most modern high–tech treatment method that provides training in the child's self-regulation of his conditions using computer technology. game tasks, performing which he learns to control various indicators of brain function, recorded by special equipment.

BOS is used by doctors to train a person's abilities to regulate their physiological and psycho-emotional state. With the help of special sensors, the computer registers constantly changing data – heart rate and respiration, body temperature or rhythmic brain activity. The patient observes this data in real time in the form of understandable visual or auditory stimuli. The process of BOS therapy is a gradual learning of the skills of self-conscious management of the body's functions. To do this, the EMC clinics offer the patient unusual computer games that he can play using only the rhythms of his body (and everyone really can!).