Understanding ADHD as a Developmental Disorder

As you have read from the study that was completed by Shaw et al., ADHD is now considered a developmental disorder. What does that mean? It means that children with ADHD behave in a manner that reflects a child who is really approximately three years younger than his actual age. Therefore, a child who is 12 years old child with ADHD actually behaves as if he is nine years old. According to the researchers, children with ADHD will eventually “catch up” and behave in an age-appropriate manner. (However, children with ADHD STILL need to behave appropriately, which I have been working on with the children to whom I teach social skills in my practice.)
You can certainly understand a teacher’s frustration when a 12 year old child with ADHD is interacting with his peers in a much less mature way than she would expect from a 12 year old, so that she constantly has to intervene. However, I believe that if the teacher has a new mindset and understands that children with ADHD may behave as a younger child, she might be able to manage the child’s behavior in a more positive way, offering the child praise when he does behave in a mature manner.
Our kids are so used to hearing “Don’t touch that,” “Don’t say that,” “Oh no, he did that again,” that their self-esteem becomes chipped away very quickly. Let’s try to be more positive. There has to be one positive comment that a parent and/or a teacher can make to a child with ADHD each day to bolster their self-confidence. Let’s give it a try….