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ADHD and the Hyper Kid in the Class

Karla Anhalt, Cheryl b. Mcneil and Alisa b. Bahl of the West Virginia University, USA shared this research paper on children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), who have problems with continuous attention, sudden movement control, or even control of their activity. Many children suffering from ADHD had reported difficulty in completing independent class work, scattered school materials, had talkative behavior etc. During early childhood, such children normally underperformed in studies, had difficulties in mixing with other children, had bad behavior and low self respect, which is also a problem.
Effective counselling for such children is necessary in a classroom setting so as to help such children improve in studies and mixing with other children as well. This correction has to be done timely and repeatedly, so that odd behavior is brought back to normal. Also relation with classmates needs to be improved as well, that is why treatment in the classroom setting should be started. Hence a kit was designed to be followed in the classroom. Here the objective of this programme is that groups of children follow the class rules and instructions for exchange of Rewards Target Game (RTG); once they follow the instructions, the teachers reward them with happy faces.

On the other hand, groups of children who do not follow instructions will get sad faces, but will still be given an opportunity to qualify for a happy face even at this stage by means of a visual warning sign.
That group which has more happy faces can play the game of RTG and win more than fifty possible rewards in the form of snacks, stickers and hand stamps. The kit is designed in such a way as to reward or punish good behaviour, bad behaviour, and classmate guidance and interaction.
Children with ADHD are known to correct themselves when prompted immediately and good behaviour is acknowledged by the teacher. Positive feedback reduces excessive unwanted activity and increases useful and good behaviour for such children, which in turn improves their academic scores in studies. Hence this kit rewards children with good behavior. Praising the children by taking their names is known as Labelled Praises and is known to increase attention span of such children while doing specific tasks in the class and should be provided immediately after the task has been done.
Happy faces on the other hand is given to a group of children to encourage them eg. helping one another, following class rules, etc. It has been further seen that many times happy faces alone may not give the desired response to improve studies and social mixing up in class. Therefore addition of other rewards needs to be added along with happy faces to get the desired good behaviour in children with ADHD. Children get more chances of playing the RTG game if their group has more happy faces. The idea is to give a break from their studies as many times the group gets happy faces and qualifies for RTG, which makes the game unique and interesting.
It has been noticed that when children are idle, they tend to show more hyperactivity behaviour, hence the need for new rewards for kids so as to improve their academic performance.
By using the kit, it is expected that children will show their best performance both in studies and interaction with their classmates. On the other hand, misbehaviour is reduced by using the kit as described.
A six year old girl with ADHD was evaluated by using the kit. The findings of this study confirms that the kit could be helpful in the behaviour management of children with ADHD, at the same time providing discipline to the whole classroom. But more such monitored studies are needed to elaborate the feedback from both teachers and children.

Further in a study conducted in India by Emili Banerjee, Swagata Sinha, Anindita Chatterjee, Prasanta Kumar Gangopadhyay,  Manoranjan Singh, and Krishnadas Nandagopal respectively from Manovikas Biomedical Research and Diagnostic Centre, Madudah, Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, Kolkata, India, Department of Neuromedicine, Bangur Institute of Neurology, Kolkata, India, highlights Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a disease which is marked by an unusual level of hyperactivity or sudden desire to do something; may it be emotional or social response in children.
Although the exact cause of ADHD is not clear, readings of the brain suggest abnormal discharges in the brain, and that too present amongst their family members only. A hereditary basis for ADHD is that it normally occurs in family clusters.
It has been widely believed that Serotonin (a compound, present in blood which helps in message transmission in the nerves) and polymorphism  which is a genetic term denoting variations in humans, plays an important role in transmission of disease Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which is passed on from generation to generation with onset of childhood.
Till now, no serious study has been done, hence the authors selected 56 ADHD cases and 174 healthy subjects were selected for the study. In this study it was found that there was a significant transfer of polymorphism to ADHD cases and hence it can be said that genes or hereditary mechanisms play a role in the disease process of ADHD. A genetic mechanism for this disease is quite probable, because ADHD appears mainly in closed family clusters.

Compiled from various international research journals available at google scholar by D. Mukherjee having 38 years of pharmaceutical (Cardiac, Diabetic, Neurology, Pain & Inflammation products) experience with a Swiss Multinational Company NOVARTIS and edited by Dr Sandeep Ahlawat, MBBS